Blood Debt Read Free

“All I can think of is, why me.” He laughed, but the sound held no humor. “Which seems a little self-centered since I’m merely being haunted and was not the one killed and mutilated.” Pushing his ergonomic chair away from the desk, he spun it around and stood. “I need to get out. Be distracted.”
    â€œGreat.” Tony grinned. “Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
is playing at midnight at the Caprice.”
    â€œWhy not.” Enjoying Tony’s poleaxed expression, Henry turned the young man about and pushed him gently out of the doorway. “I hear Gary Oldman is terrific.”
    â€œ
You
hear?” Tony sputtered as Henry’s inarguable touch moved him down the hall. “You heard it from me! And when I told you, you told me that you never go to vampire movies—
that’s
why not.”
    â€œI changed my mind.” Unable to resist, he added, “Maybe we can get a bite while we’re downtown.”
    The elevators in the Pacific Place towers were as fast and as quiet as money could make them. With his fingertips resting lightly on the brushed steel doors, Henry cocked his head and smiled. “It sounds like Lisa’s shredding the character of another cabbie.”
    Tony winced. “Man, I’m glad she likes
us
.”
    As the chime announced the arrival of the elevator, the two men stepped away from the doors.
    â€œHello, boys.” One gloved hand clutching the arm of her paid companion, Lisa Evans grinned a very expensive and perfect grin as she shuffled into the corridor. The gleaming white teeth between glistening red lips added a ghastly emphasis to the skull-like effect created when age finally triumphed over years of cosmetic surgery. “Heading out for a late night on the town?”
    â€œJust a midnight movie,” Henry told her as Tony stopped the doors from closing. He scooped up her free hand and raised it to his lips. “And you, I expect, have been out breaking hearts?”
    â€œAt my age? Don’t be ridiculous.” She pulled her hand free and smacked him lightly on the cheek, then turned on her companion. “And what are you smiling about, Munro?”
    Not the least bit chastised, Mrs. Munro continued to smile down at her elderly employer. “I was just thinking about Mr. Swanson.”
    â€œSwanson’s interested in my money, not these old bones.” But she preened a little and patted the head of the mink stole she wore over a raw silk suit. Once the mistress of a Vancouver lumber baron, she’d made a number of shrewd investments and parlayed a comfortable nest egg into a tidy fortune. “And besides, I’m not interested in him. All the good men are dead.” Sweeping a twinkling gaze over Henry and Tony, she added, “Or gay.”
    â€œMiss Evans!”
    â€œChill out, Munro. I’m not telling them anything they don’t know.” Companion chastised, she turned her attention back to the two men. “We’ve just come from one of those tedious fund-raising things they expect you to attend when you have money. Organs, I think it was tonight.”
    â€œOrgans?” Henry repeated with a smile, fully aware that Lisa Evans enjoyed those tedious fund-raising things where her checkbook ensured she’d be stroked and flattered. He also knew that if she was vague, it was deliberate—no one made the kind of money she had without knowing exactly where every dollar ended up. “Musical or medical?”
    â€œMedical.” Heavily shadowed eyes narrowed into a look that had been known to send a variety of CEOs running for cover. “Have you signed an organ donor card?”
    â€œI’m afraid they wouldn’t want my organs.”
    The look softened slightly as she leaped to the conclusion he’d intended. “Oh. I’m sorry. Still, while there’s life, there’s hope, and medical science is doing wonders these days.” She grinned.