Read Online Quiet as the Grave by Kathleen O`Brien - Free Book Online Page A

up this morning and said, ‘hey, I wonder how that obnoxious boy I hated in high school is doing?’”
    The boy she hated in high school … He must have read her mind. But was that all he was? Maybe. She had definitely hated him. Even when she…didn’t.
    â€œNo,” she said, waving away the cookies, which were hard and sandy, typical grocery store pseudo food. “It’s something more serious, I’m afraid. It’s about Justine. Well, about Justine’s father, anyhow.”
    Mike set the container down slowly. “What about him?”
    â€œHe asked me to visit him this morning, at Justine’s house.”
    She watched Mike’s face, wondering how he could stay so impassive. Where had all those quicksilver emotions gone? The easy laughter, the twitching frown, the worried squint, the sarcastic eyebrow? The restless, young-animal body.
    The zing .
    He was so still now. So controlled. It was like looking at a picture of Mike instead of the real thing.
    â€œOh, yeah?” Mike flipped a cookie between his fingers, keeping his eyes on the water. “What did he want?”
    She took a breath. This was it.
    â€œHe wants me to help him pin Justine’s murder on you.”
    That got his attention. But it didn’t completely surprise him. As he slowly faced Suzie, she saw anger but not shock behind his dark brown eyes.
    â€œ Pin it …how would you be able to do that?”
    â€œHe hoped I might have seen something while I was painting Gavin’s portrait. Something between you and Justine. An argument, maybe.”
    â€œBut you couldn’t have. I was never at the house when you were there.”
    â€œI know.” She chewed on her lower lip, wishing she could stop herself from asking the next question but knowing she probably couldn’t. She’d never had very good impulse control. “I always thought I might run into you, but I never did. Was that deliberate? Were you avoiding me on purpose?”
    â€œYes.”
    She frowned. “Well, that’s a hell of a note,” she said. “Just ‘yes’?”
    â€œWell, what do you want me to say? Yes, it was deliberate. Yes, I was avoiding you on purpose.”
    â€œWhy?”
    He shrugged, and it, too, held the echo of the old days. He always did have a large, infuriating repertoire of smug-jock mannerisms. “I thought you’d prefer it that way.”
    â€œYou thought I…” She frowned for a few seconds, feeling herself heating up, though she wasn’t sure why. Mike Frome had always been able to confuse her inworld-record time, which inevitably ticked her off. “Why?”
    â€œI thought seeing me might make you…” He seemed to search for a word. “Uncomfortable.”
    Uncomfortable? Her temperature rose even higher. What the heck was that a euphemism for? Did he think she was still a geeky, untouched virgin who would blush at the memory of the night he’d copped a feel?
    â€œKnow what, Frome? That’s BS, and you know it. I haven’t got anything to be uncomfortable about where you’re concerned. Sixteen seconds of touchy-feely ten years ago doesn’t exactly require me to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of my life.”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t mean that. I meant that seeing me might make you unhappy. You know, you might—”
    Unhappy? Oh, this was even worse. Did he think she’d actually spent the past ten years carrying a torch for Mr. Most-Likely-To-Succeed? Oh, brother .
    â€œMight what? Might turn to stone just from looking at your irresistible bod? Sorry, but that’s baloney, too. You may have been the king of the sandbox in Firefly Glen, but it’s a pretty small sandbox. Out in the real world, where I’ve been living for the past ten years—”
    To her surprise, Mike began to laugh. He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Easy, Fang. You’re getting