Read Online Tortured Spirits by Gregory Lamberson - Free Book Online

mother’s heart.”
    â€œI’m almost thirty. My mother wants grandkids.”
    â€œYour mother’s already got a dozen grandkids.”
    â€œFour.”
    â€œWhat’s on Pavot Island?”
    â€œA dictator, a prison, and hopefully some answers.”
    â€œAnd Helman.”
    â€œDon’t worry about Jake. I can handle him.”
    â€œThat’s what I’m worried about: keep your hands off him. I don’t care if he’s Genghis Khan or just misunderstood. He’s trouble from the first bite to the last.”
    â€œWe’ve had this conversation before. I don’t care about Jake. I want to find out what happened to Edgar.”
    â€œAnd you expect to find the key to that particular mystery on Pavot Island?”
    Maria considered the question as she shaved her other leg. “I expect to find the answer or accept there is no answer and move on.”
    â€œYou always know the right thing to say to me. When do you leave?”
    â€œIn the morning. I’ll be out of reach. Cell phones are contraband over there.”
    â€œGood luck, partner.”
    â€œThanks. I really hope to see you again soon.” Maria shut her phone down.

SEVEN
    Jake leaned against the car door, dressed in jeans and a black V-neck T-shirt, with Edgar parked in the backseat and the engine running for air-conditioning.
    He heard a door open and close on the upper level and almost failed to recognize Maria when she approached. She wore a green summer dress that left her arms and legs exposed and matching strap-on sandals with heels. Her curly hair hung loose around her shoulders, lighter than he remembered it thanks to the sun, and she wore makeup. The last time he had seen her looking so attractive was on the night he had dinner with Edgar and Katrina, and Edgar had surprised him by inviting Maria as his date.
    Maria stood before him with an expectant look on her face, the dry breeze blowing her hair. “Is something wrong?”
    â€œHm? No, I was just thinking about tomorrow.” Heopened the passenger door for her and studied her legs as she sat down and hissed at the hot upholstery. Closing the door, he walked around the car and got in beside her. “The front desk clerk recommended a place not far from here.”
    â€œThank God,” she said as he pulled into the street. “I was sick of eating fast food while you checked out every Cajun joint in New Orleans.”
    â€œStakeout’s a bitch.”
    â€œI didn’t see you jogging every morning like you do in NYC.”
    She’s almost as bad as Laurel,
Jake thought. Laurel Doniger, a psychic healer, occupied the storefront in Jake’s building. Every time she touched Jake—sometimes intimately—she learned everything there was to know about him. “I was on a tight schedule. My budget for this operation is far from unlimited.”
    Maria fiddled with the radio until salsa music replaced Jake’s rock. “You do all right for yourself as a PI, though, right?”
    â€œYeah, I do okay.”
When my clients live to pay me.
    Ten minutes later, they sat on the patio of a restaurant facing the Atlantic. Seagulls hovered in the breeze, rising and falling like kites as the sunlight faded, and sailboats traveled the waves. Jake held birdseed out to Edgar, who pecked at the food from within the cage on the tabletop.
    â€œDo you always dote on him like that?”
    â€œWhen I can. When I can’t, my assistant does. When she can’t, a neighbor does.”
    â€œThat psychic lady downstairs from your office?”
    Damn.
Jake would never grow accustomed to peopleknowing so much information about him. “Sometimes.”
    â€œYou doing her?”
    Sometimes,
Jake felt like answering again, though the truth was,
not anymore.
Other than a couple of interludes with Laurel and the one with Jasmine, he had been celibate since Sheryl’s murder. “No.”
    A young woman with