Lie or Die: A Shelby Nichols Adventure Read Free Page B

hadn’t even talked to him yet.
    “Hello?” I asked.
    “Hi, Shelby,” Uncle Joey said. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
    He paused, and I couldn’t stand the suspense. “Bad for me, or bad for you?” I blurted.
    “What’s bad for me is bad for you,” he replied, coldly.
    I didn’t want to argue, so I kept my mouth shut.
    “I won’t be sending you to Seattle after all. I just found out that Hodges is dead. His body washed up on Puget Sound sometime yesterday with a bullet in his head. The authorities think he was killed about two weeks ago.”
    “Two weeks ago?” That surprised me. “So is Kate still there? Do you think she did it?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “But I’m sending Ramos to check it out. In the meantime, I’ll need your services tomorrow. I’m promoting two of my men to take the place of Walter and Johnny. I need to know what everyone’s thinking when I admit them to my board of directors. It should only take about an hour.”
    I hesitated before answering. Did I really have to go? “Okay,” I agreed, knowing I didn’t have a choice. “What time?”
    “Ten o’clock. See you then.” He disconnected.
    I held the phone to my ear for a little longer than necessary, then despondently put it away. Being summoned to Uncle Joey’s felt like going to my execution. I tried to shake it off. It wasn’t life threatening, so that was a plus. I could handle working for him for an hour, especially since he was going to pay me. I’d be done by eleven, and could go right to the lingerie store after that. It could work. As a bonus, there might even be some cute underwear at the store I could buy.
    Then it hit me. Where was Kate if Hodges was dead? What happened to all the money and jewels they took? Could Kate be dead too? A little thrill of hope went through me, and I felt bad. It wasn’t nice of me to hope she was dead. Besides, if Hodges was dead, I wouldn’t put it past Kate to be the one who killed him. She probably wanted all the money for herself. I hoped Ramos found out what happened. I would rest easier knowing she was far away from here.
    Chris came home, and I couldn’t wait to tell him about the lingerie store. “I have some good news and some bad news,” I said. “Which do you want first?”
    He was thinking that the bad news probably had something to do with Uncle Joey. How did he always know? “The good news, of course.”
    Dang, I thought for sure he’d go with the bad. “I found a lead for the stolen money.” I explained about the lingerie store and waited for him to congratulate me. “Dottie Weir? Hmm…that’s an interesting name.” He was thinking it was probably just a fluke, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. “But that’s great you have more of a lead,” he added.
    How could he think it was a fluke? He just didn’t want to admit he was wrong. “I’m going to check it out tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll know if there’s more to it.”
    “So, what’s the bad news?” he asked.
    I was a little disappointed that he dropped it so fast, and I didn’t want to tell him I’d been summoned to Thrasher Development, so I went with the other part. “We’re not going to Seattle after all. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty disappointed about that.”
    “Why? Did Manetto change his mind?”
    “Nope. Hodges is dead,” I said. “Apparently he was killed a couple of weeks ago, but his body just washed up somewhere on Puget Sound.”
    “What about Kate? Is she all right?”
    Was that real concern I detected? I didn’t think he liked Kate that much. “Uncle Joey doesn’t know. He sent Ramos to see what he could find out.”
    “That’s nuts. I wonder what happened.” He didn’t think Kate would actually kill someone. She was too smart to do something stupid like that.
    “Not that smart,” I said. “Did you forget Kate was ready to kill me?”
    His eyes narrowed, and I could hear him growling in his mind. Wow, he’d never done that