Read Online Tempting the Devil by Patricia; Potter - Free Book Online Page A

Tomorrow would be a long day, and her sister’s voice worried her. She’d never heard that frantic note before.
    She was asleep when the phone rang. She looked at the clock. Three a.m. Her heart clenched. Calls at that hour in the morning invariably were bad news.
    â€œRobin Stuart,” she said.
    â€œIt’s Sandy,” came a low voice.
    She woke up immediately.
    â€œWhat’s happened?”
    â€œI just wanted to make sure you won’t repeat anything I told you. Nothing.”
    â€œYou really didn’t say anything,” she tried to reassure him.
    â€œReporters protect their sources. That’s right, isn’t it?”
    â€œAbsolutely.”
    â€œYou won’t report anything I said.”
    â€œNot unless I can get someone else to say it. Even then, no one would know where it came from.”
    â€œDon’t do it, Robin. Don’t even try to find out who owns that property.”
    She was wide awake now. “I can’t—”
    â€œI trusted you, Robin. Don’t betray me. Don’t say hello to me. Don’t call me.” The connection went dead.
    She sat on the side of the bed with the receiver in her hand, totally dumbfounded. Evidently he thought he had told her something he shouldn’t have.
    What in the hell was it?

chapter six
    Ben took a sip of what was called coffee in the office and read the morning edition of the newspaper with a jaundiced eye. He noted that there was nothing new in the Observer . He wondered whether he could get away for the funerals. One cop paying respect to another.
    â€œStill chewing on the murders?” Ellis Mahoney asked as he peered over his shoulder at the Observer .
    Ben folded the paper and tossed it in the waste can. “We should be in there. Now.”
    â€œMaybe they have more than they’re saying.”
    Ben raised an eyebrow, and Mahoney shrugged. “The SAC is pressing as hard as he can.”
    â€œNot hard enough,” Ben retorted. “Those were cops, damn it.”
    Mahoney was silent. He knew that Ben had lost a friend from the academy.
    â€œThey don’t have any damn leads, and they refuse to ask for our help.”
    â€œIt’s their own,” Mahoney reminded him.
    â€œI did some looking on my own last night,” Ben said. “That land is owned by a company that doesn’t exist except on paper.”
    Mahoney raised an eyebrow.
    â€œThe officers are members of a law firm that filed incorporation papers.”
    â€œNot that unusual.”
    â€œExcept when three murders take place there.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    â€œThere’s a private airstrip fifteen minutes away from the murder site.”
    â€œNot exactly a smoking gun for a conspiracy.”
    â€œNo, but convenient.”
    â€œTalk to Holland,” Mahoney said.
    Ben took another sip of coffee and looked at the paperwork in front of him. They’d just arrested a low-level drug suspect in a continuing case with DEA, and he’d hoped that arrest would lead to others. In the meantime, he had to make detailed descriptions of how he and Mahoney had obtained each and every piece.
    He hated doing that, knowing the slightest mistake would be magnified to something that could be used against the prosecution at trial. He always checked and double-checked, then triple-checked.
    But that could wait.
    He rose and went down the hall to Holland’s office.
    â€œIs he free?” he asked the secretary.
    â€œIs it the drug case?”
    He nodded, knowing that would get him through the door.
    â€œI’ll check,” she said. She lifted the receiver and punched a button. “Agent Taylor is here.” Then she turned to Ben. “Go on in,” she said.
    Ron Holland looked up from a pile of papers and gave him a rueful smile. “And I thought I wanted this job.”
    Holland was a good agent who hated his desk job and obviously yearned to be back in the field. He was also