Sound of Secrets by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online

Rhett was like a cop. Even when he was away from his job, he was on duty. "It's my night off."
    "I didn't think they gave police chiefs the night off."
    "You know as well as I do that nobody gives you anything, Curtis. You have to take it."
    The other man nodded. "So this night off you've taken, are you going to spend it at the newspaper?"
    "No offense, but the Sun isn't my idea of an exciting night on the town. I’m here because I have a dinner date."
    Curtis's eyes narrowed. "Not with my niece, I hope."
    "No, not with Karen," Gray said, chuckling. "With my father. You always did have the tact of a five-year-old."
    "Aw, come on. I haven’t even mentioned you need a haircut."
    Gray’s fingered the longish hair at his nape as his laugh deepened. Curtis kept on talking.
    "Did you ever wonder why the same people who are charmed when a child is honest are appalled when an adult speaks his mind?" Curtis shook his head. "Sometimes when we run a story that shakes things up, people are so resistant to believe that I think they'd rather not know the truth.
      "But you're not here to listen to my philosophy on all the news that's fit to print, and I have to get to a lineup meeting. We’re still on for fishing tomorrow, right? Can we make it earlier? I have to be in the office by ten."
    Gray hid his grimace. "How’s seven o’clock sound?"
    "Six-thirty’s better. I found a great new spot that only a couple hundred other people know about."
    As Curtis rushed off in the direction of the oversized glass cage he called an office, Gray wondered how many hours a week he spent in it. Sixty? Seventy? Eighty?
    Gray crossed the newsroom, returning the greetings of various employees as he went. He knew more of them than he didn't, but then his father had worked here longer than anyone on staff.
    "Hey there, handsome."
    A brunette with blonde streaks in her hair stepped in front of him. She wore a tight red dress that showed off her sumptuous figure. She walked long, ruby-painted nails up his chest and gazed at him through heavily lashed green eyes. Because of all her eye makeup, Gray thought it must be an effort to keep them open.
    "Are you here to see me?" she asked, her voice a sultry purr.
    "Hello, Karen,” Gray said. "You know it's always good to see you, but I'm here to meet my dad. Have you seen him around?"
    To her credit, Karen kept her smile from wavering. Gray thought it ironic that the persistence he'd always admired was now a source of friction between them. Since Karen's divorce had come through a few months earlier, she'd made it clear that she wanted him.
    That was her problem, Gray thought ruefully. Ever since they were kids, Karen had wanted the wrong thing.
    "Nope. Haven't seen him. You know your father, Gray. He keeps a different timetable than the rest of us." She smiled again and brushed an imaginary piece of lint off the thin cotton of his shirt. "Any chance you'll be free later tonight?"
    Gray got a whiff of a spicy perfume meant to tantalize and had an inspiration. "I'm meeting Ty for drinks later at the Dew Drop Inn. Probably about nine. Join us, why don’t you?"
    Karen narrowed her green cat's eyes. She'd sensed his trap, he thought. "If Tyler's going to be there, I'll give that one a miss. But be sure to let me know when you'll be somewhere unescorted."
    She walked away, exaggerating the sway of her hips, slanting him a last come-hither look over her shoulder.
    Gray sank into the chair in front of his father’s computer. He shouldn’t even try to help Tyler Shaw in his crazy pursuit of Karen. He saw nothing ahead but heartache, and it wouldn’t be Karen who experienced it.
    "Ty, old friend," he whispered, "you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into."
    Gray picked up an issue of the Secret Sound Sun and leaned back in the adjustable office chair, opening the newspaper to his father's column on the second section front. He'd already read the column once, but the vision of a neighborhood community