Baby Girl Doe (Stephanie Chalice Thrillers Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

about?”
    “Southold,” Gus replied.
    “Oh,” she pooh-poohed. “Over on the North Fork?” She frowned for the briefest moment as if to say, Southold, are you kidding? Some East-enders are kind of elitist and look down their noses at anyone who doesn’t specifically hail from Montauk or the Hamptons—I guess Camryn was one of them, an East End snob. The North Fork of Long Island is very different from the South Fork. It faces the Long Island Sound and not the Atlantic and has lots of farms and vineyards . . . but just because there’s a big emphasis on agriculture doesn’t mean that all of its residents are bumpkins.
    Gus glanced at me as if to say here’s an idea. “You’re in real estate? You wouldn’t happen to know if anything’s available for the next couple of weeks, would you?”
    “I can’t believe this,” Camryn said. “I was eating my dinner and thinking about how to approach you when I heard you choking. My brother and I just rehabbed a place. I didn’t think it would be ready until August, but my brother really knows his way around a toolbox and he worked around the clock. He’s still trimming up the exterior, but it’s completely done on the inside. I was going to list it in the morning.”
    “That’s incredible,” I said happily. It is incredible, isn’t it? I was honestly too relieved to be suspicious of our newly found serendipity. “Is it nice ?”
    “Can we afford it?” Gus asked sheepishly.
    She shrugged as if to say I don’t know . “It’s completely redone. It’s not like Bill’s place—it has modern furniture, a new steam shower, oak floors, and a granite kitchen. Can I ask what you paid Bill?”
    Gus turned to me to ask for my approval.
    I nodded. I mean what was our alternative, a two week vacation back in the sweltering heat of the city pushing Max around in his stroller?
    “Seventy-five hundred for the two weeks,” Gus said.
    Camryn gritted her teeth. “That’s a little cheap. Um . . .” Her head rocked back and forth while she appeared to mull over the number. “Can you do a little better? We dumped a ton of money into the place.”
    “It’s better than having it sit empty for the next couple of weeks when you could be getting income from it,” I said. “How fast do you think you can rent it anyway?”
    Her expression said oh yeah, that’s right. “Okay, but only because you’ll have to put up with some noise while my brother finishes up. The view’s not as good as Bill’s, but it’s very secluded, and like I said, the inside is brand spanking new.”
    It had been a very long day. I stretched and retreated to another place in my mind. I pictured a brand-new steam shower made of tumbled marble with spotless chrome body sprays. I could almost feel the hot water running down my back. “You know what, Camryn? Let’s go take a look.”

Chapter Six
     
    The doorbell rang at nine a.m.
    “Oh-dear-God, who the hell is that ?” I hate to wake up grumpy, but I guess Max wasn’t quite at ease in his new surroundings and had been up most of the night. I had just dozed off when the doorbell rang.
    Camryn had showed us her place right after we had finished dinner at the café, and it was after midnight before we had a chance to look around and sign the rental agreement. We unpacked the Pack ‘n Play and our toothbrushes and went out hard. Well at least Gus did—hard enough to sleep through the night and Max’s incessant howling. I on the other hand had spent more time awake than an Eskimo vampire during the winter solstice (you know, when it’s dark almost twenty-four hours straight). I rubbed my eyes and then glanced over at my men. They were both sleeping blissfully. I slipped on my shorts and top and tiptoed barefoot down the stairs to answer the door.
    I yawned as I opened the door. “Yes?” I said with bleary eyes and smudged mascara.
    “Hi, neighbor,” a petite young woman said in an effervescent manner. She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as