The Master Plan (2009) Read Online Free Page B

week. Dana had met her three
times in the last two years and fortunately those meetings
had been brief because Angelina Bruno was even more determined than her only son to change Dana from a career
woman to a housewife.

     

Judy Porter's apartment was in one of the original neighborhoods in Crescent Hills. The area consisted mostly of
warehouses and small businesses with buildings of wirecut red brick.
    Dana parked her car at the curb and glanced at the pizza
parlor that occupied the first floor of the building. It was 9
a.m. and a sign in the window said the restaurant opened at
11. There was a wooden door next to the pizza parlor's entrance that accessed the apartments on the second and third
floors of the building. When Dana had talked to Judy on
the telephone the previous night, the artist told her to push the
bell for apartment 2 and she would buzz her into the stairway.
    As Dana pushed the bell and waited for the buzzer to
sound, she noted that like her own building this one housed
four apartments.
    Within seconds the buzzer sounded allowing Dana to open the downstairs door so she could climb the steep stairs that
lead to Porter's apartment. When she arrived on the landing,
Judy Porter was standing in her open doorway waiting for
Dana.

    "Hi," Judy said. "The place is a total mess, but come on
in."
    "Thanks," Dana replied, stepping past the artist and entering the apartment.
    Judy hadn't exaggerated; the place was more than a little
messy.
    "I made some coffee. Do you want some?" Judy asked.
    Dana accepted the offer and followed Judy through a cluttered living room into the kitchen. The appliances and furnishing were old and worn and the small sink was loaded
with dirty pots and pans and dishes.
    Removing her coat and scarf, Dana smiled and sat down
on a wobbly wooden chair at a scarred wooden table wondering if Judy Porter would be able to find a clean cup to
serve the coffee in.
    Judy sighed and went to the sink. She pulled out two coffee mugs and quickly squirted dishwashing liquid into them
and then rinsed them. She filled the mugs with coffee from a
sleek automatic drip pot. The coffeemaker and a small microwave oven were set on the tiled counter next to the sink
and looked very out of place in the old-fashioned kitchen.
    "I have sugar, but the milk went bad," Judy said.
    "That's okay. I drink it black," Dana replied. "Sit down
and talk to me"
    When Dana met the artist at the gallery a few months back,
she had been impressed by her energy and vitality. She was
an attractive girl with long blond hair that had been parted down the middle, worked into two neat braids and pinned to
the top of her head. She had worn a floor-length black dress
with slits up the sides that showed a lot of her shapely legs,
but the first thing one noticed about the girl were her light
blue eyes. They sparkled with humor and delight as she
talked about her work and the opportunities she might find as
Del's protegee. Dana had been very impressed by her and the
one lovely painting that was displayed that evening.

    This morning, as Judy placed the mugs on the table and
sat down across from Dana, her eyes were dull and lifeless.
Her hair hung straight and limp around a face that would
have been completely colorless if not for the fading bruise
that extended from her left eye down to her jawline. She was
wearing a pair of sweatpants and a man's white dress shirt
with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.
    Dana studied her for a time before speaking. Then she
smiled, trying to make the girl more comfortable. "I was so
sorry to hear about your husband. Have you had any word on
him?"
    Judy shook her head in a negative reply.
    "Have you filed a missing person's report with the police?"
    "Yes. I called the morning after Lucas disappeared, but
the police said he had to be missing twenty-four hours before
I could file a report. So I waited until the next day, hoping
he'd show up on his own. When he didn't I