Drop Dead Gorgeous Read Online Free PDF Page B

she doesn’t mind,” Tina said sweetly.
    “But, Tina, you told me you had lots of homework and a million things to do after dinner tonight—”
    “I think I’ll be okay if I stay out a little later,” Tina said, flushing slightly.
    Lori quickly lowered her head, hiding her smile. Tina had been afraid that Brendan Corcoran might be a weird kid, or a dork, and naturally—at her mother’s insistence—she had agreed to come and welcome him and be polite. Then she had discovered that he was cute and charming.
    “I’ll be happy to get her home, and we won’t be late,” Lori assured Jan. “Look at everything you’ve done for me.”
    “I sold you a house.”
    “And sat around for furniture to be delivered and cable installed and all kinds of hideously mundane things!” Lori reminded her.
    “All right, then. Ciao, guys!” Jan said, and breezed on out.
    The food was delicious, the service was superb, but by the time they had finished eating, Lori had acquired a pounding headache. Tina was telling Brendan about the various shops in the two malls and about some of the different places down Main Street and off into the side roads.
    “Hey,” she protested, “I know you two would probably like to walk around a bit, and I’m sorry, but honestly, I’m really exhausted.”
    “Can I just run into the big bookstore at the Mayfair?” Brendan asked, hazel eyes anxiously on hers. “Tina says that Michael Shayne was down here, and he left autographed copies of his latest at the store.”
    “We can come back—”
    “They won’t last,” Brendan said, staring at her.
    She sighed. She was vaguely familiar with the name. She loved to read when she had the time, though Michael Shayne was a little on the gruesome side for her. Still, she was glad that Brendan liked to read so much, and she always encouraged his interest in books. “All right. Go on down and—”
    “There’s a coffee bar in the bookstore. Maybe we could have ten minutes and you could meet us there?” Tina asked hopefully.
    She smiled. It was a Monday night, a school night—for other kids, even if Brendan wasn’t starting right away. There probably wouldn’t be too many kids hanging around now, but she sensed that maybe Tina knew a few of her friends might be in the area seeing movies, shopping—or hanging out at the hamburger joint on Main Street. “You can have fifteen minutes, how’s that? But really, Brendan—”
    “Fifteen minutes. We’ll be ready,” Brendan promised.
    The kids left. Lori discovered that Jan had paid the bill before taking off, so she thanked the staff and left. Threading her way through the surprisingly crowded streets, she headed toward the Mayfair and the bookstore. The mall was big, encompassing a hotel and dozens of shops with a courtyard between split sections of the edifice. The restaurant had been closer to Cocowalk, a second mall in the area. The night was nice, though, and walking along, she realized the scope of the place. Greater Miami, encompassing all the little municipalities, was big and densely populated. Somewhere around three million people. Constantly changing and growing. She hadn’t seen a soul or a single thing she actually recognized. She’d come home, but home was different. She could relax.
    Yeah, home was different. Eleanor had been murdered.
    Suddenly, as she walked, the street and shop lights around her went out. She heard shouts, cars crashing into fender benders, alarms ringing.
    An area blackout, don’t panic! common sense told her. She heard a policeman curs ing, and auxiliary lights began blinking on here and there.
    Yet she suddenly felt a sense of alarm. Brendan. If anything happened to Brendan, she would die. She began to run.
    In the shadows cast by a pale moon, she turned into the courtyard area of the mall, jogging swiftly up a few steps just in time to plow into another human being coming from the opposite direction. Their impact was such that she staggered back, nearly falling.