Outlier: One mistake can destroy everything. Read Online Free PDF

every month her credit card debt was getting bigger and bigger.
     
    How much did detectives make, anyway? Probably a lot. She knew one of the teachers and thought she remembered him telling her how much he made. Wasn’t as much as she thought. But a detective? Sean’s got to have a decent salary. She chastised herself—only slightly—for thinking like that. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, right? She’d take her time. She would be sure to call him and make sure he was OK. Try not to come on too strong.
     
    “Found it!” She pulled out all three years. Quickly flipped through the pages. Tried to see if any of the pretty girls were still around. She went through twice. Once to check which girls were still in town. It took her only a few minutes, because not many were. Some were in Houston or here in San Antonio; others were out of state. She checked the ones still in Rockport or San Antonio. Then she checked them again, to see who was married and who wasn’t. She didn’t think Sean was the type to fall for a married girl, but you never know. Something like this happens to a guy like him, and the ladies come out of the woodwork.
     
    She spent the rest of the morning scrutinizing the three yearbooks. She’d marked them on four corners of each picture. Here or gone. Married or divorced. Pretty or fat. She X’d out all of the ones who were disqualified. Only the ones that were here, single (divorced or never married), and not fat she circled. Luckily, there were only a few. She’d make a point to find out everything she could about those four bitches. Nobody was getting between her and Sean.
     
    She didn’t think Sean would go for a fatty. She stood up and checked herself in the mirror. She had learned long ago that if she kept her figure and made sure she didn’t let her boobs sag, she earned a lot more in tips. She still looked pretty good. She’d have to look better, just in case. She took off her shirt, checking her profile. Checking her ass. Yep, she could do better. A lot better.
     
    Whatever he needed, she’d find a way to help him and be there for him. It must have been fate that he had come to her bar the night before.
     
    She had a lot of work to do.

Chapter Eight
     
    Dr. Anthony Nguyen sat back in his worn leather chair, the documents spread out in front of him. None of it made any sense. Most of what Dr. Nguyen saw was simple. Gunshot wounds. Stabbings. Blunt force trauma. Once in a while something exotic like a poisoning. Nothing that took more than a couple hours to determine the cause of death. Dr. Nguyen didn’t like puzzles that weren’t made to be solved. Or anything that couldn’t be explained by science.
     
    He’d come to the United States when he was eight. He had escaped Vietnam with his mother and two sisters shortly after the fall of Saigon. His family was originally from the north and had moved to the south when the communists took control. They knew they were bad. So when the south fell, they knew they had to get out. Getting out wasn’t easy. They’d spent their life savings bribing their way onto a small fishing boat, sneaking away at night.
     
    Many families did the same, only to find that the boat had left without them or had gone to another harbor to swindle another family, desperate and willing to do anything to leave. All of their plans were the same. Find safe passage out into international waters, and then wait. If they could last long enough, not run out of food or water, and not be killed or kidnapped by pirates, they would be picked up by an American vessel. Tony, his mother, and his younger sister, then three, made it. His older sister, then 14, did not. She was the prime age to be sold into sexual slavery.
     
    When the aircraft carrier had hauled them out of the ocean, they felt a mixture of happiness and utter despair. So much lost. Life savings, their home, their family member. Tony had promised his mom he’d take care of them, somehow. Some