Unleashed by David Rosenfelt Read Free Book Online

it.
    “Thanks, Andy,” he says. “You’ll stay on this?”
    “For now. That’s all I can promise. But either way she’ll be well represented.”
    “She needs you,” he says.
    “Let’s talk tomorrow, Sam. Go home.”
    “If I stay, you think there’s any chance they’ll let me see her?”
    “Go home.”

 
     
    On the way back, Laurie asks what I thought of Denise Price .
    “I didn’t think she could be a murderer,” I say, “but she could definitely be a murderer.”
    Among the many great things about Laurie is that when I say stuff like that, she understands exactly what I mean. The way to find out if someone is guilty is to get the facts and assess them, not make snap judgments based on personality and intuition.
    “Sam seems somewhat taken with her,” Laurie says, understating things considerably.
    “I know. But if one is going to rekindle a relationship, there are probably better women to do it with than one facing trial for murdering her husband.”
    “So do you want to represent her?” she asks.
    “Nope.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I guess for now just get her through the arraignment, assess the situation, accumulate the facts.”
    As I say “accumulate the facts,” I steal a quick glance at Laurie, which is a major mistake, and she catches me on it.
    “So that’s why you wanted me with you here tonight.”
    Uh-oh. She knows that I want her to investigate the case, which would in turn prevent her from going back to Wisconsin. The only way out of this is probably for me to tell the truth, but since that’s not really my style, I decide to lie some more.
    “I don’t know what you mean. I wanted you with me because I always want you with me. I love and adore you.”
    “That’s bullshit,” she says.
    “Which part?”
    “The part where you didn’t admit you wanted me to get interested in the case so I would stay home and investigate it.”
    I snap my fingers. “Hey, that’s an idea I didn’t think of.”
    “Okay, here are my terms. I agree to delay my trip to help you investigate the situation—”
    I jump in. “Deal.”
    “I’m not finished,” she says. “You agree to work the case full-time until we get an answer.”
    “Deal.”
    She continues. “And you take on Denise Price as a client if we think she may be wrongly accused.”
    I’m stuck here; I can’t ask her to take on an assignment if I’m not willing to do the same. “If we strongly feel that’s the case, then it’s a deal,” I say grudgingly.
    “I’m still not finished,” she says. “Because I’m not leaving, you agree to give up your chance at going-away sex tonight.”
    I think we may have hit on a deal breaker. “What about if we do the whole wine and music thing again? Just maybe a shorter version?”
    We’re quiet for a while, and I’m trying to figure out if she’s really going to put off her trip. I don’t want to blow it, but the curiosity is killing me.
    “So you’re not leaving tomorrow?” I ask.
    “No.”
    I shouldn’t, but I ask, “Why?”
    “I guess because investigating is what I do, and I’m looking forward to getting back into it. But I also like to watch you, to see you engaged.”
    “You mean the other kind of engaged? Not the we’re-going-to-get-married engaged?”
    She smiles. “Yes, the other kind.”
    “Because either kind is fine,” I say. “You know that.”
    Another smile. “Yes, I know that.”
    Then she looks over at me and says, “Andy, you don’t ever have to worry about me leaving you.”
    “You did once.” I say it in a light tone, but it’s a subject that I will never regard as anything other than deadly serious.
    “I know that, but I came back. And I’ll never leave again.”
    “Anything is possible,” I say.
    “Then it’s possible you’ll leave me?”
    I think for a moment. “Anything is possible. Except for that.”

 
     
    The manhunt lasted for only nine hours and ended in disaster. Undercover cop Drew Keller’s car had