Double Black Diamond (Mercy Watts Mysteries) Read Free

my life since the moment I was born. They’d given my parents a house on the exclusive Hawthorne Avenue. It was an expensive gift, and Brooks’s lawyer wanted to know why it was given, why The Girls had paid for my private education and had practically raised me in their mansion. The truth was I didn’t know. Dad wouldn’t say and I had always left it at that. We loved The Girls and they loved us. It seemed simple, only it wasn’t. The lawyers had uncovered the fact that our house had been given to my mother alone, and at the time, The Girls had never met her. Why did they do that? Why Mom and not Dad? There was also the question of Josiah Bled, The Girls uncle. He’d dropped off the face of the earth about the time we got our house. Brooks’s lawyer clearly thought my dad knew him and had something to do with his dropping out of sight. Josiah didn’t die, at least not so that you could tell. He was a famous man, a WWI flying ace and a spy during WWII, not to mention fabulously wealthy. One minute he was in St. Louis and the next he was gone and no one asked why. The papers didn’t cover it and the family never said a word to me about Josiah disappearing. I assumed he was dead. But he was just gone. Brooks’s lawyers leaked information to the St. Louis Police Department, and they’d started an internal investigation alleging that Dad had used his police connections to do something for The Girls for which they gave him entrance to the world of Hawthorne Avenue.  
    That investigation could’ve ruined my dad, the hint of impropriety would’ve been very bad for his excellent reputation. He was now a famed private investigator with clients all over the country. I managed to take care of Brooks and his lawyers in a way I wasn’t exactly proud of, but it was done for the best and the police weren’t looking at Dad anymore. They seemed happy to let it drop when the lawsuit went away.  
    Spidermonkey had been working for me ever since. He was supposed to find out everything he could about the time that The Girls gave my mom the house and what happened to Josiah Bled by doing extensive record searches. It’d been over three months since he started and since then I had only the most basic of updates from him. He said he was making progress and I tried to remain patient. It was obvious that whatever happened wouldn’t be easy to uncover and Spidermonkey was the best at what he did. Whatever it was, I had to know. I’m naturally nosy like my parents, but it was more than that. I’d gotten Brooks off our backs, but how long would it last? We had to be ready and my parents acted like nothing had changed, but for me everything had.  
    I parked on a side street and turned up the collar on my wool pea coat. The wind whipped down the street and snatched at the thin material on my legs as I ran through the cobblestoned streets of Laclede’s Landing until I found tiny Café Déjeuner tucked in between two larger restaurants with white starched tablecloths behind their plate glass windows. I flung open the door and found the cafe quite empty, except for a barista behind the counter and a white-haired old man sitting at a small table reading The Wall Street Journal in front of the roaring fire in the enormous fireplace. I took off my beret and checked my phone. No messages and I was only five minutes late. Surely Spidermonkey didn’t dump me over five measly minutes.  
    “Can I help you?” asked the barista.  
    “Yes. I’d like a double latte and …” I looked through the antique glass case at dozens of fresh pastries, all glistening with sugar and butter. “What do you recommend?”  
    “The eggnog cinnamon rolls are to die for,” she said with a smile.  
    “One of those then.” I handed over my debit card and then texted Spidermonkey.  
    Please be running late. Please be running late.
    “I’m here. Whr r u?” I typed.  
    My phone dinged.
    “I’m here.”  
    “Whr?”  
    “Fire.”  
    I turned