Devil's Deception Read Online Free PDF

companion.
    “Josie, this is Mr. Devlin, the private detective Harold hired to . . . take care of me. Devlin, my housekeeper and friend, Josie Clinton.”
    Devlin stepped forward to shake hands, and then excused himself, going off toward the guest room. Angela waited for Josie’s reaction, but none came. The older woman continued to baste the roast she was browning and then shut the oven door.
    “Well?” Angela prompted.
    Josie looked at her.
    “What do you think of him?”
    Josie removed the potholder she was wearing and dropped it on the counter.
    “I think he’s not exactly what your uncle Frank had in mind.”
    Josie was a woman of few words. “Yes, I know,” Angela said unhappily.
    “But he looks perfectly capable of taking care of you, himself, and the entire population of Cleveland, Ohio,” Josie added. “I have to give him that.”
    “I wonder how Harold Simmons came up with him,” Angela mused, almost to herself.
    Josie snorted. No love was lost between the housekeeper and Patria’s attorney.
    “I can’t imagine,” Josie said sourly. “The workings of that shyster’s mind are a mystery to me.”
    “How’s Maria?” Angela asked.
    Maria was Josie’s daughter. “She has the flu, but she’ll live,” Josie replied shortly. She glanced at her watch. “Dinner’s in ten minutes.” She jerked her head in the direction of the corridor. “Is he eating with you?”
    “I guess so, if he wants to,” Angela answered. “Harold said room and board would be part of the arrangement.”
    “I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow then,” Josie said. “We’ll be needing more food. With that size, he must have an appetite on him.”
    Angela looked at the floor dejectedly.
    Josie saw her expression and put a hand comfortingly on Angela’s shoulder.
    “Don’t look like that, baby,” she said. “They’ll get whoever is causing this trouble, and it will all be over soon.”
    Angela nodded and went up to her room to change.
    * * * *
    Devlin waited a week before he started to search the house. Every day he accompanied Angela during her activities, and every night he planned the most efficient method of casing her home. He’d made careful note of the floor plan when she’d shown him around, and saw that the door to her uncle’s study was locked and bolted. He’d expected nothing less, and had come prepared with a supply of burglary tools to break into the room.
    But he wanted to check out the library on the second floor first. It was down the hall from Angela’s room, and had several desks and cubbyholes where documents might be stored.
    It was two in the morning on a Thursday night when he crept up the carpeted staircase and paused outside Angela’s door. He turned the knob soundlessly, and pushed inward. A shaft of moonlight from the window revealed Angela sleeping in the bed, her hair spread upon the pillow, her hands clutching at the bedspread as if it were her security blanket. The filmy nightgown she wore revealed her creamy shoulders and the shadow of her breasts beneath the cloth. Devlin looked for long moments, drinking in the sight. Then he shut the door, leaning against the wall in the corridor, closing his eyes.
    The wave of desire passed and he swallowed, taking a breath. He would have to avoid such glimpses in the time ahead of him; they did not help to strengthen his resolve.
    He moved on to the library and entered the book- lined room, turning on the desk lamp and shutting the door. Quietly, methodically, he examined the shelves along the walls with his practiced eye. Time passed and became meaningless; he was deep into his task and unaware of the minutes slipping by.
    He was standing with a book in his hands, flipping through the pages, when the door opened behind him. The overhead light switched on, suddenly blinding him.
    “What are you doing in here?” Angela’s voice said.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    Devlin started violently, and his arm slammed into a delicate glass figurine standing