Tried & True (Mayfield Cozy Mystery Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

location and the time. Evasiveness on our side may actually reassure him. But the privacy he’s demanding means you’ll have to make an appearance eventually—meet him face-to-face. You ready for that?”
    I gritted my teeth. “I will be.”
    “Good girl.”
    Next, I called Matt. Although it was difficult to tell for sure over the phone, it was possible he exceeded Josh in the amount of excitement he exuded. What I wouldn’t have given to actually see, in person, my very own FBI special agent in a delighted frame of mind, grinning from ear to ear like a little boy. Because that’s how he sounded.
    “It’ll be messy and time-consuming,” I said. “Josh was talking about paperwork.”
    “There’s nothing the federal government is better at than producing paperwork. Mounds of it. Metric tons. Dump trucks full. You just made our legal team’s day.” Matt might have chortled a little bit. “I’ll ask the San Francisco office to start surveillance on Blandings. We’ll know about his embarrassing foibles soon enough.”
    He was still cackling when he hung up. At least someone was in a good mood.
    I, however, was dealing with a churning stomach. Because something else was niggling at me.
    The idea of knowing your enemies. I had the feeling I hadn’t explored a few possibilities with regard to my Numeros. And I really hoped I hadn’t missed the opportunity.
    So I dialed Sheriff Des Forbes, and prepared to face his serious disapproval.
    We got the usual pleasantries out of the way, and then I asked, “Can I visit a prisoner?”
    Des sighed heavily. “Which one?”
    “Viktor Lutsenko.”
    “I was afraid of that. He’s not in my jail anymore. Why don’t you visit Angelica Temple? Maybe she’d quit complaining for two minutes. She’s driving my custody chief crazy.”
    That idea appealed to me about as much as a root canal. Visiting Lutsenko didn’t rate any higher. But my Numero Dos had the kind of ego I thought might be conducive to the shadow of a scheme that was flitting around in my head.
    “No dice. It’s Lutsenko or bust. Where is he?”
    “At the South Correctional Entity, otherwise known as SCORE, in Des Moines. It’s a joint jail facility for a bunch of cities up north, but they also take overflow from other jurisdictions. Not the one I usually use, but it’s more conveniently located for federal court appearances. It’s where your case manager, Matt Jarvis, wanted him.”
    “So I have to ask Matt if I can see Lutsenko?”
    “I didn’t say that.” Des’s voice was stiff. “What are you up to?”
    “I don’t know yet. I just want to ask him a few questions.”
    Des snorted softly. “I guess you have a right to do that. Since I’m the sheriff in his booking county, I can get you in. No promises he’ll actually talk to you though. Especially not without his lawyer present.”
    “Oh, I think he will,” I murmured.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 4
     
    There was no convincing Des that I could find the SCORE complex in Des Moines and filter through the requirements for an inmate visit by myself. He insisted on both chauffeuring and chaperoning me.
    One of the upsides to his assistance was that I didn’t have to fit into the standard visiting hours. He called ahead and arranged for a private conference room. The warden would notify Lutsenko of the appointment, but Lutsenko would also have the right to decline to speak to me—at any point before or during the scheduled time slot. I hoped I wasn’t conscripting Des into a goose chase.
    Des picked me up shortly after noon, and I spent a couple hours riding shotgun in his official Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had my array of phones in my tote bag, but I was hoping against hope that Tank Ebersole wouldn’t choose this particular afternoon to extend our acquaintance. Try chatting with an outlaw biker president while the sheriff is all ears right beside you.
    Consequently, I was rather taciturn, chewing on my lower