Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd Read Free Book Online

women, and Jasmine was only doing her job. “How’s your iced tea?” He tried a smile.
    She wasn’t buying it. She stayed well back from him as she answered, “We make it fresh every day.”
    “Flavored?” He smiled wider.
    She stepped back again. “Plain black tea and ginger peach green tea.”
    He gave up on conciliation and ordered briefly. “Black tea, nonsweetened, and keep it coming.”
    “You bet.” She wrote on the tablet.
    Carrick took the menu from the waitress, and ordered a cappuccino with such charm one of her knees buckled. She wove her way toward the kitchens.
    Turning on Gabriel, Carrick demanded, “What’s with you? What’s with the iced-tea interrogation?”
    “I want it made today, I want it made in a clean pot, and I don’t want any of that chai shit.” Damn the waitress. Now Gabriel didn’t know the right time to break the news to Carrick. Before the drinks arrived? After the sandwiches were half eaten?
    “You Texans are crazy. Chai tea is all the fashion.”
    “Fashion?” Gabriel said, irritated. “I don’t care about fashion.”
    “I can see that.” Carrick eyed Gabriel’s jeans, black tee, and running shoes.
    God, New Yorkers were snobs. “ Chai is the Chinese word meaning We swept the tea leaves off the floor .”
    “Right.” Carrick didn’t laugh.
    In fact, Gabriel suspected he allotted a set number of minutes to chitchat, spent them not listening, and when those minutes were up, he ruthlessly turned the conversation to himself.
    Those minutes were up. “I need to hire you again.”
    Shit. No. Gabriel didn’t want to work for Carrick.
    But before Gabriel could get a word in edgewise, Carrick waved him to silence. “I hired this girl to take care of my mother. Hannah Grey. Hannah told me she was a home-care nurse and she had experience with arthritic patients. I admit, I didn’t do the research.” Carrick smiled like a guy who hated to admit his fault. “She had such an innocent face!”
    “Is she not a nurse?”
    “Oh, she’s a nurse, all right, with the diploma and registration to prove it.” Carrick hitched his chair forward and lowered his voice. “But she’s like Rasputin. She hypnotizes the patient, makes them love her. She’s had her nursing certificate suspended in the state of New Hampshire for immoral behavior. Apparently while she cared for Mr. Donald Dresser, she was slipping it to him—and he was old —and he was grateful to the tune of fifty grand. Worse, he wasn’t the first patient to include her in his will.”
    Carrick now had Gabriel’s full attention. “Any sign of foul play?”
    “No, but they don’t do autopsies on the elderly unless there’s good cause.”
    “Do you think this nurse and your mother are . . .” Gabriel thumped his fists together.
    “God, no!” Carrick’s horror was almost laughable. “It’s not that. But Mother won’t hear a bad word about Hannah Grey.”
    Jasmine put the drinks on the table and whipped out her PDA. “Can I take your orders?”
    Carrick gave his with a smile that melted her into a puddle.
    “I’ll have what he’s having,” Gabriel said, and waved her away. He wanted to get this problem of Carrick’s solved so he could tell Carrick about their relationship. That was why he’d come today.
    “Hannah has convinced Mother to resurrect the old Balfour Halloween party,” Carrick said with an intensity that baffled Gabriel.
    Gabriel shrugged. “I don’t know what that means.” “The Balfours are famous in New England, and they threw their Halloween party for a hundred years. When I was a kid, I remember meeting the president of the United States at our party. Meeting the CEO of Toyota. Meeting the king of Morocco.” Carrick’s face softened. “Father was always home for the party. It was . . .” Reality caught up with Carrick’s memories, and he snapped back to the present. “You have no idea what having the party entails!”
    “I thought your mother was agoraphobic.”
    “She