The Face of Deception Read Online Free PDF

and went over to the pedestal. “He can't be so smart, Mandy. He didn't even know you were a girl.” Not that many people would have.
    The desk phone rang.
    Mom? She had been having trouble with the ignition on her car lately.
    Not her mother.
    “I remembered something just as I reached the car,” Logan said. “I thought I'd throw it into the pot for you to consider with the original deal.”
    “I'm not considering the original deal.”
    “Five hundred thousand for you. Five hundred thousand to go to the Adam Fund for Missing and Runaway Children. I understand you contribute a portion of your fees to that fund.” His voice lowered persuasively. “Do you realize how many children could be brought home to their parents with that amount of money?”
    She knew better than he did. He couldn't have offered a more tempting lure. My God, Machiavelli could have taken lessons from him.
    “All those children. Aren't they worth two weeks of your time?”
    They were worth a decade of her time. “Not if it means doing something criminal.”
    “Criminal acts are often in the eyes of the beholder.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “Suppose I promise you that I had nothing to do with any foul play connected with the skull.”
    “Why should I believe any promise you make?”
    “Check me out. I don't have a reputation for lying.”
    “Reputation doesn't mean anything. People lie when it means enough to them. I've worked hard to establish my career. I won't see it go down the drain.”
    There was silence. “I can't promise you that you won't come out of this without a few scars, but I'll try to protect you as much as I can.”
    “I can protect myself. All I have to do is tell you no.”
    “But you're tempted, aren't you?”
    Christ, she was tempted.
    “Seven hundred thousand to the fund.”
    “No.”
    “I'll call you tomorrow.” He hung up the phone.
    Damn him.
    She replaced the receiver. The bastard knew how to push the right buttons. All that money channeled to find the other lost ones, the ones who might still be alive . . .
    Wouldn't it be worth a risk to see even some of them brought home? Her gaze went to the pedestal. Mandy might have been a runaway. Maybe if she'd had a chance to come home she wouldn't . . .
    “I shouldn't do it, Mandy,” she whispered. “It could be pretty bad. People don't fork out over a million dollars for something like this if they're even slightly on the up-and-up. I have to tell him no.”
    But Mandy couldn't answer. None of the dead could answer.
    But the living could, and Logan had counted on her listening to the call.
    Damn him.
             
    Logan leaned back in the driver's seat, his gaze on Eve Duncan's small clapboard house.
    Was it enough?
    Possibly. She had definitely been tempted. She had a passionate commitment to finding lost children and he had played on it as skillfully as he could.
    What kind of man did that make him? he thought wearily.
    A man who needed to get the job done. If she didn't succumb to his offer, he'd go higher tomorrow.
    She was tougher than he'd thought she'd be. Tough and smart and perceptive. But she had an Achilles' heel.
    And there was no doubt on earth that he would exploit it.
             
    “He just drove off,” Fiske said into his digital phone. “Should I follow him?”
    “No, we know where he's staying. He saw Eve Duncan?”
    “She was home all evening and he stayed over four hours.”
    Timwick cursed. “She's going to go for it.”
    “I could stop her,” Fiske said.
    “Not yet. She has friends in the police department. We don't want to make waves.”
    “The mother?”
    “Maybe. It would certainly cause a delay at least. Let me think about it. Stay there. I'll call you back.”
    Scared rabbit, Fiske thought contemptuously. He could hear the nervousness in Timwick's voice. Timwick was always thinking, hesitating instead of taking the clean, simple way. You had to decide what result you needed and then just take the step that would