Pretend You Don't See Her Read Online Free PDF

go downstairs?” she said, her voice low.
                 They
sat in the lobby for a few minutes. “I’m sure it will be all right,” she told
him. “I’ll come back and talk to her this evening. This has been a painful
experience for her, but she’ll be fine. Give me a number where I can call you
later.”
                 “I’m
staying at the Waldorf Towers, in the Keller, Roland, and Smythe company
apartment.”
                 They
stood to go. “Don’t worry. This will work out fine,” she promised. “You’ll
see.”
                 His
smile was affable, confident. “I’m sure it will,” he said. “I leave it in your
hands, Miss Farrell.”
                 He
left the apartment building and walked from Seventieth Street to the Essex
House on Central Park South, and went immediately to the public phones. “You
were right,” he said when he had reached his party. “She’s found the journal.
It’s in the leather binder the way you described it. She’s also apparently
changed her mind about selling the apartment, although the real estate woman is
going back there tonight to try to talk some sense into her.”
                 He
listened.
                 “I’ll
take care of it,” he said, and hung up. Then Sandy Savarano, the man who called
himself Curtis Caldwell, went into the bar and ordered a scotch.

  3
                 HER
FINGERS CROSSED, LACEY PHONED ISABELLE WARING at six o’clock. She was relieved
to find that the woman now was calm.
                 “Come
over, Lacey,” she said, “and we’ll talk about it. But even if it means
sacrificing the sale, I can’t leave the apartment yet. There’s something in
Heather’s journal that I think could prove to be very significant.”
                 “I’ll
be there at seven,” Lacey told her.
                 “Please.
I want to show what I’ve found to you too. You’ll see what I mean. Just let
yourself in. I’ll be upstairs in the sitting room.”
                 Rick
Parker, who was passing by Lacey’s office, saw the troubled expression on her
face and came in and sat down. “Problem?”
                 “A big one.” She told him of Isabelle Waring’s erratic
behavior and about the possibility of losing the potential sale.
                 “Can
you talk her out of changing her mind?” Rick asked quickly.
                 Lacey
saw the concern on his face, concern that she was fairly certain wasn’t for her
or for Isabelle Waring. Parker and Parker would lose a hefty commission if
Caldwell’s offer was refused, she thought. That’s what’s bothering him.
                 She
got up and reached for her jacket. The afternoon had been warm, but the
forecast was for a sharp drop in temperature that evening. “We’ll see what
happens,” she said.
                 “You’re
leaving already? I thought you said you were meeting her at seven.”
                 “I’ll
walk over there, I think. Probably stop for a cup of coffee along the way.
Marshal my arguments. See you, Rick.”
                 She
was still twenty minutes early but decided to go up anyway. Patrick, the
doorman, was busy with a delivery, but smiled when he saw her. He waved her to
the self-service elevator.
                 As
she opened the door and called Isabelle’s name, she heard the scream and the
shot. For a split second she froze, then sheer instinct made her slam the door
and step into the closet before Caldwell came rushing down the stairs and out
into the corridor, a pistol in one hand, a leather binder under his arm.
                 Afterwards
she wondered if she imagined that somewhere in her brain she heard her father’s
voice saying, “Close the door, Lacey! Lock him out!” Was it his protective
spirit that gave her the strength to force the door