Dead Broke (Lana Denae Mystery Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sweden. His stay there was brief—about a month—he moved on to Greece, then eventually to Paris, where he now lives. I checked his passport and, barring some sort of travel game of hide and seek, he hasn’t been out of the France since his arrival three months ago.” Finishing the summary, Ray handed the paper to Lana. “I also found a phone number—it’s there on the top—in case you wanted to get in touch with him.”
    Looking over the report, Lana noticed there was a lot more information than he’d given her in the short synopsis. As usual, Ray had done a remarkably thorough job. She told him so.
    “Just doing my job,” Ray insisted modestly.
    Behind her, Lana heard someone come into the room and, assuming it was Jamie and Damien, she quickly tried to stuff the profile sheet into her pocket.
    She wasn’t fast enough.
    “I thought you said you didn’t have any leads yet,” Jamie said.
    “Actually, what I said was, it wasn’t going the best,” Lana said. “And no, I don’t have any real leads—just a person I’d like to talk to, if only to inform him of his aunt’s passing.”
    “Uhg,” Damien said. “The dreaded next-of-kin call. Better you than me,”
    Jamie looked toward Ray, “I don’t suppose you have the profiles of those bridge jumpers for us yet,” he paused, glancing pointedly in Lana’s direction. “Since we were obviously scooped by your ‘favorite’ detective.”
    Ray feigned a hurt look. “I can’t believe you doubt my abilities. I can do two things at once, you know.” Pulling a manila folder off his desk, he handed it to the detective. “And for your information, I don’t have any ‘favorite’ detectives.”
    “It’s done?” Jamie looked truly surprised.
    “Everything you asked for—right there,” Ray said. “Where they lived, where they worked, shopped, restaurants they frequented, where they did their banking—everything. Even where they grew up and a long list of friends for each, among a lot of other information.”
    “Any common ties?” Damien wanted to know.
    “Not my job to analyze the data,” Ray told him with a wave of his hand. “But, no. Nothing I could find.”
    “Other than they all lived in the same Metro area and died days apart, in the same manner, and at the same location.” Lana couldn’t resist putting in her two cents’ worth. “And I didn’t need the profiles to figure that out.”
    “Well, when you say it like that it doesn’t sound as if this was much of a coincidence, does it?” Jamie said.
    “Because it’s not,” Lana replied confidently, amused that both Jamie and Damien seemed to have dismissed the psychiatrist’s analysis as quickly as she had.
    Opening the folder, Jamie carefully laid out each of the profiles on the desk. All six of them.
    Six different people.
    Six different stories.
    The variables in the stories were abundant. The ages ranged from twenty-five to forty-nine. They each lived in different parts of the city, led completely different lives, and came from totally different backgrounds.
    And the differences didn’t stop there. Of the six, three had graduated high school, one had enrolled in a business school, and only one had attended college. Income of the jumpers varied greatly; one lived mostly on the streets, two were below average wage earners, another two were apparently well off financially, with the remaining one being considered quite wealthy. Even the ethnicity was as diverse as it could get; Asian, Mexican, Black, Russian, and two were white.
    “See?” Ray said. “Like I said, nothing in common. Aside from that dying thing,” he added, with a solicitous glance toward Lana.
    “There’ll be something,” she replied. “Just might take a while to find it.”
    Noticing the clock, Jamie began gathering up the stacks of paper. “We can go over these more tonight. Right now, we need to get down to those apartments and question the tenants before it gets too late. Mort,” he said, referring