A.R. Winters - Valerie Inkerman 01 - Don't Be a Stranger by A.R. Winters Read Free Book Online

shook my head. “He’s not scary. He offered me a lot of money to do this.”
    “Would you do the job if I offered you that much money?”
    I tried to think that one through.
    “See,” said Jerry. “He’s manipulating you and you don’t even know it.”
    “Is not.”
    “Did he tell you that if you can solve this case he’ll refer you to all his buddies?”
    I raised one eyebrow. “No.”
    “Well, he told me he would.”
    “Wow.”
    That’d be great for my career. And he owned a media company – there were lots of people he could tell. I’d be famous. I’d be a world-famous PI who solved difficult cases and charged hefty fees.
    My eyes clouded over with dollar signs. I imagined myself being feted and begged to work on cases – “Oh, Ms. Inkerman, we’ll pay you whatever you want! Please, just find us our lost puppy, Smithers.” And of course Smithers would be a cinch to find and then…
    “–And then, of course, I kept getting extra homework and the coach might have even pulled me from the team but then…”
    I blinked and looked at Jerry as though I was seeing him for the first time. “Huh?”
    Jerry looked hurt. “You weren’t listening, were you?”
    I shrugged.
    “I was telling you how my dad keeps manipulating people around me. He’s always been disappointed that I didn’t go to Wharton or some other fancy business school, and that I didn’t want to go into the family business.”
    I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I was breaking some kind of confidence. And then I said, “He told me that he’s proud of you for following your dreams.”
    “Really?” Jerry looked surprised, and his face shone with a brief moment of happiness. But almost immediately, he looked glum again. “Maybe. But I think mostly he’s not happy that I didn’t try to be more like him.”
    I shrugged. “People are complicated; we feel more than one thing at a time. It’s hard to pick apart our emotions and say just how much of each one we’re feeling.”
    “Mphh.” Jerry shrugged noncommittally and took a big gulp of his coffee. “What did you want to talk about?”
    “I need to get started with this investigation.”
    “You mean you need to turn into Nancy Drew.”
    I frowned. “I don’t know why you’re smirking. Nancy Drew always got her man. Or woman. And aren’t you supposed to be desperate for my help? Seeing as how you’ve been accused of murder?”
    “Nah. I’ll just have my lawyer subpoena the woman I was with. Then when she’s on the stand, she’ll have to testify that we were together and heard the shot.”
    I stared at him. “Are you serious? You really think she’ll come through?”
    “Sure, why not? Otherwise it’s perjury.”
    “She’s lied to the cops once, Jerry. She’s going to do it again.”
    Jerry sobered up a little. “You think? I mean…”
    “She can’t get divorced, right? And hey, you know this woman better than I do.”
    Jerry finished his coffee and walked over to the fridge. “Ok, then. I guess you better put on your Nancy Drew hat.”
    I waited for a few seconds to be absolutely, positively sure that this was the most serious, groveling request for help that Jerry could come up with. And then I sighed. His dad was my client – not him.
    “Ok,” I said, watching Jerry take strange, roundish vegetables out of the fridge. “Tell me what you remember about that night.”
    “I already told you.” Jerry cleared the top of his butcher’s block table and began washing the vegetables. “I went upstairs. There was no-one in the room–”
    “Hang on! Are you sure? Did you look around?”
    He made a face like I was being slow. “Of course I looked around! Unless there was someone under the bed, or something. Anyway, we slipped into the closet, and then, um–”
    “You can skip the gory details.”
    Jerry grinned. “Well it was going good at first.”
    “And you never thought to ask this woman if she was married or not?”
    Jerry placed the washed