Smoke Screen Read Online Free Page B

serious. Whatever he wanted to tell me was important to him.”
    There she paused. Clark leaned forward expectantly. “Well? What was it?”
    “I don’t know. That’s when Jay suggested we leave so we could talk in private.” She didn’t want to tell them it was at that point that Jay also had seemed to grow nervous. Already her veracity was being challenged. Who would believe that Jay Burgess would ever become nervous?
    Apparently the detectives sensed she was withholding something. Clark leaned toward her again. “You had privacy at The Wheelhouse, Ms. Shelley. You and Jay had a cozy little corner in the bar. People saw you. Witnesses said you two had your heads together like nobody else in the world existed.”
    Witnesses? The word struck a criminal note that was unsettling. “That’s a gross distortion,” she said. “Jay and I had our heads together very close so we could hear each other above the noise.”
    “Or to whisper sweet nothings.”
    She glared at Javier. “I’m not going to honor that with a comment.”
    “Okay, okay. Uncalled for.”
    He left it to Clark to continue. “Jay asked you to go to his place.”
    “To continue our conversation, yes.”
    “And you went willingly?”
    “Willingly? Of course. I thought he was about to give me a big story.”
    “So you go to the apartment of any man who offers you an exclusive?”
    “Mr. Javier!” Alexander exclaimed. “I will not let my client be subjected to insults like that.”
    “It was a follow-up to what she said herself.”
    “Let it drop,” she said to the lawyer. Actually she was glad to know he was still awake, since he’d said nothing for several minutes. Javier’s crack was low, but she had reached the crux of her story and was eager to move it along. “When we left The Wheelhouse, I felt dizzy.”
    “Had you had a drink before you met Jay?”
    “I’ve already told you that. No.”
    “Did you take any…medication? Cold remedy, antihistamine?”
    “No.”
    “One glass of wine made you tipsy?”
    “Apparently it did, Mr. Clark. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
    “Not particularly. Not for a lady who doesn’t drink scotch. One glass of wine could make you drunk.”
    “It’s never affected me that way before.”
    “First time for everything.” Javier shifted to a more comfortable position in his molded-plastic chair.
    Ignoring him, she said into the camera, “By the time we got outside The Wheelhouse, I wasn’t feeling well.”
    “How so?”
    “Well, drunk. Nauseous. Disconnected.”
    “Anything unusual occur between the bar and Jay’s town house?”
    “Again, my memory of the walk is hazy, but I don’t think so.”
    “No exchanges with anyone else along the way?”
    “No.”
    “Did Jay ask you to spend the night with him?”
    She looked directly at Javier. “Not that I recall.”
    “Did Jay know you weren’t feeling well?”
    It was a good question, and she wished she had an answer for it. “I’m not sure. I don’t believe I remarked on it. I might have. He might have asked me if I was sick. Honestly, I don’t remember talking about anything. We walked to his town house and went inside.”
    “Then what? What’s the first thing you did when you got inside?”
    “I remember being embarrassed over my condition.”
    “Over being drunk?”
    “Or drugged,” she said with emphasis. “I remember making my way to the sofa.”
    “So you knew where his sofa was?”
    “No. I’d never been to that town house before. I saw the sofa and knew I needed to sit down.”
    “Did you take your shoes off first?”
    “No.”
    “Your dress?”
    “No.”
    “Did you undress before or after Jay started pouring the scotch?”
    “I didn’t undress.”
    “So Jay undressed you.”
    “No!”
    Clark jumped on that. “How do you know if you can’t remember?”
    Before she could respond, Javier said, “If you didn’t undress yourself, and Jay didn’t undress you, how come you woke up nude and in bed with him,