Lust, Money & Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

chambers.
    She put the gun in her purse, ascended the stairs, and went back out to the truck.
    It was all Ronald Eskew’s fault.
    The sleazy bastard was going to pay.
    As Elaine drove downtown, she visualized the scene. You killed my father , she would say, ramming the gun into his chest. No, under his neck. Into his Adam’s apple. She would make him beg for his own life, get down on his knees and blubber like a baby. She would make him regret the day he was born. She would make him tell her where the counterfeit money had come from. When she was satisfied that she had completely broken him, she would call the police and hold him there until they arrived.
     
    * * *
    It was just getting dark when she pulled up to the main entrance of the office building where the Rising Star Modeling Agency was located.
    She parked and got out, not bothering to lock the door.
    When she stepped into the lobby, the security guard stood up and said, “You’re not allowed to park there, miss...”
    She was already heading towards the elevator.
    “Hey, wait! You can’t just—”
    She stepped onto the elevator and pressed 3.
    “Hold it!” the guard said, but before he could get there, the doors closed.
    When the lift reached the third floor, she stepped off the elevator, her heartbeat thumping in her ears, yet sounding far, far away. She reached the agency’s front door and twisted the handle.
    It was locked. Then she noticed that the office lights weren’t on.
    Elaine frowned—it wasn’t even six o’clock yet. Where the hell were they all?
    The stairway doors burst open and the security guard trotted towards her. “What do you think you’re d—?”
    He stopped, glanced at the door, then back at Elaine. “They’re gone.”
    “What do you mean?” Elaine said.
    “Gone. Packed up their tent and moved away.”
    Elaine peered through the window into the darkened offices. All the desks were still there, the file cabinets, chairs...but there was trash scattered around on the floor.
    “They didn’t leave a forwarding address, nothing,” the guard said. “Skipped out on the last sixth months of their lease.” He looked at her sympathetically. “Did they owe you money, too?”
    Elaine was dumbfounded. They had left, they had all left! Ronald Eskew must have known that her father had been arrested.
    She turned and walked back down the corridor in a daze.
     

CHAPTER 1.4
     
    Elaine was able to stay on at the Bromley Academy.
    Ms. Prentice arranged for a full scholarship, which included room and board on campus. All the students grieved over the death of her father, and showed nothing but kindness towards Elaine.
    She buried herself in her studies, hiding herself from her pain. She could not escape the deep-seated hatred that welled inside her for Ronald Eskew, or whatever the man’s real name was. It grew inside her like a cancer.
    One day, in the 11th grade, she and her best friend, Kaitlin, were in the guidance counselor’s office, filling out their careers forms. Elaine noticed a magazine with an article titled Careers in the Secret Service . She read the part about the Anti-Counterfeiting Division.
    She decided then and there that she was going to become a Secret Service agent, and that she was going to track down Ronald Eskew and punish him for what he had done.
    The article said that to qualify for the Secret Service, you needed a college degree and that competition was fierce. It also said that if you were fluent in a foreign language and/or had some special education relevant to currency production, such as in intaglio printing, your chances of becoming an agent were much higher.
    Intaglio printing , Elaine thought. She had no idea what that was, but she had always liked art and graphic design.
    She didn’t mention her plans to Kaitlin, or to anyone else. It was her secret.
    In her senior year, Elaine applied to all the top colleges in the Northeastern U.S. that had strong graphic design departments and mentioned