Smoke Screen Read Online Free Page A

Seven. Jay was one of the first people I met. We went out a few times, but our friendship was always more or less platonic.”
    “More or less?” Javier’s raised eyebrows suggested more.
    “We’d been nothing more than friends for the past several years.”
    “Until night before last, when you became lovers again.”
    “I—” She hesitated. Alexander raised his index finger as though forestalling her from answering. She lowered her gaze to her lap. “I don’t know whether or not we were intimate that night. I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
    Clark sighed as though he found that impossible to believe, then said, “So you met at The Wheelhouse.”
    “I arrived at seven, the appointed time. Jay was already there. He’d had several drinks.”
    “How do you know?”
    “By the empty glasses on the table. Have you questioned the cocktail waitress?”
    Ignoring that, Clark said, “You ordered a glass of white wine.”
    “Yes. It wasn’t very good.” Speaking directly into the camera lens, she added, “I believe something was put into it.”
    “By Jay?”
    Actually, on that point, Britt shared Javier’s apparent skepticism. “I don’t see how he could have without my noticing. I don’t think he ever touched my wineglass. Anyway, why would he drug me?”
    Clark tugged on his lower lip. Javier didn’t move. Both continued to stare at her. She was aware of the video camera recording every blink, every breath. To anyone viewing the recording later, would she look guilty? She knew that investigators looked for tell-tale signs of lying. She tried to remain perfectly still and to keep her face composed.
    “What did you talk about?” Javier asked.
    “I’ve told you,” she said wearily. “This and that. ‘How’s your job? Fine. How’s yours? Do you have any vacation plans?’ That kind of thing.”
    “Nothing personal?”
    “He asked if I was seeing someone. I told him no one in particular. He said, ‘Good. I’d hate to depart this earth leaving you to some undeserving but lucky bastard.’ He was grinning, and it was the teasing kind of flirtation Jay was famous for. I laughed. And then I realized what he’d said and asked him what he meant about departing this earth. He said, ‘I’m dying, Britt.’”
    Recalling that moment and Jay’s somber expression, her voice became husky with emotion. “Then he told me about the cancer.”
    Pancreatic. Advanced. Not a chance in hell of beating it, so I’m not putting myself through chemo and all that shit. At least I’ll have my hair when they bury me.
    After a quiet moment, Javier said, “According to Jay’s oncologist, he had only a few more weeks. Month or two at the outside. Shocked the hell out of everybody in the department when he announced it. Some people cried for days. Jay offered to surrender his badge, but Chief said he could work right up till…well, the end.”
    Britt nodded, confirming that was what Jay had told her. “He was such a vital individual. He created his own energy field. When he told me, I couldn’t believe it.”
    Clark cleared his throat. “Do you think maybe he was trying to get around to all the women he’d wanted to sleep with one last time before—”
    “No,” she said adamantly. “When he invited me to join him, he said he needed to talk to me. I got the impression it was about something serious.”
    Javier snorted. “More serious than terminal cancer?”
    Her temper snapped. “A basic part of my job is to evaluate people, Detective. I can sense when someone is holding back the key element of a story because they don’t want to be in the news, or when someone exaggerates their role in an attempt to seem more important to the story than they are.
    “Jay dismissed my condolences and said he had something much more important to talk about. He said he was about to give me an exclusive that would make my career. And it wasn’t a flirtation and it wasn’t a come-on. I would have known if it was. Jay was