I've Got You Under My Skin Read Free

unable to bear the sight of the playground where Greg had been shot.
    A passing police cruiser slowed as it drove by. The officer in the passenger seat saluted Leo.
    “I like it when they do that to you, Grandpa,” Timmy announced. “It makes me feel safe,” he added matter-of-factly.
    Be careful, Leo warned himself. I’ve always told Timmy that if I wasn’t around and he or his friends had a problem they should run to a police officer and ask for help. Unconsciously, he tightened his grip on Timmy’s hand.
    “Well, you haven’t had any problems that I couldn’t solve for you.” Then he added carefully, “At least as far as I know.”
    They were walking north on Lexington Avenue. The wind had shifted and felt raw against their faces. Leo stopped and firmly pulled Timmy’s woolen cap down over his forehead and ears.
    “One of the guys in the eighth grade was walking to school this morning and some guy on a bike tried to grab his cell phone out of his hand. A policeman saw it and pulled the guy over,” Timmy said.
    It hadn’t been an incident involving someone with blue eyes. Leo was ashamed to admit to himself how relieved that made him. Until Greg’s killer was apprehended, he needed to know that Timmy and Laurie were safe.
    Someday justice will be served, he vowed to himself.
    This morning, as she hurried out to work seconds after he arrived, Laurie had said that she was going to hear the verdict on the reality show she was proposing. Leo’s mind moved restlessly to that concern. He knew he would have to wait for the news until tonight. Over their second cup of coffee, when Timmy had finished dinner and was curled up in the big chair with a book, she would discuss it with him. Then he would leave for his own apartment a block away. At the end of the day, he wanted Laurie and Timmy to have their own space, and he was satisfied that no one would get past the doorman in their building without a phone call to the resident they claimed to be visiting.
    If she got the go-ahead to do that series, it’s going to be bad news, Leo thought.
    A man with a hooded sweatshirt, dark sunglasses, and a canvas bag on his shoulder, seeming to come out of nowhere, darted past him on roller skates, almost knocking over Timmy, then brushing a very pregnant young woman who was about ten feet ahead of them.
    “Get off the sidewalk,” Leo shouted as the skater turned the corner and disappeared.
    Behind the dark sunglasses, bright blue eyes glittered, and the skater laughed aloud.
    Such encounters fed his need for the sense of power he felt when he literally touched Timmy and knew that on any given day he could carry out his threat.

3
    R obert Nicholas Powell was seventy-eight years old but looked and moved like a man ten years younger. A full head of white hair framed his handsome face. His posture was still erect, although he was no longer over six feet tall. He had an air of authority that was instantly apparent to anyone in his presence. Except for Fridays, he still put in a full day at his Wall Street office, chauffeured back and forth by his longtime employee, Josh Damiano.
    Today, Tuesday, March 16, Rob had made the decision to stay home and meet television producer Laurie Moran here in Salem Ridge instead of in his office. She had told him the reason for her visit and had couched it in an intriguing premise: “Mr. Powell, I believe that if you, your stepdaughter, and her friends agree to re-create the events of the Graduation Gala, the public will understand how incredible it is that any one of you could have been responsible for your wife’s death. You had a happy marriage. Everyone who knew you knew that. Your stepdaughter and her mother were very close. The other three graduates had been in and out of Betsy’s home from the time they were in high school, and then, when you and Betsy were married, you made them always feel welcome. You have a very large house, and with so many people at the party, there is every