Take the Money: Romantic Suspense in Costa Rica Read Online Free PDF Page A

skin.
    “It has nothing to do with you or me,” she said, knowing what he was probably thinking.
    “Well, that’s a relief.  I was trying to remember what I might have said today--or yesterday.  I don’t think we’d had a disagreement, but of course you never know, where Julie is concerned.”
    “She said there’d been an accident and that Kevin was killed.”
    Jed frowned. “It wouldn’t be like her to run if the accident was her fault.”
    “She didn’t explain, but she didn’t want to call the police, either.  Oh, God, what can I do?”  Maggie jumped to her feet and began to pace back and forth.
    “Well, the first thing we can do is try and find out about this accident.  We’ll have to call the police, there’s no other way.”
    “No. Let’s wait and see if it’s on the eleven o’clock news.”
    “Then why don’t you come to bed and watch?  I think you should lie down.”
    Maggie folded her arms and clenched them to her waist as if trying to hold herself together. “That would be impossible, I’m too nervous.”  She continued pacing in front of the window, her eyes on the road.
    “The news won’t be on for a few minutes.  I think you need something to calm you down.”  Jed went into the dining room and opened the liquor cabinet in the walnut buffet that lined the far wall.
    “Don’t bother with whiskey,” Maggie said. “I don’t want to knock myself out.  Just pour me a small glass of Chardonnay.”
    Jed took out two long-stemmed crystal wine glasses.  Maggie would have been satisfied with a paper cup or a juice glass, but Jed had an instinct for doing things correctly.  He uncorked the bottle he’d put in the refrigerator after dinner and poured the pale liquid almost to the rim.   
    Maggie sat down and took several long drinks without bothering to savor the nutty flavor.  When she finished the wine, her hands stopped shaking but there was a buzzing in her head and she began muttering, hardly aware of Jed’s presence.  “I haven’t been the right mother for Julie,” she said, twirling the glass in her fingers.
    Jed walked over to where she sat moving her lips and bent down so that his eyes met hers. “Stop it, Maggie!” He was almost shouting in an effort to pull her out of her frantic ruminations.  “You are a good mother.  Julie may have been a top student, but she sometimes lacks common sense.”
    “But I just didn’t know what to do with someone that bright.”
    “You loved her and nurtured her, didn’t you?  Did you ever starve or abuse her in any way?”
    “Good Lord, no, but she’s never forgiven me for the divorce.  Her father was so proud of her, and he didn’t mistreat her the way he did me; he never laid a finger on her.”
    “We’ve been over this before. You couldn’t stay married to a man who abused you, and Julie is smart enough to understand.”
    “Then what is she running from?  Why is she so determined to throw away her talents?  She has to be punishing me.”  Maggie slammed the empty wineglass on the coffee table and continued to stare out the window in the wild hope that Julie’s car might turn into the driveway.
    “I think you’re taking it too personally, and you can’t rid yourself of all that Catholic guilt.  There’s no doubt that Julie had to be hurt when you got a divorce, but it’s happened to other children, and they didn’t let it ruin their lives.”  Jed stood up and took Maggie’s hand in his. “Now come on.  Let’s go upstairs and watch the news in bed.  Maybe it’s not as bad as she said.  She may have been in shock, not remembered things clearly.”
    The newscaster, an animated young man with a perpetual smile on his face, seemed thrilled to have a local disaster to report:
    “A fatal accident occurred tonight on US 140, west of Lewiston.  Apparently, the driver lost control of his late-model Porsche and it went off the road, tumbling down a hill where a fiery explosion took place.  Police