Murder in Nice Read Online Free PDF Page A

aged twenty years
since Maggie had seen her last. She wasn’t sure part of that hadn’t
happened just since she picked her up at the airport today. After
her unsuccessful attempt at napping, Annie had agreed to go out
with Maggie to talk about what the new information meant.
    “ You think Lanie was
murdered.”
    “ It’s the only obvious
explanation as to why her case is being handled by a homicide
detective,” Maggie admitted. “You haven’t talked to anyone about
how she died?”
    Annie looked around the street helplessly,
as if expecting to find someone to answer the question for her. She
looked at her hands in her lap. “No. I heard all that mattered. I
came.”
    “ I understand,” Maggie
said. “Of course. But now that you know it was not an accident…”
She waited until she thought Annie could handle the rest of her
sentence before proceeding. “You’ll want to talk to Inspecteur
Massar about what he knows.”
    “ Of course. Although…”
Annie looked up and squinted in the direction of the Mediterranean.
“It won’t bring her back.”
    “ No,” Maggie said slowly.
“That’s true.”
    “ Will you go with
me?”
    “ Of course.”
    “ Will you call him for me
and ask him to see me?”
    “ First thing
tomorrow.”
    “ Will it make a difference
in my being able to…take her home, do you know?”
    Maggie leaned across the table and took
Annie’s hand and squeezed it.
    “ Let’s take it one step at
a time, Annie. Okay?”
    Annie nodded bravely, her eyes straying once
more to the impossibly beautiful, intensely blue sea that seemed to
fill the horizon.
    That night, Maggie was relieved to see that
Annie was exhausted enough to finally sleep. Once she was sure
Annie was asleep, Maggie slipped into the hallway of the hotel.
She’d gotten Ben’s room number from the concierge when she’d
checked in. His room faced the front of the hotel, one flight
up.
    Maggie took the elevator and quickly found
his room. She knocked and heard all conversation in the room cease
when she did. Light footsteps moved to the door and it opened just
a crack. Maggie recognized her sister-in-law, Haley, peering out at
her.
    “ Maggie!” The door jerked
fully open and Haley stepped into the hall, her arms instantly
around Maggie. “We wondered if we’d see you tonight. Come in, come
in.”
    Her brother’s wife was a statuesque blonde.
Even at thirty-six, Maggie still saw the bouncy cheerleader in
Haley. The athletic thighs that had bounded to the tops of human
pyramids now regularly lunged across the clay courts of Atlanta’s
ALTA tennis tournaments.
    “ Hey, Haley,” Maggie said.
“I just wanted to touch base with you. I haven’t had a chance
before now.”
    Over Haley’s shoulder, Maggie saw her
brother lounging on the couch in the inner room. He didn’t bother
getting up or removing his legs from the coffee table. She saw an
open wine bottle on the table.
    “ How is Lanie’s mother?”
Haley asked, her hand still on Maggie’s arm. “She must be
devastated.”
    “ She is, yeah. She finally
went to sleep.” Maggie stepped into the living area of the room and
her brother lifted a glass to her as she entered. She wondered for
a moment if he might be drunk.
    “ Bonsoir , little sis,” Ben said. “Welcome to Nice. The shittiest city
in paradise.”
    “ Don’t listen to him,”
Haley said. “We’re all just so shaken up about this.”
    “ Did you know she was
murdered?” Maggie said to her brother. She hadn’t seen him in over
two years and was surprised to see that he’d aged. In her mind, he
always remained the same: tall, athletic, thick brown hair and
riveting blue eyes. Handsome, of course. All the Newberry men were
good-looking in that bland, Anglo-Saxon way. Now that she really
looked at Ben, his mouth seemed to have taken on a permanent twist
to it. Like a sneer that just stayed.
    “ Who said it was murder?”
Ben said, slurring his words and putting to rest any doubt Maggie
had about his