Life of Secrets Read Online Free PDF

Some
simply considered them private investigators. When one candidate wanted to know
what his opponent's next ad would say, he hired people like Chambers. When a
party wanted proof that their opponent had cheated on his wife, Alyssa or
someone like her got the call.
    Obviously, it was
a risky business, and the people who worked in it eventually either became
paranoid or got out of the business. Or died. Sometimes two of the three.
Sometimes all of the above. Alyssa had only done the first.
    Quite simply,
she trusted no one. Even the people she worked with were considered potential
threats. In some ways, especially them. For that reason, she only hired people
with a shady background. Everyone she worked with had at least one secret he
didn't want the police or his family to discover, and it was always a secret
Alyssa knew. That way, if any of them ever turned against her, she had
something to hold over their heads.
    Another part of
being paranoid was always being prepared for emergencies. In a safe deposit box
she had a million dollars in cash, several sets of falsified driver's licenses,
passports, credit cards, and documentation of every campaign or organization
that had ever hired her. The last item was for blackmail purposes, if she ever
needed it.
    Alyssa finagled
a parking place, made her way to the harbor through the light morning crowd,
and took a seat on a bench. She unfolded a newspaper she'd brought from home
and to all appearances began to read. But in reality, her eyes never did more
than scan the headlines; most of the time they were scanning the street,
looking for Gunter or for a sign that she was being followed.
    The crowd was
nothing compared to what it would be at lunchtime or during the evening, but
there were enough people that a tail could have hidden among them. Chambers
harbored no illusions about her chances if she were followed.
    Federal agents
were experts at surveillance. If they set out to follow her, she would be hard
pressed to lose them without help and would most likely never know they were
there. Her hope was that the investigation hadn't progressed far enough to make
her a suspect yet. However, even if that were true, that state of affairs
wouldn't last long.
    If there were
any FBI agents about, she never caught sight of them, but she did see Gunter
Hauptmann cautiously approaching her position. She spotted him across the
courtyard, trying to watch her without being obvious. His eyes scanned across
the crowd much as hers did, searching just as futilely for whoever might be
watching. When he realized Chambers had noticed him, he came carefully over.
    Easing his tall
frame down onto the bench, Hauptmann said, barely above a whisper, "I want
to know what’s going on."
    "So do I,
Gunter, so do I."
    "Explain
why I should believe that. It looks for all the world like you went in there
and killed West without telling me last night."
    "Gunter,
that's why you should believe me. You know me better than that. If I were going
to assassinate someone, would you still be alive to be a witness?"
    "Maybe. If
you wanted someone else to set up as a suspect."
    "I'd make
sure he didn't know who the real killer was. You know it."
    Hauptmann
nodded.
    "OK, for
now, it's just easier to believe you but don't think I'm firmly convinced. So
what did happen, then? Rich West and a third person were in there at the same
time as you, and the third person killed him?"
    "There
were two other people in there. At least two."
    Gunter asked,
"Can you ID either of them?"
    "No,"
Chambers replied. "My Intel said no one else would be in there, so I
didn’t study any ID files."
    She sat still
for a long moment. Finally she said, "I need to talk to the guy who hired
me."
    "If he'll
talk to you at all," Gunter replied. "From where I sit, either he set
you up on the timing of that run, or he's convinced you did it. Either way, he's
not likely to talk to you."
    Gunter would
never have asked and she would never have told him, but Tom