Lie or Die: A Shelby Nichols Adventure Read Free

duped Smith, and taken over his investigation on the crazy idea that I had premonitions. “You’ve hired her over me because she has premonitions? Are you mad?”
    “Under the circumstances,” Smith glared at Felt, “with your investigation going nowhere, it is a risk I am willing to take. Now if you have nothing new to add, you may leave.”
    Felt’s face turned red with anger. “I’m not giving up. If I find the money, I still want to be paid the finder’s fee. All of it.” He stood, and with a derisive shake of his head at me, left the room.
    “Sorry about that,” Smith said. “He’s a rather unpleasant fellow, but he did come highly recommended. That’s still no excuse for his behavior.”
    “It’s all right,” I said. “Most people don’t believe in premonitions, so I’m used to it.”
    “But you’ll still take the case?” he asked. Losing that much cash had put a strain on the bank, and the board of directors, as well as the owner, wanted it back. It was insured, but for some reason that wasn’t enough. Someone up the ladder wanted it found.
    Hmm…that seemed interesting. I smiled. “Yes, I’ll do what I can, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
    “Great,” he said. “Anything I can do to help, just ask.”
    “There is something,” I said. “Do you have the copy of the police report and what they know about the robbers? I might need to interview some of the people involved. It could help with my premonitions.”
    “Not here,” he said. “But I’ve talked to the prosecuting attorney. He has everything you’ll need for the investigation and is willing to share what he has with you. His name is Don Gamble. I’ll give him a call and let him know you’re coming.”
    “All right. One more thing,” I said, before he picked up the phone. “I know you were only paying Felt if he found the money, but I don’t work that way. I take an hourly wage of fifty dollars an hour. If I haven’t made sufficient progress within twenty hours, you can decide whether to keep paying me or hire someone else. Because of my method of payment, you won’t owe me any finder’s fee if I do find the money.”
    He narrowed his eyes. I was a lot more shrewd than he gave me credit for, but it was a good deal. Especially if I was successful. Plus, fifty dollars an hour was considerably less than most private investigators charged. In fact, it was too good to pass up. “Agreed,” he said. “Keep track of your hours, and we’ll meet again once you’ve hit twenty.”
    We shook on it, and he put in a call to Don, letting him know I was investigating the robbery for the bank and needed access to any of the information he had on Keith Bishop.
    With Don’s address in my hand, I drove to his office with a smile on my face. It worked! I had a plan to talk to as many friends of Keith Bishop as I could, hoping something would turn up in their thoughts. If his partner was a friend or relative, I might even end up talking to him. I would know he was the accomplice from his thoughts. Wouldn’t that be something? It could also be dangerous. Talking to the man who stole all the money, and hired Mercer to kill his partner, gave me the creeps. I’d have to work on my poker face, so I didn’t give anything away.
    I started singing ‘can’t read my, can’t read my…p-p-p-poker face’ until I pulled into a parking place and turned off the car. Don’s office wasn’t too far from Chris. With any luck, I could stop by and pay Chris a visit when I got done. Maybe we could even go to lunch.
    Don seemed young to be a prosecuting attorney, but he was nice and helpful. “I was just about to archive these when Blaine called, so they’re all boxed up.” He pointed to five boxes stacked against the wall. “You’re welcome to make copies of whatever you need, but I can’t let you take the files. I hope that’s okay.”
    “Oh, sure,” I said. Wow…five boxes of stuff was a lot of information. If I had to look through