Too Far Under Read Online Free PDF Page A

authority,” she said, using her teacher voice. “Other
people say there’s no such thing, that these are kids with
attention deficit disorder whose parents won’t accept that and
insist on seeing them as spiritually gifted.”
    Elisa’s eyes began to wander away from me and
she stopped to wave at someone across the room. I knew I was losing
her, but I wanted a better response.
    “What do you think about Indigos?” I
prodded.
    She turned back to me. “I have no idea. I
haven’t seen any research on it one way or another. But you might
want to look into it more before you take her word on what happened
to Mirabel.” She grimaced. “Anyway, do you want to get involved in
another possible murder case?”
    She was referring to the mess we’d gotten
into last summer helping her friend Sharon find out how her husband
died. Elisa had gotten me into that, and she’d paid as big a price
as I did in the end. But I didn’t want to rehash it, so I plowed
ahead. “You know I’m not looking for another murder case. But Lacey
seemed so desperate. And Mirabel did so much for the community. If
someone did kill her, doesn’t she deserve justice?”
    Elisa polished off her drink while giving me
a fixed stare. “Why is that your responsibility, Cleo? What about
her husband Derrick? But come to think of it, maybe he doesn’t care
that much. He’s been having an affair with Judith Demar for years.
I don’t know whether Mirabel knew about it or not.”
    I ignored her question by asking one of my
own. “Who’s Judith Demar?”
    “She’s a faculty member in the sociology
department. Not one of my favorite people. A legend in her own
mind.”
    “So maybe she drowned Mirabel?”
    “Hold on, Cleo,” Elisa grabbed my shoulders
and stuck her face in mine. “You say the police need evidence
before they investigate a crime. Shouldn’t you hold yourself to
some standard like that before you start speculating?”
    “Well, I’m not the police, so—”
    “Whoa—thinking of police,” Elisa interrupted,
grabbing my arm. “Isn’t that Pablo over in the corner? And who’s
the gorgeous chick with him? Maybe his sister or a cousin? She
looks a lot like him.”
    I whipped my head around to the direction she
was looking, and my stomach churned. There, over by the giant open
fireplace on the west side of the room was my boyfriend, Pablo. His
back was towards me and across from him was a stunning young woman
whose dark curly hair matched his own. I’ve known Pablo since
college and I know his family and I’d never seen this woman before.
And the way she was looking at him had more of a romantic than a
cousinly feel to me. I stared at them, speechless. Pablo and I have
been in an on-again, off-again relationship for years. Right now
it’s on, but not in an exclusive, committed way. Still, I don’t
expect to run into him with another woman gazing dotingly into his
sexy brown eyes. If you had asked me how I’d feel seeing him with
another woman, I would have said, “I’m fine with it. We’ve both
agreed to have an open relationship.” Surprisingly though, I didn’t
feel fine. I felt like another woman was moving in on my boyfriend.
I decided to take action.
    “Wow. I wonder who she is,” I said. “I’ve
never seen her before. I think I’ll go find out.” I stood up and
took the last swig of my martini to fortify myself. “I wonder if I
should introduce myself to her as his girlfriend or wait and see
what Pablo says first?”
    “I’d see what he has to say. You’ve got
surprise on your side, girl. Use it.”
    I strolled over in what I thought was a sexy,
yet confident and casual sort of way. But I couldn’t take Elisa’s
advice. Instead I came up behind him, threw my arm across his broad
shoulders and marked my territory with a quick kiss on the back of
his neck. “Hey, Pablo,” I said, trying to sound cheerful, like I’d
just run into him by himself.
    He turned toward me with a start. “Oh…hi
Cleo. I thought