Out of Sight by Stella Cameron Read Free Book Online

she looked at it. “I knew it was too good to be true that no one called for a couple of hours. I’m not answering it.”
    “Who is it?”
    She raised her brows. “Someone for me—calling on my phone. Okay, it’s Ward’s office.”
    “Ah, well, you’ll want to go somewhere private to talk to him.”
    She gritted her teeth and answered. “Hi, Ward? Joan? Yes, of course it’s okay. Is there something wrong?” She was quiet for a couple of minutes before she said, “Thank you,” quietly and hung up.
    Sykes waited. Poppy kept her eyes on him but he didn’t think she was seeing him.
    “Ward’s been arrested. A body was found at his place early this morning, and they’ve arrested him for it.” He noted that she seemed more bemused than upset.
    “I’m sorry.” He was more than curious. “Who was it?”
    “Sonia Gardner. She was the woman singing and playing the piano last night.”

5
    F rom the windows in Sykes’s spartan sitting room, Poppy could see about half of the courtyard below. She also had a good view of the back of J. Clive Millet, the antique shop, and the flats closest to the Royal Street side of the property.
    She had promised to wait while Sykes took a quick shower before doing anything else about Ward.
    In the very left corner of the Court of Angels, bamboo and giant fatsia plants crowded together. Poppy looked hard and counted three angels in that one area—and a palm tree with the upper half of its crown too high for her to see.
    The squelch of wet footsteps preceded Sykes’s arrival and she started to turn away from the window. A small, bright patch of red caught her eye and she looked again, putting her nose close to the glass.
    It must have been a trick of the light because there was nothing red there now.
    “What’s so interesting?” Sykes walked in and Poppy faced him.
    “The courtyard,” Poppy said. “Each time I come I see something I hadn’t noticed before.”
    Sykes didn’t comment on that. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, slinging a towel around his bare shoulders. Water glistened all the way past his navel to the low waist of his jeans, ran down his face and dripped from his hair. “They’re not going to let you anywhere near Ward while they’ve got him in custody. You might as well wait until they finish questioning him.”
    “What if they keep him there a long time?”
    “I don’t know. They must have some strict visiting policies. We’d have to find out.”
    “You said you’d see if Nat Archer could tell us anything.” If Sykes would not help, she’d go alone.
    He shoved the fingers of one hand into his hair. Sculpting must use a lot of muscle. Sykes lean body redefined defined. Poppy concentrated on his face.
    “What would be wrong with giving the cops more time before we go wading in there. This doesn’t apply to you, but some members of our families aren’t great favorites with the local police. Some of them think we’re either the problem they’ve been having in the past year, or causing it.”
    “This doesn’t have anything to do with the families,” Poppy said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s personal.”
    “Of course it is.” His features tightened.
    Sykes didn’t like her involvement with Ward. Why he objected to a man who was no more than an acquaintance, she had no way of knowing.
    “Ward is a friend,” she said. “If he hadn’t thought he could turn to me he wouldn’t have asked Joan to contact me.”
    “I’ll get a shirt and shoes.” Sykes pulled the towel from around his neck. “I’d better make some calls myself and make sure where they’ve got him. If I can get to Nat, he’ll tell me that much.”
    “I just want to get going.”
    “I understand that,” he said. “But there’s no point until we know where to go. He could even have been released by now.”
    “He’d have got in touch with me if he had.”
    His long look made her uncomfortable.
    “Hang in there, Poppy. I’ll be right back.”
    “No.” She