Bending the Rules. Susan Andersen

fucking family genes were going to be the death of him yet.

      He shook the thought aside to tune back in on Poppy’s conversation.

      “We have to assume that tagging is these kids’ equivalent of a creative outlet,” she said. “I can supply them that in a way more socially acceptable and demonstrate a genuine interest in them as well. I like teenagers.” The corner of her mouth quirked up. “Which I’m sure you’d say is because I still have the mentality of one.”

      Jase wasn’t sure what the hell he would say. He looked at the conviction on her face and felt all his preconceived notions about her shift.

      He tried to ignore it, because he didn’t like being wrong. Hell, if you followed the rules, you usually weren’t—and he’d been doing that since he was fourteen years old and Murph had caught him with his bad-seed fingers all over those topazes. But Poppy had acted a lot like Murphy with those kids today and she was telling him stuff now that made him question what he thought he knew about her. Then there was the memory of that not-exactly-high-rent-and-definitely-security-free building she lived in. Abruptly he demanded, “Who are you?”

      “Well, not the rich girl you’ve got me pegged for, that’s for sure.”

      He’d been so certain…but every piece of evidence except one said he’d been dead wrong.

      Shit.

      Still. He rubbed the back of his neck. “That mansion…”

      She blew out a gusty, put-upon sigh, but said levelly, “Ava and Jane and I met Agnes Wolcott when we were twelve. She was a fascinating lady and we started hanging out with her when she attended the soirees Ava’s parents threw. Then one day she invited us to the Wolcott mansion for high tea.”

      “What’s that, something you drink on a ladder?”

      “Very droll, Detective de Sanges. Ridiculous, but droll. Actually, it’s laced with LSD.”

      His mouth dropped open.

      “That woman had been all over the world and she knew where alllll the best drugs were.” Then she gave him a jab. “And here I thought cops were supposed to be so impervious to lies and prevarications.” She gave him a look similar to the ones she’d bent on the kids. “Do you actually want to hear this or just waste my time with your smart-ass remarks?”

      Fascinated by her against all good sense, he gave her a by-all-means-proceed sweep of his hand.

      “All right, then. At that first tea, she gave us our first diaries and talked to us like we were interesting people, not a bunch of kids too stupid to understand words of more than two syllables. And our friendship with her simply grew from there. She had no family of her own, so she left us her estate when she died.”

      She aimed a stern look on him. “But you’ve seen the mansion. It needs work and we’re having it fixed up, which takes both time and a lot of money. Most of the latter is coming from the collections she also left us, but Jane is still working on getting the last of those cataloged and until we finish the renovations, actually sell the place and reconcile the debit column with the credit side, we aren’t exactly rolling in dough. And even then—well, while it will certainly be more money than I’ve ever seen in my life, it’s not exactly going to be untold wealth.”