Damaged Goods Read Online Free Page A

sweet he could almost forget the acid it carried.
    â€œI’ve got some trouble, and your card says you’re a troubleshooter,” she said, looking up to make eye contact.
    â€œAnd how do you come to have my card?”
    Anita’s feet shuffled, and her eyes went down again. “I saw you at the Zei Friday night. I picked your card up off that guy you knocked out.”
    Hannibal couldn’t suppress his smile at that. This girl was more than she showed on the surface. She wore her kinky hair in a short but natural style. Her makeup was so subtle it could be overlooked. And her fingernails were perfectly done, which he knew could not be easy to maintain when one cleaned houses for a living. all of a sudden, he wanted to know her story.
    â€œWhy don’t we sit down, and you can tell me what the trouble is.”
    Anita nodded, and smoothed the back of the simple sundress hanging from her shoulders as she sat. She seemed to be waiting for something. Hannibal guessed it might be instructions, or simply permission to speak.
    â€œSo, your father left you a treasure of some type?”
    â€œThat’s what he said.” Anita hesitated, as if wrestling with difficult memories. Hannibal rotated his hand as if to say, “Go on.”
    â€œDaddy was a research chemist over at Isermann -Börner up in Rockville,” Anita said. “Worked there for years, before my mother left even. I stayed with Daddy through high school. He was so proud when I started at MIT. But, you don’t want to hear all that.”
    â€œActually, I do,” Hannibal said, folding his hands in front of himself on the table. “Whatever you need to tell me that leads up to why I’m here.”
    Anita licked her lips, took a deep breath and pressed on. “I guess the start was the day Daddy called home from work. I was home for the summer after my freshman year. He was so excited, but all he really said was that he had had a really good day, and that we should celebrate. He sounded so happy. So, while he was on his way home I went out and got a bottle of champagne and a couple of lobsters and all the fixings.”
    Anita’s eyes focused out the window and dampened. Hannibal was prepared to wait, but after a full minute of silence he began to worry that she might not be able to pull herself back if she was gone too long in the past. He asked, “Are you all right?” in a gentle tone.
    Anita shook herself. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I could use some… would you like some more coffee?”
    Without waiting for a reply, Anita picked up Hannibal’s almost-empty cup. She crossed the wide kitchen and started fussing with a complex looking espresso machine. She kept her back to him while she worked.
    â€œI’ll make cappuccino,” she said. “You’ll love it. Anyway, um, see, Daddy was home when I got back. He didn’t look happy any more. He said that there had been an accident. Hehit a man who was on the side of the road up on 270 on his way in. He shouldn’t have left the scene, you know, but he had to make it home first.”
    The machine made its screaming hissing noise loud enough that if Anita had sobbed, Hannibal might have missed it. She wiped her face once or twice while she worked with cups and heated the milk, but when she returned to the table her face was dry. She even mustered a small smile as she sat down, hands wrapped around her cup.
    â€œDaddy and I had our special dinner anyway,” she said. “As it turned out, it was our farewell dinner. Then he called the police and told them what happened. They came and took him away, but he promised me that he had left something in the house that would make us rich when he came back.”
    â€œHe didn’t say what? Or where?”
    â€œHe said it was safer if I didn’t know,” she replied after a sip from her cup. “The long and the short of it was, he was tried and convicted. Not of