Reilly 02 - Invasion of Privacy Read Online Free PDF

making dinner?" Matt put a beer in her hand, which she popped standing at the counter.
    "New plan," he said mysteriously. "I’ll go rustle up the kids."
    Andrea sat down at the table, pushing her red hair out of her eyes. "I’m beat. End of the week," she said. "Two new women in today." In addition to her extraordinary efforts at keeping things going at home, she managed the local women’s shelter. "To tell you the truth," she said, "I’m delighted to let Matt cope with dinner for a change. I didn’t know what he was up to until I got home, and you had already gone to the store. He made stew. And coffee, and hot chocolate."
    "He’s usually on call on Friday night, isn’t he?"
    "His buddy Hal is answering the pager and taking the tow truck out for him tonight. I think Matt’s sick of hauling cars out of ditches, and he wants to do something different tonight."
    "But where are we going? It’s dark out there and, what, twenty degrees?"
    "All he said was ’dress warm.’ Down coats, boots, the works."
    At the Lakeside Park beach, Matt scraped snow off a redwood picnic table and bench, and threw first plastic, then cloths over them. He placed an oil lantern on the tablecloth, lighting and adjusting it to low. "See? Better than those ultrabright gas ones," he said. "The moon’s out. The kids can build a snowman." The three kids had started one already, over by the lake’s edge, where the snow was thinner. "And I brought wood and charcoal for the pit. I’ll get that going."
    "I don’t suppose we brought any moonshine, Andrea," said Nina. "I’m in the mood." Lake Tahoe slapped a few feet away. The mountains surrounding it glowed in the dark off in the far distance. Silver light cast tree shadows across the wide beach.
    "Hot toddies," Matt said, his breath making clouds in the still, cold air. "Red thermos, basket number two." He put four big mugs on the table, then walked over to the nearby pit.
    "Which of the kids reached twenty-one while I wasn’t looking?" Nina asked, looking at the four mugs.
    "Oh, we have a guest tonight, one who will require liberal hot libation after his long journey." She poured Nina a steaming cupful. "Your favorite private investigator."
    "Paul? But how?" He lived in Monterey, over two hundred miles away.
    "Well, he called and asked for you, and I said you were at the store, and he said he was in Sacramento on a job and could he stop by, pretty please. What are you going to do with a guy who asks to stop by a hundred miles and six thousand feet up the mountains from Sacramento? He’s coming to dinner."
    "Here?"
    "Any minute now."
    A few feet away, Matt busied himself with building the largest bonfire a concrete stove could hold.
    Andrea and Nina stuck to the table and the red thermos. "He keeps calling me at work, but I haven’t been calling back," said Nina.
    "And why is that?"
    "A good question, one well deserving of an answer."
    "Which is ...?"
    "I’m not sure why." Nina finished her first cup and offered it up for a refill. The hot liquid traveled in a fiery stream down into her chest. Despite the frigid air, she felt cozier by the minute. "Because he knocks things over," she added. "He’s too big and he’s unpredictable."
    "He’s got a house in Carmel."
    "He’s pushing too hard. And all he’s after is a fling."
    "That’s right, just keep coming up with excuses to keep him away," Andrea said. Nina had more to say but Andrea’s comment squelched her.
    "He has one hell of a set of shoulders on him," Andrea went on, grinning. "He’s a prime specimen of the male persuasion."
    "He’s an ex-cop. He has that attitude, you know. ’Spread ’em.’ And he hates babies and children."
    "He’s willing to sit down with three kids tonight, just for the honor of sharing supper with you. He’s brave enough to try to get close to you, which I suspect not too many men are."
    "Why do you say that, Andrea?"
    "Who are you saving yourself for?" Andrea said. "Isn’t it about time you got over