Read Online Swindled by June Mayes - Free Book Online Page B

ranked me only an eight… I think I’m insulted!”
    “Oh how mortifying!” Beth choked off her laughter.
    “Wait a minute, does that mean you were one of Brian’s conquests?” She asked stunned. There was a silence on the other side of the phone, a complete and utter silence. It was unheard of for Karin to be that quiet unless she utterly guilty.
    “You slept with Brian?!” Beth’s voice rose an octave. “Ugh – why?” she swallowed and paused. “I mean I’m sorry. You must be devastated that he’s dead?” Beth didn’t know what to think. It seemed impossible that Karin and Brian were an item. How had she managed to keep it a secret? Poor Karin.
    “Not likely,” Karin retorted putting Beth’s racing mind to rest. “I thought you knew! It was after one of your parents parties. One of the themed ones, ‘Roman Rulers’ I think, when they made us dress as vestal virgins and serve up drinks.” Beth remembered that party particular well. They had all gotten a kick out of parading around in the draped sheets.
    “I remember,” Beth replied as she laughed. “We kept tripping over those sheets that mum had wrapped around us toga style. We must have been about seventeen?” That had been a memorable night.
    “We must have been. All I remember is that I was young and stupid. I thought that under every creep there was a true gentleman just dying to get out,” they laughed together again and Karin continued, “Never slept with him again, thank goodness. We ended up getting together in the shed in the backyard. Oh no,” Karin shrieked as Beth sputtered with laughter. Karin rushed on with her explanation, “I can’t believe I told you that. Listen just ignore the last bit. As far as Brian is concerned there was nothing going on between us. I mean every now and then he liked to ask me out but luckily, I don’t make stupid mistakes more then once! I mean who would be dumb enough to sleep with him once they knew what he was like?”
    Both of them were quiet for a long second.
    “Charlotte,” they chorused with glee. Beth made a mental note to discuss the garden shed at a later date. That little titbit would give her a bit of leverage next time Karin and Charlotte ganged up on her.
    “Hang on I’ll conference her in,” Karin said. Beth could hear the beeps as Charlotte’s phone number was dialled. She took a deep breath feeling her lungs open up and lighten. It felt good to be talking about something else, something that wasn’t about the murder, even if that something did revolve yet again around Brian.
    “Yello!” Charlotte’s cheerful voice filled the line.
    “Hello Charlotte,” Karin and Beth sang back. They tended to do conference calls pretty regularly when they wanted to chat. It helped all four of the friends keep up with the news. While Karin and Beth were self employed, Charlotte worked for a fashion magazine as an editor. Nine times out of ten she was in her office whenever they called. Beth couldn’t even remember what Charlotte’s home even looked like. She only got a flash of ultra modern sleek metal and glass everywhere. It suited the flamboyant fashionable Charlotte down to a T. Of course she wasn’t sure if Charlotte even remembered what her home looked like, let alone where it was.
    “Oh Beth. I heard about Brian. Are you and Vickie okay?” Charlotte asked. They could hear her dropping the papers as she turned her attention to the conversation. Beth felt her stomach tightened. Try as she might, every time they mentioned Brian dead, she felt ill. The fact that two of her closest friends knew Brian on a more intimate level without any hint to her was disturbing as well. She tried to quell the impulse to wonder if any of them could have had anything to do with his subsequent death.
    “It’s all been a bit of a shock but we’ll survive, I think,” Beth replied quietly to Charlotte. “We didn’t have a great deal to do with him these last few years.”
    “Unlike some we