The Leaves in Winter by M. C. Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

front. Mine are.”
    “This is a shitty way to start a collaboration.”
    “Don’t try to elevate what’s going on here.”
    “Look – I shared more last night than I needed to. I thought you’d understand – from context. I don’t care a flaming fuck if a mere mention of Colin’s name rattles the romantic princess in you. Your choice not to move on after thirteen years doesn’t concern me. Fact is, finding Colin might help get to the bottom of why Riya was murdered.”
    “From my side of the table, believing that is a leap of faith.”
    Malcolm leaned forward. His whisper across the candle was on fire. “Would it help if I told you I got it from a reliable source.”
    “An unnamed source, no doubt.”
    “Wrong. I have witnesses.”
    “Who?”
    “You – along with millions of others…if they watched closely enough.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Right after Riya got shot, I was holding her. She whispered to me.”
    Janis thought back and a blast of cold acknowledgment flowed through her.
    He was right. The repeating mental image kept her mute.
    “You had to have seen it. You were on the floor only a few feet away.”
    “That doesn’t prove that anything she said was about Colin.”
    The food arrived. Malcolm waited until the service staff were gone.
    “Listen, I came here because I thought we could help each other. Maybe not. Maybe we should eat our meal and leave it at that.”
    Dejected at the prospect of walking away empty-handed, Janis glared across the table. “What are you saying? You won’t help me unless I tell you about Colin?”
    Malcolm chewed and talked. “It’s tit for tat. We both want something, only you don’t trust the messenger and you bloody well won’t believe the message. That’s a piss-poor way to go about collecting information.”
    “So it’s the prey’s fault for not seeing the chameleon. For you, it’s a defect in the prey, not the chameleon’s advantage.”
    “Believe whatever you like. As long as you think I’m running some game on you, I don’t see how we can do business. It’s as simple as that.”
    “A game makes far better sense. According to you, Riya was up to something. I was her closest colleague. You work for Eugene Mass, owner of NovoSenectus. Now that Riya’s dead, making me believe you’re on my side might be the only way to find out what Riya was up to. The corporate bosses need to know, don’t they?”
    Malcolm shook his head. His face drew taut, his eyes unblinking. “I’ve probably already told you enough to get me killed. If any of this gets back to certain people, there’ll no place for me to hide. How do I know you won’t make the call – tell NovoSenectus everything, let them know I have reason to suspect…”
    “Suspect what?”
    “Tit for tat, remember?”
    Frustrated to the point of action, Janis snapped. “I don’t know where Colin Insworth is! When I was pregnant with Alyssa, the asshole was offered another position in bio-defense. Whatever it was, it was way above my security clearance.”
    “So what was the problem? Are you telling me they insisted he get a divorce?”
    “No, they didn’t have to. I’d seen enough of what happens around secrets. Even at the low level I was at – things got twisted.”
    “Sounds reasonable. You didn’t want that kind of life.”
    “He did.” The pause was anguished. “He got to be on the inside of whatever they were doing. The way he acted, the offer would put him on the inside from the ground up, based at the core. For something like that, giving me up was a price he was willing to pay.”
    “You thought he’d choose you. You bluffed and lost.”
    “Yeah, and for a long time I sat around wondering – what does that make me? Hopelessly romantic or just clueless?”
    “You never forgave him; that’s one thing. But you also never let it go.”
    Tears welled up. “It doesn’t matter about me. I handled it. But some things are not worth the price. Some things