Sloane Monroe Series Boxed Set, Books 4-5 by Cheryl Bradshaw

Author:Cheryl Bradshaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, mystery stories, best of the month, spy series, detective series, medical thrillers
Publisher: Cheryl Bradshaw
Published: 2013-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 2

TWO HOURS LATER

I could count on one hand the number of times Park City Police Chief Wade Sheppard had dialed my number over the last year, so when his name flashed across my cell phone screen in bright, white letters, I paused, then glanced at the time. It was just after two a.m.

“Sloane?” he croaked, when I answered. His voice was shaky, unstable. Very unlike him. “I apologize for calling so late. How’s Vegas?”

“Vegas is fine. What’s wrong?”

“I need to ask you about Giovanni,” he said. “When’s the last time you talked to him?”

Giovanni Luciana, with whom I’d recently presumed not only shared a bed with me, but also the mafia, had been my on-again, off-again boyfriend for more than a year. At present, we were off-again. Sort of. It was complicated.

“I talked to him a few days ago,” I said. “Why?”

“On the phone or in person?”

“On the phone. Why?”

“And when did you see him last?” he prodded.

“A couple weeks, maybe more. Why?”

“Are you two still together?”

The late-night interrogation session grated on me. I imagined Giovanni lying dead in the street, a single gunshot wound to the head, fired from a fancy shotgun equipped with silencer. I knew it was wrong to go there, but I couldn’t help it. In my dreams, his life always ended the same way—with him brutally murdered. Dreams had a way of messing with a person’s mind, projecting every day fears into some sort of twisted reality. At least all of mine did.

The chief had gone quiet, probably a result of my failure to answer his last question.

“Are you still there?” I asked.

He coughed like he had something lodged in his throat. In all the years I’d known him, he’d never been at a loss for words before.

“Look, we’re not seeing other people,” I said, “but we’re not seeing a lot of each other right now either. It’s hard to explain.” Only, it wasn’t. The chief knew it and I knew it, and I’d long speculated the chief was aware of Giovanni’s extracurricular activities too. He’d never said a word—not to me or Giovanni. But whenever he got the chance, he pressed me about our relationship. And he wasn’t asking for nothing.

“Are you with Madison right now?” he asked.

“Yeah, Maddie’s sitting right here.”

To my right, Maddie sat, legs crossed, donning a coral satin spaghetti-strapped top and matching shorts. She’d given her long, blond hair a reprieve for the night, taking it out of its usual pigtails, allowing her shoulder-length bangs to fall over her eyes. She took a sip of red wine, uncrossed her legs, and swapped the glass for an open bottle of glittery, pink nail polish on the nightstand. We made eye contact, and she mouthed something to me that at first sounded like, “Hut’s going long.” I deciphered it to mean, “What’s going on?” Since no actual words came out of her mouth, I couldn’t be sure, but there weren’t any huts in Las Vegas to my knowledge, and neither of us was going long tonight.

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