THE VIRON CONSPIRACY (JAKE SCARNE THRILLERS #4) Read Online Free PDF

killers, finds out she is suspicious, she’ll be next. She’d only be safe if the police believed her and started an investigation. But without any proof, she doesn’t think that is very likely. So, she is counting on you to get her the proof she needs, while keeping her involvement secret.”
    “Does Mrs. Vallance jump out of planes, too?”
    “You are being flip, Jake. I’ve heard that you value a sense of humor that is not always appreciated by others. In this case, of course, I respect your incredulity.”
    “Winston, you are from Chicago,” Scarne said. “I know a couple of first-rate investigation firms in the Windy City. Why me?”
    “Would you believe me if I said she wants the very best?”
    “He would,” Tierney said. “Jake doesn’t suffer from excess modesty.”
    “Well, why should he, Don?” Todd pointed his cigar at Scarne. “Your cases have been pretty notorious, Jake. Ballantrae. That business with Arachne. And more recently, the publishing thing with Quimper.” He smiled. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but personally I would have preferred a man with a lower profile. But Mrs. Vallance was very insistent.”
    Todd stood up.
    “Excuse me a moment. I think the help is taking my request for privacy to extremes. They may never come back.”
    He went to the door and left the room. Scarne looked at Tierney. He’d already decided not to take the case. It had professional disaster written all over it. He was always willing to risk that in the service of a good cause, but this was something else. The Vallance woman was right to be worried about slander suits.
    “Don, I’m inclined to pass. I would think it’s Todd’s fiduciary duty to talk Mrs.Vallance out of this nonsense before she makes a fool of herself.”
    Tierney leaned forward.
    “You are preaching to the choir, Jake. I told Todd that. He got a bit uppity with me. Sibellius, Rockford and Todd is old school. It has a rock-solid reputation for putting clients first. Which is why it has the best client list in Chicago. Winston said they’ve done everything they could to talk Mrs. Vallance out of this.”
    Todd returned with the waiters, who quickly cleared the table and poured coffee. One of them then went to the sideboard and brought over the cigar service and a bottle of Willet Pot Still Reserve bourbon and three snifters. Scarne and Tierney declined the cigars, but not the bourbon. Todd made the usual show of picking out a cigar, a Canario D’oro Rothchild Robusto, which the server expertly clipped and lighted for him. Todd took a few serious puffs, which imparted the room with what Scarne thought was a pleasant odor, although in a non-private venue elsewhere in New York City it would have probably attracted a SWAT team led by the city’s fanatic anti-smoking billionaire Mayor. The waiters left.
    “Listen, Winston,” Scarne said, “I appreciate your confidence in my alleged abilities. But it sounds to me that this woman needs another kind of help. Psychiatric. Surely, a good grief counselor. How old is she? Perhaps she’s become demented. And I’m not being flip.”
    “Katherine is a young woman, many years Bryan’s junior. I can assure you that she is all there mentally. In fact, she is an extraordinarily intelligent individual.”
    “Trophy wife?”
    “Not in the traditional sense. I mean, she was quite a catch and all, but she was his first wife. Bryan was a bit of a playboy into his 40’s before putting his nose to the grindstone at BVM. I know that in recent years there were several potential Mrs. Vallances, but he was a bit of a slippery devil, at least until Katherine came along.”
    “So, she’s lost her meal ticket.”
    “That would be a cynical conclusion, my friend. And a wrong one. I don’t believe Katherine’s quest has anything to do with money. Bryan left her very well off. Property, corporate stock, insurance, jewelry. None of that will change substantially whether she’s right or wrong about his