Dead Body Language Read Online Free Page A

I guess that’s why he gave me a key, which I’ve had to loan him on a number of occasions. But you know all this if you’re related. Funny he’d forget to mention his own brother, though.”
    Dan brushed his hair back slowly. His eyes darted suddenly to a dark corner of the office. I turned to see a very fluffy gray cat creep out from under Boone’s desk, circle around a pile of papers, and finally make itself at home in an open filing cabinet drawer.
    “What’s that?” I asked. I’m sure I looked a little horrified.
    “That’s Cujo.”
    “Cujo?”
    Dan leaned over and gave the cat a scratching under the chin.
    “Boone doesn’t have a cat. Boone hates cats. What’s it doing here?”
    “She’s mine. I brought her with me.”
    “You brought your cat?” I grimaced. Wait until Boone came back. The fur would really hit the fan. I made a mental note to be there. I wasn’t big on cats either. They always creep around the house and then jump out at you when you least expect it. With a dog, you know where you stand. At least with mine, I do.
    “Did that lady find you all right?” Dan said.
    “What lady? Oh. You mean Lacy Penzance?” I’d almost forgotten her. I checked my watch. I still had a few minutes until our meeting. “Yeah, thanks. How’d you know where I was?”
    I looked him over as I spoke, trying to figure out how much of what he had told me was the truth. Except for the eyes, he didn’t much look like Boone. Dan was more muscular, with large arms and broad shoulders. Boone waskind of flabby and stooped. And Dan’s smooth, tan face set off his deep-set eyes better than Boone’s ruddy, splotchy complexion. Little of his appearance confirmed him as Boone’s brother.
    “I watched you go into that café after you checked in this morning. Guess you didn’t know I was here.” He looked out the window, then looked back at me. “It’s a nice view from these windows. You can see just about everything, from the main street to the Sierras.” He smiled a strange smile, kind of a smirk.
    I suddenly blushed and felt the heat turn my neck into raspberry kisses. God, I hoped I hadn’t tugged at my underwear or tripped on my way to the Nugget while this voyeur was watching me.
    “Did you call the sheriff about this mess?” I asked, changing the subject.
    He scratched his beard, much like he’d stroked the cat. “Not yet. I was sort of checking it out myself first, to see if there was really a reason to report it. Besides, Boone doesn’t like cops much. You probably know that. I don’t think he’d want them sniffing around his office.”
    He was right. Boone hated cops. But that was no reason not to call the sheriff if someone had broken into his office. Unless …
    “Are you some kind of investigator too, like your brother?” I asked, fishing a little. The pond still looked murky.
    “Not really. I’m … a teacher. Was. At the University of New Mexico. I also taught a few classes at the C.F.—the correctional facility,” he said, glancing back toward the window. Though he wasn’t looking at me, I think I followed him fairly well. “I’m from New York originally. Needed a change, so I moved to New Mexico, but I got kind of burned out in the desert and thought I’d check out the job market here. Make a career move. Boone seems to like it here.”
    “Flat Skunk is probably very different from True or False, or wherever you’re from.”
    He showed me those teeth again, white and evenly spaced, with a tiny chip off one of the front ones. Whenyou stare at people’s faces all the time you really notice the details of their mouths.
    “Truth or Consequences. Actually Flat Skunk doesn’t seem so different. Country music stations around the dial. Home-cooked meals at the café. Cowboy hats and pickup trucks. Of course, it’s nothing like New York. You know, you don’t sound like you’re from around here, either, with that accent of yours.” Dan Smith raised a dark eyebrow. “Where’d