Hiding in the Shadows by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online Page A

about a new stock or other investment opportunity), and had been known to arrive at the office wearing different colored socks and unsure where he’d parked his car. But what he lacked in common sense and personal style, Conrad more than made up in financial brilliance. In the investment community, it was well known that he made money for all his clients, handled their business with scrupulous honesty, and was the absolute soul of discretion.
    Blinking behind his thick glasses, Conrad said miserably, “I want to help, Kane. You know I do. And if I thought there was anything, anything at all, in Dinah’s financial dealings that might help find her, I would have said so to you or the police long before now.”
    “But you won’t show us her file?” It was Bishop who asked, his voice level.
    “I can’t do that. As long as there’s no proof otherwise, I have to assume she could walk in that door any minute. And given that, I have to keep her files confidential. I can’t give you details—I just can’t. And the judge agreed with me when the police tried to get a warrant, Kane, you know she did. Unless you or the police come up with information that indicates Dinah’s disappearance was somehow connected to her financial dealings, my hands are tied.”
    “Legally tied,” Kane noted.
    “I have to protect my clients’ privacy.”
    Kane drew a breath and tried to remain patient, knowing only too well that he would want his own affairs treated exactly the same way. “Okay, Conrad. But think. Surely you can tell us if there was anythingunusual, say in the last few months. You’ve had time to think about it.”
    “Yes, but … unusual how? Dinah left her investments to me for the most part, you know that, Kane. Occasionally she sold stocks against my advice for quick cash, usually because she was trying to help somebody—”
    “What do you mean?” Bishop interrupted.
    Conrad considered the question and whether he would be breaching confidentiality, then decided to answer frankly. “Just that. She’d do a story on a home for battered women, and then call me to sell some stock so she could give them fifty thousand to remodel or hire a better lawyer, something like that. She’d do a story on a poor congregation losing its church, and right away pour tens of thousands into their rebuilding fund.”
    He smiled with wistful fondness. “I could always tell. She’d have that note in her voice when she called, so determined you could call it hell-bent, and I’d know she’d found another wounded soul or bird with a broken wing. She’s given millions over the years. Even before her father died, she used most of the income from her trust fund to help others.”
    Kane swallowed. “I … never knew that. She never said anything about it.”
    “No, she wouldn’t have. It wasn’t something she talked about. She once told me that her father had taught her a lesson she’d never forgotten—that you helped people without shouting about it, because just the act of helping them made you and your own life better. She believed that. She lived up to that.”
    Bishop glanced at Kane, then said coolly to Conrad,“With that in mind, don’t you think she’d want you to help us find her? So she can help more people, if nothing else. The trail is cold, Mr. Masterson. And she’s been missing for five weeks.”
    Conrad bit his bottom lip. “I wish I could help, Agent Bishop. You have no idea how much. But—”
    “Had she come to you recently and asked you to sell stocks without any explanation, or without an explanation you considered reasonable?”
    “No. She always had a reason, and, after all, it’s her money. She’s free to spend it however she pleases. Usually, it was her stories and learning about somebody in need that started it for her. Something that got her passionate and made her get involved.”
    Bishop frowned. “Did she talk about her stories to you before they were written, Mr. Masterson?”
    That question