Read Online Pretend You Don't See Her by Mary Higgins Clark - Free Book Online Page B

sharply. “I’ll come back tomorrow morning. Don’t worry. When you
get home from work everything will be shipshape.”
                 Lacey
walked with them to the door. “Does the dead bolt still work?” she asked Ramon.
                 He
tried it. “No one’s gonna get in while that’s on, at
least without a battering ram. You’re safe.”
                 She
closed and locked the door behind them. Then she looked around her apartment
and shuddered. What have I gotten myself into? she wondered.

  8
                 MASCARA
AND A LIGHT LIP LINER WERE USUALLY ALL THE cosmetics Lacey wore, but in the
morning light, when she saw the shadows under her eyes and noted the pallor of
her skin, she added blush and eye shadow and fished in the drawer for lipstick.
They did little, however, to brighten her outlook. Even wearing a favorite
brown-and-gold jacket didn’t help dispel a sense of gloom. A final check in the
mirror told her she still looked limp and weary.
                 At
the door of the office she paused, took a deep breath, and straightened her
shoulders. An incongruous memory hit her. When she was twelve and suddenly
taller than the boys in her class, she had started to slump when she walked.
                 But
Dad told me height was delight, she thought, and he made a game of the two of
us walking around with books on our heads. He said walking tall made you look
confident to other people.
                 And
I do need that confidence, she said to herself a few minutes later, when she
was summoned to Richard Parker Sr.’s office.
                 Rick
was in with his father. The elder Parker was obviously angry. Lacey glanced at
Rick. No sympathy there, she thought. It really is Parker and Parker today.
                 Richard
Parker Sr. did not mince words. “Lacey, according to security, you came in here
last night with a detective. What was that all about?”
                 She
told him as simply as she could, explaining that she had decided she had to
turn the journal over to the police, but first she needed to make a copy for
Heather’s father.
                 “You
kept concealed evidence in this office?” the older Parker asked, raising an
eyebrow.
                 “I
intended to give it to Detective Sloane today,” she said. She told them about
her apartment having been burglarized. “I was only trying to do what Isabelle
Waring asked me to do,” she said. “Now it seems I may have committed an
indictable offense.”
                 “You
don’t have to know much law to know that,” Rick interjected. “Lacey, that was
really a dumb thing to do.”
                 “I
wasn’t thinking straight,” she said. “Look, I’m sorry about this, but—”
                 “I’m
sorry about it too,” Parker Sr. told her. “Have you any appointments today?”
                 “Two this afternoon.”
                 “Liz
or Andrew can handle them for you. Rick, see to it. Lacey, you plan on working
the phones for the immediate future.”
                 Lacey’s
sense of lethargy disappeared. “That’s not fair,” she said, suddenly angry.
                 “Nor
is it fair to drag this firm into a murder investigation, Ms. Farrell.”
                 “I’m
sorry, Lacey,” Rick told her.
                 But
you’re Daddy’s boy on this one, she thought, fighting down the urge to say
more.
                 As
soon as she got to her desk, one of the new secretaries, Grace MacMahon , came over with a cup of coffee and handed it to
her. “Enjoy.”
                 Lacey
looked up to thank her, then strained to hear as Grace
tried to tell her something without being overheard. “I got in early today.
There was a detective here talking with Mr. Parker. I couldn’t tell what he