Obsessed (The Lizzy Gardner Series) Read Online Free PDF

would come to the realization that although life wasn’t fair and never would be, it was still worth fighting for.
    Poor Hayley. She’d been to the bowels of hell more than once and had not come away unscathed.
    If anyone could pull through, though, it was Hayley.
    Lizzy parked the car, locked the dog inside with the window cracked, and headed out. She climbed the dozen wooden steps leading to Hayley’s apartment, seeing no sign of the landlord, the young woman living in the main house, a single mother who’d inherited the tiny house from her grandparents.
    With a bag of groceries in one arm, Lizzy used her other hand to knock on the door. As she waited, she took note of the abandoned playground across the street, the kind of deserted wasteland you might see in a movie after a nuclear explosion. Bolted to the ground in the middle of an old sandpit was a metal seesaw, all rust and sharp edges.
    The door opened to Hayley’s back—she was already on her way back inside, leaving Lizzy to find her own way.
    “Hey, there,” Lizzy called to her when she spotted her in the bedroom as she headed on for the main room.
    “Hey.”
    The place was dark. With her free hand, Lizzy pushed smoky curtains to the side and opened a window so she could breathe and also let in some light. Hayley came into the main room and took a seat on the small crushed-velvet couch. The skirt at the base of the sofa was torn and stained. An old wooden chest served as the coffee table and was covered with a laptop, an ashtray filled to the brim, and a stack of papers.
    Lizzy put the groceries on the kitchen counter and opened the refrigerator. It was empty. She glanced at Hayley again, took in the sunken cheekbones and dark circles under her eyes. With a sigh, she deposited a gallon of milk, a jar of pickles, sliced turkey from the deli, a loaf of wheat bread, and a family-sized package of string cheese inside before shutting the door. She left a box of Honey Nut Cheerios on the counter. She checked the cupboards and saw that most of the cans of soup she’d brought last time had been eaten, at least.
    Lizzy turned to the sink that was half-filled with dirty dishes.
    “Leave those.”
    “OK. I don’t have much time anyhow. There’s an injured dog in my car, and, well, I just wanted to bring by a couple of new cases I was hoping you could help me with. I’m up to my neck in work.”
    “Injured dog?”
    “Yeah, a hit-and-run only a mile from here. A businessman, obviously in a hurry.”
    “Fucker.”
    Lizzy nodded in agreement.
    “What kind of car?”
    “A red sports car,” Lizzy said. “Sleek. Fast.”
    Silence followed. Lizzy didn’t mind. She knew the drill. Hayley had already said more this morning than she had in the past few months put together.
    Lizzy grabbed a spindly chair and placed it on the other side of the wooden chest so she was facing Hayley after she took a seat.
    “Is the dog dying out there?” Hayley asked.
    “No. He’ll be fine. This will only take a few minutes. After I leave, I’ll find an animal hospital where someone can take a look at him and make sure nothing’s broken.”
    Hayley’s fingers tapped away at the keyboard and then she peered at the screen. “The closest vet is less than a mile from here. If you’re sure the dog isn’t in too much pain, you’re probably better off taking him to the Animal Station on L Street, close to the office.”
    Nodding, Lizzy felt hopeful. Not only was Hayley talking about something other than work, she was showing compassion. And that gave her an idea. “After the dog gets checked out, and if I can’t find his owner, maybe you would be interested—”
    “Nope. Not interested.”
    Lizzy sighed. A dog—any animal, for that matter—could do Hayley a world of good, but she let it go for now and opened one of the files she’d brought instead. “So, do you think you can handle a few more cases?”
    “What do you have?”
    “We need to locate a deadbeat dad named Owen