Most Wanted Read Online Free PDF

check out that building across the street.
     
6
     
    MAYA SAT IN HER BOUNCY SEAT WITH HER FAVORITE stuffed bear tucked in beside her, watching Melanie try on and reject garment after garment. This happened sometimes when Melanie was really exhausted. She just couldn’t figure out what to wear to work, and it was never a good sign for the rest of the day. At least Maya seemed happy. Normally she fussed in that seat, much preferring the freedom of lolling on her back on a blanket, kicking her pudgy legs.
    “
Qué chica buena
, sitting so nice for Mommy,” Melanie cooed.
    Maya gave a drooly smile, her dark eyes shining like two little coals, and grabbed her bear with her plump hands. She managed to get its ear up to her mouth. Melanie couldn’t help smiling despite her bleak mood.
    “You’re getting awful good at that,
nena
,” she said. “Teddy’s ears are in big trouble.” She knelt down and hid her face momentarily in her daughter’s neck, drinking in her milky fragrance. If only she could stay here forever and forget everything—her husband, her job. Call in sick and snuggle under the covers with Maya. But how could she? The minutes were ticking away. With her marriage in trouble, she couldn’t afford to screw up at work. She pulled on a skirt and blouse that vaguely matched and quickly applied some lipstick. She’d do her eyes in the taxi. She was late already, and she had to face Bernadette this morning about the Benson case. That, she suspected, was the real reason for her trouble getting dressed.
    It wasn’t only Melanie. Everybody in the office was afraid of Bernadette. She was one of those bosses who gloried in persecuting their unfortunate underlings. She was obviously an unhappy person, but knowing that didn’t make her any easier to deal with. Melanie was pretty unhappy herself these days, but she still treated people decently. Bernadette, on the other hand—one minute she was sweet as candy, but the next she was blasting you till it hurt. You had to respect her, though, because she was good at her job. Every once in a while, Melanie would set herself the challenge of figuring Bernadette out, getting along with her, even winning her friendship. It worked for a while. Bernadette would reward her with praise or a juicy assignment, and Melanie would be thrilled. Bernadette was her mentor, her role model—for a day or a week. It never lasted. Bernadette turned on her, every time. If Melanie’s work was less than perfect, she wasn’t worthy. If it was perfect, she was a threat and needed to be put in her place. Either way Melanie lost.
    Dressed at last. She was about to pick up Maya and head for the door when a glimmer on the dresser top caught her eye. Her wedding and engagement rings.
Damn it
! She’d been doing okay, but this knocked the wind out of her. Unable to stop herself, she walked over to the dresser and picked them up, feeling their weight, letting them sparkle on her palm. She’d forgotten she wasn’t wearing them. It was three weeks now since she’d told Steve to get out, but last night was the first time she’d taken them off. In her heart she and Steve were still married. Not just in her heart. Legally, they were still married, and Steve was begging her not to do anything to change that.
    It was sometime after 3:00 A.M. when she took the rings off. She’d come home and crawled into bed after the Benson crime scene, positively wrecked, and the visions started pouring into her head. Not what you’d think. Not Jed Benson’s corpse, but her own personal horror show, the one that played constantly now. One scene in particular made her rip the rings off. That cocktail party at Steve’s firm six months ago, right before Maya was born. She hadn’t found out for sure until five months later, but that was when she first suspected something was going on. She remembered the sensation of being
so
pregnant, her feet swollen, feeling like a cow in her maternity formal. And how that slut in