Deadly Games by Steve Frech

Author:Steve Frech [Frech, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-10-26T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Genevieve’s laptop is open on the table and she’s bounding around the room like a kid who just woke up on Christmas morning.

“What’s going on?”

“Sit down and look at this,” she insists, pulling out the chair.

As instructed, I sit in the chair, in front of the laptop. The screen displays the image of a scanned document with an official stamp. Genevieve hovers over my shoulder.

“So,” she begins. “As I said, we could have gotten this on our own, but it would have taken weeks. But with the name of the holding company, Greg knocked it out of the park! He was able to get hold of a scanned copy of the lease from the city’s digital records archive.”

“Legally?” I ask, turning to her but she puts her hands on the sides of my head and keeps me facing the screen.

“Now, the apartment was set up to be paid with automatic withdrawals from her account. In other words, she wouldn’t have to do anything.”

“Okay …”

“You said that she never mentioned the apartment?”

“No.”

“Good. Now, look …”

My eyes drift over the scanned image.

“Genevieve, it’s a lease. I’m not sure—”

“Down at the bottom!”

There are two signature lines at the bottom of the page. One is signed by a representative of the company that owns the building, Casper Holdings. My heart sinks as I read the other signature: Emily Parker.

“So, she did rent the apartment.”

Genevieve quickly reaches around, pulls two pieces of paper from behind the laptop, and sets one on either side of the keyboard. One is the slip of register paper that Emily wrote on to tell me she would be in room number 37 at the Seaside Motel. The other is the blood-stained paper I pulled from Mr. Parker’s blazer that reads ‘PERKIEST’.

“What are you doing? What is this?” I ask.

“Clay, look at the signature on the lease.”

I bring my nose closer to the screen. The image is clear enough. There’s Emily’s signature. Neat. Orderly. Firm.

“Now, look at the writing on those pieces of paper.”

Emily’s note is written in a flowing hand. It was after she had four vodka tonics, but there’s not a hint of the pen slipping or shaking.

Then, there’s Mr. Parker’s.

The strokes are firm, bold, written by a hand that has signed his name so many times, it has become his trademark. I’ve seen thousands and thousands of signatures on credit card receipts. You can tell a lot by someone just by the way they sign their names. Rich, self-important people treat their signature as if it carries real weight. It’s their name on the line, and it’s important, even if it is only a promise to pay for that one scotch and soda.

“Now,” Genevieve says. “Look at the lease again.”

I put my focus back on the screen. As I stare, I start to see it. Maybe it’s the power of Genevieve’s suggestion and I’m making things up that aren’t there, but the more I take in of the upper and lower case e’s, p’s, r’s, the i,

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.