Killer Sudoku Read Online Free Page B

tournament.”
    As Will introduced the sudoku pros, Liza kept her publicist’s smile in place and glanced around. Even laid-back Scottie and shy Roy looked less than overjoyed at Gemma’s surprise appearance.
    Sharing the spotlight with a genuine A-list celebrity definitely cuts into their fifteen minutes of fame—more like fifteen seconds these days, Liza thought. The press, not to mention the paparazzi, will be glued to her from here on out.
    Fergus Fleming joined Gemma and Will at the podium. “And now—a toast to success!”
    Uniformed waiters began circulating through the room, carrying trays of long-stemmed glasses.
    “Champagne, ma’am?” a voice at Liza’s elbow asked.
    “I don’t know if it’s a good idea before a competition,” Liza began, then broke off as she gawked at the familiar face above the uniform jacket.
    “Kevin! You’re not supposed to be here!” she hissed.
    “Well, I don’t have a formal invite, that’s true.” Kevin’s tanned face cracked into a smile. “But Fergus is a little shorthanded, and I thought this was a way I could earn my room . . . not to mention catching a few minutes with you.”
    He raised the tray again. “Shall we drink to it?”
    Liza took a glass for the toast but then returned it. “Not too long after this, I’ll have to tackle the first round of competition. I don’t think a drink is the right preparation.”
    Or having people springing idiot surprises on me, she could have added but didn’t.
    They didn’t have time for any more conversation. Gemma Vereker swept up to them both, placing an empty champagne flute on Kevin’s tray while picking up a replacement.
    “I’m really sorry to drop out of the sky on you like this,” Gemma apologized to Liza. “When I decided to come out here, I did try to talk to you about it, but apparently you aren’t in the office much. And Michelle did say it was okay.”
    They exchanged a look over that, sharing the unspoken Hollywood knowledge—anything Michelle Markson says, goes.
    “I hope you didn’t mind that bit of theater from Will Singleton,” Liza replied.
    Gemma laughed. “He seems a nice enough man, and as theater goes, it was fairly benign. Lord knows, I’ve added a bit of star power to much loonier causes.”
    “Liza, dear.” Babs Basset deftly shouldered her way past Kevin like a linebacker while still looking perfectly ladylike. It appeared she had gifts Liza had never suspected. “Would you mind introducing us?”
    Glancing around, Liza saw that all her sudoku rivals were bearing down on Gemma, to the accompaniment of camera flashes and several advancing video cameras.
    Liza hoped her smile didn’t look as cynical as she felt. This had nothing to do with sudoku solidarity or even celebrity per se. What Babs and the others were angling for was a photo opportunity. Planting themselves beside a famous face enhanced their chances of appearing on a news-cast or in a newspaper photo.
    It meant less to Liza. Her job had left her with a huge collection of photos of herself accompanying the famous, the infamous, and everything in between.
    Michelle’s array of “star-effer pictures,” as she called them, was even larger. She always threatened to use them to decorate the office powder rooms and bring some of the clients down to earth.
    Again, Gemma played her role flawlessly, greeting her prospective opponents as if they were old friends. She even patted Roy Conklin on the cheek. “With a face like that, you could have made a fortune as a child star,” Gemma said.
    Roy turned bright red and began stammering a response. Gemma leaned toward him. “That’s not necessarily a good thing, though. You don’t want to be treated like a kid forever.”
    For just a second, Gemma’s face hardened in a sharp frown. Then, just as quickly it was gone as the star ban tered with Roy about his academic career. “Sounds a lot more grown-up than my career in make-believe.”
    Liza’s antennas were out and