Kiss Them Goodbye Read Online Free PDF Page A

money and anythin’ between you will look like you’re tryin’ to get above yourself.”
    Spike had come anyway, even with Homer’s “Don’t you go bringin’ another woman around if she ain’t gonna stay. Wendy don’t need that.”
    He wouldn’t do anything to hurt five-year-old Wendy, no way. But he was a man with a man’s needs and he’d been alone too long.
    Charlotte Patin had heaped fresh vegetables onto an enormous and worn cutting block in the center of the kitchen. The room was big and at the apex of the high ceiling was an old-fashioned window that could be opened with a chain on metal cogs and pulleys when the heat got too much. What looked like the original spits were still in a fireplace that had to be more than six feet wide.
    “Okay,” Charlotte said. “If you want to help, Spike, chop those.”
    He started rolling up his sleeves. “No problem. I’m an expert.”
    “Spike brought us flowers, Mama,” Vivian said, not liking the harassed expression on her mother’s face.
    Charlotte gave him a sweet smile. “Thank you. They’re lovely. We need something bright and cheerful around here.” She returned to pulling food out of the refrigerator.
    Foreboding slipped over Vivian like a cold shroud. What would make Louis turn away when he’d already gotten here? “Will you excuse me for a few minutes, please,” she said, avoiding Spike’s serious glance. “I’ll be right back.”
    She hurried from the kitchens with Boa at her heels. Where she thought she was going, she didn’t know, but she had to get somewhere and breathe outdoor air while she thought.
    On the other side of the main hall from the receiving room was a small, even more shabby sitting room with disappearing corners that made it seem rounded. Uncle Guy hadn’t been well for some years and he’d let Rose-bank go, but she and Charlotte would make it beautiful again. Vivian raised her chin. She couldn’t give up now. They’d find the money to carry on the renovations. This place was their only chance to make up for what they’d lost.
    In the sitting room she picked up the phone beside a gilt chair with an unraveling cane seat. She called directory enquiries for New Orleans and gave the name of Louis’s firm—never expecting to get a response at this time of day.
    “Legrain here.”
    She almost hung up. “This is Vivian Patin. My mother and I are clients of Louis Martin.”
    “Well yes, Ms. Patin. I know your name. I’m Louis’s associate, Gary Legrain. I believe we’ve met.”
    She didn’t remember. “Did Louis set out to visit us today?”
    A short silence. “Why, yes. He left this mornin’.”
    “He didn’t get here.”
    More silence. “That’s not possible. If something had happened, a car accident or whatever, we’d have heard.”
    “I was hoping he’d gone back to his offices,” Vivian said, the cold feeling intensifying. She hadn’t considered Louis getting in a car wreck after he turned back.
    Gary was quiet for too long before he said, “He didn’t come back,” and sounded funny.
    “Could he have gone home? Felt ill perhaps and decided to call it a day? Maybe Mrs. Martin—”
    “There isn’t a Mrs. Martin anymore. He has grown children but he lives alone—except for staff. Let me call them and get back to you.”
    “Don’t call,” Vivian said. “My mother’s a bit anxious. I’ll call you in five minutes.”
    They hung up and she waited, praying Mama wouldn’t come looking for her. Fortunately, when Mama cooked, she tended to forget everything else.
    Vivian called Gary Legrain again.
    “He isn’t there,” the man said and although he was obviously trying to sound unconcerned, she’d unsettled him. “Look, this isn’t too comfortable to talk about and the last person I should say anything to is a client but I don’t know what else to do.”
    Vivian waited.
    “Ms. Patin, recently I’ve been happy to know that Louis has a new companion in his life. Well, this is…hmm, apparently