Deadly Valentine (Special Releases) by B. J. Daniels Read Free Book Online Page A

than back at the office?’’ he asked as he pulled out the tape recorder. She seemed a little surprised. ‘‘You don’t mind, do you?’’
    ‘‘It wasn’t like I thought this was a date,’’ she said, then reddened.
    ‘‘Look, I’m sorry if you thought—’’
    ‘‘Let’s just not go there.’’ She hit the record button and met his gaze. ‘‘What is it you’d like to know?’’
    Why had she thought he’d asked her to dinner? He felt like a jerk, again. What was it about Tempest that made him so...awkward around her? Frannie. She had known Frannie probably better than he had. Maybe that’s why he and Tempest had never gotten along. That and the fact that Tempest had been against the marriage. Jack figured she didn’t think he was good enough for Frannie. Which was true.
    Tempest was waiting, the tape recorder rolling.
    ‘‘What do you know about Mitzy and Oliver’s relationship?’’ he asked.
    ‘‘The word around the community is they’re perfect for each other, but there is all kinds of ways to take that.’’ She shrugged. ‘‘To all appearances they seem to be...lovebirds,’’ reminding him of the two birds Peggy had brought to the penthouse, birds that, if their waitress could be believed, had mated for life just today.
    ‘‘Okay, tell me what happened from the time you heard Mitzy scream,’’ he said.
    Tempest’s story matched what Mitzy had told him and yet even as he listened he had the feeling Tempest wasn’t telling him everything.
    ‘‘You didn’t see Oliver on the back stairs?’’ he asked.
    ‘‘No. I was with Mitzy out by the elevator when Oliver showed up. I just assumed he’d come up the back stairs.’’
    ‘‘Could he have come up the elevator after Mitzy?’’ Jack asked.
    She shook her head. ‘‘The elevator door was blocked just as he said with Mitzy’s shopping bags. You’re wondering about the extra key.’’
    ‘‘Could he have arrived before Mitzy, left his key in the elevator by accident, poisoned Peggy or at least found her body, then hid in the penthouse so that you and Mitzy only thought he’d come up the back stairs, but was actually there the whole time?’’
    ‘‘Could have, I suppose.’’
    Oliver was guilty of something. Jack would bet on that. But murder? ‘‘I saw him look at you as if he expected you to say something when he was telling how he’d come up the stairs after you were already there.’’
    ‘‘I didn’t notice.’’
    Jack definitely didn’t believe that. He remembered thinking she was angry about something. But he let it go. For now. He reached over and shut off the tape recorder. ‘‘Take the job. I need your help on this.’’
    Tempest stared at him, surprise and something he couldn’t put his finger on in her gaze. ‘‘Aren’t you afraid I’m too personally involved?’’
    He shook his head. ‘‘No more than I am.’’
    She smiled at that. ‘‘I’ll think about it.’’
    It started to snow as he and Tempest left the cafe´. Large, lacy flakes drifted lazily down from the darkness. The air felt cold, the snow icy against his face, and yet after she left him in front of the cafe´, he walked around the small community of peak-roofed condos, art galleries, upscale restaurants and fancy shops.
    The town had grown since he’d been gone. And changed. Once River’s Edge had been little more than a playground for the affluent. But a resort needs workers. That’s where people like he and Peggy and Tempest had come in. Their families had lived down the mountain in hurriedly thrown-up buildings along the highway and worked cheap just for the opportunity to ski on their days off or fish when the mayfly hatch was on or because they had no place else to go.
    In the years he’d been gone, something had happened though. Not that people still didn’t live in the flats down by the highway and drive old cars up to clean the condos and wait tables, but now there were smaller houses sprouting up, houses