Jay Giles Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Good morning,” Rosemary said as I closed the door behind me. She looked at me, made a face. “Are you all right? You don’t look so good.”
          From the kitchen, I heard Eddie lapping water from his bowl.
          I stopped, perched on the arm of the lobby sofa. “I didn’t sleep well. I had dreams last night. When I talked to Dr. Swarthmore this morning, she wasn’t very sympathetic. She chided me for not being Don Juan.”
          “She didn’t.”
          “She wanted to know if I was seeing anybody. When I said I wasn’t, she said I wasn’t trying.”
          “Rebecca is coming over. Dan and I think the two of you would hit if off.” This was a recurring conversation. Rosemary and her husband, Dan, wanted to fix me up with Rebecca, Rosemary’s sister. I’d seen pictures of Rebecca. She and Rosemary could have been twins. Same round face, blue eyes, button nose. The difference was Rosemary was blond, her sister redheaded. Fortunately or unfortunately, Rebecca still lived in England.
          “Maybe,” I said vaguely. “The other thing that’s troubling me is Joe. I just met with this investigator Julian wanted me to hire. What if she finds out Joe’s new wife killed him? What do we do then?”
          The phone rang. Rosemary shrugged, reached for the receiver. “Seattle on Stocks.”
          Eddie ambled into the lobby from the kitchen, looked at me, yawned, and headed for my office. I followed. Enough worrying. Time to get to work.
          I’d just settled behind my desk when Rosemary buzzed. “Mr. Ballack on one.” The start of a busy day. Oil prices had spooked the market. The Dow dropped two hundred points. I made a few buys for clients who saw this as an opportunity and grabbed a quick burger for lunch, but most of my day was spent reassuring my equities clients the drop was an aberration. By six-thirty, the calls had trickled to a stop. I turned off my computer, stood, stretched.
          Eddie was asleep in his spot at the side of my desk. “Wake up, fella, let’s go get something to eat.” He roused himself, stood, stretched. Made me laugh. It was almost as if he were mimicking me.
          We had dinner at a little place by New Pass Bridge called the Salty Dog. The manager kept Eddie’s favorite dog food and a dog-food bowl on hand. We were regulars. I had the Grouper. You know what Eddie had.
          After dinner we went for a walk on the nature trail, I changed clothes at the condo, and we headed to the exercise room. I did an hour running on the treadmill, an hour on the weights. That was enough. We went home and crashed.
          That night, I slept well. No dreams. Had I known what was about to happen, I wouldn’t have slept at all.

Chapter 6

    The call came at work the next afternoon. Rosemary buzzed me. “There’s a Tony Wright on two.”
          I picked up. “Hello, Tory.”
          She didn’t bother greeting me. “I’ve learned some things. We need to meet immediately.”
          “What did you—”
          “Not over the phone. I can be at your office in thirty to forty minutes. Will you be there?”
          “I’ll be here,” I said to myself. She’d already hung up.
          I stood, went out to the lobby. “That was Tory Wright. Not Tony. She’ll be here in half an hour or so. When she arrives, would you show her back, please.”
          “Surely. My hearing must be going; you’d think Tory would be a word I’d understand.”
          “I only mention it because, as you’ll discover, she’s got a bit of an attitude.”
          She arched an eyebrow.
          I nodded and went back to my office.
          Not forty minutes later. Not thirty minutes later. Maybe not even twenty minutes later, I heard the door open. So did Eddie. His ears perked up, and his head turned toward the door. Suddenly, he trotted out to the lobby.
          “You must be Ms.