Double Vision (Unknown Identities #2) by Regan Black Read Free Book Online Page B

of smoke machine. The hallway was clogged, but it wasn't like smoke from a fire."
    "Been in a lot of fires?"
    "One. When I was seven," Adam replied. "It's not an experience you forget."
    Butcher's eyebrows went up and down again. "Did you see anything helpful through the smoke in the hallway?"
    "I'd say it was a man, average build and height, carrying a bag of some sort under his arm."
    "My purse," Vaccaro muttered.
    "Probably," Adam agreed.
    "Can you take a report on my stolen purse?" she asked the detective.
    "Yes, but the odds of recovery are low." He nodded to Adam. "Anything else you want to add?"
    "Just that I tried to follow him, but he shot at me."
    "With a gun?"
    Adam barely kept his gaze steady when he wanted to roll his eyes. "Yes. I was near the service elevator when I heard the commotion. Maybe one of those crime scene experts will find the bullet," he suggested, infusing his voice with an eager curiosity.
    Butcher grunted.
    Selena leaned forward. "Did anyone see a guy running away from this building with a purse? It was black, about so big," she held her hands apart, "and it had most of the things I rely on to get through my life, including the keys to my showroom."
    Butcher wasn't moved. "So far the two of you are it for witnesses here," he replied. "No one else has much to say except the reports of loud noises and smoke. What were you doing back there by the service elevator at the time, Mr. Maxwell?"
    "Dumping a pizza box down the trash chute." Odds were good in a building that size that someone had dumped a pizza box down the chute recently.
    "What kind of pizza?"
    Vaccaro laughed, the bitter sound cutting off his reply. "Really? That's the best you can offer? I'm cold and tired and what he had for dinner has no bearing on the bastard who stole my purse."
    "Unless they were in on it together," the detective said, giving Adam another hard look. "Pretty convenient you being right there."
    "Good grief." Vaccaro tossed the blanket into the ambulance and slipped her hand around Adam's elbow. " This man pulled me out of that apartment when I was too scared to move. He persevered when I put up a fight. For the record I have older siblings and cousins and I know how to fight dirty. And now, Mr. Maxwell is taking me home. If you need any more information the building staff knows how to reach me." She gave a little tug on Adam's arm. "Let's go."
    The woman was one surprise after another. He liked it a little too much. It hadn't been five minutes ago that she'd implied the same thing about his involvement with the crime as the detective.
    "Hang on a minute," Butcher started following them.
    "Sorry ," Adam cut him off. "I know better than to argue with a lady." He guided her on down the street waiting for the moment when she changed her mind and went bolting back to the security of someone more familiar, like Perry.
    They were headed in the general direction of her showroom, beyond that, he wasn't sure what to suggest. Or how long it would take before all the facts of her situation would sink in.
    "Do you know where I live?"
    "No," he lied. "If you really want me to walk you home, you'll have to give me some information."
    She looked at her watch, and a strange groan seeped out of her. "It's a quarter to one."
    "Yeah?"
    "I can't go home." Her voice cracked. "I can't – I don't have –" She cleared her throat. "I don't have a key to my house."
     

Chapter Five
     
    Selena stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Her legs were done cooperating with her bravado. The man who'd stolen her purse from Renata's apartment had everything. Her phone and her wallet. Her keys for both her apartment and the showroom. And knowing Renata's taste in jewelry, about twenty grand in watches.
    She couldn't pull enough air into her lungs as reality hit her. Someone had been in that apartment. Coincidence? Or had Galloway sent someone to wait for her, someone to take her out as soon as she recovered his property?
    Covering her mouth with her