The Dark of Day by Barbara Parker

Author:Barbara Parker [Parker, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780786721627
Google: lFGGGu-uj8gC
Goodreads: 2509109
Publisher: Vanguard
Published: 2008-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

chapter TWENTY

they sat on a bench in Peacock Park in Coconut Grove, a patch of trees and gray dirt that led to a dried-out baseball field, a tangle of mangroves, and a pile of seaweed-draped rocks. It was already hot, and the dogs being walked had their tongues hanging out. But it wasn’t bad in the shade, with the wind coming off the bay. Kylie could see the boats moored in neat rows behind the Coral Reef Yacht Club. The sailboat rigging sounded like bells.

She said to the man next to her, “I kept thinking she’d call. ‘Hi, it’s me. I made it. I’m standing right here on the Walk of Stars in Hollywood.’ She said that’s the first place she’d go. She said somebody was going to hook her up with a friend out there. She had it all planned.”

“Well, she sure took a wrong turn.” Richard stirred his frozen lemonade with the straw. He had bought them both one at the cart by the street before he looked around for the right place to sit, near the water with a fence at their backs. He could keep an eye on the park.

Kylie said, “Can you get any more information from your sources? Your friends, other reporters? Don’t you have contacts with the police?”

“I’m working on it. I have a friend with a TV station in Miami. He’s close to the story.”

Richard wore baggy cargo pants, a tropical print shirt, sunglasses, and a Chicago Cubs hat. She hadn’t recognized him until he tapped her on the arm, having seen him only that one other time. She had been walking to the bus stop on Biscayne Boulevard two days after the party and this man fell into step with her, a big man with a beard and shaved head. Hi. Remember me? She didn’t until he told her he was a friend of Alana’s, and he’d brought her home from the party at Billy Medina’s house. He wanted to talk to her. He would pay for information.

She looked at him, trying to see past the sunglasses. “Do you think someone killed Alana because of your investigation?”

“Jesus, I hope not.”

“I mean, if somebody found out she was working with you. . . .”

“If I find it had anything to do with me, I’d hate myself, but I can’t see it. Alana could keep her secrets. We don’t put our sources in danger. We don’t ask them to wear hidden microphones or anything like that. Don’t worry. Talking to me is not a risk. We’re just two people shooting the breeze.”

Kylie watched a sail puff out from the front of a sailboat, red and blue stripes. “Before we start, we need to discuss how much you’re going to pay me.”

He set his cup aside. “All right. What did you have in mind?”

“I need at least three thousand.”

He started to laugh but could see she was serious. “You think reporters have unlimited expense accounts? That our publishers have big buckets of cash we dip into?”

“The New York Times is rich.

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