Deceived by Stella Barcelona Read Free Book Online

brushed too close to a stack of boxes. The top three fell off the stack. The boxes were sealed, they were labeled research, and they made hollow sounds when they fell. He lifted one. It was too light to be full of research. He lifted the next box and the next, placing them as they’d been stacked. Both boxes felt lighter than they’d been on Tuesday night, when he had stacked the boxes so that Lisa had space in the small room.
    Taylor glanced at him. “Is something wrong?”
    “These boxes seem lighter than they were the other night. I’d like to look in them,” he said, “but I’d bet that you wouldn’t go for that.”
    “You’re supposed to be getting the pediatrician’s name, a list of medications, and the brand of formula. That’s it, until the scene is cleared.”
    If it weren’t for Taylor’s efforts, he wouldn’t be there now, so he wasn’t going to argue with her. Brandon walked past her, out of the room, and out the front door.
    After he locked it, she held her hand out. “The key, Mr. Morrissey.”
    She was pretty, Brandon thought, but a righteous pain in the ass. “Call Joe. He’ll tell you I can keep the key.”
    “Joe said he’d call me when the apartment is released, and I haven’t gotten a call. I’m not disturbing him while he’s interviewing witnesses.”
    Brandon willed himself to not be angry. She was only doing her job. He wiped the dirty key on his jeans, then handed it to her. “Thank you for your time.”
    “You’re welcome,” she said, then drew in a deep breath. “Mr. Morrissey, I was wondering-”
    “Brandon. Lose the last name thing.”
    “It’s not personal. I’m being professional.”
    “You’re making me feel old.”
    She gave him an easy smile. “Well, you said in the interview that you had a birthday yesterday. Which one was it?”
    “Forty.”
    “That makes you thirteen years older than me.”
    “Great,” he muttered, staring at her. She was too damn young to look so sophisticated.
    “Anyway,” she paused. “When Joe questioned you, he assumed that Lisa went to your office for legal advice. Did she?”
    “Are you interrogating me?”
    “No,” she paused. “I’m just trying to clarify something. You skirted around Joe’s assumption in your answer.”
    Well, hell .
    Taylor wasn’t only gorgeous, she was astute and unafraid to follow a trail of curiosity. She was also out of line for continuing a police interrogation, when his lawyer wan’t present. “I’m not here to answer questions. You had your chance in the interview to get clarification. It was a rookie mistake, not interrupting Joe, if you felt that I hadn’t answered appropriately.”
    Irritation flashed across her face. He didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. He stepped off the porch and into his car. Taylor was nobody’s fool, he thought, and she was correct. He had skirted around Joe’s assumption. The simple fact was that the real reason why Lisa had originally appeared at his office needlessly complicated things. He drove home, trying to focus on the myriad of things he had to do for Michael, but he couldn’t help being bothered that Taylor was still wondering why Lisa had gone to his office, because if she figured out the truth, it would look like he was hiding something. He wasn’t. He just didn’t feel like talking about it. What if thoughts invaded his mind, and he couldn’t push them out. What if Lisa’s murder was related to the reason she had contacted him in the first place?
    Once his mind went down that path, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Lisa hadn’t come to him for legal advice. She was working on her dissertation and wanted to ask Brandon questions that were related to her research. Eleven months earlier, Lisa was asking questions that he hadn’t heard since his childhood, the same questions that had tormented Marcus Morrissey, Brandon’s father. The questions were about facts that had destroyed the life of Benjamin Morrissey, Brandon’s