Grand Theft Retro (Style & Error Mystery Series Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

fear of broken bones was high, as was acute humiliation. My heart raced and adrenaline coursed through my arms and legs. This can’t be it, I thought. I hadn’t been particularly eager to turn another year older, but the reality of not turning another year older seemed a trifle worse.
    I braced myself and looked up, hoping a plausible story would spring to mind. Instead of the angry face of Pritchard, the window casing slammed shut and the latch clicked into the locked position.
    His voice became muffled and barely understandable. Even if I could climb my way back to the frame, there would be no way in without breaking the glass.
    I positioned the toe of my chocolate brown shoe into the mortar joint of the exterior brick and pressed ever so slightly, seeking leverage. I barely succeeded, but barely was good enough. I grabbed the ledge under the window, shifted my weight, and inched my feet along the brick. Underneath me, a car horn beeped. I turned my head and saw Eddie’s VW Bug idling next to the house.
    Reason #2 spying on my coworker was a bad idea: The need to develop a cover story.
    “You can’t tell Nick,” I said to Eddie.
    “Tell him what? That you told me to give you fifteen minutes, and right before I drove away you popped out the third floor window and scaled the side of a building? Not that I’m not impressed by your mad Spiderman skills, but I’m not sure that story could work in Hollywood, let alone Ribbon, Pennsylvania. Do you want to tell me again what happened?
    “The front door was open. I went through the house looking for Pritchard. I ended up in the attic. I heard him tell someone that he thought I was there, and I got the feeling it would be a very bad idea for me to be in the room when he entered. I went out the window because I thought I could get your attention from the balcony. There wasn’t a balcony. End of story.”
    Eddie shook his head. “There are so many things wrong with that scenario that I don’t know where to start.”
    “Well I do. Promise me you won’t tell Nick. He’s been worried about his dad since the heart attack, and I don’t need to be another thing for him to worry about. My role as his potential girlfriend is to be a calming presence in his life.”
    “Did you get that from the ‘how to be a potential girlfriend’ guidebook?”
    “I’ve been reading a lot of romantic comedies and I’ve noticed a trend. Do we have a deal?”
    “Deal.”
    I sat back and rubbed my palms against each other. Somewhere after the window slamming, I’d discovered the gutter that ran alongside of the house. Nothing like a little shinny down the drainpipe to make a girl feel spry. Once I was back on the ground, I pulled my blazer out of the handbag and put it on, hiding the scratches I’d incurred along the way. Unfortunately, my velvet pants were torn in three different places, one of which exposed the frilly lace trim on the side of my pink panties.
    “So, what now?” Eddie asked.
    I tucked the edges of my  navy blue shawl deep into the hobo bag. “Take me back to the Retrofit office. There’s something going on with Pritchard and I’d like to see what I can find out.”
    “Translation: as long as he’s at that house, you have a window of time to snoop around his cubicle.”
    Clearly I hadn’t fully embraced the reasons why snooping was a bad idea just yet because I thought he had a good point.
    Eddie’s best efforts to get to work early had been dashed thanks to me and the hanging-from-a-building act, so I couldn’t complain about the fact that he drove directly to his job instead of dropping me off in front of mine.
    The parking lot was mostly empty, but instead of cutting across the vacant spaces, I stuck to the sidewalk. It was a Wednesday in May, and it seemed the residents of Ribbon had better things to do than go shopping. I entered Retrofit and went to my cubicle.
    Before Retrofit had become Retrofit , the offices where we ran the magazine had been a