Never Thwart a Thespian: Volume 8 (Leigh Koslow Mystery Series) Read Online Free PDF

the other direction. “So you think he was… you know?”
    “Oh yeah,” Maura said matter-of-factly. “I’d bet money he’s dead. What’s curious is why his body never turned up.”
    “Okay!” Leigh said loudly, throwing up her hands. “TMI, detective. I don’t need to hear anymore. Can we talk about something else, please? Like, say… food?”
    Maura had sunk her head back into her pillows again. She was staring at the ceiling, looking contemplative. “I asked Doomas back then if he was going to search the building, and I remember what he said. He looked right at me and said ‘For what?’ like it was a stupid question! I guess he thought the mob was so good at disposing of bodies that even bothering to look for one would be a waste of his precious time.”
    Leigh put a hand on the doorknob. “I’d better get going.”
    A frown creased Maura’s face. “He did wind up doing a search, but how thorough was he? If only I could get up and out of here, I’d go down there myself right now and—” Her gaze rested on Leigh, whose presence she seemed to have momentarily forgotten. Ever so slowly, the detective’s frown melted into a smile. “Then again, I don’t need to get up, do I?”
    Leigh didn’t care for the gleam in her friend’s eye. “Did I mention that I have to go?”
    “How much time have you spent in that building?”
    “Allison may wake up and need me.”
    “Koslow!” Maura exclaimed, sitting up. Her cheeks were suddenly rosy. “ Why did I never think of this before? All these years I’ve been cursing your sheer dumb luck, when I could have been making use of you! Why, you’re better than a damn cadaver dog!”
    Leigh’s face grew hot. “You are kidding, aren’t you?”
    Maura chuckled. “Of course, of course.”
    Leigh studied her another moment. “No, you’re not!”
    “Well, not completely,” Maura admitted, still smiling. “You have to admit, it would be terribly convenient.”
    Leigh rolled her eyes with a groan. The irritable, swearing, stomping Maura she had known and loved since her college days she knew how to deal with — but ever since the detective had heard her baby’s heartbeat, she had turned into an incurably happy camper whose peaceful, laissez-faire demeanor was curiously disturbing.
    “I’d feel a whole lot more comfortable if you’d just yell at me and tell me to stay the hell away from there,” Leigh declared.
    Maura shrugged. “No can do, Koslow. Stress is bad for the baby. But if it bothers you, just forget I said anything. Go on back with your Aunt Bess and scrape paint off the walls, redecorate, hang curtains — whatever you would otherwise do.” She smiled innocently.
    Leigh turned to leave.
    “If Marconi’s there,” Maura muttered with cheer, “I’m sure you’ll run into him.”

Chapter 3
    “Are you positive you’re up to this?” Leigh asked her daughter worriedly as the Pack scrambled out of the van.
    “I’m fine, Mom,” Allison assured, twirling her neon pink eye patch around on her finger. “My eye just feels a little scratchy, that’s all. Do I have to wear this thing? The doctor said it was ‘optional.’”
    Leigh studied her daughter tentatively. Allison had been born prematurely and was small for her age, but the image of frailty she presented was only skin deep. The child had a mind like a steel trap and the curiosity of about six cats — a most uncomfortable combination, at least for her parents. “He also said you should avoid dust,” Leigh reminded. “Which will be completely impossible in this building without it. Now, put it on, please.”
    Allison sighed, adjusted the patch over her left eye, then put her glasses back on.
    “I think it looks cool, Al,” her brother Ethan encouraged. “Makes you look dangerous, in a girly sort of way.”
    Leigh smiled at her son, who had been born just as prematurely, but was big for his age. At eleven, he was nearly as tall as Cara’s son Mathias, who was thirteen and