Inspector Green Mysteries 9-Book Bundle by Barbara Fradkin Read Free Book Online Page B

followed her into a small studio apartment strewn with papers, dirty dishes and cast-off clothing. The building was not air-conditioned, and the steamy air smelled faintly of sweat. Beyond the mess, the room was sparse, with no pictures or other personal mementos to warm it up. No portraits of doting parents or goofy siblings. A girl without a past, or at least without one she cared about.
    “I thought you’d probably come,” she managed as she folded her tall, willowy frame amid the sofa cushions with a sob. “None of his friends has even called me. It’s as if I don’t exist any more. As if, just because we broke up, I don’t have feelings any more.”
    Green debated how to proceed. The woman clearly neededto talk, and he had no idea what might be important. Experience had taught him that letting witnesses ramble often yielded unexpected dividends. He set his tape recorder on the table and eased back casually into an armchair opposite her.
    “Tell me about you and him.”
    Her eyes filled again. With a grimace, she leaned over and made a half-hearted attempt to pick some papers from the floor. “I wish I could. I don’t know what happened to Jonathan and me. I thought he loved me—he said he did—but then he started giving all these excuses about working late and being busy. Usually I helped him with his work, but this time he wouldn’t tell me what he was working on. Then a couple of times when he’d said he was working, I saw him with another woman.”
    “When was that?”
    “It started about a month ago. Jonathan and I had a big fight over it, and he said I had to trust him. But I’m not a fool. I can’t compete with a woman like that.”
    “Do you know who she was?”
    Her mouth quivered. “Raquel Haddad.”
    Haddad, he thought. Lebanese name. “Jet black wavy hair, olive skin?”
    She glanced up in surprise. “You’ve seen her?”
    He shrugged, non-committal. “Who is she?”
    She lowered her eyes and twisted the kleenex around her finger like a noose. “An undergraduate troller. She hung around our floor, looking for prey. She started with another guy but quickly moved on to more promising prospects. At first Jonathan denied she was even in the picture. Then he said she was just a research assistant. Yeah, right.”
    “You didn’t believe him?” “She was all over him.” The noose tightened, then shereleased it with a small gasp. “I…I don’t mean he lied.” She pressed her hand to her forehead and took deep breaths, striving for composure. “It was just his way of letting me down easy. Jonathan hates to hurt anybody. But sometimes being wishy-washy hurts more than an honest yes.”
    “How did he seem recently? Anything different? Was he troubled?”
    “He felt bad about me, I could tell. He avoided me at the university. He’d leave the room if I came in or pretend he was engrossed in a book. Jonathan was never very extroverted, but he seemed quieter than before.”
    “Sad?”
    She put the shredded kleenex aside and smoothed her bathrobe, in control again. “You know—” She raised her eyes thoughtfully “—sometimes he did look a little sad. I thought maybe she was giving him a rocky ride. She looked a little too…hot-blooded for his temperament.”
    “Did you notice anything different between him and his friends or classmates?”
    “He didn’t hang out with them as much as before. He seemed buried in his work. They made snide little comments like ‘Blair thinks he’s going to find a way to make cats talk’.”
    “That sounds jealous. Were others jealous of him?” “Jonathan had no airs. He was handsome and brilliant, but he was also modest and unassuming. I think some guys were even jealous of that. They’d like him to be an arrogant creep, so they could put him down without feeling guilty.”
    “Are you saying jealousy was a major problem?”
    “Jealousy is always a problem in the academic world, Detective. That’s one of the first things my father warned me