Barbara Silkstone - Wendy Darlin 01 - Wendy and the Lost Boys Read Online Free PDF

what Marni just said and rang her cell phone a dozen times. I looked up her emergency contact numbers and called her mother. She had seen the headlines, but knew even less than I did. “Help my daughter,” she sobbed.
    I tried every number, every connection I had. Nothing. Hook had disappeared. The Internet blinked little boxes of bad news: Billions in Bilked Bucks Disappear Overnight. Charles Hook Vanishes. Suspected of largest Ponzi scheme in history.
    ***
    It had been three months since Hook’s vanishing act. Time flies when you’re struggling to pay bills on a commission-only income in a soft real estate market. I was working twenty hours a day and didn’t have time to worry about Marni, but I did every time I heard Hook’s name.
    Hook was a regular on the Internet news services. Former friends and co-workers were having a ball quoting his selfish one-liners. His swindle was estimated to have pulled in hundreds of billions of dollars. Everyone interviewed claimed to have sensed something was crooked about him from the beginning. The Hindsight Club was working overtime.
    Yahoo carried a story on Hook’s possible connection to a series of thefts of rare artwork and antiquities. Rare Egyptian Antiquities Missing the headline read. Ponzi king Charles Hook is believed to be behind a series of thefts spanning a period of ten years.
    My thoughts slipped back to his antiquities room in the Hampton mansion and maybe on the Predator. Where there’s rumor there can be facts, in this case artifacts.
    My phone rang. It was Marni calling from the yacht.
    “Where are you? I can get you help. Just tell me where the Predator is,” I said.
    “If I knew, I couldn’t tell you. They might put Hook in jail. There are people who want him dead. I love him.”
    “You did nothing wrong. Let me tell someone. They’ll rescue you.”
    “I don’t need saving I just need… a friend. Girl talk. What are people saying about me? Have you heard from my mother?”
    There were a dozen similar calls in the next six weeks. I really didn’t want to stay in touch with her. She had made her own bed, but I felt guilty about putting her and Hook together… And she sounded so lonely. Our conversations were rushed as though the connection would be broken at any second. With each call her voice sounded more depressed.
    “How’s the office?”
    “Everyone’s fine. They send their love. How can I help you? Tell me.”
    “Just do what I asked you before. Take care of Hook if something happens to me.” She clicked off.

Chapter Seven
    I was thinking about Marni’s last words and wondering if she was in true danger, having a premonition, or just being her usual melodramatic self when I heard the doorbell.
    My eye to the peephole, I saw a guy who looked like Johnny Depp dressed in a cheesy brown suit. I opened the door a crack but kept my finger on the alarm panic button.
    “Wendy Darlin, I’m Special Agent Roger Jolley with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I’d like a few minutes of your time.”
    Securities? This had to be Croc related. Marni crossed my mind. Or maybe Hook related.
    Agent Jolley showed me his credentials, and I let him into my house and my world.
    “Show me your gun,” I said.
    “We don’t use weapons. We outsmart the crooks.”
    I wasn’t impressed. “No gun?”
    “I’m the James Bond of bonds, and I’m investigating Marni Kimble Hook for her part in a major swindling operation with her notorious husband Charles Hook.”
    “What does that have to do with me?”
    “I think you’re aiding and abetting them.”
    My blood pressure shot through my blond roots. “Look, Mr. Bond-”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Jolley, Roger Jolley.”
    “Whatever… I rarely lose my temper, but you’re out of line. I’m a chronic do-gooder. I never do bad.”
    “You haven’t offered me a seat.”
    “Offer you a seat? I’m about to throw you out on your ear!”
    He walked over to the couch and plonked his butt down then