Last to Know by Elizabeth Adler Read Free Book Online Page B

though he had not been the one to rescue her. Harry Jordan had done that. Jordan had pretty much rescued Diz as well because by that time Diz had been running out of breath and might simply have had to strike out for the island instead of the girl.
    Roman was tall and muscular and good-looking, like his dad. He was everything Diz was not. His twin sisters were standing there, wrapped in blankets against the cold. The girls’ long hair was blowing sideways in the wind that had gotten up, and they were looking admiringly, not at him but at the soaking wet and half-naked Harry Jordan.
    His mother rushed forward and wrapped him in a blanket. Tears gleamed in her eyes as she said, “Oh God, Diz Osborne, don’t ever scare me like that again or I’ll have to strangle you myself.”
    Harry Jordan had dragged the rowboat out of the water and now he came to stand next to them. Rose gave him a blanket and Wally lent him his cell phone so he could call Detective Rossetti.
    “Cover your nakedness, sir,” Rose said to Harry with that wonderful caring smile which, though she was unaware of it, hit Detective Jordan right in the place his heart was. He hadn’t been the recipient of that kind of smile, of that personalized deep look of caring, for too long a time. In fact, not for a very long time, even before the end was flagged by his fiancée.
    “Sorry about that.” He wrapped the rough plaid blanket over his wet boxers. “I took off my pants before I jumped in. Left them on the bank near my house.”
    “I’ll get them for you if you like,” Roman volunteered. “You must be freezing.”
    Harry thanked Roman but said it was okay, he’d be getting back, his dog was still there.
    Then without warning, the air was rocked by another explosion. They turned as one and looked at what was a large expensive house being flattened to glowing red rubble with flames shooting out, and fire trucks swarming and a swooping aircraft dropping water.
    Neighbors drifted over in hastily flung-on shorts and bathrobes, and Rose, taking charge, said, “I have soup for everybody in my kitchen. And brandy. I think we all need it.”
    Privately, Harry thought the explosion did not look like a normal fire, it was too grand, too all-encompassing; there was almost something planned about such an inferno.
    He thought again about the mother, wondering if she’d been in there, and what little must remain of her. Or had the girl in fact been alone in that house?
    He decided he’d better get over to Mass General and ask her some questions.
    Diz was with Wally, still staring at the faint light that was all that could be seen of the fast-disappearing rescue helicopter. Wally told him they’d better join the others in the kitchen, where Rose always had soup ready for emergencies.
    “Well, this time she really has an emergency,” Harry said.
    “There’s also brandy,” Wally added. “I could use one myself. What d’you say, Detective?”
    Harry hadn’t known that Wally Osborne even knew his name, let alone that he was a detective. He thanked him, but said he must be on his way.
    Wally said, “To Boston, I guess. To the hospital, see about the girl.”
    “My partner’s already there; gotta know she’s okay, and hopefully hear what she has to say.”
    “About her mother, you mean?”
    Harry wondered if Wally knew the mother, but the man fell silent, staring across the lake to where firefighters were still attempting to douse the flames.
    Harry thanked him for the loan of the phone and went to retrieve his clothing from the lakeside path. Back at the house he gave Squeeze the leftover steak grilled earlier on the Weber. He hadn’t felt like eating much so the dog got lucky. Then he took a hot shower, pulled on his jeans, a gray tee, and the black leather bomber jacket. He and the dog were in his car and en route to Boston while Wally Osborne was walking down the side of his house to the jetty and the boathouse, where he cleaned off the still-wet