Black Leather by Elizabeth Engstrom

Author:Elizabeth Engstrom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, mystery, dark, mystery detective, mystery action adventure romance, mystery action suspense thriller
Publisher: Imagination Fully Dilated Publishing

Chapter 16

Joseph yawned, stretched, kicked off his shoes and put his feet up on Irene’s glass-topped coffee table. She handed him a fresh glass of wine and he sipped it appreciatively.

Good wine. One of life’s tinier, more important pleasures. Cynthia always bought whatever was on sale at the grocery store. She drank it like soda.

Not Irene. Not this wine. Joseph rolled the clear liquid around on his tongue and bet she spent upwards of seventy-five dollars on this bottle, and it was the second of the evening. He liked being here. He liked Irene’s natural elegance. He liked the feeling of tension he had when around her. He liked the fact that she had secrets, and he knew about them, and she didn’t know he knew. It added spice. It gave him confidence.

Irene picked up a pile of papers from the couch cushion between them and dropped it to the floor. Then she sat down, curled her feet up underneath her and sipped her wine.

“No skin removed from Sam,” Joseph said, keeping the conversation professional.

“No skin. Just one ordinary restaurant knife through the throat. A knife taken from the diner they were both in minutes earlier. Seen by a dozen witnesses.”

“Cynthia’s fingerprints on the knife?”

“No prints. No prints on the knife, on the car, or in the car.”

Joseph sat up, putting his wine glass on the table where his feet had been. “I can’t believe Cynthia did this. You know, Irene, I was married to that woman, I lived with that woman, I just can’t believe she has it in her.”

“It’s in her all right.”

Joseph blinked twice, then slowly turned to look at Irene. “How can you defend her if you believe she’s guilty?”

Irene reached out a cool, white, manicured hand and laid it on Joseph’s arm. He knew it was an innocent gesture, but his arm was so hot, and her hand was so cool, and she was so beautiful in this light, in this intimate setting... He didn’t think she ought to be touching him, but he’d be damned if he’d move out from under that touch.

“It’s my job. Not everybody I defend is innocent. Innocence or guilt doesn’t even enter into it.”

“That’s cold.”

“That’s law.”

Her hand slipped slowly from his arm, which was even harder for Joseph to endure. He watched it slip, inch by inch, from his skin, then slide across the intervening cushion, back into her lap.

What had Owen said about Irene having a “vested interest” in the outcome of Cynthia’s case?

He looked up, and she was looking directly into his eyes. “Maybe I should go,” he said to cover the guilty feeling he just had about her, and having said it, felt some of the tension dissipate. Her face was completely passive, as if it would be fine with her if he stayed, and fine if he left.

He left.

He ached, but he left.

~~~

Owen had the plain manila envelope delivered to Joseph’s office around noon the next day, and it sat on his desk, untouched and unbearably intriguing.

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.