Read Online Catch a Shadow by Patricia; Potter - Free Book Online Page A

she’d heard something in her apartment.
    She looked at the stranger. There was a hardness to his features, a wariness to his eyes that reminded her of the cops she knew.
    â€œEverything is …?” He asked when she didn’t finish her sentence.
    She hesitated. “Who are you?”
    â€œIf you’re Ms. Kirke, I was coming to see you,” he said. “I’m David Cable. I was told you were the paramedic that helped my brother yesterday.”
    She was stunned. He was the last person she’d expected.
    She tried to regain her senses. “I’m Kirke Palmer,” she acknowledged.
    â€œI wanted to thank you,” he said simply. “And know whether he said anything to you. The medical people at the hospital said he was unconscious when he arrived there.”
    â€œThe hospital said Mr. Cable’s brother appeared, then disappeared,” she replied in a neutral tone. It wasn’t her place to judge, but she couldn’t help her feelings. One didn’t desert family. She’d had too much experience with that human frailty.
    Surprise crossed his face.
    â€œI would have thought you would have wanted to stay with him.” She couldn’t keep the censure for her voice.
    â€œWe weren’t close,” he said, “and I knew he was … on life support. I could only do for him what I would have wanted him to do for me. I left to try to contact some of his old friends. Hoped they might know where he’d left some documents. Or whether he’d said anything to you.”
    Cable . He was Mark Cable’s brother. She looked at him closer. They both had dark eyes. There were few other similarities.
    If he was Mark Cable’s brother, then maybe he knew this Mitch Edwards. But something held her back. Everything he said could be true, but it sounded a little facile to her. And there was little emotion in his words.
    We weren’t close .
    Her mind was cataloguing everything she knew with what he was telling her. Surely if Mark Cable had trusted him, he would have left the envelope for him.
    â€œCan I see some identification?” she said.
    He pulled out a wallet and held a driver’s license up to his side of the screen. She noted it was a New York State license, and she memorized the address. Kirke then compared the photo to the man in front of her. His expression in the photo was blank, almost as expressionless as it was now. He said he and his brother hadn’t been close, but still she would have expected a little emotion. Of course, some men were like that. Her ex-husband had been. The thought did not endear him to her.
    â€œWhy are you here, Mr. Cable?”
    â€œI was hoping you could tell me something about what happened. Was he in any pain? Did he say anything about me? I’m Mark’s only living relative. I’m responsible for what happens now, and I have no idea what his wishes might be.”
    She believed herself a good judge of people, and for the first time she heard some emotion in his voice.
    â€œJust a moment,” she said.
    She retreated into Sam’s apartment and took the cell phone from her purse. She punched a key for Sam’s cell phone. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t answer, but she left a message that she was with a David Cable and gave him the address on the driver’s license.
    Then she closed the door to Sam’s house, unlocked the screen door to the porch, and went down two steps. If her visitor grabbed her, she could scream. Not that anyone was responding to Merlin’s cries for help. She sat down on the step and invited David Cable to sit down with her.
    The sky was vivid with color. In a few moments it would be dark. A shiver suddenly ran down her back and she didn’t know why. His presence? Or something more ominous? She decided to ignore it. “I’ll tell you what I can,” she said, “but it isn’t much. He was bleeding from an artery, and we were