The Devil To Pay Read Online Free PDF

prompted coolly.
    “Yes, well, Leighton used to be very close to my brother and a handful of others. They were all friends in college,
    you see,“ she said carefully. “My brother was not always on the fast track to the executive suite, I’m afraid. At one
    time he was out to change the world. The quick way.“
    “Ah, I think I’m beginning to get a glimmering of understanding.“
    “Keith was very committed to his beliefs,“ she went on, edging her way closer to the core of the matter.
    “In other words he was a flaming radical in college, out to change the world.“
    “Something like that,“ she admitted and then said loyally, “he believed in what he was doing at the time. He was
    very dedicated!“
    “But he’s since changed his mind?“
    “Well, like everyone else, he’s grown up and decided that the world can’t be changed overnight. He’s a very
    dynamic, hard-working person, and he has a lot of natural ability. The corporate world turned out to be a sphere in
    which he does very well. But he works for a very conservative, very staid company.“
    “And his bosses wouldn’t look so kindly on him if they knew about his radical past?“
    Emelina shook her head sadly. “And Eric Leighton, who hasn’t done very well at all since he dropped out of
    college a few years ago, has decided he wants some of the success of his friends who have made it in the
    establishment. He’s set up a very neat blackmailing scheme. For a price he’ll keep his mouth shut about my brother’s
    past.“
    “How did your brother react when Leighton approached him?“
    Emelina lifted one shoulder. “Oh, he was all set to call in the cops and blow the whole thing wide open. But I
    convinced him that in the end he would suffer because Leighton was sure to make a point of exposing Keith’s past to
    the world. I thought there might be another way to handle it. We know Leighton was involved with drugs in college. It
    was no secret at the time. My brother and I think he’s probably still making a living by smuggling drugs or some
    related activity. We know he’s never had a real job or tried to fit into society. Keith remembered that Leighton had
    once had a house on the Oregon coast. It was left to him by his parents. Leighton used to say it would make a good
    place to wait out the ‘revolution.’ “
    “Which never came,“ Julian put in with a smile.
    “Anyhow, Keith checked quietly with someone in the office of the local county recorder and found out that the
    house on the beach was still registered to Leighton. It occurred to me that it might be worth watching for a while. If he’
    s involved in other illegal activities besides blackmailing old friends, there’s a possibility he’s using this secluded
    beach house for some aspect of his work.“
    “So you volunteered to come down here and spend a few weeks keeping the place under surveillance, is that it?“
    Julian asked, stirring his coffee absently.
    “Something like that,“ Emelina confessed. She chewed her lip in a gesture characteristic of all her anxious moments.
    “Doesn’t that sound like a logical sort of plan?“ Nothing like getting advice from an expert, she told herself, watching
    him with a hopeful expression.
    “Not particularly,“ Julian retorted, his mouth twisting wryly. “I think your brother had the right idea initially.“
    “Calling in the cops?“ she exclaimed, shocked. “You think that was a good idea?“ She couldn’t imagine someone in
    Julian’s line of work thinking it was ever a good idea to call in the police!
    “They have their uses,“ he told her dryly, eyes narrowing.
    “Well, it’s out of the question. It would ruin my brother’s career!“
    “Blackmailers never go away, Emmy. You must have heard that by now. They’ll go on bleeding a victim for as long
    as they can get away with it. You have to call the bluff.“
    “It’s not a bluff,“ she whispered fiercely. “My brother’s past, if it were known, would