Now You See Her by Merline Lovelace

Author:Merline Lovelace [Lovelace, Merline]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
ISBN: 9780425234761
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2010-05-04T05:00:00+00:00

PEN, Rocky, and Dennis O’Reilly expressed surprise at seeing me back after I’d told them I was leaving for the day. Sergeant Cassidy expressed extreme disappointment that Diane Roth hadn’t accompanied me inside for another visit.

I have to admit to mixed feelings as I entered my office cubicle. Part of me said I’d done the right thing by refusing such an expensive gratuity. Another part sneered and warned that I’d gone over to the dark side. A strange, dangerous place fraught with so many rules and regulations that I’d never find my way into the light again.

What the heck happened to the old Samantha? The reckless, I’ll-jump-in-first girl? The laughing, flirty cocktail waitress who grabbed life with greedy hands?

The Air Force, I concluded glumly. That’s what happened. Responsibility. Authority. The burdens of leadership. Mourning for my lost self, I thumped my hat and purse on my desk.

I was in no mood to fiddle around with more test reports. Or the equipment I’d left lying on my desk. I started to shove the items aside, but the thin paper printout hanging from one like a tail snagged my attention.

Frowning, I called over the partitions. “Hey! Who’s been playing with the Sniffometer?”

Pen scooted her desk chair back and stuck her head around the divider between our offices. “No one. Why?”

“The reading on this printout is all over the place.”

“Weren’t you demonstrating it to Sergeant Roth before you left?”

“Oh. Right.”

Pen scooted back to her desk. I sank down at mine and studied the wild zigs and zags on the printout. According to the Olfactory Somatosensory Indicator, Diane’s odor emissions during her short visit to my office had swung from a median level of calm to extreme agitation to fear.

Well, hell! Now I felt like a total jerk. Not only had I ruined her day at the spa, I’d had to bring up that business about her in-laws’ murder. Worse, I’d posed the possibility of a link to Oliver Austin. Even theorized he might have been trying to get to her through her children.

I’d seen the evidence of Diane’s physical reaction to that theory firsthand. I didn’t need the Sniffometer to verify the mere idea had scared the living crap out of her.

I might have let the whole thing drop right there if the last, small segment of the printout hadn’t registered odor emissions strongly suggestive of untruthfulness.

Forehead scrunched, I tried to reconstruct our conversation. What would she have lied about? Wishing evil on her in-laws? Feeling guilty about that? Insisting Austin wasn’t capable of such a vicious act?

Maybe he wasn’t, but he might have associated with others who were. Special Agent Blue Eyes from CID headquarters said the man was being investigated for unspecified activities while in Afghanistan.

My fertile and admittedly overactive imagination took off. Chin in hand, I stared at that damned printout and formulated all kinds of wild theories.

What if Austin had been so bitter about Roth’s rejection he decided on revenge before he rotated back to the States? Or maybe while he was in the VA hospital.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.