The Heart of Lies by Debra Burroughs Read Free Book Online Page B

elevator, waiting until she was inside to put the coat on.
    Stepping off the elevator, dressed in the dark green hotel worker’s jacket, she walked down the hallway, the camera in her hand, reading the room numbers as she went. Emily noticed a room service tray outside of one of the other rooms with an empty champagne bottle and two glass flutes. She picked them up as a prop to get the perp to open his door.
    Emily knocked on the door and called out, “Room service.”
    She put her eye up to the peephole and saw the man walking toward her. She stepped back and gasped, trying to stifle a giggle. Oh, my gosh, what is going on in there?
    “Room service already delivered,” the man shouted back.
    “This is champagne—on the house,” Emily replied, holding the full tray close up to the peephole where the man could only read the label.
    Emily heard the door unlock, so she rushed to set the tray down on the floor. She whipped the camera out of her pocket and hit the On button. He opened the door a crack, which gave Emily the opportunity to shoulder it open all the way. He stumbled back a couple of steps.
    There stood Harry Wykoski, attorney-at-law, father of six, married to the same woman for twenty years, wearing a sheer red negligee and matching high-heeled slippers with little fuzzy pom-poms on them.
    Emily took the shot, the light flashing in his eyes, capturing his look of shock and terror. She struggled to contain the laughter that was bubbling up inside her.
    “Are you alone in there, Harry?” She looked past him but didn’t see any movement.
    “Who are you?” he demanded, as he snatched a white hotel robe from the back of a chair. “Why are you taking my picture? Gimme that.” He lunged forward and reached out to grab for her camera, but she stepped back and slipped it into the waistband of her jeans. She felt safe in assuming he wouldn’t come out into the hall after her.
    “Uh-uh, Harry.” Emily chuckled and shook her head. “Your wife hired me to find out what you were doing at this hotel every Monday night. She thought you were having an affair. She’ll be happy to learn that isn’t the case.” Emily chuckled again.
    “Please, lady, don’t show that to her,” he hollered.
    “Look, Harry, your wife already paid me for this job—I have to. How about you come clean with her tonight? Before I give her the picture. Believe me, she’ll be thrilled you weren’t with another woman—you just like wearing women’s clothing.”
    “I can’t do that, she won’t understand.”
    “Enough of the lies, Harry. Don’t keep secrets—they’ll eat you up. Trust me, I know.”
    “Please…” he begged.
    “Do you love her, Harry?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then be honest with her. Tell her you love her, but tell her why you do this.” Emily gestured toward his outfit. “Work it out, because you can’t keep doing this and trying to hide it from her. The lies will destroy your family.”
    Emily turned and ambled down the hallway. “I’ll give you forty-eight hours before I give her the photo,” she said over her shoulder.

 
    CHAPTER 6
     
    On the drive home from the Hilton, Emily phoned Isabel, describing what she’d witnessed in the hotel bar and her concerns for Maggie.
    “I’m definitely going to do a background check first thing tomorrow,” Isabel asserted. “Just something in my gut tells me this guy is not what he seems.”
    “You might be right. Let me know what you dig up. Until then, not a peep to Maggie.”
    “Better not mention it to Camille either,” Isabel warned. “That resort presentation tomorrow night will give us an opportunity to watch him and Fiona in action.”
    “Hey, were you able to talk your husband into going?”
    “Alex actually was happy to go—said some of the partners at his firm were excited about going. He even suggested maybe we should buy one of the condos for ourselves, as a nice weekend retreat.”
    “It would be nice for you two to be able to get away from