The Almost Truth Read Online Free PDF

into the University of Washington. The hotel would keep me on for work. If the restaurant was slow, then the cleaning crew could always use another maid.
    Between working at the hotel and pulling some extra cons here and there, I would be able to squirrel away enough money to go the following year. I could worry about what I would need for the rest of my time there once I was in. Berkeley would likely let me delay my admission a year with no trouble.
    Logic said waiting a year was an option, but my heart started to beat faster when I thought about it. I knew that if I didn’t go now, I would never go. One year would become two, and then three. Then I’d be offered shift supervisor in the restaurant, which would mean extra money, so I’d tell myself how I would go back to school the next term, but I wouldn’t. I’d end up marrying Brendan, because after all, he was there and asking and who was I to be so picky? We’d have a couple of kids who would be teased in school for not having any money the same way we were, and Brendan and I would fight over stupid things like who drank the last of the milk or how to pay for car repairs, and the big event in our lives would be if we decided to upgrade our cable package. I’d be one of those people who talked about all the things I was going to do someday, all while everyone around me didn’t bother listening because they knew I wouldn’t.
    I pulled the MISSING flyer out of my pocket and smoothed out the wrinkles. I took time to read the whole thing this time.
    MISSING
    Ava McKenna (age 3) went missing fifteen years ago on July 30 from the Keppler Hotel. A photo of how she may look now is below. A reward of $250,000 is offered for any information leading to her recovery.
    A phone number and website were listed on the bottom of the sheet. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. My mind started to spin. Was there a way to use the fact that I looked like the photo? I didn’t look exactly like the picture, but I was close, and with a bit of a makeover I could look even closer. I didn’t need the whole quarter of a million; I’d settle for ten thousand of it. All I needed to do was find the missing Ava.
    Or convince them I was Ava.

chapter six
    I took the last ferry home after having stayed in the coffee shop until it closed and they basically kicked me out. I slipped into my room without talking to my mom. I’d seen the sliver of light under her door when I came in, but I didn’t want to talk to her. I’d completely forgotten I was scheduled to work the next day until my alarm went off.
    I preferred to work the main hotel restaurant called the Palms, but today I was stuck in the banquet hall. There was a lunch buffet for the women attending the makeup sales convention.
    The point of a buffet is people are supposed to eat the food that is provided on the buffet. It isn’t a complex concept. However, it was clear the makeup ladies were not familiar with this radical dining idea. They would pull me over to the table and ask if they could get a sandwich without any mayo? Could I be a dear and checkin the back to see if there was a raspberry vinaigrette for the salad? They didn’t care for the dressing that was on the buffet. Could someone bring them a small bowl of that fabulous clam chowder they had yesterday with dinner? I managed to avoid tossing soup at anyone, or screaming that I wasn’t getting tipped so they could stick their no-mayo sandwich where the sun didn’t shine.
    I could tell my hair was starting to frizz, because there were pieces that had escaped the regulation bun and were stuck to my sweating forehead. I had soup spilled on my black pants and a splash of the requested raspberry vinaigrette on my shirt. Waiting tables was not a glamorous job. I was struggling to carry a full coffee urn to the coffee station in the corner of the banquet hall when someone reached around me and took it from my hands. Brendan smiled and winked.
    “So, are you going to take out