3 Swift Run Read Free

uncomfortable, twirling a strand of honey hair around her finger. “What?”
    “Les and I kept our finances separate,” she said airily. “I don’t have access to that
     stuff.”
    “The bills didn’t come to your house?” I widened my eyes at this evidence of … what?
     Les might have set up housekeeping with Heather-Anne, but he hadn’t trusted her. Hah!
     At least we’d shared a joint checking account. Which enabled him to clean out every
     penny when he took off.
    “He has a postal box. So do I. I do have this.” She pulled out a cell phone bill and
     handed it to me. “He left it on his desk after he paid it. Usually he shredded things.”
     She slid off the desk and wandered the office, twiddling with the blinds wand, brushing
     her fingers across the ficus leaves, clinking the letter opener and markers in my
     Hello Kitty pencil holder.
    I clicked the pen against my teeth, trying to figure out what else Charlie would ask
     if she were here. The heck with it. This was a golden opportunity to snoop into Les’s
     personal life post-me, and I didn’t even try to resist temptation.
    “I apologize, Heather-Anne,” I said, not one bit sorry, “but I’ve got to ask you some
     personal questions. Were you and Les … having difficulties?” They must be—right?—if
     Les had run off. “Financial issues? Was he seeing, that is, was there another woman?” What goes around comes around, I told her in my head, almost hoping Les had taken up with some Costa Rican sexpot.
    Heather-Anne’s eyes narrowed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? I came to you because
     I figured of all the PIs in this town, you were the one most likely to have insight
     into Les, to be able to track him down, because, well, because you were married to
     him for longer than I’ve been alive. I didn’t think you were the kind of person to
     taunt me, to try and make me feel bad—”
    “I’m not! I didn’t mean—”
    “It’s okay,” she said, wiping at her eyes, even though I hadn’t noticed any tears.
     “I understand.”
    “It’s just that if you want us to find Les, I’ve got to know some things.”
    Heather-Anne raised her chin, shaking her hair back. “No, there weren’t any other
     women, and no, we weren’t having problems. We were blissfully happy, insanely in love
     with one another. In bed—”
    I definitely did not want to hear about their sex life, so I jumped up and went to
     pour myself a cup of coffee. The carafe chattered against the mug. “What about money?”
     I asked loudly. Returning to my desk, I set the mug down carefully.
    “Financially, well—”
    I looked a question at her when she hesitated.
    “Les seemed … worried the past few weeks.”
    “Worried? About what?”
    “Well, you know that when we went to Costa Rica there were some … questions about
     his financial dealings on this end.”
    “He embezzled from several of his companies and there’s a warrant out for his arrest,
     if that’s what you mean.” The people he’d cheated had been harassing me, making my
     life miserable, since he left. The angry calls had petered out the last couple of
     months, maybe because they’d realized you couldn’t get blood out of a turnip.
    She nodded. “Right. Well, I got the feeling that maybe some of his former business
     partners were taking matters into their own hands, that they were tired of waiting
     for the justice system to catch up with Les.”
    “Oh, no.” My hand flew to my mouth. “Did someone threaten him? Is that what you meant
     about him being in danger?”
    “I don’t know about that, exactly,” Heather-Anne hedged, “but he was edgy recently,
     seemed to be looking over his shoulder, got more secretive, and made a point of going
     outside to take phone calls.”
    “You have no idea what was going on?”
    “None.” Heather-Anne widened her eyes at me. Her expression reminded me of something …
     Kendall! She looked just like my daughter did when she