The Christmas Thief by Leslie Meier

Author:Leslie Meier [Meier, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781420128260
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2012-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

After talking to her mother, Elizabeth followed her advice and took a long bath and went to bed. “Everything will look better in the morning,” Lucy Stone told her daughter, but Elizabeth found that hard to believe. Every time she closed her eyes she saw another disturbing vision: Tabak warning her not to leave town or Mr. Dimitri’s curt dismissal or Wrayburn’s bulldog expression. And then there was Toni, smirking and speculating that Chris wasn’t genuine. Was Toni right? Had she been a complete idiot? Or, worst of all, had she actually aided and abetted the thieves without realizing it?

Exhausted at four a.m., she gave up and took the one remaining Ambien in the vial Doc Ryder had prescribed when she’d had a bout of insomnia last summer, anxious about leaving home and beginning her new job. She then fell sound asleep and didn’t wake until noon.

Her first impulse upon waking was to call Chris Kennedy, but she couldn’t quite make up her mind to do it. Finally, spitting a mouthful of toothpaste into the sink, she gave in, only to get a recording informing her he wasn’t available but she could leave a message.

She was about to do so, then remembered the police were most certainly monitoring his calls and snapped the phone shut. Too late, she realized. Her call would be retained by the system as a missed call. In fact, she realized, it was quite probable that she was under surveillance herself. She went to the front window and looked out, wondering if she was being watched.

There was no black sedan parked out front, no unmarked white van on the other side of the street, but she was too paranoid to feel relieved. What was it they said? It wasn’t paranoia if they were out to get you. And Elizabeth had the uncomfortable knowledge that she was under suspicion, the police were out to get her and wanted to implicate her in the jewel robbery.

She was making herself a cup of tea—she couldn’t face coffee this morning, actually this afternoon—when Toni’s face popped into her consciousness. That bitch! There was no other word, she thought, stirring a scant teaspoon of sugar into the mug. It must have been Toni who fingered her, who had told investigators about her and Chris dating. Impulsively, she grabbed the phone, determined to have it out with her.

“Why did you do it? Why did you even mention me to the cops?” she demanded, when Toni answered. “Thanks to you I’m in big trouble.”

“I was only trying to help,” Toni replied. “I told them you were under the influence of this Chris Kennedy guy, that it wasn’t your fault. I told them how he had won you over, using a fake identity.”

“How could you know that?” Elizabeth demanded.

“It was obvious. He’s a big phony but you were too infatuated with him to realize it. I was only trying to help you, honest.”

“Well, you’ve gotten me in real trouble. They think I conspired with Chris,” Elizabeth wailed.

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