Read Online Recovery by Alexandrea Weis - Free Book Online Page B

tapped his forefinger on the tip of my nose playfully. “All right?”
    I had a sneaking suspicion he was not telling me everything that he was thinking and it unnerved me. “You suspect someone in my family could have killed David?” I asked warily.
    “No,” he shook his head. “But I do think it was someone in your circle of society. And to get close to them, I need to ask these questions.” He turned away from me. “Tell me about your father and uncle,” he ordered over his shoulder.
    I sighed and fell in step behind him. “Oil and water despite the genetic similarities. Uncle Lance is a drinker, gambler, and an all around fun guy. My father is quiet and inherited my grandfather’s head for business.” I paused and took in the busy street traffic. “They both came and stayed with me in Hammond during the storm, and I found myself on more than one occasion acting like a nursery school teacher assigning time-out to two feuding toddlers.”
    Dallas stopped walking and turned to me. “The three of you must be very close.”
    “Yes. We are all we have.” I laughed. “Except for when Lance is married.”
    He clapped his gloved hands together. “He’s been married five times, right?”
    I surveyed some of the stores along the street. “Yes, wife number five, Linda, left before Katrina hit. He met her at my engagement party to Michael. They were married right before David died.”
    “And your father has never remarried?”
    I recalled how my father’s green eyes had never regained their sparkle since my mother’s death. “He told me once he had no interest in getting married again. He loved my mother dearly and was devastated with her loss.” I sighed. “We both were.”
    He searched the street ahead of us. “What about your aunt?”
    “Hattie?” I laughed as I considered my mother’s scatterbrained sister and her propensity for being late to everything. “Aunt Hattie is…well, Aunt Hattie. You’ll see what I mean. She is married to her third husband, Ned Vasterling, an attorney and a really great guy. He’s been a caring stepfather to my cousin, and how he has remained married to my aunt is one of the most compelling mysteries of all time.”
    “And she was the one who introduced you to the shrink?” Dallas inquired as his eyes inspected mine.
    I stopped and stared at him as I felt the frigid New York air envelop me. A picture of Michael and his pale blue eyes suddenly appeared in my mind. I quickly shut out the image and forced myself to push any thoughts of Michael to the darkest corners of my memory.
    “Yes,” I finally confirmed. “Aunt Hattie introduced me to Michael at Colleen’s wedding.”
    He grinned as if he was truly enjoying himself. “Ah yes, the wedding. That was when you found out David had been hired by Samantha Fallon to destroy your family’s business.”
    Samantha Fallon. Even the name of the woman caused my hands to reflexively curl into fists. “Sammy was a competitor to my father’s scrap metal business years ago. She was always looking for a way to take over Beauvoir Scrap. I guess she thought she found a way when she hired David to feed my father false information, hoping he would make some bad investments and bankrupt the company. But now my father has diversified into plastics recycling, and Sammy is not a threat anymore.”
    “So your father took David’s advice and expanded out of scrap metal,” Dallas said, coming up to me.
    I nodded and pulled my coat closer around me, feeling more than a little exposed because he knew so much about my past.
    “David could have destroyed Sammy,” Dallas went on, his voice firm. “He could have turned on her with the information he had about their deal to ruin your family’s business. David took away her chance at getting Beauvoir Scrap and having the largest scrap metal business in the South.” His eyes found mine. “There’s a motive for murder.”
    “Sammy?” I paused, almost laughing. “I just don’t see her