Double Cross Read Online Free PDF

couch. If she had had a more upbeat personality, she would have been a great match for Michael Harrison. They could have had a riot comparing electronic calendars over dry Chardonnay.
    In the corner to the left of the fireplace, next to one of the huge windows that looked out over the deck, was a white pine secretary with a computer monitor and docking station for a laptop. In the center of the table lay what looked like a sheet of computer paper, with a pen resting on top of it.
    I set my purse on the couch and walked over to the table. Part of the typed sheet of paper had been scored and torn off precisely along a straight edge. I bent over to read it.
    By the time anyone reads this, I will be gone. I know that everyone will be disappointed in me. That’s nothing unusual. People have looked down on me my whole life. Never mind, that’s not the point. I didn’t set out to do something bad. I know that in my heart.
    Mom, I love you. Please don’t agonize over this. I think you’ll understand why I had to go this way. Please remember that all my life I’ve done things the way you taught me. Until now.
    Kacey, despite what you will probably think, I loved your father very much and would never have done anything to hurt him. I want you to know that the bad part of what I did came right at the end, after his death.
    The paper was torn after that. There was no signature.
    I motioned to Kacey. “She left a note.”
    She put a hand on the corner of the desk and read while I checked the wastebasket on the floor for the missing half of the page. The trash can was as clean as the rest of the room. On the tile beneath the desk was a printer, but there was nothing in it but blank computer paper. I opened the single desk drawer, which contained only yellow Post-Its, paper clips, and a mechanical pencil, arranged precisely in a built-in tray.
    Kacey lifted her hand from the desk. “It’s so awful.”
    “I guess she couldn’t handle the thought of jail time.”
    The door that led to the garage opened and closed. A moment later Sandra walked into the room.
    She crossed her arms. “What are y’all doin’ in here?”
    Kacey rubbed her hands together. “It was cold out there.”
    “We didn’t dress for being outside in the wind.” I crossed my arms and shivered.
    Sandra’s expression softened. “I suppose you two got more than you expected on this trip to Lewisville. I’m sorry about your friend out there.”
    “Thanks,” Kacey said. “We weren’t really such good friends, though. I think that Elise didn’t have a lot of good friends. That makes it even sadder.”
    Sandra stuck her hands in the back pockets of her dark blue pants. “Yeah. Look, you may as well make yourselves comfortable in here. Ed should be ready to talk to you in a few minutes. Let me just prepare you. He can be kind of intense, but he’s an okay guy. Just go with the flow and you should be out of here in an hour or so.”
    “We found a suicide note,” I said.
    “Where is it?”
    I pointed toward the desk.
    She walked over to the note. “Is this where you found it?”
    “We haven’t touched it,” I said. Kacey nodded.
    “Who tore it off?”
    “I don’t know. That’s the way it was when we found it.”
    “Did you look for the rest of it?” She bent over and looked in the wastebasket.
    “It’s not in there. We already checked.”
    When she finished reading the note, she shook her head. “Her poor mother. I’ll be right back.” She walked out to the garage.
    I turned to Kacey and touched the lump in my pocket where I had put Elise’s flash drive. “I found something in Elise’s car.”
    Her eyebrows narrowed. “What do you mean you found something?”
    I pulled the flash drive out of my pocket and held it up.
    “Where’d you get that?”
    “It was on Elise’s key chain in her car. I thought it might have some computer files that could have something to do with the missing money.”
    “Isn’t that tampering with