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

didn’t show up for work during Wilson’s absence.
    With the exception of Anne Misner and David Best, a beat reporter who covered Truman County government, the rest of the staff mostly ignored Sam. She had come from the Denver Post to the Perspective just over a year ago. Talk spread among Perspective employees that Sam had been fired from the daily because she refused to seek help for a drinking problem she claimed she didn’t have. Everyone found it hard to believe that someone like Wilson Cole Jr. would hire her. Most of the staff felt she didn’t deserve a second chance. She knew there was an undertone of dislike toward her, others in the office thinking (or saying behind her back) that Sam knew she had Wilson on her side. She made a great show around him to make sure he was happy, but when he wasn’t there she took liberties because she knew Wilson would back her up.
    But Anne was always nice to Sam. She treated her the way an aunt would treat her niece. She asked about her weekends and about April and listened whenever Sam would talk about one of the court cases that Robin happened to be prosecuting at the time. Occasionally they would go have hamburgers for lunch.
    It wasn’t until Sam broke the exclusive story in the Perspective a month ago, exposing the lucrative drug smuggling operation that the Grandview Police Department had been running for years, that anyone at the newspaper started talking to her.
    “I thought you said you were going to move to your grandmother’s ranch?” Anne said. “At least if you were there, days wouldn’t go by without someone hearing from you and we’d have a way to reach you. At least at your grandmother’s someone would answer the phone besides the answering machine at your apartment.”
    Sam nodded, knowing that she yet had to change her ‘in case of emergency’ contact from Robin to Howard and Nona. “Howard has already scolded me about that because they hadn’t heard from me for a few days, either.”
    Sam raised her hand to rub her forehead. When she did, Anne noticed her wrist.
    “What happened?” Anne said, reaching out with a motherly instinct to touch Sam’s wrist. But Sam pulled away before she could.
    “You mean everyone really thinks I went to Mexico with Wilson?” Sam asked, ignoring Anne’s query about her wrist.
    The phone rang again, distracting Anne’s attention. She listened a moment, then nodded and said, “The publisher? Well…” her voice trailed off as she covered the mouthpiece with her hand. She looked up at Sam as if to say ‘what should I tell them?’ Sam shrugged.
    Anne directed her voice back to the receiver. “I’m sorry, but Wilson’s out of town all week. Would you like his voice mail? Or our managing editor is in.” Anne listened a moment more and said, “I’ll put you into Wilson’s voice mail.”
    When the call went through Anne looked up at Sam.
    “What’s going on?” Anne asked. “Didn’t Wilson go to Mexico?”
    “Anne, when we left here last Tuesday night, three men jumped us in the parking lot.” Sam leaned in as close to Anne as the counter would allow and whispered, “We were kidnapped.”
    Anne stared at Sam. Her eyes wide and round as baseballs.
    Sam went on, “I don’t know where they took us, but wherever it was, Wilson is still there. God, at least I hope that’s where he is. I don’t remember much else and I am afraid to say or do anything until I hear from them. They might do something to Wilson. When they came after us that night, we struggled with them and I slipped and fell against the bumper and knocked myself cold. Wilson kept trying to wake me. I could hear him talking to me.”
    Anne paled as Sam talked, shaking her head slightly.
    “I don’t know if they had Wilson tied too, ” Sam continued, “but my hands were tied together so tight that my wrist started to bleed and that’s how I got this.” She held up her wrist again and Anne fixed her attention on it.
    “How’d you get