Shattered Read Online Free PDF Page B

wants to do.’
    ‘So she’s not looking for a love match,’ said Gemma, drily.
    ‘She’s in love with the ex-fiancé. But she’s also a practical girl. She said she’d make the situation work for her.’
    Toby Boyd stood up, restless. ‘Mary Donaldson has a lot to answer for,’ he said. ‘What did my sister think she was doing, trying to marry this jaded old drunk? She’d be stuck on his country estate while he flies around the world, living on borrowed money, snorting coke and screwing cheerleaders. Please, Miss Lincoln. I’m really worried. Something’s happened to Steffi.’
    ‘You’re sure it hasn’t got something to do with the television series?’ Gemma asked.
    ‘Absolutely sure. They’re angry. They think she’s reneged on her contract. Steffi’s desperate to become an actor. No way she’d throw it in. She’s auditioned for NIDA twice now and twice they’ve sent her away. So when this princess bride business came up she was crazy about the idea. I did everything I could to argue some sense into her, but she’d made up her mind. Think of all the exposure it will give me, she kept telling me. It’ll make a path for me to get where I want.’
    ‘Stress can do strange things, you know,’ Gemma told him gently. ‘She might have just run away from the pressure of it all.’
    ‘No way,’ said Toby vehemently. ‘Not Steffi. Ever since she used to put on plays for her dolls and the snails in the garden, she’s wanted to act. She loves the rush of adrenaline.’
    ‘What’s the name of the ex-fiancé?’ Gemma changed tack.
    ‘Martin Trimble. I feel certain he’s got something to do with her disappearance,’ said Toby.
    ‘And why is he an ex -fiancé?’ Gemma asked.
    ‘Trimble saw this show as a way for Steffi to stand out, to give her a profile, but the girls who auditioned had to be single and unattached. That’s why he called the engagement off. I might just be a jealous brother, but I think he’s a real loser. He’s backed very bad rock bands, and lately a surfer who would’ve probably got a place in the world championships except for a liking for cocaine. I can’t talk to him. He just hangs up on me.’ Toby shrugged. ‘God knows why, but Steff loves him! She was heartbroken when he called off the engagement, even though she knew it was necessary. She’s paid a fortune for this wedding dress, over two thousand dollars – being Steff, it has to be a bit idiosyncratic and it is. No one was supposed to see it, but I noticed it one evening when I visited her – she shares a house with Trimble. It’s got tiny red, blue and yellow dots on the fabric, like confetti.
    ‘I don’t know why women seem to go for those sorts of guys. Trimble makes you feel he couldn’t care less about anything – except money.’ His voice faltered. ‘I’m scared to think what might have happened. Twins feel each other’s pain and something’s happened to Steff – I can feel it.’ Strain and tension showed on his angular, mobile face.
    For a moment, Gemma felt unequal to the task of dealing with these people and their problems and muddles. She had enough of her own. But she was a professional investigator with bills to pay, she reminded herself, as she duly took all the details about Stephanie Boyd, the television series Search for the Princess Bride and the manager–agent, Martin Trimble. Toby had thought to bring photographs with him. Gemma studied the portrait of the heavy-eyed prince. She’d always distrusted men who wore cravats, even cravats pinned with an embossed coat of arms, and the cool, superior expression on the prince’s face gave her little reason to change her original judgment.
    ‘That’s the photo he gave all the contestants,’ said Toby. ‘And here’s his pedigree.’
    Gemma put the prince’s autographed photo down and studied the genealogy. It was extremely long-winded and confusing, culminating in a massive spreadsheet of foreign nobles and princelings.