Before She Dies by Mary Burton Read Free Book Online Page A

against the sidewalk as she turned on her BlackBerry and checked her messages. Two clients. Her realtor. Clerk of the court. The apartment manager of the Seminary Towers. And a number she did not recognize.
    As she walked the block toward her office, she called the clerk first. His message had been in response to a call from her. No verdict in the Samantha White case yet.
    “Good,” she muttered. “They have questions and are thinking.”
    She dialed her realtor and two rings later heard a perky, “Hello, Charlotte! How are you?”
    “Great, Robert, as long as you have not had other problems with my condo sale.”
    “It’s nothing huge this time. The man buying your condo called to say the home inspector has two issues. He says there is a leaky faucet in the second bathroom and the lock on the exterior storage closet rattles. He wants you to fix them both. He also wants to move the closing date up to the thirtieth.”
    “Robert, I’ve made enough price concessions to this guy. I agreed to be out the middle of next month and now he wants two weeks and two minor issues fixed? He is officially a pain in the ass. The place is stunning, one of a kind. He should be grateful the place came on the market.”
    “Five years ago, I’d have agreed. These days, just be grateful you got asking price. Besides, Charlotte, these are minor changes. You could hire a handyman to take care of both issues in an hour. And the new move-out day is only fifteen days earlier.”
    “Fifteen days is a lifetime for me this year.” Given a different set of financial circumstances, this last request would have been the final straw. She’d have pulled the condo from the market and told the buyer to buzz off.
    But she needed the money from the condo sale more than extra time to arrange the move. The law practice had hit a dry spell that she fully expected to ride out in the long run. But short term, cash flow was strangling her. “I don’t have the time to track down a handyman. And I haven’t even called a mover.”
    “I’ll call the handyman and a mover that I trust. My guy can have the minor repairs made today, and my other guy can have you safely moved out in fifteen days.”
    She tightened her grip on her briefcase handle. “I don’t like being pushed like this.”
    “This is a huge sale, Charlotte. It would be a shame for you to lose out. And I know you really want this.”
    People chose Robert because he was aggressive and had a reputation for quick, high-dollar sales. His customers either needed cash or a quick move. Seeing as she wasn’t leaving Alexandria, it didn’t take a huge leap for him to figure that money drove this sale.
    Life had backed her into a corner before, and she’d learned that survival depended on adaptability. “Fine. Get your man in to fix the problems and find me a mover. One way or the other, I’ll be ready to move out by the new date.”
    “Great. Great. This will be worth the effort.”
    “It needs to be.” She said her good-byes and hung up. As she walked, she called one client and left a voice mail. She was dialing the second when her phone rang. Her realtor. “Robert.”
    “You’re good to go. I’ve taken care of everything.”
    “Great.”
    “Plan to close in fifteen days.”
    “Okay.”
    “It’s going to be fine.” The soft edge in his voice suggested unwelcome pity.
    “It’s going to be better than fine, Robert.” She hung up, moving down the tree-lined brick sidewalk past the historic town houses.
    When Charlotte arrived at the office, she unlocked the front door, which always remained secured. She’d never fretted over security and enjoyed an open-door policy until a man had waltzed into her law offices three years ago and shot her.
    She’d returned to her office one week after the surgery to inspect the installation of her office’s new security system. She’d insisted that she was recovering nicely and had no lingering issues after the shooting, but the truth was worry