Merciless by Mary Burton Read Free Book Online Page A

Her mousy brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, and her beige sweater-blouse barely covered the folds of her belly. She was as unforgettable as the building where she worked.
    When she reached a stopping point, she glanced up at the officers. “Yes?”
    Malcolm pulled out his badge. “Detective Malcolm Kier. This is my partner, Detective Garrison. We’d like to see Brian Humphrey.”
    Brown eyes widened. “Is Brian in some kind of trouble?”
    “Why would he be in trouble?” Garrison said. His relaxed demeanor drained the challenge from the question.
    “Oh, he wouldn’t be in trouble. But I wouldn’t doubt that his soon-to-be ex called the cops on him.”
    “Really?”
    “It’s no secret that his divorce has been a mess. When he blocked his soon-to-be ex from his cell phone she started calling the front desk. She is very clever and can change her voice so I’d send the calls through. She’s an actress.”
    “Really?” Garrison grinned.
    Malcolm marveled at the way his partner could cajole with that smile. His own grin, he’d been told, was more akin to a snarl.
    “The last time I let her call through, they got into a huge fight, and when Brian came out his face was so red. He told me to hold all calls until he could get her to stop bugging him.”
    “What did she want?” Malcolm asked.
    The woman’s gaze shifted to Malcolm and lost what little warmth it had gained. “Money.”
    “They fight about anything else?”
    “If the weather changed, they fought.” The phone rang, and she answered it. When she’d forwarded the call she glanced up. “Why don’t I get Brian up here?”
    “That would be great.”
    Minutes after being paged, Brian Humphrey appeared.Malcolm had expected him to be bland and lifeless like the building, but instead he was surprised to see a tall man with broad shoulders and a lean build. He had dark hair, complete with a wave in the front, chiseled features, and tanned skin. He reminded Malcolm of a Disney hero. He’d glimpsed a few when his nephew and niece watched cartoons at his parents’ place. What was that guy’s name in the last video the kids had been playing over Christmas?
Beauty and the Beast
. Brian Humphrey looked like Gaston.
    Malcolm held up his badge. “Mr. Humphrey?”
    “Yes.” His voice was a deep baritone, and no doubt the guy had a singing voice as smooth as Gaston’s.
    “We’d like to talk to you about your wife, Sierra Day.”
    Humphrey’s face grew contemptuous. “She will officially be my ex-wife as soon as I can get her to sign the papers. And I prefer to think of her as my ex.”
    “Is there some place we can chat in private?” Garrison said. “Maybe your office.”
    Humphrey didn’t need to glance at the receptionist to know she gawked at them. “Sure. It’s small, but it’s private.”
    They wove down a hallway created by the configurations of twenty or so gray cubicles. Throughout the central room, the voices of office workers mingled with the tap of fingertips on keyboards and the whir of a copy machine. All conversation ceased as they passed. They reached a small office in the back corner.
    Humphrey shut the door behind them. “Delores, she’s the receptionist, has put the word out on the jungle beat that you are here.”
    “We have that effect,” Malcolm said. People got nervous around cops.
    He glanced around the guy’s office. There was a largewindow behind Humphrey’s desk, but tinted glass and mini-blinds filtered out most of the sunlight. Pictures taken of Humphrey in various plays covered the walls. Humphrey as Hamlet. Humphrey as a clown. Humphrey as Sherlock Holmes. In a few spots, only a nail and a shadow imprint of a frame remained. It didn’t take much of a leap to guess Sierra had been in those pictures.
    On the desk were a half-eaten bagel, a diet soda, and a well-worn script.
    “So what do you do for Computer Science Arts?”
    “I manage databases for nonprofits and other marketing entities. It’s all very