All That Glitters by Jane Gorman

Author:Jane Gorman [Gorman, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

21

Adam catapulted his duffle bag into the back seat and squeezed into the rental car, cursing as his knee jammed into the steering wheel. He shifted the seat back with a grunt. Sylvia said she couldn’t live with him. Captain Farrow told him to take time off to spend with his family. Julia was right, now seemed as good a time as any to head down to Atlantic City.

He steered the rental car over the Walt Whitman Bridge and headed for the Atlantic City Expressway. He’d known traffic would be heavy on a Friday afternoon, even at this time of year. Everyone was cutting out early to get a head start on the weekend. He swerved to avoid a tractor-trailer pulling into his lane and told himself again this was a good idea. Not a waste of time, as he’d claimed to Julia earlier.

He’d caught her at home this time, seeking her out after his fight with Sylvia.

“Adam, come up.” Her words were welcoming but the tone was neutral as she buzzed him into her building. At least the door was locked. For once.

She stood in the middle of her loft, surrounded by easels displaying a variety of photographs. Garden scenes ranging from extreme closeups that made it impossible to identify the plant in the photograph to grand vistas that drew his eyes off into the sunrise. Urban scenes, beach scenes, portraits. Some in color, some black and white. Some a combination of styles and colors in a blend that only Julia could have come up with. He stopped to admire her work. He couldn’t help it. He was impressed.

Julia did not look impressed. She stood in the midst of the easels, a frown etched across her forehead. She held a box cutter in her hand, and given her expression, Adam feared a little bit for what — or who — was to be the next victim of the knife.

“What can I do for you?” she asked without looking at him, her eyes focused intently on one of the images to her right.

“Just checking in, seeing how you’re doing.” He spoke casually as he slid sideways onto her sofa. She was obviously upset, and he did not want another woman yelling at him today. One was enough.

“Argh.” She threw the knife onto the low table by the sofa and flung herself down next to Adam. “I can’t do it.”

“What exactly are you trying to do?” Adam tried to figure out from the spread of images around him, but could see no rhyme or reason to the display.

“Anything.” She buried her face in her hands, her hair falling forward over her shoulders. “I’m just trying to do anything. To focus. To stop thinking about that judge. About my statue. About being a suspect.”

Adam sank lower into the sofa, weighed down by the guilt of not being able to help his little sister. “Julia, I’m so sorry you had to go through that — that I couldn’t stop it. I’m working the case, finding everything I can on the other suspects.

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