Deadly Pretender by Karen Kingsbury

Author:Karen Kingsbury [Kingsbury, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRUE CRIME/General
Publisher: Bondfire Books
Published: 2014-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Ed Cholakian was losing his patience. He considered himself a reasonable man, and when David had asked to borrow money back in November he had seen no reason why he should refuse him. But it was April now and he hadn’t heard from David in nearly a month. The promises that David had made about the contracts had not come through and he hadn’t even mentioned his cancer in weeks.

Finally, Ed decided he’d had enough. He picked up his office phone and called David.

“David Miller, please.” Ed’s voice was curt and David’s secretary could tell the caller was unhappy about something.

“I’m afraid David’s out of town on business,” Cynthia said.

“That’s impossible,” Ed said. “David promised he’d use my travel agency and I haven’t had any business from him in months.”

Cynthia wondered if perhaps the caller was a prankster. David never used any travel agency. She made all his travel plans. “I’m sorry, sir, but I book all David’s travel. He doesn’t use any agency for his plans.”

“I see,” Ed said as he worked to control his anger. “And where is Mr. Miller now?”

“He’s in Washington D.C., sir,” Cynthia said, instantly wondering if she should have revealed David’s whereabouts. In truth she hadn’t made many travel plans for David either lately. He was spending much of his time away from the office but until the Washington D.C. trip she hadn’t booked a flight for him in nearly two months. Everyone at the office was beginning to wonder where David was spending his time and rumors were circulating that he was suffering from a fatal illness.

“Will he be calling for his messages?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then tell him that Ed Cholakian called. I want my money now.”

Two hours later, David called his office and was livid with anger when he learned that Cynthia had told Ed he was in Washington D.C.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Miller. It won’t happen again,” Cynthia said. Secretly, though, she wondered what was happening to her boss. The books showed that they were still bringing in some money, but not nearly as much as they once had. And there had been several calls lately from people who had loaned money to him. She and Lynne had discussed the problems and decided they should probably start looking for other jobs. If the business was suffering, their positions could no longer be considered stable.

As soon as David got the message from Cynthia he put in a call to Ed’s office. “Hey, Ed, it’s David Miller returning your call.” As usual David did a convincing job of sounding cheerful, and Ed seethed at the other end.

“Listen, Miller,” Ed said, skipping the niceties. “You said you’d use my travel agency. What are you doing in Washington D.C. without calling me about your plans?”

“I’m not in D.C.,” David said. “I needed to get away from the office for a few days, so I told them I was in D.C. I cancelled the plans as soon as my secretary made them. I’m here. In L.A.”

Ed raised his voice a notch.

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