Next to Die Read Online Free PDF

other end.
    “Hello,” Lia said again, and the tension in her face let Penny know, instantly, that this was another prank call, like those that had chased Ophelia from her apartment.
    “Go to hell,” said Lia hotly before slamming the receiver down. She wrung her hands. “It’s Eric again,” she confessed.
    Consternation made Penny’s stomach cramp. “Just take the phone off the hook,” she advised. “He can’t bother us if we don’t answer.”
    “True.” Ophelia jammed the receiver between the couch cushions.
    If only it were equally easy to bury their concern that Eric would interfere before they handed their evidence over to the FBI. “Be careful tomorrow,” Penny added. She didn’t want to alarm Ophelia further, but it paid to be cautious. “And call me at the hospital as soon as you get back,” she added. “I want to know what the FBI’s going to do for us.”
    Surely the authorities would have something to say about Eric stealing and selling a deadly toxin.
    “I will,” Ophelia promised. “Good night, Pen.”
    “’Night.” Penny checked the doors before going to bed. She settled into her wide and cozy bed, but a nagging sense of danger kept her from falling asleep. She remained awake, even after her sister had retired to the guest room across the hall.
    The lights shining from the neighbor’s house, a mere twenty feet from hers, brightened Penny’s bathroom, yet she couldn’t bring herself to get up and shut the door.
    Mighty Joe was home. He was safe. The world was still rich for his presence. But something awful had happened to him. She could
feel
it.
    What if she came right out and asked him? He’d probably guess that she was smitten with him. What woman with a view of his hot tub wouldn’t be? He was ruggedly beautiful, from the top of his golden-brown head to his tan calves. The scar on his face couldn’t touch that. He carried himself with so much self-assurance that it was hard to believe there was anything he couldn’t do. A man like that wouldn’t appreciate her gushing concern.
    Yet something deeper than a polite hello had passed between them today. Or was that just wishful thinking? He’d looked at her with those deep-set, army-green eyes, and she’d sensed that for the first time ever, he’d taken note of who she was.
    It wasn’t exactly the start of a beautiful friendship, but it was something. With a sigh, Penny closed her eyes, dreaming of getting to know her neighbor better.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Lia found the dark brick facade at the FBI Headquarters in Norfolk as intimidating as she’d imagined. Perhaps it was the fact that it was enclosed by cement barriers and monitored by myriad security devices. The guards weren’t content to X-ray her enormous purse, either. They pawed through it, seizing both her sister’s cell phone and her own can of pepper spray. Her embroidered jeans and coral-colored mesh sweater met with frowning disapproval.
    In an environment that epitomized the rules and regulations she regularly flouted, Lia felt like a fish out of water. She nearly fled the building in defiant terror, except that the special agent who came to fetch her from the waiting room was scarcely older than she, with flame-red hair and a ready smile. She wore a honey-colored pantsuit that appealed to Lia’s sense of style.
    “Hi, I’m Special Agent Lindstrom,” said the woman, offering a handshake. “You can call me Hannah.”
    “Ophelia Price,” said Lia, standing up. The other woman had to be six feet tall; she made Lia feel diminutive. “I’m here for my sister, Penelope.” At the woman’s raised eyebrows, she added, “We were named after our grandmothers.”
    “Aha,” said the agent. “Well, why don’t you follow me?”
    She escorted Lia from the reception area, down a hall, to a private room barely larger than a closet. “This is where we do our interviews,” she explained, slipping behind a desk and motioning for Lia sit in one of the