Chapters (46)
- Dedication
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Chapter 30
- Chapter 31
- Chapter 32
- Chapter 33
- Chapter 34
- Chapter 35
- Chapter 36
- Chapter 37
- Chapter 38
- Chapter 39
- Chapter 40
- An excerpt from Generous Lies
- Dear Reader
- Also by Robin Patchen
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
She shrugged. "Didn't know her. Saw her one night, slipping into Charles's office."
"Huh." Nate rubbed his temples. "But Charles said she'd never set foot in the office."
Marisa shrugged. "I just assumed it was her. I guess because I'd heard her name before."
"From?"
"Leslie. She always knew the office gossip, everywhere she cleaned. I never knew how she did it."
"What did the woman you saw with Charles look like?" Garrison asked.
"Tall, pretty, and blond. She was wearing a gray suit with a bright blue shirt and carried an expensive purse. She had on... What were they called? Those really expensive, gorgeous, but sort of slutty stilettos."
"Jimmy Choo?" Nate suggested.
Garrison chuckled. "Got a pair in your closet, Nate?"
"I don't have to own them to know them," Nate said. "Unlike some of us, who buy our clothes at Walmart."
"How could you tell?" Garrison asked.
Marisa almost smiled. "They looked like Jimmy Choo's. Maybe they were knock-offs. She was sophisticated, but the shoes... At the time I remember wondering if she'd worn them all day or just slipped them on to visit Charles."
"That sounds like Jessica English, if I remember correctly." Garrison was all business again. "She was working for an advertising agency, a graphic designer."
"The woman I saw looked more like...I don't know, somebody who'd own an advertising agency."
"They say to dress the part," Nate said.
"And tall, blond, and sophisticated," Garrison said, "could describe a lot of women. We'll want to confirm it was English, because if she was at G&K's offices, that means she lied to me when I questioned her."
"And Charles lied to me," Nate said.
"Right." A horn blared through the speakers, and Garrison muttered, "Idiot driver."
"Where are you?" Nate asked.
"On my way back to Long Island. Did Anderson tell you anything else?"
"One thing I never knew. He said the money was transferred at two different times to two different accounts. Is that true?"
"It is."
"At two different times?" Marisa glanced at Nate. "Why would somebody do that?"
Garrison said, "We never could solve that mystery."
"Anderson theorized that if Marisa didn't steal the money, maybe it was stolen by two other people."
"On the same night?" Garrison said. "That's quite a coincidence."
That it was, but things had all happened fast. "I didn't steal it, but whoever did, Garrison, they knew you guys were moving in."
"We think so."
"Okay, hold on." Nate let go of Marisa's hand, pulled out his notebook, and wrote something down. "Garrison, you said back in Nutfield that you'd quit suspecting Marisa. Why was that?"
"It didn't add up. If you'd stolen the money, Marisa, why hang around? Why not steal it and run? But you hung around awhile longer."
"I was trying to figure out what to do," she said.
"Of course," Garrison said. "But if you'd stolen the money, you'd have had a plan, right?"