Fleeced: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark Read Free Book Online

shouldn’t have invited kids on spring break. A gracious brunch is not what they were looking for. But everyone else enjoyed it.”
    “The only two who didn’t complain about the food were Nat and Ben, and now they’re both dead.”
    Janey sighed. “They were the two nicest people in the club.”
    Thomas reached up and took Janey’s hands in his. “How do you think that red box ended up in my wastebasket?”
    Janey came around and sat, very ladylike, on the edge of Thomas’s desk. “Someone threw it there,” she said with steely resolve. “Someone who was on these premises yesterday and stole the diamonds.”
    “But who?” Thomas cried.
    A knock on the door caused them both to jump.
    “Yes, come in,” Thomas called as he sat up straight.
    When the door opened, he saw that it was Regan Reilly.
    “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
    “No, no,” Thomas insisted. “Regan, this is my girlfriend, Janey.”
    “Hello, Janey.” Regan extended her hand.
    “Hello.” Janey’s response was meek.
    “Thomas, we have a lot of things to discuss,” Regan said.
    Janey glanced down at her watch. “I’d better run.”
    “You can stay,” Thomas said in an almost pleading tone.
    “No, sweetness, I’ve got to get to work.” Janey grabbed her beige coat off the chair. It seemed to Regan that everything about her was beige. “I’ll see you both later.”
    “She’s very nice,” Regan remarked when she and Thomas were alone.
    “She is simply wonderful. The most wonderful woman that ever lived,” Thomas insisted.
    How do you know? Regan thought, but asked, “Where does she work?”
    “At home. She has a business cooking meals for people too busy to cook for themselves. People order up to a week’s worth of meals and then store them in the freezer. She’s so wonderful, she gives a discount to the elderly. And on top of that, she’s the biggest good-deed doer I’ve ever met.”
    “That’s wonderful,” Regan found herself saying, thinking of a girl who lived down the hall from her in college who was always going around collecting money for some good cause or other. Regan spotted her years later at an airport with a shaved head, a fixed grin, and the same tin cup ready for donations. But Regan had to hand it to her. She was committed. Janey seemed like the same type.
    “Regan!” Thomas suddenly blurted. “I have nothing to do with that red box being in my garbage.”
    “I believe you,” Regan said simply. “But it makes it pretty clear that someone took those diamonds. I think the whole thing was well planned. Including Nat’s death.” She filled him in on what the maid had told her.
    Thomas cocked his head. “I can’t imagine someone not liking baths.”
    Inwardly, Regan groaned. “But if he didn’t, whatever the reason, it makes his death much more suspect. And it makes me question whether Ben had a heart attack because someone actually pushed him in front of that bus.”
    “A murder in the club! It’s never happened before.”
    “And I want to do my part in making sure it doesn’t happen again, Thomas. I have to talk to the woman across the hall who had the party.”
    “The Princess of Love.”
    “Whatever.”
    “Right away.” Thomas picked up the phone and a few minutes later they were knocking on her door.
    “Are you a quality single?” Lydia inquired with a big smile when Thomas introduced them.
    “It depends on who you ask,” Regan answered.
    Lydia laughed as though that was the funniest thing she had ever heard. Regan smiled in spite of herself. People who laugh at your jokes certainly do gain extra points, she thought.
    “Well, come in,” Lydia said, stretching out her expensively bangled arm. With her jewelry and makeup and sexy lounging outfit, she looked as though she were about to pose for the cover of a romance novel.
    Makes sense, Regan thought. She dresses for the job.
    Thomas turned to Regan. “Your bags are still out by the front desk. I’ll bring them