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better than this.
Don t nag. You sound like Mrs. Henderson.
You deserve it. Tony s light beam slashed across the car seeking Adam. He sat
frozen in the passenger seat. Neither Tony nor Adam looked happy.
I said, I ll have my friend drive.
Tony snorted. Everything all right, Adam?
Adam nodded, his face the color of his shirt. The worn tag waved high on his
collarbone. Red flag. No question he d just been naked. I m okay, officer. Adam dug
under his ass for my wallet. He reached between the seat and the console, saying to me,
Are you sure you had it?
I think so. On further reflection& I realized I d left my wallet at home. It s not like
I used it much. I smiled at unsmiling Tony. Actually, officer
Adam was still digging. There s something...here& and he wrenched something
free. Here it is.
A new sense of foreboding nearly arrested my racing heart. In his hand was a
brown leather wallet. That s not mine.
I gave it to Tony who, until this moment, had been stringing me along as friends do.
Shit. What the fuck is going on Holden? This is Davis wallet.
Hell if I know. I thought you guys checked the car?
They did. There wasn t a nick or a scratch. No dent. No blood. No missing tire
jack. Nothing. They went over it with a magnifying glass, but they missed this.
Goddamn it, unless you really did put that corpse in your yard, someone is setting you
up.
They re not doing a good job if they hid evidence after the police came. Adam
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offered. I snapped around to look at him and he said, What?
I was going to say that.
Tony sighed and shook his head. He s right. Now I really do have to call this in.
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L.B. Gregg
Chapter Seven
They took my precious Jag. Tony, tight-lipped with disgust, drove us to the house
while I sweated and battled vertigo in the back seat of his Explorer. Smooth.
Fuck off or I ll puke on your floor. I closed my eyes and lay against the headrest.
All things considered, this trip was still progress, although my dick was stuck to my
underwear.
Adam was sweating worse than I and brooding. He was stiff in Tony s presence,
quiet and subdued. After his astute comment regarding evidence, he didn t once look at
Gervase again, just stared out the window. I realized he was like this with everyone
except me that was troublesome. The only thing he d said on the four-mile drive back
was, This isn t a violation of my probation.
Which I guess was to make me feel better.
You re fine. I swallowed bile.
We returned and with a wave Adam dashed to his Ford he was late for something
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with his brothers. This entire experience had pushed him beyond the limits of his
extremely small comfort zone. And like so many people in my life today, he couldn t
leave fast enough.
That was hours ago. I had since showered and now sat in my lonely home theatre
watching Blazing Saddles.
Doo-dah.
Lily Von Shtupp sang while I tried to imagine who would plant Geoff s wallet in
my Jag. I really didn t have anything better to do but match a suspect to the crime it
was late and I was alone again.
All roads should point to someone in this house namely: John. It wasn t him.
He d scrammed before the police ever searched the garage, and while I couldn t
imagine John killing anyone, I could well imagine someone taking a shovel to the back
of his head. He had that effect on people.
Porter had disappeared early he hadn t been on the grounds all day. Adam...had
been here for two days. He tidied the garage after the police left. He d cleaned the car
after John arrived. He d come and gone. He d had easy, full access to the carriage
house, my car, the grounds...he could have put the wallet there& .
I paused, glaring at Madeline Kahn s corseted bust as if it was her fault I was
heading down the wrong track.
It was not Adam.
He had no prior knowledge of Davis, or Paige, or even me as anyone other than
some rich guy on South Street until he d seen that monument to my monumental ego
lining the front hall. He just had a knack for finding hidden things.
The phone rang at ten forty-five. I turned down the TV and looked at the display
Blocked Caller ID. It was a gamble but I answered anyway because my irritation with
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Porter was growing.
Hello?
Holden. Tony grumbled into the phone.
Now what? Do you ever stop working?
I m off in fifteen minutes and I m off tomorrow. I don t want to see you, hear from
you, or know about you.
Done, and likewise I m sure.
I have Adam again. We re at Bacchi s. He s not in trouble yet, but if he doesn t
leave, I might have to take him in. Which is a real problem. When I asked for a name to
call, naturally, he gave me yours.
Naturally. What in the hell? I d seen his taillights leaving the driveway at eight. I
stopped thinking for a moment and let Tony s words sink in. Adam had given my name.
Why? My first instinct was jaundiced what did he need from me? I set that aside.
Right. You& want me to& What? What could I do for him? I d drive over, but
you impounded my car.
You have another one. Quit bitching. I ll bring him to your place, which I m not
supposed to do. He needs a cab.
There s not a cab for fifty miles.
He can spend the night in the E.R. or in a holding cell or on your couch. He doesn t
have the money for a hotel, he doesn t want to upset his mother and I don t blame him.
I don t want to bring him in. There s been a dispute.
Dispute? Between whom? I don t think Adam fights. Did I know that for sure?
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