The Girl in White Pajamas Read Online Free PDF

three story brick building with a blackened front window on the first floor. R&B Security and Investigations was stenciled on it in gold letters along with a phone number. No sign welcomed walk-ins.
    As they entered the front door Bogie looked around in amazement. Four years earlier they had dark, wooden chairs with worn, padded seats that they’d purchased from the Goodwill Store. The reception desk came from a government auction. It wasn’t pretty, but functional.
    The new reception area was unrecognizable to Bogie. He felt like he was entering a command center for a futuristic army. Thirty-six inch, black, acrylic cubes that could function as either seats or tables and were almost invisible on the black wall-to-wall carpeting served as the furniture. The reception desk was made from three of the cubes. Recessed lighting lit up the stark, white walls decorated with posters of over-muscled men and women, most of them toting AK-47s and UZIs. Stenciled in black around the right wall close to the ceiling was the message: ‘We offer the finest Security and Protection’. The opposite wall had ‘Discrete Investigations’ stenciled on it.
    These days Rose handled the staff and office while Bogie pulled together the investigators’ notes to produce final reports for the clients. At times, when the investigators were unable to obtain information through conventional methods, Bogie hacked into more systems and found it. He also did the accounting and payroll. Rose printed out or deposited checks in Boston, but it was Bogie who produced the checks in Florida. Although they argued over personnel, the final decision was Rose’s since she was the one who would flourish or suffer the consequences with her people instincts.
    “Wow! Are we at war?” Bogie asked staring at Rose.
    “Yes,” she answered with no small measure of defiance. She walked to a back room and came out with two black fleece-lined jackets, handing one to Bogie and the other to Amanda. “We’ll get you another coat later on,” Rose said before Amanda could protest again.
    Amanda nodded and almost smiled.
    “Did you get us rooms?” Bogie asked.
    “Mother McGruder.”
    “No! I’m not staying there!”
    “But, Dad, Auntie Annie.”
    “You stay there if you want to. I’m not staying in that house!” he said angrily.
    Rose finished, “I got you a room at the Omni Parker. That way you can walk over there in ten minutes. Amanda can stay at the house.”
    Amanda nodded as she pushed her arms through the sleeves of the detested R& B jacket.
    “Are you dropping us off?” Bogie asked.
    Rose shook her head. “We’re coming in with you. Annie asked me to come over. She wants some guns removed from the house.”
    “Why?” Bogie asked.
    “Mother McGruder’s taken to shooting up the neighborhood.”
    Bogie studied her. “Are you shitting me?”
    “I shit you not!”
    Bogie glanced at Amanda as she scrolled through her text messages while Angel watched her. He pointed to the doorway leading to the offices and conference room. “We’ll be back in a minute,” he said to no one in particular as he and Rose walked down the hall. As they approached her office at the end of the hall, he made a face and crinkled his nose. He pointed to a door straight ahead. “Have those guys air out that room every once in a while. It smells ripe.”
    “They just practice there. It’s not for socializing. They’re not complaining.”
    “You should be. How can you work smelling rancid sweat and God knows what else all day?”
    “Not everyone’s as neurotic as you. Some of us don’t give a shit.” Memories of Bogie in the office flooded over her: Bogie and his immaculate little space, Bogie bleaching the bathroom every day, Bogie having the guys carry pizza boxes and soda cans out to the dumpster rather than clutter up the office. “What’s up?” Rose asked as Bogie closed her office door when they entered her cluttered office.
    “Angel. What’s the story with