Because You Love Me by Mari Carr Read Free Book Online

neither of these places gets used much in the winter. Weather tends to be an issue.”
    She looked at Rodney with amazement. He was the most honest, law-abiding person she’d ever met. “You’re going to break in?”
    “Bridget. We’re low on money and running out of options. The trial starts in three weeks. We just have to hang in there that long. I’ll call my partner a couple days before we need to return, explain why we took off and ask him to secure us transportation back to the city.”
    “We came here to try to find the information Lyle had on the judge. We can’t exactly do that if we’re stuck on some mountainside, squatting in someone else’s house.”
    “Yeah, about that.” Rodney took Lyle’s letter from his pocket. “I was playing around with this earlier and I want to show you something.”
    They reclaimed their seats at the table. Bridget could hear Todd cleaning up in the kitchen, singing along loudly with the radio. She grinned at his off-key accompaniment to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. She wasn’t sure where the rest of the guests had gone, but aside from his performance, the house was relatively quiet.
    Rodney pointed out the part of the code they’d already broken. “So if the first sentence is every sixth word, then we’re left with Sara and toga. Bridget, remember in college when Sara got totally trashed at the toga party. If you count six more words after toga, it takes us five words into the next sentence.”
    Bridget nodded. “We’ve done that. Silly girl swore to God and then on her mother’s grave she would give up alcohol. The next word after toga is God, but counting out six more words leaves us grave. God’s grave.”
    She’d repeated that phrase a million times in her head. They’d searched the only churchyard cemetery within the city limits the moment they set foot off the bus. They’d been so certain they would find a clue. Instead, they’d come up with nothing.
    “What if it’s not every sixth word? What if in the second sentence it’s every fifth?” Rodney asked.
    She glanced at the paper and re-counted. “Godmother’s? Oh my God. What if it is?”
    “Do you know if Lyle had a godmother? Who she was?”
    Bridget closed her eyes, forcing her memories of Lyle to the foreground. She should have been a better friend. She didn’t have a clue. She racked her brain trying to remember, but nothing came to her.
    “Fuck,” she finally admitted. “I have no idea.”
    Rodney only looked slightly disappointed. “So go five more words over and you get the word up . I have no idea what that means, but count five to the next sentence and I think Lyle gave us a clue about the godmother.”
    Bridget looked at the third sentence. “Ellen.”
    Rodney nodded. “Ring any bells?”
    She shook her head. “No, but I suppose we could ask around. What do you think the chances are his godmother has his last name—Turner?”
    “Slim to none,” Rodney replied. “And the rest of that sentence doesn’t seem to offer up a surname. I tried highlighting every fourth word, thinking maybe it was a countdown code, but that doesn’t seem to work either.”
    Bridget continued reading silently. And then Ellen told her that the key was “drink in moderation first.” “Every fourth word leaves us with the and in . Those are pointless.”
    “Yeah. I know. And then the last line is still hanging out there.”
    She reread the final sentence of the missive. Always loved that wealth of unhelpful, impractical information. Call me later, Lyle. “What if we just pull out words that look important?” she suggested.
    Rodney sighed. “We’ve tried that, remember? Too many words. Too many variables. Plus we still have that damn up hanging out there unexplained, which could mean my godmother Ellen theory is shot to hell.”
    “We’re closer now.”
    Rodney leaned back in his seat. “Yeah. I guess. But I have to tell you, if Lyle weren’t already dead, I’d probably kill him for