011 Play Dead by Harlan Coben

Author:Harlan Coben
Format: mobi
Tags: Thriller, Fiction
ISBN: 9781101439616
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1990-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

T.C. drove back to his office. Serita was good, damn good, but T.C. had been up against better. She was lying. No doubt about it. And she didn't feel good about doing it either. If she had been sure lying was the right thing to do, T.C. doubted her poker face would have revealed anything. Even now, T.C. was not nearly as confident as he pretended to be. But what else could he do? If he assumed she was telling the truth, it left him with nothing to go on. If he assumed she was lying, ah, well, that was a different story.

Okay, T.C. thought, let's assume Serita is lying. What does that mean? T.C. tried to organize the facts in his head. Fact 1: Laura had seen Corsel. Fact 2: She now knew about the timing of the money transfer. Fact 3: She had discovered that David's call had come from the Pacific International Hotel in Australia. Partial Conclusion: Knowing all of the above, Laura would never just give up and forget about it. Query: Where would she have gone next?

T.C. did not buy Estelle's story about Laura on some secret fashion trip. What kind of crap excuse was that? He could understand trying to hide a certain excursion from your competition, but from her family and friends? Hardly Laura's style. She trusted her friends. She would tell them, especially now when so many people were worried about her.

But she doesn't trust me.

Sad to say but T.C. had to accept the truth. Somewhere along the way, Laura's trust in him had disintegrated. She had not told him about her second visit to Corsel's office; she had not told him what she had learned about David's death. And if Laura had still trusted him, she would have. If she had still trusted him, Laura would have wanted his help.

T.C. shook his head. Those damn suspicions of hers just made everything all the more difficult. But all of this was an aside, an aside that was bringing him nowhere in a hurry. He had to find out where Laura was and what she was up to. He had questioned Laura's parents, her sister, her best friend. Nothing. Could Laura have really gone somewhere without telling anyone? And if so, why? Unless she wanted to protect them. Unless she was doing something that could prove dangerous to her family and friends. Unless . . .

He stopped his car and sprinted to a nearby phone booth. He put a quarter in and dialed the unlisted number. It was picked up after the second ring.

'Sherman's Paper Supplies.'

'Stu, it's T.C.'

Stuart Sherman repeated, 'Sherman's Paper Supplies.'

'Damn you FBI bigshots and your codes. Who the hell remembers? Can't you do a voice print or something?'

'We have a special on yellow paper today.'

T.C. thought. 'Oh right. Do you have any yellow paper with pink and aqua lines?'

There was a moment of silence. 'Hey, T.C. Long time no speak. What's happening?'

'Not much. Don't you ever get sick of playing spy with all those codes?'

'Nah,' Stu replied.

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