Snowfall at Willow Lake: Lakeshore Chronicles Book 4 by Susan Wiggs Read Free Book Online

of General Timi Abacha? And the head of the diamond syndicate, Serge Henger?”
    Great. He would ask her that. “They’re still at large. But since everything was seized, they have no staff or assets. It’s only a matter of time before they are hunted down.” She paused, then added, “And I hope you’ll include that in your article.”
    â€œAre you kidding? We should make a video to run on the paper’s Web site. You’re great, by the way.”
    â€œThank you.”
    â€œAre you worried about retaliation? Attacks? Before the army was disbanded, they were one of the most heavily armed militias in the region. It’s said a number of them have gone into hiding right here in The Netherlands.”
    â€œCowards who are motivated by greed will always be with us. I’m not going to live in fear because of them.”
    He wrote that down—a good sound byte. “You’re very young to hold this position,” he remarked.
    â€œAge has nothing to do with it,” Sophie told him. “It’s dedication and experience, and I have plenty of that.” She knew he could discover her age with a few clicks on his BlackBerry; it was a matter of public record, as were her blood type, passport numbers, rank in class at her law school and the fact that she’d set collegiate records in distance swimming. She decided to end his suspense. “Thirty-nine,” she said. “Divorced. Two kids who live in Avalon, New York.” Summed up like that, so nice and neat, she sounded like a professional, career-minded international lawyer. The nonchalance of her “They live in Avalon, New York” comment did not begin to cover the agony of her shattered family in the aftermath of divorce. And she wasn’t about to go there with him, though she lived with the pain of it every day. She was a mother without kids to raise. Her mothering was carried out by phone, e-mail, text message and IMs. But the things that happened in her absence were legion. She might find that Daisy had turned into a brunette or Max had started drum lessons…She might find that her ex-husband was getting married. That Max was still begging for a dog, and that Daisy was about to start college. Sophie was forever torn between her simultaneous yearning to be involved in their lives and her abject fear that she’d make more of a mess of her kids than she already had.
    Brooks was asking her something, and she realized she hadn’t been listening at all. “You have a whole room full of dignitaries here,” she told him, gesturing at the milling guests. “Why me?”
    â€œBecause you make good copy,” he told her bluntly. “I write about you, and I’ve got half a chance of getting it placed somewhere other than in the footnotes.”
    â€œAnd I should help you because…”
    â€œLook,” he said, “this is a big deal, what’s happening here—a sovereign nation was saved from being erased off the map. But we both know John Q. Public doesn’t give a rat’s ass about that. He’s too busy texting his vote for American Idol to worry about the state of some third-world country he’s never heard of.”
    â€œDon’t think writing about me is going to change that.”
    â€œIt will if you do something outrageous that’ll play well on YouTube.”
    â€œWhat, like drive across Europe wearing Depends? I can see you’re completely tuned into the solemnity of the occasion,” she said.
    â€œSeriously,” he said, “how does a nice girl like you wind up toppling warlords and dictators?”
    â€œJust lucky, I guess.”
    â€œWhen people think of world court personnel, they think of seventy-year-old guys in musty robes. Not…” He gave her a meaningful look.
    She forced herself not to respond. One of the strictest rules of this job was to increase public perception of the court’s