To Sketch a Thief by Sharon Pape Read Free Book Online Page A

sighed, as if she were disappointed about having to wait the requested minute.
    Rory started to have second thoughts about a client who wanted instant results. She hoped it was just the unexpected tragedy of Brenda’s death that had spiked the woman’s anxiety level and dealt her common sense a nasty blow.
    She trooped back upstairs to the room that had once been Mac’s study. When she’d moved her office into its new venue in the garage, she’d equipped it with a new computer and transferred the older one out of the living room and into the study again. She sat down at that desk now, pulled up her appointment calendar and took Tina off hold.
    It came as no surprise that Tina was ready to get in her car and drive over right then and there. Rory supposed she should be grateful that the woman had at least waited until dawn to call her. After a bit of negotiating they settled on two o’clock that afternoon and Rory supplied her with directions.
    When she returned to the kitchen, the recessed lights were flashing and Zeke was filtering into the chair he’d occupied the night before, much like sand filling an hourglass. Rory headed straight to the coffeemaker, with barely a glance in his direction. It wasn’t quite done brewing, but she pulled the carafe out and filled the mug she’d left in the dish rack the day before. Without the carafe there, the dripping coffee splashed onto the metal heating element and sizzled as if scolding her. She’d have to clean it up later, but not having to wait for the coffee was worth it. She stuck the carafe back in place and took her mug to the table. No milk this morning. She needed it black.
    “We have a new client?” Zeke asked casually, as if the argument of the previous night had never happened.
    Rory took a bolstering sip of coffee before answering him. It bothered her that the marshal could listen in on any conversation she had in the house, even if it was only her side of a phone call. For that matter, she had no way of knowing if he was watching her at any given moment either. As a precondition of their strange living arrangement, she’d exacted his promise to respect her privacy in the bedroom and bathroom. But she really had no way of monitoring how well he kept his word. It occurred to her that a dog might be able to do just that. If Hobo continued to react to Zeke as strongly as he had at their first meeting, he would make an excellent sentry to guard her privacy. Her very own canary in the coal mine. Of course the downside would be putting up with Zeke’s foul moods.
    “You out gatherin’ wool somewhere?” Zeke prodded. “Do we have ourselves a new client or not?”
    “Could be,” she said, focusing on him. “That phone call was from Tina Kovack, another friend of the late Brenda Hartley’s.”
    “I was wonderin’ if we’d get a chance to work that case.” Zeke sounded pleased at the prospect.
    “Don’t get too excited. I have a feeling Tina isn’t going to be the best kind of client.”
    “I thought the best kind was the payin’ kind.” He smiled. “Success has gone and made you a trifle picky, Aurora.”
    “Cut the Aurora crap, you know I can’t stand it.”
    “Probably why I’m so partial to it.” His mouth stretched into a full-out grin.
    During the few months Rory had known Zeke, she’d learned that he could be charming when he wanted to be, a rough, frontiersman kind of charming. But at that moment she wasn’t interested in being charmed or won over, especially with the question of Hobo still hanging in the balance.
    “Where’s the mutt?” he asked, as if he’d read her mind.
    Rory pushed back from the table, thankful that that wasn’t one of the abilities he’d picked up in exchange for his mortal body.
    “He’s sleeping,” she said, going to the counter to top off her coffee. She didn’t bother reminding him that the dog actually had a name. If he wanted to refer to him as “the mutt,” she would let him. Dealing with Zeke