Love Lies Bleeding Read Online Free Page B

are no ordinary love letters,” Erwin insisted.
    “It is difficult to define love,” Phil added. “True love especially. If I may be so bold to call it that.”
    “Yes, but what good is true love in the face of death?” Pamela said quietly.
    “Aren’t you suppose to endure, to keep the memory of your love alive?” Erwin nastily turned on Pamela. “Maybe it wasn’t really true for you.”
    “Maybe you have absolutely no idea,” Pamela said, not quite so polite now as she stared Erwin down until he looked away.
    “Ahem, err, the emails?” Phil tentatively tried to alleviate the tension and get the interrogation back on track.
    “The emails were just a game. Grady couldn’t talk a lot about where he was or what he was doing, so we made up a life … we … wanted …” Pamela’s voice cracked.
    “Don’t play the ingénue with me,” Erwin snarled. “You will break this code for us with or without your willing cooperation.”
    Phil opened the small medical kit that the medic had left on the table. It held a couple of vials filled with clear liquid and a bunch of hypodermic syringes.
    “We have ways of making you talk.” Phil attempted to match Erwin’s menacing tone. “And an overdose could be fatal, so might I suggest you eat something.”
    They stared at Pamela. She stared back at them, clearly confused.
    “So, lunch?” Phil asked as he turned to Erwin.
    “Sounds good to me.” Erwin ground out his answer to Phil through clenched teeth, while actually addressing Pamela.
    Phil zipped up the medic kit and tucked it in his suit jacket pocket. Erwin slammed the screen of the laptop closed then spun away, leaving it on the table. Phil held the door open, and Erwin exited without another glance in Pamela’s direction. Phil flashed Pamela a grin and leaned back into the room to whisper, “I just must say that the love lies bleeding floral arrangement at the memorial was perfection itself. I … I … just felt it.”
    “Thank you,” Pamela answered politely, and then, not interested in prolonging any conversation about Grady’s death, she reverted her eyes to her hands which she once again held folded in her lap.
    Phil followed Erwin out into the hall.
    •••••••••
    Phil shut the door gently behind him and Erwin. He was still grinning. The long hallway was empty. Bare gray walls, punctuated by closed steel doors, stretched in either direction.
    Erwin vehemently turned on Phil the second the door clicked closed. “When I pause, it’s for her, or whomever the suspect is, to answer, not you!”
    “Right!” Phil excitedly replied. “The pause makes them nervous, makes them more likely to talk.”  
    “That was an utter bust.” Erwin abruptly switched subjects as quickly as he got abruptly angry. He stretched his back with a groan.
    “Seemed to go pretty good to me. And don’t worry, I’ve already started the paperwork.”
    “The paperwork? When was the last time you were in the field?”
    “Well, my shoulder bursitis …”
    “Grady would have never made those mistakes.”
    “Hey, you weren’t exactly ‘perfect spy’ in there, you know.”
    “You threw me. Now if she doesn’t eat, we’ll probably kill her with the serum before we get any answers.”
    “There is a possibility. I mean, she could possibly … not know anything.”
    “You make me sick,” Erwin said. And then, after he felt his glare of disapproval had done enough damage to Phil’s fragile ego, he stalked away down the hall. Phil looked severely hurt. “I’ll handle this from here,” Erwin called back over his shoulder. “Stay out of my way.”
    “If Grady was such a perfect partner, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Phil muttered to himself as he turned to wander off in the opposite direction. “Plus, a little nice goes a lot further than you think.”
    Erwin, now at the far end of the corridor, turned into an intersecting hall, but then immediately took a step back to check on