Read Online Suspicion by Christiane Heggan - Free Book Online Page A

for comment. On Capitol Hill, Speaker Gingrich threatened to shut down the government again unless…"
      Totally sobered up, Eric fell back against his seat. Gina dead. The words kept bouncing in his head as he tried to make sense out of them. How could she be dead when she had been in his office only yesterday? And why the hell were they looking for him? What did he have to do with anything?
      In spite of his rising panic, he tried to think rationally.
      There was nothing to be afraid of. He hadn’t killed anybody. How could he? He had been right here in his car most of the night. And in that crummy tavern before that.
      With fingers that shook, he turned the radio dial in search of another news flash. When he found it, the announcement was basically the same. Gina Lamont was dead and the police were looking for him.
      His first impulse was to drive back to Washington and tell the cops everything he knew. Well, not quite everything. He would be a fool to tell them about Gina’s little blackmailing scheme, or that he had slept with her. But how much harm could there be in admitting that he had talked to her at Lyle’s party and that he had walked her to her car?
      He rejected the idea almost immediately. The newscasts hadn’t given the time of death, only that Gina had been found dead early this morning. How early? What if she was killed after he’d left Joe’s Tavern? Would the cops believe he had spent the night passed out in his car? Or would they haul him to jail and book him for murder?
      He swallowed to get rid of the dryness in his throat. Before he handed himself over to the wolves, he had to find out the time of death. If he was in the clear, he’d go back. If not…
      Christ. He had no idea what he would do then.
      He waited until his breathing had returned to normal before putting the Corvette into Reverse. Then, after a last look around, he drove out of the parking lot and headed for the highway.
    Seven
      When Alison came down for breakfast on Tuesday morning, one of the first things she saw was the mismatched saucer on the kitchen counter. "Was Daddy here?" she asked.
      Following her gaze, Kate cursed herself for not having thrown out those cigarette butts before going to bed. "He stopped by for a few minutes last night," she said, ladling pancake batter onto the hot griddle.
      "What did he want?"
      "Nothing important." Anxious to change the subject, Kate opened the refrigerator. "Do you want Aunt Jemima Light or should we live dangerously and try that sinfully rich maple syrup Grandma brought back from Vermont last month?"
      "I don’t care." Alison came to stand beside Kate. "It must have been important for him to come all the way here." Her gaze drifted back to the saucer. "And to smoke so much. He always chain-smokes when something’s on his mind."
      Kate held back a sigh. For a thirteen-year-old, Alison’s powers of observation were uncanny. She would make an excellent attorney some day-although the way things were going between them, it was doubtful that she was still interested in following in her mother’s footsteps.
      For a moment, Kate was tempted to make up a story,
      then changed her mind. Maybe Douglas was right. How was Alison ever going to realize that Eric wasn’t perfect if Kate kept covering up for him? "If you must know, he came here to borrow money."
      Alison raised an eyebrow. "You gave it to him, didn’t you?"
      Kate flipped two pancakes onto a plate and took them to the kitchen table by the bay window. "No, Alison, I didn’t give it to him. I’m not a bank, you know. And I’m certainly not rich."
      "How much did he want?"
      "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
      "Wow." Alison’s eyes gleamed with curiosity. "What did he need all that money for?"
      This time, a slight deviation from the truth was necessary. No matter how upset Kate was with Eric, she couldn’t allow his daughter to see how low he had