Of Saints and Shadows (1994) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her. Clearly, she and Janet had been there for each other when things were hard and life was more frightening than usual. And just as clearly, they had evolved to a point where they were more like sisterly coconspirators than anything else, still braving the world together. He hoped that Janet was still alive, and more than anything, he hoped Meaghan did not feel as though he’d forced her to reveal her secrets.
    Seeing her depth of emotion, her depth of character, he was even more attracted to her. “Now,” he continued, “back to business. Any men in her life?”
    Your life , he’d almost said.
    “She’s funny, charismatic, good-looking. She attracts a lot of men when she goes out, but she rarely brings them home, and she hasn’t for eight or nine months. It’s even more difficult these days to find a compatible woman, and like I said, that’s been over a year for her. We’re becoming a couple of spinsters, really.”
    “I find that very difficult to believe,” Peter said seriously.
    “She’s afraid to get involved, you know. She’s been hurt, just like everyone else, even with all her precautions. She doesn’t let anybody in except for her dad and me.”
    Peter was starting to think that Janet’s personal life might be a dead end, and it upset him. If her disappearance or, if it came to that, her death, was a random event, he might never find her.
    His eyes began to wander as Meaghan chatted happily about a couple of the guys Janet had brought home at some time or another. He glanced around the room and something caught his eye. A slim black woman’s briefcase.
    Remembering the missing briefcase at the murder scene earlier that night, he spoke on impulse. “What kind of work does Janet do at the firm?”
    “Huh?” Meaghan was confused. “At the firm? She works in corporate, same as me. We used to work for the same firm, but I couldn’t deal with the politics. Anyway, she works on organizing and dissolving corporations, on bankruptcies and stuff. Why?”
    “No reason, really. A hunch with no backup. There’s so little to go on that I’m wondering whether her disappearance has something to do with work rather than her personal life . It’s worth looking into. You say you used to work with these people?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Could you do something for me? I need to know exactly what Janet was working on before she disappeared. Maybe three or four days’ worth of stuff. Can you get me that information?”
    “Well, they’re not supposed to do that, but I think I can get what you need.”
    “Great.”
    The conversation had come to a natural conclusion, and he got up to go. He was pulling his coat on and she followed him to the door. Once there, she handed him the diary.
    “You don’t want to read it first?” he asked, quite surprised.
    “Nah. I checked the date of the first entry. There’s probably nothing juicy about me in there anyway. Well, maybe a little nostalgia, but nothing more than what I’ve already told you.”
    They looked at each other, and Peter chuckled. She had told him the whole story because it might be important, maybe because she needed to tell someone. He had feared she had told him because she didn’t want him to read it in the diary, but it wasn’t in there and she’d known it. He was glad.
    “So, if I’m going to help out, does this make me a deputy or something?” She smiled again.
    “Or something.”
    She kissed him, quickly, on the cheek. “Thanks for being one of the good guys.”
    He apologized for keeping her up so late and told her he would be by the following night at about eight. He took her hand as they said good-bye.
    “You don’t get too many friends,” he said. “We’ll find her.”
    “Thank you,” she said, but he was already halfway down the steps.
    Outside, the night was brisk and silent and comfortable to him. The smell of coming snow was even stronger in the air, along with a taste of salt from the ocean a few miles distant. Winter was