Far From True by Linwood Barclay Read Free Book Online Page B

He’d considered knocking on her door, but the first time he’d tried, before he’d ever actually met her, he’d found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun. The last time Sam spoke to him, she’d promised him the next time he showed up, she’d pull the trigger.
    He’d been considering dropping by her place of work. Sam wouldn’t shoot him in the middle of the Laundromat, would she?
    David wasn’t sure he was cut out for this much drama. He’d had more than enough of it with his now late wife, Jan. The whole episode with Marla and her baby had left him shaken. And working with Finley was no bucket of joy, either. His reporting days hadn’t prepared him for this kind of unrelenting stress. He’d never been a war correspondent. He hadn’t been Woodward or Bernstein. He’d always been a small-town reporter.
    “I don’t know if I’m up to all this,” he said.
    “What’s that?” his mother asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “Have you talked to your father lately?” Arlene asked.
    “Of course. I talk to him every day. We all live together, Mom.”
    He was sorry as soon as he said it.
    “Don’t you worry. We’ll be gone soon,” she said. “Another few weeks and we’ll be out of your hair. Your father says they’re comingalong really well with the work. They’re ahead of schedule.” A pause. “Lucky for you.”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. And yes, I talk to Dad. Why?”
    “I don’t mean the simple day-to-day stuff. I mean really
talked
to him.”
    “Yeah, I have. Back when I was debating whether to accept the job with Finley, Dad and I had a heart-to-heart. He was the one who said I should take it.”
    “So now you blame your father that you’re having to deal with that man?”
    “I didn’t say that,” David said. “It was my decision. I needed a job. Why are you worried about Dad? What’s going on?”
    “He just has a lot on his mind. You should talk to him sometime about it.”
    “Is he okay? Is this about his heart?”
    Arlene shook her head. “His heart’s fine.” She waved a hand at him. “Forget I even brought this up.”
    He was about to pursue this further when his cell phone, resting facedown on the table next to the laptop, vibrated. He turned it over, looked at the screen.
    “Shit,” he said.
    There was a time when his mother might have reprimanded him for that, but not today.
    “Him?” she asked.
    David nodded. He picked up the phone and put it to his ear.
    “Yeah,” he said.
    “Genius!” Randall Finley said. “Sheer genius!”
    “I’m sorry, Randy. What are you talking about?”
    “Your idea about setting up a fund! To help the drive-in disaster victims! They ate that right up. I was on the fucking
Today
show. Some of the Albany media are already running with it.” He laughed. “Bringing you on wasn’t such a bad idea after all.”
    “Randy, I—”
    “I was just kidding about that. Hiring you, that’s one of the smartest moves I’ve made lately. You got good instincts.”
    “I’ll make sure the account’s up and running first thing,” David said. “I already talked to the bank, let them know we’d be doing this.”
    “Good, good. What you need to do now is—maybe some big company wants to cough up a few thousand or something. We need to get a picture of them giving me the check. Why don’t you start calling around? You know what? Call Gloria Fenwick. She’s wrapping up Five Mountains. Ask her if her bosses would like to make a generous contribution so we’d have something to remember them by other than abandoning our community.”
    I hate myself,
David thought.
    “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
    “We’ll touch base a little later. But I’m going to be unavailable at lunch.”
    David didn’t know about any lunch meeting the would-be mayor had. He was supposed to keep him up-to-date on any changes in the schedule. “What’s going on?”
    “I’m meeting with Francis. Frank.”
    “Frank who?”
    “Frank