Turquoise Girl by Thurlo David

Author:Thurlo, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2007-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-five minutes later they sat in Brewster’s spacious den when Donna excused herself and went into the kitchen. Justine followed, ostensibly to question her separately.

“What’s going on between you and Reverend Campbell,” Ella asked, deciding to play a bluff and see where it took her. She recalled Ford telling her that Brewster and Reverend Campbell didn’t get along, and from what Reverend Campbell himself had told her, she suspected that the cleric knew all about Brewster’s kinky games.

Stan’s eyes narrowed and his shoulders tensed. “What did that pious SOB tell you?”

“I need to hear it from you,” Ella said harshly, glad to see she’d hit a nerve.

“He’s crazy, that’s all, probably convinced that I had something to do with Valerie’s murder. He comes in from time to time to pick up lunch and the day Valerie died, he happened to overhear an offhand comment I made to her. But the preacher is way out on line on this. I should sue his self-righteous butt for slander.”

“Talk to the lawyers later. What kind of comment did you make?” Blalock pressed.

“I was feeling crappy that day and snapping at everyone, so I suggested she should help me relax. She kissed me off, said she’d rather risk losing her job.”

“Help you relax, how?” Blalock shot back. “Give you a lap dance?”

He shook his head. “Not just that.”

Ella took a deep breath. She wanted to lean over and smack him. Instead she sat very still.

“Quit stalling and get to the point. Were you in Valerie’s Tso’s apartment the night she died?” Blalock demanded.

“No. I wanted to drop by, but she said she had other plans.”

“Like what?”

“No idea.”

“So what’s the deal between you and Reverend Campbell now?” Ella pressed. Gut instinct told her that there was more to the story.

He expelled his breath in a hiss. “Same old. It goes back a ways.” He met Ella’s stony gaze. “But I suppose you want a walk down memory lane?” Seeing Ella’s curt nod, he continued. “When Valerie ended up joining a different church, Campbell asked me to stop by his office for a chat,” he said. “I knew he and Valerie had spoken privately several times before she decided to join the Divine Word. That’s why I thought I’d better go find out if she’d said anything I should worry about.”

Stan walked to the window, then stared at his backyard. “I went in, intending to offer him a check, if that’s what it took to keep him from carrying tales. He’d never turned down any of the money I’d given him for their youth programs, that’s for sure. But, this time, he wasn’t interested in any cash. He wanted to save me from myself—his exact words. I told him I was fine, and then he said he’d heard some disturbing rumors about the way I treated women, tales he might have had to report to the authorities to keep someone from getting hurt.”

“And you thought that the stories came from Valerie?”

“Yeah, of course I did.”

“So then what?” Blalock asked.

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.