Read Online Ricochet by Sandra Brown - Free Book Online Page B

indelicate, but seeing as we’re all adults—”
    “Judge, please—”
    “No, Detective Hatcher. Since my wife is too embarrassed to answer your question, I’ll answer for her. Earlier tonight we enjoyed a bottle of wine together in our Jacuzzi. From there we went to bed and made love. Afterward, Elise was… Let’s just say she was
disinclined
to leave the bed in order to set the alarm.”
    The judge paused for effect. The air in the room suddenly became abnormally still. Hot. Dense. Or so it seemed to Duncan. He became aware of his pulse. His scalp felt tight.
    Finally the judge ended the taut silence. “Now, can we move beyond this one point and talk about the man who tried to kill Elise?”
    An inactivated alarm system was a significant point in the investigation of a home break-in that had resulted in a fatal shooting. As the lead detective conducting the investigation, that’s what Duncan should have been concentrating on.
    But instead, he was having a hard time getting past the idea of a bottle of wine and Elise Laird in a tub of bubbles. To say nothing of an Elise Laird in bed, sexually sated to the point of immobility.
    And when an erotic visualization of that flashed into his mind, it wasn’t Cato Laird who was lying with her.
    As though reading his mind, DeeDee shot him a look of reproof, then addressed the next question to Mrs. Laird. “When you heard the noise, what did you do?”
    As though grateful for the new direction of questioning, she turned to DeeDee. “I went through the butler’s pantry, which is the shortest route from the kitchen into the foyer. When I reached the foyer, I was certain there was someone in the study.”
    “What made you certain?” DeeDee asked.
    She raised her slender shoulders. “Instinct. I sensed his presence.”
    “
His
presence? You knew it was a man? Instinctually?”
    Elise’s gaze swung back to Duncan. “I assumed so, Detective Hatcher.” She continued to look at him for a moment, then turned back to DeeDee. “I was afraid. It was dark. I sensed someone inside the house. I… I took a pistol from the drawer in the hall table.”
    “Why didn’t you run to the nearest telephone, dial 911?”
    “I wish I had. If I had it to do over—”
    “You would be the one on the way to the morgue.” Cato Laird took one of her hands and pressed it between his. He kissed her temple near her hairline.
    Duncan interrupted the tender exchange. “You knew there was a pistol in that drawer?”
    “Yes,” she replied.
    “Had you used it before?”
    She looked affronted. “Of course not.”
    “Then how did you know it was there?”
    “I own several guns, Detective,” the judge said. “They’re kept handy. Elise knows where they are. I made sure of that. I also insisted on her taking lessons to learn how to use the guns to protect herself in the event she should need to.”
    She learned well, Duncan thought. She’d shot a man straight through the heart. He was a good marksman, but he doubted he could be that accurate under duress.
    To defuse another tense moment, DeeDee prompted Elise. “So you have the pistol.”
    “I walked toward the study. When I got to the door, I switched on the light. But I flipped the wrong switch and the light in the foyer came on, not the overhead light in the study. They’re on the same switch plate. Anyway, I illuminated myself, not him, but I could see him, standing there behind the desk.”
    “What did he do?”
    “Nothing. He just stood there, frozen, looking startled, staring at me. I said, ‘Get out of here. Go away.’ But he didn’t move.”
    “Did he say anything?”
    She held Duncan’s gaze for several seconds, then replied with a terse no.
    He was absolutely certain she was lying. Why? he wondered. But he decided not to challenge her about it now. “Go on.”
    “Suddenly he jerked his arm up. Like a puppet whose string has been yanked. His hand came up and before it even registered with me that he had a gun, he fired