Act of Betrayal Read Online Free Page B

street outside the apartment building, that moment when his eyes had shown her things she didn’t want to see.
    She was a professional, a psychologist with years of clinical experience before she turned away from her practice and moved into the corporate world. There she had used her computer skills to develop virtual marketplaces, where buyers strolled aisles that existed only in a computer, buying this item, leaving that one on the shelf, every preference noted and analyzed. Then came the divorce, the move to St. Louis from Denver, and her work with the St. Louis Police Department. She had been Schultz’s boss for over a year, and in that time their relationship had gone from outright hostility to acceptance of the value of each other’s approach to the job.
    And possibly to something more.
    She put that last distracting thought away quickly. It wasn’t the time to examine her feelings for Schultz. She should be thinking only of how she could comfort him, help him to make some sense of his loss. As soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew that trying to make sense of things was the wrong approach. Even if she came to an objective understanding of why Schultz’s son died, she wouldn’t be able to make emotional sense of it. There was nothing to do but cling like a bubble on the surface of Schultz’s emotions.
    It would have been nice if she could have plucked some magic product from those virtual grocery shelves in her former job and make everything all right for Schultz. In spite of her training in grief management, she wanted a quick fix for him.
    PJ started on her roll, and let her thoughts slide into a black pit she’d been skirting.
    What if it had been Thomas? How could I bear it?
    Just the thought made her chest tighten and a spasm travel up her spine. “Fairies dancing on your back with cold feet,” her mom used to say.
    Millie came out of the kitchen carrying a white china plate loaded down with a burger and fries. Stuck in the top of the bun was the diner’s trademark, a toothpick with a little American flag at the top. As Millie placed the plate in front of Schultz, PJ noticed that the flag had been moved down the toothpick.
    It was flying at half-mast.
    Schultz spotted the flag. He put his elbows on the counter and rested his head in his hands. “Christ,” he said. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
    “Hey,” Millie said. “You got no call to talk like that. I was only trying to show you I was sorry for Rick, you old fossil.”
    Resolve solidified in PJ. Her feelings had been shifting like the continents over molten magma, but now they had formed a crust and taken a new shape. If the victim had been her son, she wouldn’t rest until justice was done. She would see to it that the killer never took another life. And that’s exactly what she would do for Schultz.
    She reached over and snatched the toothpick from his hamburger bun and slipped it into the pocket of her trousers. Out of sight. Then she leaned over the stool between them and spoke softly close to his ear.
    “We’re in this together, Leo. Every step of the way.”
    Halfway through his meal he announced that someone had to tell Julia. As soon as he said it, PJ was mortified that she hadn’t thought of notifying Rick’s mother and quietly taken care of it herself. But studying his face, she knew how important it was that he be the one to do it. At least she could be next to him.
    “The phone’s right over there,” said PJ. “I’ve got some change, I think.”
    “I have to make the phone call,” he said. It sounded as though he was trying to convince himself. “Before she finds out some other way.”
    He dumped his change on the counter and pawed through it. Unbidden, Millie coasted by and emptied her pockets of the tips she had held out that morning, adding to the pile for the pay phone. Evidently she was thinking way ahead of both of them.
    PJ tried to rise from her stool and follow him to the phone, thinking she would be