Exposed by Rage Read Online Free PDF Page B

girlfriend.  She another one of your porno friends or someone closer to you?”
    Poppy could have broken his neck for the insult.  I wasn’t her type. 
    “Braden, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Move your car.”
    He lost the staring contest.  Without additional conversation, he put the car in reverse and tore away.  Tough man he wasn’t.
    Poppy followed me into the back, pulling her car next to mine in the auto park between the pool and the garage.  We dragged our suitcases into the pool house and agreed a swim in the heated water before unpacking would be a great team-building exercise.
    I began laps, working out the kinks in my muscles and trying to make sense of the events over the past twenty-four hours.  Jillie dead.  There was a lawyer who loved her.  I was her heir.   Trixie and the cameras were in Texas.  Nothing but confusion swam in my brain.
    “Okay, Ashley.  Time to give it a rest.  I think that makes forty laps.  Eventually you’re going to cramp and drown.  I don’t want to do a rescue swim, I already dried my hair,” Poppy called as I shoved off the deep end wall.
    I hadn’t noticed when she’d stopped swimming along beside me.  She’s much stronger in the pool than I am, and although I wouldn’t admit it, I was beginning to feel the strain.  I stepped out of the pool and took the towel she offered, as the air hit me.  My overworked muscles took exception to the sudden chill. 
    Texas weather, one day ninety degrees the next it’s snowing.  It was only April so the nights cooled quickly when the sun disappeared behind the horizon. 
    Poppy had already changed and offered to start dinner while I took a shower.  I would have been insulted by the offer, but I hated to cook.
    “You’re friend Jillie sure had great taste,” Poppy said as she put dinner on the table.  Salmon with a pesto sauce, and side of pasta glazed with garlic, diced tomatoes and a sprinkling of olive oil, topped by freshly chopped basil.  My stomach roared in celebration for the first time since I’d arrived.
      I looked around the room.  When you came in the French doors from the pool you had a kitchen and small dining area on the left and a comfortable seating area on the right. It was simple yet elegant.  The couch and chair were plush and allowed you to sink into them.  Grey slate tiles divided the two areas, the tiles big enough to keep water from wet swimwear off the carpet in the living area.
    “It’s nice,” I said and watched Poppy’s eyes open wide in disbelief.
    “Nice.  I know you don’t have a deep desire to wear the latest fashions, but surely you know this is not just nice.  Look at the fabrics on the couch and lounge.  In a pool house.”
    “Okay.
    “Have you been in the bedrooms, Ash?  I mean just out here in this little swim cottage.  The bedding.  The sheets are Egyptian cotton.  Spread - real satin and silk that simmers like the sea. You’re friend made a major investment here.  I had no idea those clubs brought in this kind of money.  I can’t wait to get my hands on the accounts.”
    I’d never noticed.  Could money be the motive for murder?  But that didn’t make sense.  I know I didn’t kill Jillie, and according to her lawyer, I was her heir.  But maybe there were others?
    I thought about the envelope filled with keys.  There were five cars in the garage.  Three were collector T-Birds, restored to their original glory.  One was a pick-up, almost a requirement in Texas, and the last was her Lexus, the one she drove every day.  I knew a couple of the people who worked around the house, and was sure she had left something for them.  The gardener, Jose Torres, and Elspeth Bloomington, her housekeeper had been with Jillie for years.  Beverly Tyson restored the cars and maintained the fleet.  Surely they had been mentioned.  Who else?
    “You have that look on your face,” Poppy said, drawing me back to the present space I occupied.