The Plume: The First Anthology Read Online Free PDF Page B

– and its pleasures – far behind.
    He tried not to regret it. He knew it was a smart choice. But there were times…
    Joanna charged to a doorway, coming to a sudden halt. “This is it,” she said, her gaze dancing over the façade. “This is the restaurant.”
    “Doesn’t look like much of a restaurant,” Mike said. The windows were boarded over and the awning was torn. There was no signage and the place smelled of abandonment. Joanna tried the door but it was locked.
    “I know they’re in there,” she said with a ferocity that surprised him. She tipped her head back to look up the facade. Even without make-up, with her hair tightly pulled back, she was gorgeous. “Maybe we can get in through a window.” She turned an expectant gaze upon him. “Do you think anyone would lend us a ladder?”
    Mike sighed at her innocence. Giving Joanna what she wanted was too much temptation for him. “Just look away,” he said gruffly.
    “What? What are you going to do?”
    Mike met her gaze. “Just look away.”
    She exhaled, never liking anyone else taking charge, and deliberately turned her face away. Mike knew she wouldn’t keep her gaze averted for long. He pulled the pick from his pocket, hid it in his hand, and worked the lock quickly. He turned the knob and opened the door. “After you,” he said.
    Joanna looked from his hand to the door and back to his eyes. “I thought you were Mr. Clean.”
    He smiled and shrugged.
    She dropped the subject, too excited about the story to think about him.
    There was a message he should take to heart.
    Joanna lunged into the darkened space like a hound on the hunt. Of course, she had a flashlight in her purse – this woman was always ready for everything – and she shone it around the space with purpose.
    It was empty. Mike could see the bare floorboards underfoot. The walls had been stripped down to plaster, plaster that was cracked and yellowed. There were a couple of stray chairs, old metal ones, and a lot of broken wood. It smelled like dust and decay, probably because of the hole in the floor to the basement, a hole big enough that it could swallow a pick-up.
    Mike was sure he could hear the scuttling of rats. If this had looked like a restaurant the night before, Rex must have more money to burn than was once the case. He became curious about the Plume and its fortunes, more curious than he should be.
    He was done with that life. It was over.
    “Nice place,” he said as Joanna stared around herself in dismay.
    “It was here,” she said. “I know it was here. And there were booths and the walls were lined with velvet and there were rugs and, and…” She turned to look at him. “Do you believe me?”
    Mike did believe her, but only because he knew Rex. “It doesn’t look like much of a restaurant, Joanna. Could they really have torn all of that out that fast?”
    Yes. He’d helped do similar things in his days at the Plume.
    Her shoulders drooped and he hated that he was responsible for disappointing her. Then she illuminated the back wall with her flashlight. “I met her in a room, back there.”
    “Joanna, I think we should go. This is a dead end.”
    “Just one look. Please?”
    He couldn’t resist her. He could never resist her. Even if all she wanted was a byline.
    He couldn’t even give her that.
    She headed for the back corner, the beam of the flashlight darting this way and that as she sought some sign of what she was sure she’d witnessed.
    Mike worked his way around the hole in the floor. He could see something glistening down there and it smelled bad enough that he didn’t want to investigate.
    He found her in the back corner, standing dejected. “You know what this means, right?” she said when he got to her side.
    He did. Rex was messing with her, getting rid of her and her curiosity, ensuring she didn’t get a story. Mike didn’t want to be the one to tell Joanna that she’d failed.
    “Go ahead and tell me.” Mike could see