Revised, Part 3/? - Steele By Your Side
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2001

Carla Keehn <carkeehn@hotmail.com>

See Part 1 for copyright disclaimers . . .

Previously: The woman continued as the rage she felt inside overtook her. "And so, Mr. Steele, the time has come for you and Miss Holt to pay for your misdeeds. . . and pay you will . . . dearly . . ."

* * * *

Later that same morning, Laura Holt angrily thrust open the glass doors of the Remington Steele Detective Agency.

The older, white haired woman sitting at the reception desk was so engrossed in her telephone conversation, she hardly glanced up at Holt.

"Look, don't tell me that all you have is blue stationery! if you can't fill my order then Mr. Steele will take his business somewhere else!" Mildred Krebbs listened for a moment, then continued. "There's other office supply stores in town, mister, you remember that!" She slammed the phone down in disgust.

Holt felt her hackles rise at the mention of Steele's name.
Mildred's unwavering devotion to the man only increased her
aggravation over being stood up by him the night before.

"Where is he, Mildred?" She asked in a cold voice.

"Who? The boss?"

"Yes, Mildred," Laura snapped in annoyance. "Who else would I be asking about!"

Krebbs looked up at Holt in concern. "He's not in yet. I'm getting kind of worried, he - -."

Laura sucked in a sharp breath before cutting off the woman in mid sentence. "I wouldn't worry about our Mr. Steele, Mildred. We were supposed to have dinner last night until Mr. Steele got a better offer from "a client in distress" or some nonsense like that!"

"A client? Mr. Steele didn't have any appointments last night."

Holt continued her tirade. "I've given up trying to figure him out, Mildred! Yesterday afternoon, he was kissing me and trying coax me into meeting him for dinner at his place and then he has the gall to stand me up!"

Krebbs' eyes grew larger. "You and the boss were - - here? I
thought you were having a meeting with a client!"

Holt felt her face get warm as the color flooded into her cheeks. She saw a look of panic flash across Mildred's face

"Client!" Krebbs sputtered. "I almost forgot! There's a man waiting for you in your office, said he needed to see you right away."

Laura gave the older woman a disgusted look. "Send him away, Mildred, finding Mr. Steele is challenge enough for one day."

Krebbs leaned forward. "Look, Miss Holt, I'm not trying to pry but . . . but you've got to give the boss a chance, he cares about you an awful lot."

"We both know how Mr. Steele is," Holt continued, trying to feign indifference. "So you can stop protecting him, Mildred - you're wasting your time."

Krebb's shook her head. "No, honey, you're wrong. Your having dinner together was very important to him. He-He told me so. Mr. Steele had something very important to say to you last night."

"It couldn't have been too important since he - -" She was
unexpectantly cut off in mid sentence.

"I see that Steele's still up to his old tricks . . ." The biting words intruded suddenly on the younger woman's troubled thoughts. "So he stood you up again, huh, Laura?"

The voice was from her past, a voice that she thought she'd never hear again. Holt whirled around and stared in disbelief at the man that had come out of her office . . .

End of Part 3

To Part 4

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