A Pressing Reunion

By Linda Rae Blair

The Virginia Team is contacted by a young woman with whom Press has had dealings in the past.
Little does Press know that he is about to have to work toe-to-toe with his old nemesis, FBI Director Malcolm Probst. Rachel is forced to deal with a wound from her past that she fooled herself into thinking had healed.
With all their lives in danger and two possible sources of the threat, can Press and Probst work together as a team? Or will DC fall under a vicious and deadly attack?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Rae Blair
• Release date: Sep 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301064984

Linda Rae Blair

Raleigh artist, Linda Rae Blair was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She has used her knowledge gained during extensive travel throughout the United States and her passion for art, history, mysteries, and scenery to create compact novels with rich characters so real you'll miss them when they're gone and places you'll swear you've been. She has lived in Seattle, WA, Monterey Bay, CA, Cincinnati, OH, and retired five years ago in the Raleigh, NC area.Her love of history is well-earned. She is a direct descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of Mayflower fame. She is also descended from a strong line of Scots-Irish immigrants to America in the 1700s. She even had a great uncle who was robbed by the infamous outlaw Belle Starr.Her Scottish love story, “Elusive”, spans 200 years of Scottish history and intrigue via setting in 1700s Scotland and early 1900s Paris and Scotland.An avid reader who inhales novels by Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and others in the romance/mystery genres, her imagination takes you to a variety of places and times all in the same story.Her travels to the beautiful southwestern states inspired her more modern historic romance combined with mystery, “100 Years of Brotherly Love”.Her mystery series, The Preston Andrews Mysteries now has 12 published entries, beginning with “Hard Press’d” which now claims over 50,000 downloads and, most recently, the softcover print version of the series in compilation form.Ms. Blair has spent many happy hours in Virginia Beach during off-season, when the winds blow cold and hard and the salty air whips at the weather-protected palms. This is the locale chosen for her Preston Andrews series. Locals and visitors alike find many familiar frames of reference in this series.Her homage to her love for Poirot is via her teeny tiny mystery, “The Board Game Murders”.Her newest series is aimed at a slightly younger and more female audience from that of The Preston Andrews series but begins in the backstory in “Pressing Reunion”.The Samantha Hartley, PI series is lighter and features a very young and not terribly experienced private investigator just beginning her career—with a slight assist from the Director of the FBI.One thing is for certain, she combines her passions into stories interesting to history buffs, travelers, and lovers of romance and mystery.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Booker Building

221B Barker St.

Washington, DC

She’d already become fond of the place the minute she saw the address of the available office space in the old Booker Building—221B Barker Street. It immediately brought the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective’s address to her mind. One little ‘r’ made the only difference. She’d watched enough old Holmes movies and read enough to make an instantaneous connection to 221B Baker Street.

Hum, she thought. That would be cute on my business cards. Tilt the r and drop it down just a bid to make it look like it’s falling out and leaving Baker in place, but not enough to mistake the Barker Street address for clients. She could picture the Barker on the cards, and a smile spread on her lightly freckled face.

The coincidence was too much to ignore. Here she was, setting up her detective agency—and despite its…quirks, she fell in love with the place the minute she laid eyes on it. One flight of old creaking wooden steps up from the street, it even reminded her of the descriptions of Mrs. Hudson’s boarding house. Others with their offices on higher floors used the ancient elevator with its metal folding passenger gates. Sam loved hearing her footsteps up the stairs echoing around in the building’s high ceilings.

The space for 221B was drab, badly needed painting and someone to love it. She ran a hand over the wide, old wooden windowsill and came away with grime that had undoubtedly accumulated over dozens of years. She loved old buildings, old books, old…anything, really.

Add elbow grease to the list of supplies, she thought, laughing to herself as she turned toward the rental agent.

Well, I think they’re going to have to come down on the rental price. That said, if we can come to an agreement, I’ll take it.

I’ve already spoken to the owner. I’m certain you can get a nice reduction, especially if you’re willing to do the cleaning and painting yourself. Under those circumstances, I believe that they’ll even eliminate the security deposit, the agent responded, whispering as if the building owner might overhear her. This was ridiculous, of course. Some ungodly big conglomerate based in Philadelphia owned the building.

Good! She smiled and turned around in a circle. Samantha Hartley, Private Investigator is now in business.

Chapter 2

Andrews Mansion

Virginia Beach, Virginia

6 Months Later

The house was in chaos, as was frequently its condition since the arrival of Miss Stephanie Rose Elizabeth Andrews.

Sleeping, thank God, had become a through-the-night thing. Feedings were now a regular three times a day, with an evening addition of a light snack of a bottle of formula and fruit-in-a-jar, as Press called it.

Little Missy, as she was often addressed, scooted and rolled everywhere she wanted to go. The stairs were completely barricaded, electrical outlets blocked with plastic plugs; cabinets all had baby locks on them. Press was certain his daughter would learn how to open them before he did.

A nanny came on board after a furious debate with Lizzie. She was determined to add Steffie Rose to her duties, until Rachel reminded her of the need for someone to keep the baby out of the kitchen when Lizzie was cooking. That was something with which the doting housekeeper couldn’t argue.

Therefore, the horrendous process of interviewing nannies had begun. Their final decision was Jessie Broussard, a lovely middle-aged widow of an Iraq War veteran. Her husband had died of his injuries just weeks after being returned to the U.S., and they had had two girls—twins—of their own. Both girls were recent graduates of a small university in northern New York State.

Fresh out of her memory-filled empty nest, Jessie had moved into the western wing of the mansion. Lizzie’s suite was nearby, and Palmer’s was at the farthest end of the floor.

Each suite was fully equipped with an en-suite bath—complete with jetted tub—that would make a five-star hotel owner weep with envy. They had sitting rooms equipped with their own choice of furniture, flat-screen TV with full blown cable access, private land-line phone, wet bar with refrigerator and microwave, huge walk-in closet worthy of a runway model’s wardrobe and, of course, access to the pool, beach, exercise room—every facility the home had to