Read Online Half Life (Russell's Attic Book 2) by SL Huang - Free Book Online Page A

Is there a number I can reach you at?”
    “Uh, yeah, sure.” I fished around for a pen but didn’t have one; Pilar pulled one out of her purse and offered me a leftover napkin from her fast food dinner to write on.
    “And here’s mine,” she said, scribbling her name and number on another napkin in wide, round lettering. “Just, you know. In case.”
    I regarded the phone number with growing suspicion. “I don’t get it. Why offer to help me?”
    She looked scandalized. “You just told me the company I work for kidnapped a little girl!”
    “You pointed out Lau to me from the beginning, though,” I said. “Why get involved?” And why take the extra step to come talk to me?
    Pilar’s lips pursed self-consciously. “I don’t know. Maybe ’cause I get so bored there. Or maybe ’cause I always felt bad for Mr. Warren. I really liked Denise, you know. Or maybe ’cause Mr. Lau grabbed my bottom at the copier once and now I want to get back at him. Sometimes I—”
    “Wait, what? Did Lau really do that? Aren’t there laws against that or something?”
    Pilar blinked at me. “Come on. You’re a woman.”
    “So?”
    “So, you know how it is.”
    “No,” I said. “I really, really don’t.”
    “Oh.” She scrunched up her face, her voice getting smaller. “I think I want to live in your world, then.”
    I wasn’t sure she was right about that, but I let it pass. I thought of Mama Lorenzo again, and her fierce protection of her niece, and had a brief urge to go live on a deserted island somewhere where I didn’t have to interact with people or deal with any of the resultant complications.

C HAPTER 7
    I ’D FORGOTTEN I’d turned my phone off. As I trudged back up the beach I reinserted the battery and hit the power button; it came on to show eight missed calls—two from numbers I didn’t recognize and six from Checker.
    Shit.
    I dialed Checker back right away, not bothering to check my voicemail, visions of Mama Lorenzo and her enforcers flitting through my brain.
    “There you are,” said Checker. I hadn’t even heard the phone ring once. “I was getting worried.”
    He was worried? “I turned my phone off,” I said. He didn’t sound like he was dead or being tortured. “Everything all right?”
    “What? Yeah, fine.” He sneezed. “Except that I’m allergic to cats. I don’t suppose I can go back to the Hole yet?”
    Not a chance. “It’s still not quite sorted, but I’m on it. I’ll let you know.”
    “Okay, well, get on it. By which I mean thank you, you know. What did you find out at Arkacite?”
    “Well, I finally found someone who’s seen Liliana.” Which meant I had a case. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy about that or not.
    “You did! Who?” cried Checker.
    “Pilar Velasquez. She works as a receptionist at the company.”
    Checker’s voice took on the absent quality he had when he was simultaneously concentrating on his computer. “Administrative assistant, it looks like, as a temp, but she’s permanent enough that she has her own company email address. Oh, she’s a hottie,” he added, apparently having just found a picture.
    “Move along, hot shot.”
    “Oh, all right. Let’s see, she started at Arkacite about a year and a half before Constance Rayal left. Did you get my voicemail about Rayal, by the way?”
    “It’s ‘Rayal,’” I said, correcting his pronunciation. “And no. Tell me.”
    “She’s not dead.”
    “What?” Why did Noah Warren keep talking like she was, then? “She’s not?”
    “Nope. She’s renting a house out in Altadena.”
    “Wait, then why did she leave Arkacite? Was she even sick?”
    “Uh, yeah, but probably not the way you think. Right after resigning she signed herself into an inpatient psychiatric ward.”
    Holy crap. “How long was she there for?”
    “Only a few days. They moved her to outpatient treatment pretty fast.”
    This had to be connected. “I need her psych file. Can you get it for me?”
    “I