Low Country Liar Read Online Free PDF Page A

extended a hand to Lisa. "The name is Drew, as in Andrew, Rutledge—unfortunately no relation to the Charlestonian Rutledges of yore. And you are?"
    "L—"Inadvertently she almost gave him her real name and caught herself just in time. "Ann Eldridge. Mrs. Ann Eldridge."
    When Lisa had first placed her hand in his, he had seemed inclined to hold it. He released it on hearing her marital status, a faintly rueful smile curving his mouth.
    "Divorced? Widowed?" Drew Rutledge inquired with mock hopefulness.
    Lisa had to add another lie to the rest. "As of this morning when I left the house and kissed my husband goodbye, I was neither of those."
    "Isn't that just my luck?" he grinned. "The first attractive secretary we get in this place turns out to he married. Happily, I suppose?"
    "Very happily married," Lisa lied again.
    "Pity," Drew sighed mockingly, and shook his head. "I guess I'll have to retreat to the ranks of the confirmed bachelors with Slade."
    "Mr. Blackwell isn't married?" Somehow she had never assumed that he was. Now it was confirmed.
    "No. We've had a standing bet since our college days as to which of us gets married first, and we've both had our share of close calls."
    "Haven't we all?" Lisa agreed dryly, thinking of her abortive engagement to Michel, but her remark drew a curious look from Drew. She had to cover the slip quickly. "But once you meet the right person you don't want to settle for a close call."
    "So I've heard," he smiled, the curiosity leaving his hazel eyes at her reply. "Well, I suppose I'd better let you get back to work."
    "Yes." She tried not to show her relief. "I have a lot to do."
    "I'll get out of your way and let you get at it, as soon as you hand me the Talmadge file," he agreed.
    Her hope that Drew had forgotten the reason he had come in faded with his statement. She hesitated. "I really don't think I should—"
    "You guard the files more jealously than Mary Lou does," he laughed.
    Lisa seized on that comment instantly. "If that's true, then that's all the more reason for me not to give it to you." The main reason, of course, was that she wanted to look at it herself. "If it's not common practice to let the files leave this office, I shouldn't give it to you."
    "I have work to do, too, but I can't do it without the file,"he insisted patiently, amused by her reluctance.
    "Listen, I'm just a temporary," Lisa pointed out. "Maybe you should wait until after lunch when Mr. Blackwell comes back." That would give her an opportunity to look at the file's contents before she handed it over to him.
    "He's the one who sent me in here to get it," Drew replied. "He would have mentioned it to you, I'm sure, if he'd known you were going to turn into a green dragon guarding the file cabinets." His gaze flicked briefly and mockingly to the green suit she was wearing.
    There weren't any more excuses left. She had used them all. Inwardly she railed against the fates that had brought him in here for the Talmadge file and no other. Here she was with the ideal chance to do some undercover work and the object of her inquiry was being removed.
    "I promise I won't let the file out of my sight and return it the minute I'm through." Drew raised two fingers. "Scout's honor."
    "All right," Lisa agreed very grudgingly. She looked at the metal cabinets and found herself back in the same dilemma. Which drawer was it in? "Do you know where it's filed? I don't know this system." Or any system, other than the helter-skelter one in her own office in Baltimore.
    "I'll find it," Drew offered, and Lisa stepped aside. He opened the very drawer her hand had been resting on and flipped through the alphabetical index to the T's. "Here it is."
    Lisa had a fleeting glimpse of her aunt's name on the tab before he tucked it under his arm and closed the drawer. It was frustrating to know how close she had been to it and to see it being taken away.
    "Don't look so upset," Drew teased. "I'll have it back first thing tomorrow. I hope,"