Witch House by Dana Donovan Read Free Book Online Page B

ID card.”
    “He didn’t say anything.”
    “Well,” Carlos slipped his notepad back into
his jacket pocket, “I told you it was an interesting tidbit.”
    “Yes you did. I am beginning to think there
are many interesting tidbits to this case. I only hope they begin
adding up soon.”
    “Coffee?” Trish came back to the table with
my coffee and toast and a large tea for Carlos, no ice. “Yours will
be up in a minute,” she said to Carlos.
    I thought she would turn and skedaddle as
quickly as possible, but she did not. When it became obvious that
she wanted to say something, only she did not know where to start,
I asked her, “Is there something else?”
    She kept her head down, her chin nearly to
her chest. I could see there was something. She took a shallow
breath and said, “Detective, I….”
    “Yes?”
    “I want to tell you that I lied to you
earlier.”
    “Did you?”
    “Yes. I told you earlier that I never met
Adam’s father. The truth is I did. I met him yesterday when he came
to the house to see Adam.”
    I looked at Carlos. His brows were
fish-hooked in perpetual surprise, and I imagined if I looked into
a mirror, I would have seen a similar expression on my face, too. I
made it a point to scowl in an attempt to display my disapproval,
and maybe convey a sense that I knew she was lying all along. “All
right then,” I said, “why don’t you tell me about that?”
    I watched her eyes carry off on an invisible
thread to the corner of the room before snapping back to mine. “He
was already agitated about something,” she said of Landau. “I
walked in on him and Adam while Mister Landau was on the phone. He
was yelling at the man, calling him a swine and a crook.”
    “Do you know who he was talking to?”
    Trish shook her head. “No, but I heard him
say to whoever it was, ‘I’ll see you at the bar tonight’, and then
he slammed the phone down.”
    “I’ll see you at the bar tonight?”
    “Yes.”
    “But you don’t know who it was, a man or a
woman?”
    “No.”
    “Does Adam know?”
    “No, he doesn’t.”
    “How can you be sure?”
    “I asked him. After Mister Landau left, I
asked Adam who that was on the phone, and he said he didn’t know.
He told me that his father came in, said hello, they hugged and
then he went right over to the phone and made the call.”
    “So, Mister Landau placed the call?”
    “Yes.”
    “Trish, why didn’t you tell us this
earlier?”
    “I wanted to,” she said, “but when Adam
called here, he told me not to mention that. He said we didn’t need
to get mixed up in it, and that whoever killed his father might
want to come back and hurt him or me.”
    “I see, but you know it is against the law to
obstruct or mislead an active criminal investigation. You and Adam
can find yourselves in serious trouble for holding back
information.”
    “I know. That’s why I am telling you this
now. All I ask is that you don’t tell Adam I spoke to you about it.
I don’t want him to hate me.”
    I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Don’t worry. We won’t tell. Just make sure you keep us informed if
anything new develops, or if anyone suspicious tries to contact
Adam. Okay?”
    “I will, Detective. Thank you.”
    She walked away, and this time I made it a
point not to watch her, so that Carlos could not accuse me of
lusting after women one-third my age, even though I am her age now.
It is not so much that I dread dealing with Carlos and his
adolescent teasing; I do not. It is Lilith, should she ever catch
wind of it. The everyday girlfriend may show mercy for such trivial
infractions, but never the witch. The witch will make your life a
living hell just for looking. Sometimes I think she knows when such
fears have me thinking of her, as was the case then when she called
me on the phone, even before I took my first sip of coffee. I shook
a stern finger at Carlos and warned him, “Don’t you say a
word.”
    “About what?”
    Only then did I