Quintic Read Online Free Page A

scene, they talked about
the weather, the news, films coming out, anything really, all in
French. C’était
charmant! Marcel kept her informed on the
hockey, football, baseball and whatever-ball scores or the players’
injuries or exchanges. In French, it all sounded much more
interesting. Sometimes, she would talk about the game with
Christopher. The man was an ex-jock, but he was gentleman enough
not to ask her about too specific questions that might have
betrayed her limited interest of the games.
    She drank
way too many latte s and worked straight
until the evening; the sandwich Marcel had made her was long gone.
She grew tired from her full day of sitting. Time to go home, take
a long bath and go to bed.
     
    Her
answering machine flashing light indicated two messages; her mobile
phone message icon showed one missed call. She listened to
Christopher’s messages first.
    He had left
one on her machine in the late morning. “ Call me .” Then, early
afternoon, he had left a more detailed message on her mobile. That
message demonstrated his gentlemanly ways once again as they did
not mention the dead guy in the field. Had he foreseen she didn’t
want to talk about the motel thing? So perceptive of
him.
    “ I’ll be working late, Angel. Have a nice evening, and try
to think about me some .” Cute.
“ I have to go out of town for
a few days for some police business. Last-minute meetings with the
big Brass .”
    A
f ree business trip, she translated;
Central’s way of sucking up again. Didn’t they know he hated the
trips as much as the sucking up? Too bad for him but quite good for
her, she was off the hook. When he got back, in a black mood from
the bootless errand, his workaholic tendencies were going to kick
into overdrive. Each week, the Big guy went over each of the team’s
cases with each of the guys, pondered the latest developments and
discussed the findings with the team; upon his return, he’d want to
play catch-up in the cases. The motel murders weren’t his, so she
considered herself off the hook for her motel trespassing.
Hopefully.
    “ And Patricia? Please stay out of trouble. I hear the
library is lovely this time of year .”
Damn him.
    It had been
a while sinc e she had gone to the
precinct. For some reason, she kept postponing it. Of course, the
team would be happy to see her, as would she them, but with
Christopher away, it wouldn’t be as much fun, would it? Besides, no
doubt they would all keep an eye on her as their damn
usual.
    Her fun was
foremost, in the Monday morning meeting reviews. Going out with the
team to interrogate a person of interest was good research too. She
had missed this week’s meeting, and no way was the team going to
let her tag along without Christopher’s permission. They had their
orders, and they all were very conscientious about following them
(when Christopher issued them at least). Had she burned the team
too many times? During her first weeks, she had successfully tagged
along with each of the Big guy’s officers (tricked them into it
most of the time). Unfortunately now, they saw her coming from
parsecs away and kept her busy at the office when Christopher
wasn’t there. Such was his leadership. Her manuscript would be
getting her full attention then.
    The second
message on her machine was from that Charles officer.
    “ Yes, good afternoon Ms Patricia. If you could, please
return my call at your earliest convenience. It regards your
deposition as an eye witness .” A witness
of what? The guy had been by her side; he had seen the same damn
thing she had.
    She
called Charles back nonetheless. As it
was late, she counted on the rookie officer to have left for the
night already. Talking to answering machines was way easier than
talking to real people, especially about cadavers. Unfortunately
for her, Charles had not left.
    “ Hello,
Officer. How is your first case going?” After they had exchanged
the usual politeness, she gave him a brief description of