This follows the set-up from the previous installment (Collinwood 1979). Any questions, read the previous ones. If you still have questions, send me a private message and I'll answer the questions as best I can.. If you are not in the mood to recapiitulate, begin at Chapter 2, and get back here... COLLINSPORT STING

Chapter 1

Frank Torrance looked forward to a quiet evening. Too many parties were not doing him much good. He took off his shoes and stretched on the sofa. He looked through his mail. Most of the time he either got nothing, or he got bills. But tonight he had drawn the jackpot.

One was written on the official stationery of Congresswoman Evans, which basically thanked him for the job he had done a while ago in Maine. Between the lines, she was also grateful for taking care of her ex-campaign manager.

The next letter came from the ex-campaign manager himself. Just started on the job Admiring the office he had gotten. Inviting him to visit any time he felt like it. Then some personal stuff. He had broken off with his girlfriend and was keeping company with a young widow who insisted she did not want anything permanent.

Good for him. A new job and an uncomplicated girlfriend was just what he needed.

Another letter from the ditched girlfriend. A short, very correct note apologizing for all the nasty comments she had made back in Maine. He had been right about her, but she didn't want to admit it.

Maybe he should try to see her again. After all, she was his type. But there was an unpleasant side to her, as her ex-boyfriend could tell. And the place was too weird for his tastes, anyway...

He got up to answer the doorbell. In his doorstep stood Megan Todd, looking as sharp and sassy as he had the last time he had seen her. He tried to slam the door, but her hand shot up and kept it open.

"Are you going to let me in, or do you want to see if I grow roots on the spot?

"What...what you want?" he managed to stammer.

"Apologize first. Talk business second. It is rather chilly in the doorstep. Really, I can come in even without your invitation, but I thought I would be polite."

She sounded so reasonable that he opened the door for her, instead of slamming it on her noses as he wanted..

"Look stay out of my life, and I'll stay out of yours."

"I could not stay in business if I stayed out of people's lives."

"Which business? The legit one or the other?"

"Both. In any case, as soon as the legit business starts paying for itself I will go respectable." she lighted a cigarette and took a drag of it.

"Would you mind putting that think out?"

"Barnabas talked to you about the evils of smoking, I figure."

"He's right. What about that apology you promised me?

"I am sorry I put you through a bad time. Believe me, it was nothing personal."

"Of course not. You just needed money. How much you think you'll make for apologizing to me?"

"I just want to mend my relationship with you."

"Because the goodwill of a Washington bureaucrat is worth something, isn't it?"

Megan shrugged "It is difficult to keep a tender heart when you don't know when the next month's rent is coming from. I've had to take care of myself without help from anybody. So I am tough, I am nasty, and I'll do anything for a quarter. I did not choose to be what I am, but I made the best of it. I would rather not have my husband killed. I would not, if I could have chosen it, have become what I am from someone with as little practical sense as Barnabas. When he had his accident with me, instead of using his head and giving me pointers, he just panicked and tried to have me killed, and swept under the rug." she smiled there "well, it is all in the past now. But if you think that I am not a pleasant person, think that I may have my reasons for it."

"You may have your point" Frank said grudgingly "even so, could you put out that cigarette?"

"Since you ask politely, yes." she extinguished it. "By the way, Barnabas if very happy with his new job."

"Just got a letter from him."

"I gave him the papers for that. You have no idea how many computers I had to tamper with. Or at least their programmers. I made them forget all about me. I could have done the same to you. I could have convinced you that the report was the truth."

"But you didn't, why?"

"Because I did not want Carolyn to get away with it."

"You didn't?"

"Her husband killed Philip. And she is a bitch . It just seemed to be an excellent opportunity to get Barnabas what he needed. After all, you were so grateful that you moved Heaven and Earth for him. You did the work, and Carolyn paid me for it. A real neat deal."

Frank let out a low whistle "You planned this from the beginning?"

'Yes."

"Does he know about it?"

"Of course not. I would not let him play in one of my hustles. He cannot hustle for green apples."

"You are a peculiar woman." his grin was wide now "I like you, even if you put me through a real bad time."

"It wasn't that pleasant, I agree. But you can console yourself thinking that Carolyn got the same treatment from Barnabas, and for her there wasn't a happy ending. She just has a to obey the law."

"Your apology is fully accepted. Even if I still have nightmares..."

"They will go away. About the business..."

"What of it?"

"It's about Angelique."

"I know her story."

"It is a long and complicated one, all right. She finally broke up with him."

"I might have had something to do with it."

"She doesn't drink anymore. They were a most mismatched couple, anyway. If she hadn't been so stubborn she would have seen it long ago. But she wanted him, and that was it. She tried everything to get her claws on him. And when she got him, she found out she was stuck with a moral uplift commando.

"I know some of the things she did to get him."

"Yes." Megan shrugged "I suspect thetas when she first met him, he might have been worth it. But after a while..."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you made a pass at her when you were in Collinsport."

"That was before I found out what she did to her boyfriends when she got mad at them."

"It happened only once, with Barnabas. And she's very sorry about it."

"Good for her."

"She needs somebody like you."

He groaned inwardly. This woman seemed to think that he was some kind of household object to be used for any purpose she wanted.

"Why me? " he managed to ask.

"Because you already met her. Poor thing. She has nobody now. She has stopped drinking, it's true, but sometimes I think it is because getting the stuff is too much trouble. I am worried about her."

"So I am the one to get her out of the slump". the irony of his words was lost in Megan.

"Exactly. She has to find that there are other fish in the sea besides Barnabas. I don't ask you much. Invite her to Washington, take her to the Opera, to a movie..."

"Take her to bed, too?"

"Why not? You find her attractive."

"With that kind of record behind her, I'd rather pass."

"Are you going to hold that mistake against her, forever? People change, you know. And she's done a lot of good, too. She's helped people who needed help. And now she's the one that needs help."

"I'd feel better if the help didn't include stud service." that wasn't a good argument and he knew it. But that was the best he could come with.

"Are you going to play the blushing virgin? The role does not agree with you. I don't think it would be too painful for you."

Frank looked down and muttered something that Megan did not catch.

"What is it?"

"She scares me." It boiled down to it. He wanted her, but the kind of people she was involved with... and her last boyfriend...

"I understand. Two months ago you did not believe people like me or Barnabas existed. And now. you got him a job.."

"But I did not take him to bed." Frank attempted some levity. "And if he had made a pass at me I'd have freaked out."

"If you tried a little harder."

"Why not just make me do it, like the last time?"

"I'd rather not."

"Why not?"

"I have my reasons. the main one is that I am too good a friend of Angelique to give her a boyfriend at gunpoint.

"That's the only way you'll get me."

"I'm not so sure. You want it yourself. You'll say yes on your own."