01 Shadows In The Darkness by Cunningham Elaine

Author:Cunningham, Elaine [Elaine, Cunningham,]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-10T10:54:01.705000+00:00

"Among other people," she murmurred.

A faint, wry smile touched his lips. "Oddly enough, Ryan said much the same thing. Only he wasn't smiling at the time."

Gwen leaned back in her chair and cocked her head to one side. "Just for the record, are you currently engaged to anyone?"

He pretended to wince "I suppose I deserved that."

"Hey, I wasn't taking a shot." She sent him a demure smile and a sidelong glance. "Just a census."

"Oh. Good one," he said, lifting his wineglass in mock salute. "Are we going to talk about your case, or are you going to bust my chops?"

"A little of both sounds good to me," Gwen said. "My job has so few other perks."

"Go ahead and smirk," he told her. "Amusement is good. I've noticed that when women are smiling, they're less likely to throw things."

"Ah. I take it Julia didn't do a lot of smiling when she found out about your shiksa goddesses?"

"Not until she drew blood," he grumbled. "That seemed to cheer her up."

Gwen nodded. "That's always a mood-brightener for me, too."

He eyed her suspiciously. "I was indulging in hyperbole. And you?"

She gave him an enigmatic smile.

Just then the waiter came by with a large white platter heaped with what appeared to be vegetables, batter-dipped and fried, resting on an enormous bed of onion rings.

Stephen regarded the fragrant mound with dismay. "What did broccoli ever do to deserve a fate like that?"

"It didn't have to do anything. Broccoli is innately evil. I think it has something to do with original sin."

"More of Sister Tamar's theology?"

Gwen pushed the green stuff aside to get at the onion rings. "What can I say. The woman's a philosopher. But let's get back to the Cody family. What can you tell me about Meredith?"

"Very little. She's a pretty teenage girl, lots of friends, always on the go."

"I heard that she and her mother don't get along very well."

He shrugged. "Can't help you there. I don't spend much time around the family."

"So how did you and Dianne hook up?"

"She called me at work and asked for information on the PI I'd mentioned."

"Did that surprise you?"

"A little. Ryan seemed adamantly against the idea. Of course, emotions were running very high that morning. He was barking at everyone."

"Do you know Ryan Cody well?"

He considered that. "We know each other from the club. We've been playing tennis and running together for maybe five, six years."

"But you wouldn't know much about other aspects of his life?"

"Such as?"

Gwen wiped her shiny fingers on her napkin and reached for her water glass. "He had a membership at Underhill. It's a gentleman's club, exotic dancers. Very young exotic dancers. Did you ever go there with him?"

"Who, me? No!" he said indignantly. He leaned in closer. "Does this have anything to do with Meredith?"

"It might."

He glanced around the small, crowded room. "This isn't exactly private. Maybe we should wait until after dinner to get into details."

Gwen nodded agreement and let him pour her a glass of wine from the bottle he'd ordered.

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