I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) Read Online Free PDF Page B

right then and told her what she needed to hear—I’d find the person who ended Doug’s life, and everything was going to be all right.  But the lack of affection I’d been raised with left me with an inability to bond fully without feeling like I was being forced to sit through a long sermon in a sticky church with no air conditioning.  So instead I reached out, patted her shoulder and let her know I’d call her the moment I arrived in town.  It wasn’t much, but it was something.
    When I left the room I had the overwhelming sensation Trista was still keeping things from me.  Maybe with time, she’d open up and lead me to Doug’s killer without even knowing it.  I wondered why Tehachapi’s golden boy threw the chance of a great career away for little pay in a dead-end job.  I wondered why he chose to spend his nights in a bar getting trashed when he had a family at home that loved him and parents who were the toast of town.  Something drove him to the bottle, and I couldn’t help but feel the key to the present lied in the past.

 
    “Earth to Sloane, come in,” Maddie said.  “Over.”
    I shifted positions on the sofa and sat up.  “Sorry.  I drifted again.  I can’t stop thinking about what happened on the boat and Trista and how she’s doing.”
    “Have you heard from her?”
     I shook my head.  “Not a word.  I called her last night, but she didn’t pick up.”
    “How are you doing with all of it?”
    “I’m anxious to fly down there and see what I can do to help,” I said.
    My eyes shifted to Lord Berkeley, a.k.a. Boo, who was fast asleep on the arm of my sofa.
    “Why wait?  Go.  I’ll take Boo to my house.  It will be fine.  Take all the time you need.”
    Upon hearing his name, Boo rose from the dead, hopped off the couch and trotted to the door.  When I didn’t get up fast enough, he scratched it with his paw a few times and then gave me a look that said: Any day now.
    Maddie walked over and let him out and then back in about fifteen seconds later.  Boo did several spins in a row and then hightailed it to the pantry and waited.  Maddie bobbed her shoulders up and down and looked at me.  “He didn’t do anything.  I don’t get it?”
    “It’s the treats.”
    “What?”
    “The new Beggin’ Strips I got him,” I said.  “He thinks he can fake me out by going outside and doing nothing and still get a treat out of it.  He goes to the door about twenty times a day now.”
    She laughed.  “Time to get some new treats.”
    “No kidding.”
    Maddie bent down to give Boo a reward for the impeccable skill of going out the front door and coming back in.  Her long blond pigtails with a splash of hot pink ink on the tips swooped down in front of Boo’s face.  He lifted his front paws and swatted her hair like he was trying to catch a fly with a single chopstick. 
    “Hey, stop that!” Maddie said.  She looked my way.  “Your dog is mental.” 
    “He thinks you want to play.”
    She threw down another treat, sat back down on the couch and looked at me.  “What happened on that reunion cruise of yours amazes me.”  
    “I know, I still can’t believe one of my old friends was murdered.”
    She shook her head and smacked me on the shoulder.  “That’s not what I meant.  You tried to seduce a kid half your age.  I didn’t know you had it in you!”
    I smiled.  “There’s plenty you still don’t know about me.”
    She jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow.  “Seems that way.”
    My phone rang.
    “Who is it?” Maddie said. 
    I glanced down at the screen.  “Trista.”  I pushed the button and a frantic Trista was already shouting before I could get any words out.  “Trista, slow down,” I said.  “I can’t understand you.”
    Her words ran together like a run-on sentence.  The only thing I could make out was something about Rusty Jenkins being attacked outside Flex It, the town gym. 
    “How badly was he hurt?”
    When she replied