For The Love Of Laurel Read Online Free Page B

you want to talk, give me a call.” She couldn’t imagine why she would want to talk to a reporter, especially one who hosted a tabloid TV show, but she did remember he had given her an envelope along with the card. She put her sunglasses on and rooted around in her purse until she found the envelope. It was white and legal-sized with her name scrawled across the front. She turned it over and opened it.
    Inside was a thrice-folded newspaper article. The paper was brown and brittle along the edges. She opened it carefully. The top edge had been cut off with scissors so she couldn’t tell what newspaper it was or how old. There was a grainy picture of three people above the article. Puzzled, she read:
    ARSON SUSPECTED IN FAMILY TRAGEDY
    Early this morning, the residence of Robert and Regina Markham was burned to the ground in what investigators are calling arson. “The fire was so hot, nothing remained but a few charred bones in the Markham’s bedroom and their baby’s crib, causing us to believe an accelerant was used,” explained fire Chief Ron Dunne.
    Robert Markham was a senior accountant at Chaber Pharmaceuticals. His wife, Regina, was a housewife and mother to the couple’s ten-month-old daughter, Delilah. None of their friends or acquaintances can imagine who would want the family dead. They were highly respected in the community. According to neighbors, they attended church regularly and were active volunteers in several charitable organizations .
    The article referred the reader to an inside page, but it wasn’t included in the envelope. Laurel looked at the picture again, but it was too blurry to get any details. All she could see was a man, woman, and baby. She put everything back in her purse. Who was Mike Branson and why would he give her the article? She could always call him but doubted she would ever be that curious.

Chapter 3
    “Dr. Gunderson will see you now,” a cute twenty-something receptionist said. Laurel followed her down a narrow hallway. She stopped at a partially open door and pushed it open, standing aside so Laurel could enter. “Please have a seat.” She indicated a brown leather chair beside an oak desk. “He’ll be right in,” she said as she left the room, closing the door behind her.
    File cabinets sat against one wall. She wondered what secrets they contained. Who might she know whose boob jobs and face lifts were but a few feet away? A framed certificate on one wall assured Dr. Gunderson’s patients he was eminently qualified to cut them up. She leaned forward and could just see his computer monitor was on, but from the side, she couldn’t tell what it showed.
    Dr. Gunderson walked in swiftly and sat down behind his desk. Laurel tried to keep the astonishment off her face. His hair was totally white, and the wrinkles in his face told her he had never consulted a doctor in his own line of work. He had to be about her father’s age.
    So Gloria was a trophy wife.
    It figured. What didn’t figure was why Gloria thought he was unfaithful. He didn’t look like he would attract women. Still, if he was loaded, some women would put up with a lot.
    But the biggest shock was that she had seen him before. He was one of those business associates of her father’s who had come to his funeral. She remembered seeing him at the house a few times as well.
    She waited while he read the form she had filled out. “You want breast augmentation?” he said, glancing at her chest.
    She almost blushed. As if she would ever have that done, but it was as good an excuse as she could come up with on short notice. She knew there was nothing wrong with her face to warrant plastic surgery. “I’m thinking about it,” she said.
    “Hm.” She wondered what that was supposed to mean. “You’re Gerald Avidon’s daughter,” he said.
    “Yes.”
    “I’m sorry about his passing.”
    “Thank you for coming to the funeral. How do you happen to know him?”
    “He was a patient of mine many years