Sticks & Stones (A Hollis Morgan Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her shoulders. “I’m looking forward to working with you on this. I’m pretty sure George will lend me out. Then , once we convince this Carl Devi that we can save his tabloid some money, we can get together and divide up the work.”
    “Rena and I want to take you out to dinner.” Mark held the door open for her. “She’ll kill me if I don’t bring her in on this.”
    “Well, that’s one thing I got right,” Hollis said with only a touch of humor. “Tell her to try not to look like a New York model. My ego is too fragile.”
     
    “Are you sure you can work the Briscoe matter and keep up your work?” George was leaning in her office doorway. “This isn’t pro bono, is it? I can spare you for a few weeks but you’ll still need to work on a few cases, and you’ll have limited overtime.”
    Hollis stood and closed the folder sitting on her desk. “ Mark Haddan is negotiating the terms of our work agreement with Transformation. And I will absolutely stay on top of your caseload.”
    “ Which reminds me, were you able to arrange for the auction house to take in the Koch inventory after the movers?”
    “ Yes. By the way, when I was taking inventory, there was this young woman who was wandering around the Koch house. She said she and her mother used to visit. Any risk she could be a relative?”
    “Not a chance.”
    “Still, I’m going to track down her license plate. After trying to reach her I realized she lied to me about her real phone number.”
    H is eyes narrowed. “Interesting. Why would she lie about that?”
    “Do you think she could she be setting us up for a claim? She said she wanted a last look before the house was sold.”
    “Margaret Koch was an only child. She had no children and no legal heirs.”
    “Are you sure? Then, why the lie?” Hollis sank back into her desk chair.
    “Hollis, there are no relatives. She was probably protecting her privacy . Because of the size of the estate, I hired a private detective, Brad Pierson, to make sure there were no possible claims. After two months, he found nothing. I didn’t think you needed to see the full client file, but the report is included. You may want to read it.”
    “Then who  …. Can I see the file now?”
    “Sure.”
    She followed him to his office.
    He reached behind to his credenza and pulled a thick folder from the top of a stack. “Read it. If you discover that this young woman may be an heir, let me know immediately. No need to play detective.” George straightened. “Shouldn’t you be going? What time are you meeting the movers?”
    “At nine. It should take about three to four hours to load everything. Then I’ll go to the auction house to meet them as they unload.”
    He hesitated. “You look tired. When is the funeral?”
    She flinched. “I don’t know … I’ll … I’ll have to call Cathy’s mother.” She sat up in the chair. “Don’t worry. I’ll have the research you wanted done by Friday. I won’t disappoint you.”
    George made a sympathetic face. “It never crossed my mind.”

     
    CHAPTER FOUR
    T he movers were right on time. Hollis followed them from room to room, making sure they shrink-wrapped the dressers and put heavy cushions around the glass cabinets. She walked into the den and counted all the boxes to make sure she would be able to match the count on the other end. Moving into the library, she noticed the titles on the bound volumes. She was no expert, but it wouldn’t surprise her if there were a few first editions going into the many boxes of packed books.
    “Excuse me, miss but this package fell from the top of the armoire in the upstairs bedroom.” A muscle bound worker handed her a cardboard box wrapped in shiny silver paper , tied with string.
    It had heft, but wasn’t heavy.
    “Which bedroom? I thought I checked all the rooms.”
    “Well, this was way in the back of that walnut armoire in the room with the dark green drapes. It fell down when we were pullin ’ it away