Read Online Dead Certain by Mariah Stewart - Free Book Online Page A

of the season.”
    “Amen.”
    “Cheers.”
    Before the first quarter had ended, their burgers had been served. By the time his burger had been eaten, he knew everything he needed to know about Dolores Hall.
    She lived alone.
    She had no family in town.
    She was a hairdresser who, along with Connie, owned a salon.
    She had just broken up with her boyfriend.
    She wasn’t too bright.
    She was relatively passive, for all her mouthing off, and she was emotionally needy. He could tell just by the way she was looking at him that she had him pegged as a possible replacement for the now-scorned Mr. Doherty.
    She was just the woman he was looking for.
    All in good time, of course. For tonight, he’d buy her and her friend beers, watch the game, and make small talk. He wouldn’t come on to her—nah, he’d wait maybe even a whole week before he even asked her out, and then he’d take her to dinner. Someplace other than here. Someplace where he’d have to pick her up at her house and take her home, where he could come in and get the lay of the land. By then he’d be a new regular at the Dew Drop. He’d have a pattern established, an identity that no one would have reason to question. He’d no longer be a stranger, a loner. He’d give them information about himself, and they’d believe him. He’d belong.
    It would prove an amusing interlude while he went about his business. Who knew how long it would take to do the job right? He sure as hell wasn’t going to rush into anything and blow his setup. For the past ten days the papers had been full of the story about the antiques dealer from Broeder who’d been found murdered in his car. Vince had bought every newspaper he could find and read them with fascination. He’d forgotten what a rush it was to read about your deeds in print. To be the only one who really knew what had happened; the only one who knew just how it really went down.
    Vince had found England’s house after its owners had departed for Europe, as was announced in big red letters across the calendar that hung on a wall in the kitchen. Knowing that the house would be vacant for a few days gave Vince some time to relax in the comfortable home of his intended victim, time to plan how best to accomplish his goal. He’d left on the morning the pair was due back, and had returned later that night, at which time he’d planned to shoot both men. But then there had been England in the doorway, obviously going someplace. He’d turned to say something to the man behind him in the house, and Giordano had taken advantage of the opportunity to pop into the backseat of England’s car, where he’d stayed until they were almost to town, stopped at a light.
    He could still see Derek England’s eyes as they widened at first with surprise, then with fear, when he saw Giordano’s face in the rearview mirror. The confusion when Vince told him to drive to the park. Felt the rush when he put the muzzle of the gun up close to England’s head and pulled the trigger, just like that.
    Well, that was then.
    This is now. And now he was sitting here in this bar, taking the first steps into this new life he was creating for himself with the new friends he’d share it with until his job was done and it was time to move on.
    In the meanwhile, he’d have this fun little world, this new identity. He could be anyone he wanted to be. After all the time he’d spent in prison, a social life—and hot damn, if he played his cards right, maybe even a love life!—sounded pretty damned good.
    And no one would ever connect the dark-haired Vinnie Daniels with the redheaded Vince Giordano.
    Even his own mother wouldn’t put it together.

CHAPTER
SIX
    Sean Mercer leaned closer to the window in an attempt to cut the glare so that he could see inside the neat three-story white clapboard Victorian house that Amanda Crosby called home, but the sun was behind him at precisely the wrong angle and he couldn’t see a damned thing.
    He rang the