Sound of Secrets by Darlene Gardner Read Free Book Online Page B

you got the wrong impression," she said, but he noticed her wipe her palms on the back of her slacks. "I have some business here."
    His eyebrows rose. "Business? Here at the newspaper?"
    "Yes."
    He silently waited for her to elaborate.
    "I'm here," she said at last, "to find Grayson DeBerg."
    And so the mystery deepened, Gray thought.
    "You found him," he said.

    The magnetic pull the police chief seemed to have on Cara faded.
    When he'd turned in his chair, she'd caught another full blast of deja vu. Although she hadn't expected to see him again, his face had been vividly imprinted on her mind. She looked into that face now, noting how his nearly black hair and eyebrows contrasted with the gray-blue of his eyes. Unlike the little boy who had vaporized into the air, he was solid and real.
    He was also toying with her.
    "You're not Grayson DeBerg."
    "Sure I am." He leaned forward in his chair, dangling his hands between his legs. He wasn't wearing his cop's uniform today but a faded long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans that underlined his virility. "But you can call me Gray."
    A nameplate was attached to the side of his cubicle. It said the impossible.
    That didn't make sense. Gray DeBerg had written about Reginald Rhett III's death a quarter century ago, and this man couldn't be much older than she was. That would have made him five or six at the time of Reginald Rhett's death. Besides, he was the police chief.
    "The Gray DeBerg I'm looking for is much older than you. He's been writing for the newspaper for..." Cara paused when she realized she didn't know exactly how long Gray DeBerg had been employed by the Secret Sound Sun. "...for years."
    "Oh, you're looking for that Gray DeBerg." A gleam came into his eyes. For the second time in two days, Cara questioned her sanity. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
    "I did say so."
    "No. You said you were looking for Gray DeBerg. Everyone around here except me calls him Bergie."
    "Bergie?" Another jolt of surprise overtook her. "As in the columnist who writes the 'Bergie's Sound’ column? The one about people doing good deeds for each other?"
    "That's the one. He's quite the do-gooder," Gray said without any hint of mockery in his voice. Instead, Cara heard pride. "He also writes about people who need help, people and agencies that do help and projects and programs that should get help. Only one of his columns is nationally syndicated. The rest of the time, he writes about local issues."
    "Wait a minute. If you don't call him Bergie, what do you call him?" Cara asked, already knowing the answer.
    "Dad."
    Cara pressed her lips together. Her situation was growing more complicated. It would have been better had Bergie been childless rather than the father of the one man who had seen her at her most irrational moment.
    "Is your father here in the office?" She ignored the fact that he'd been having some fun with her. He must have known she'd been seeking the elder DeBerg.
    "He'll show up eventually, although with Dad you never can tell exactly when. Punctuality is not one of his virtues."
      "I need to talk to him."
      "Why don't you tell me who you are first?" When she didn't immediately answer, he continued, "Or should I just make up a name for you?"
    "It's Carissa Donnelly." She paid careful attention to see if her name seemed familiar to him. Not a flicker of recognition passed his face. "Everybody calls me Cara."
    "So Cara," he said, and the name rolled off his tongue like a tiger’s purr, "why do you want to talk to my father?"
    "I have some business he can help me with."
    "What kind of business?"
    Cara's instincts told her to trust him, but she'd been wrong about him before. She erected an invisible barricade. "Haven’t you ever heard of tact?"  
    A corner of his mouth lifted in what could have passed for a smile.
    "What's funny?" she demanded.
    "I just asked someone the same thing. I'll answer the same way he did. I've never had much use for it. It gets in the way when