Revenge is Sweet (A Samantha Church Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

ability to walk into rooms without being noticed, as though I’m part of the furniture, the old, worn sofa perhaps. I am blond and blue-eyed, but don’t let that fool you, my sweet April. I have the fair skin color of my father. I am blond, going ash now.
    And still fragmented too.
    You know, sweetie, I’ve never much cared for Picasso’s paintings. Perhaps it may be that I have always felt like his paintings whenever I’ve looked in the mirror. Bits and pieces everywhere. Everything out of joint, never really quite lining up.
    Well, maybe someday I’ll be able to see Monet when I look at myself in the mirror.
    No fragmentation.
    Only colors and contrasts of fields and trees, sky, gardens and flowers, everything blending together into one.
    Goodnight, sweetie, Mommie loves you, now and always.

Six
     
    Anne Misner, the receptionist at the Grandview Perspective, had been watching Sam make her way from the Honda Accord toward the office. “’Bout time you showed up,” she said.
    It was a gray Monday morning, stiff with wind that kept the temperature below freezing. Anne watched Sam get out of the car, adjust her coat and scarf slightly, then pull her briefcase from the back seat. It was a few minutes before eight when Sam entered the office. Anne hardly waited until she was through the front door before calling out to her. “We thought maybe you went off to Mexico with Wilson.”
    Her comment caught Sam off guard. “You’re kidding right?” her tone incredulous.
    “’Course I am, silly,” Anne said and shook her head. She removed her reading glasses and let them fall to her chest where they were caught by a small beaded gold chain.
    The front counter that hit Sam about chest high blocked the reception desk. She set her bag on the floor, stood against it, placed her hands lightly on the surface, and looked at Anne.
    “Nick’s down stairs,” Anne said and pointed with her head in the direction of the managing editor’s office. Her eyebrows drifted toward the top of her head and Sam saw the heavy green eye shadow she always wore, which didn’t blend well with her green eyes.
    “He’s been waiting for you...” Anne’s voice trailed off as she stopped to adjust her earpiece to answer the phone.
    “Good morning, Grandview Perspective, how may I direct your call...” Anne hesitated and looked up to Sam as she listened to the caller.
    “That would be Dee Schaffer in advertising,” she said into the phone. “She’s not in yet, but I’ll put you through to her voice mail.”
    Anne waited a moment to make sure the line connected before she turned her attention back to Sam. “Sorry ’bout that. Anyway, he came in this morning all in a mood and grumbled something like, ‘if Sam decides to show up today, make sure she comes to see me first, before she does anything else’.”
    “What’s his problem?”
    “Mr. Managing Editor thinks you just blew off the rest of the week since Wilson was going to be in Mexico.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Sam said, her heart sinking at Anne’s revelation.
    Sam took a long, deep breath and held it briefly before exhaling. She studied Anne a moment, a short, plump woman that she put in her mid 60 ’ s and not long to retirement. Short, curly, frosted-brown hair framed her round face. She had a pleasant smile that matched a pleasant phone voice and a pleasant personality. She had been answering phones at the Perspective for nearly fifteen years. “Makes perfect sense, and so typical of him when it comes to me,” Sam said shaking her head.
    It only now occurred to her that , of course, no one would have been looking for them. Wilson was supposed to be on a plane to Mexico the following morning, the start of a twelve-day vacation. No one expected him to be missing. And given her shoddy record and poor performance at the Perspective so far, never mind that she had just written the biggest story of her career, no one on staff would have really been surprised if she