Loyalty by Ingrid Thoft Read Free Book Online Page A

Milloy.

The next night, Fina sat in her car in front of Rand’s house waiting for Milloy. It was nine P.M. , and she’d spent the morning being deposed for a case she’d investigated and the afternoon tracking down the meager leads she had. Nobody had heard from Melanie—at least nobody would admit it. She had fallen off the grid, which wasn’t easy to do as long as you were breathing.
    A black BMW pulled up behind her, and Milloy got out.
    “You gotta be kidding me,” he said as they walked up the path to Rand’s enormous colonial Tudor.
    “You can see why I called you,” Fina said. She knocked and opened the front door simultaneously. “I can’t search this place on my own.”
    Milloy shook his head.
    “I just want to take a look around, and I trust you. You’re discreet and can be devious; my favorite combination.”
    Scotty greeted them. His tie was off, and he had a tumbler of scotch in one hand. The foyer was the size of a small apartment, with marble floors and a sweeping staircase.
    “Dad said the cops were here yesterday,” Fina said.
    “And today,” her brother commented.
    “So what’d they take?” she asked.
    “A couple of bags of clothes and some boxes of paperwork.” He grabbed his suit coat off the stairs and shrugged into it.
    “We’re going to take a look around,” Fina said. “Is Rand here?”
    “At the office. Haley’s upstairs, though, watching TV.”
    Scotty left, and Fina pointed Milloy in the direction of the living room, dining room, and guest bedrooms—the rooms that saw the least amount of traffic—and she went downstairs. The lower level of the house boasted a large family/media room, an outfitted exercise room, and Rand’s office. Both the family room and his office featured French doors that opened to the backyard, which was dominated by a large in-ground swimming pool and Jacuzzi and beautiful landscaping, including a pristine lawn and a plethora of flowers and shrubs. Blue and purple hydrangea bushes bordered the grass, and another bed boasted rosebushes, their colors only hinted at by the tight buds. The rhododendrons had bloomed and their waxy green leaves were left behind. Undoubtedly the gardener had picked the flowers once they’d lost their beauty; Melanie cared how things looked.
    Fina stood at the door of Rand’s office. It was anchored by an oriental carpet, and the furniture was made from walnut. The desktop was empty except for a few desk accessories and a pad of legal paper. Fina took a seat in the executive leather chair and began to open the drawers and riffle through the file folders. Next, she moved on to the custom-made filing cabinets, the media cabinet, and the marble wet bar. An hour later, she had nothing to show for her search, except the news flash that her brother was outrageously rich and had a luxurious lifestyle, as evidenced by $40,000 monthly credit card statements for first-class airline tickets, restaurant tabs, and an account at Nordstrom.
    Fina climbed two flights of stairs and found Milloy reaching into the depths of a linen closet. She padded down the carpeted hallway and went into the master bedroom. The walls were painted a faint mint green, and another large rug dominated the wood floor. Venetian glass dangled from the elaborate chandelier in the center of the room, and a marble fireplace stood opposite the bed. The wall was dotted with paintings in heavy gold frames, the themes of which seemed to favor boating parties and children frolicking. If their value could be measured in ugliness, then Fina imagined the paintings were priceless.
    She looked through the drawers of the matching bedside tables and found nothing to raise suspicion. The first dresser she searched was obviously Rand’s—lots of black socks and boxers. Fina didn’t like pawing through people’s personal belongings, and there was something particularly creepy about searching through the underwear drawers belonging to her brother and sister-in-law.