Bombshell (AN FBI THRILLER) Read Online Free Page B

pounds.”
    Griffin knew she was being chatty; she always was when she was scared. It was a wonder she could manage it. He bent down and lightly laid his fingers over her mouth. “Don’t worry about all this, Dels, I’ll do all the worrying for you—or, better yet, we’ll let Ruth carry the worry load.”
    “Not a problem,” Ruth said and began rubbing the back of Delsey’s hand again.
    Delsey sighed. “It’s probably just as well Jenny’s gay. If she wanted to marry you, Griffin, you’d gain a hundred pounds.”
    So she knew, did she? “Nah, I’ve got more willpower than you.”
    “Do you know, Ruth,” Delsey said, “whenever we were sick, our grandmother would rub our hands and she’d sing that beautiful aria from
Madame Butterfly
, ‘Un Bel Dì,’ to us. You don’t have to sing, Griffin.”
    Griffin said, “No, I won’t. Is the hand rubbing working?”
    “It’s a good distraction.”
    Ruth wanted to ask Delsey Freestone what had happened, but she decided Griffin should take the lead. She said only, “It’s snowing, bunches of big flakes drifting down. I’ll bet my two stepsons are sledding and snowboarding with half the kids in town at Breaker’s Hill.”
    “I sledded at Breaker’s Hill three days ago,” Delsey said. She closed her eyes. Ruth thought her head must be really hurting.
    Delsey turned very slightly to look at her brother. “You’ve got to get married, Griffin, and have kids. Imagine how gorgeous they’ll be. Maybe they’ll be lucky and have some of my talent.”
    “Back at you. Maybe your kids will have some of my talent.”
    Even though her head hurt and she wished she had another saltine to keep her stomach off the ledge, Delsey smiled. “I’ve gotta admit, your talent’s more interesting than mine. I mean, you’ve always simply
known
things no one else knew. I’ve always had to run into things, head-on, like the time that boy snatched Mrs. Garland’s tote bag and ran right into me when I came around the corner.” She closed her eyes again, but there was a small smile on her mouth. “At least Mrs. Garland got her tote back.”
    He said, his voice very precise, “I meant my talent for solving crimes.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Griffin never wants to talk about it, Ruth, but Miss Aladonna not only sang, she was psychic, and she swore that was her biggest talent and she passed it on to him.”
    Ruth said, “Did Miss Aladonna speak to spirits?”
    “No, like Griffin, she simply knew stuff there was no way she could know. She—”
    “Enough of that, Delsey. I told you, I was talking about my talent as a cop. I see patterns sometimes, that’s all, look at puzzle pieces and can many times see how they all fit together. You’re looking better, you’re arguing with me, so let’s get down to business here, if you can do it without throwing up again.”
    Delsey said to Ruth, “I told you he never wants to talk about it.”
    Ruth only smiled.
    “That’s enough, Delsey. You need to tell Ruth and me what happened. If you feel sick again, you stop talking, okay?”
    Delsey felt a twist of nausea and swallowed. “Yeah, I can do this.” She swallowed again. “I went to a party over at Professor Rafael Salazar’s house.” She stopped cold, and her breathing picked up, suddenly hard and fast.
    Ruth leaned close. “No, don’t panic, Delsey. Relax. What upset you?”
    “I can’t seem to remember anything after I parked my Spyder at Professor Salazar’s house—there’s nothing else until I was here with you.”
    Griffin said matter-of-factly, “Not remembering is common with a bad concussion. Now, you went to a party at this Professor Salazar’s house? You mean Rafael Salazar? The classical guitarist? I’ve got a couple of his CDs. He’s very good.”
    “That’s him. He’s better than good, he’s brilliant. I’ve read he was a child prodigy.”
    “So why is he at Stanislaus?”
    “He’s a visiting professor, brought here by—this is really cool—his twin