The Confidence Woman Read Online Free PDF

would do her duty and go to Nana’s funeral, staying as distant from Evan and his new wife, Melissa, as she possibly could. Once that chore was over she intended to visit Elizabeth Best in Tucson and Lynn Granger in Cave Creek.
    ******
    She did her tai chi practice and then she called Lynn, who had been divorced twice and might be able to advise her on the etiquette of dealing with the funeral of a former mother-in-law.
    â€œLet me think,” Lynn said. “One of my mothers-in-law died before I married her son. I don’t know what happened to the other one. We lost touch. I guess she’s still around somewhere. Do you think it’s possible to go on caring about the mother of someone you divorced?”
    â€œPossible,” Claire said. “But the reason I’m going is because my daughter asked me to.”
    â€œIt should be fun to see Evan and Melissa again,” was Lynn’s sarcastic reply.
    â€œUm,” said Claire, “has Detective Amaral been in touch with you about Evelyn Martin’s death?”
    â€œHe has and he told me about the credit card fraud. According to him she stole all of our identities. Apparently she didn’t feel she had one of her own.”
    â€œDid she send you a nightgown, too?”
    â€œYup. It was lavender, size sixteen. It fit, I’m sorry to say, but can you see me in a lavender nightgown from Victoria’s Secret? It would give Steve another heart attack.”
    â€œDid you connect the credit card fraud with Evelyn before Amaral called?”
    â€œNo. It happened so long after her visit, and she was our sorority sister, after all. Steve always suspected her, though. He didn’t much like Evelyn. He thinks her motive was envy.”
    â€œThat’s what I came up with.”
    â€œOkay, she envied you because you have two wonderful children, an interesting job and you’re independent. Why me? Because I have Steve?”
    Lynn did have an enviable marriage, Claire knew. On her third try she had gotten it right. “You also live in a beautiful place.”
    â€œTrue. But what did she envy about Ginny? From what I hear she’s drunk most of the time.”
    â€œWell, she came out of her divorce with enough money to live in Santa Fe. She has a job, but she doesn’t have to work. Why Elizabeth?”
    â€œThat’s easy. She has a young lover. Stop by and meet him when you are in Tucson. It’ll be worth the trip. You’re going to visit us while you’re in Arizona, aren’t you?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œSee you soon,” Lynn said.
    ******
    When Claire got to her office at CSWR, she contacted the appropriate rare book dealers to tell them that her Confidence-Man had been stolen. There weren’t many dealers in the country who dealt in books of that caliber, and Confidence-Man was likely to make its way to one of them, although it might pass through the hands of several other dealers first. A thief who didn’t know its value might well sell it cheap, but Evelyn had been calculating enough that Claire believed she would have gone to the trouble to find out what the objects she stole were worth before selling them. She spoke to three of her favorite dealers: Tom Butterworth in Denver, Simon Collins in New York and Brett Moon in Los Angeles. None of them had heard anything about the book, which rather surprised Claire. Since Confidence-Man had not been found in Evelyn’s house, she assumed Evelyn had sold it and spent the money.
    All of the dealers promised to call Claire if the book turned up, and she trusted them enough to believe they would. Brett Moon was in a talkative mood. Claire had known him for years and she visualized him as they talked. As time went by and his head became pale and bald as a full moon, he grew into his surname.
    â€œI didn’t know you had a Confidence-Man,” he said.
    â€œI’ve owned it for years. I bought it when I was still at the U