Read Online Force of Nature by Suzanne Brockmann - Free Book Online Page B

conversation.”
    It was Ric who’d called her, interrupting her interview. “Sorry. You were in there so long, Pierre was getting anxious.”
    She kissed the top of her dog’s tiny head. “Poor baby. But I always come back. Don’t I? Yes, I do.” She glanced at Ric. “I should probably get him his own cell phone so you don’t have to use up your minutes making calls for him.”
    “Obviously,” Ric said, “I was worried, too. Annie, really, you’ve had no training—”
    “So train me.” She turned in her seat, toward him. “Please, Ric. You don’t even have to pay me while you’re doing it. I’ve got some money saved.”
    “Annie,” he started, but she cut him off.
    “I’m good at this. I actually had fun tonight. More fun that I’ve had since Pam died, if you want to know the truth.”
    Annie Dugan had been a master manipulator back when she was eleven years old. The fact that she was out here tonight, working this case with him, was proof that she hadn’t yet lost her skill. Back in his office, when she’d gotten those tears in her eyes…Ric had known right then that he was screwed. Whatever she asked for, he’d try to deliver. And sure enough, here they were.
    But now, with her face lit by the headlights of the oncoming traffic, her gray eyes were wide and guileless.
    She
had
done a good job tonight. Although…
    “So you just walked into Screech’s, walked up to Mary Allen, and she just…willingly answered your questions?” Ric asked her.
    “Yup,” Annie said.
    He glanced at her and the guilelessness was gone from her eyes. Yeah, there was a little more to the story than she was telling him. “After you gave her…how much? A hundred bucks?”
    “Are you kidding?” she scoffed. “That would be, oh, let’s see if I can figure out
that
math—a hundred percent of our take for this entire case? Not too smart a move. No, she obviously wanted to talk to me about Brenda—I don’t think she liked her very much. A twenty gave her reason enough to vent.”
    So okay. Annie was thrifty as well as smart. And as long as he limited her to the easy cases—the ones where she couldn’t possibly get hurt…Man, was he really considering doing this?
    “Plus, she seemed to like me,” Annie continued. “We bonded. So if you decide that today’s just a fluke, and that from now on you’re going to chain me to the reception desk, I’ve always got an in at Screech’s. Who knew? Apparently there’s a place there for dancers who are zaftig.”
    “Zaftig,” Ric repeated. No way.
    “That’s a polite way of saying larger,” she told him.
    “I know what it means.” Apparently his definition of
zaftig
was different from Mary’s. “I wouldn’t call you zaftig. You’re…” Damn. Now that he’d started that sentence, he had to finish it. “Nicely put together.”
    Thankfully, they had arrived at Palm Gardens, so he focused on pulling into the private drive for the apartment complex, pausing at the signs just inside the front gate.
    “Building five,” Annie told him, consulting her pad in the street light. “Mary said Brenda’s apartment number is 508C.”
    A sign for buildings three, four, and five pointed him around to the right, back toward the lake with the fountains. He slowly headed over the speed-bump-laden route.
    The complex was set up in a series of three-story-buildings with outside stairways going up to balcony-style walkways, which led to the various apartments. A place like this, though, had to have elevators, too—probably in some sort of central lobby.
    As they passed buildings three and four, Ric saw that
C
meant a third-floor unit. The penthouse, so to speak.
    Annie was silent, looking around, no doubt taking note of the expensive cars in the lot. The grounds were well groomed, the swimming pool enormous. A sign pointed the way to the tennis courts and clubhouse. There was no doubt about it. Money lived here.
    As if a punctuation mark to that fact, a sleek black limo was