Silent Night 2 Read Free Page B

was flushed. Her green eyes flashed excitedly. “I think this is the real thing, Reva,” she whispered, grinning. “I mean, I met Victor only a few weeks ago. But I . . . well . . . I’m just nuts about him.”
    â€œThat’s great, Pam,” Reva replied without anyemotion, as if Pam had just told her it was cloudy outside or something just as dull. She raised the backs of her hands to her cousin. “How do you like my nails?”
    â€œHuh?” Pam seemed confused by the sudden change of subject.
    â€œWill these drive Ms. Smith wild, or what?” Reva demanded, holding the black-dotted purple fingernails in Pam’s face.
    To Reva’s surprise, Pam reached down and picked up a silver-bladed letter opener from a stationery display. Pam raised the letter opener high.
    â€œPam—what’s that?” Reva cried.
    â€œHere’s what I think of your nails!” Pam exclaimed. And she plunged the letter opener into Reva’s chest.

Chapter 3

GRABBED
    R eva uttered a choked gasp.
    Pam laughed.
    She raised the letter opener and pushed the blade two or three more times into Reva’s chest. “Gotcha,” Pam cried, her green eyes sparkling with excitement in the bright store light.
    Reva took a step back, her eyes still wide with fear. She stared at the fake letter opener, realizing that it had a sliding blade. The blade slid into the handle when it was pressed against anything.
    Still grinning, Pam pushed the blade into the palm of one hand. “Do you believe this joke letter opener is the biggest seller in the stationery department this Christmas?” Pam declared, shaking her head.
    â€œIt’s . . . very funny,” Reva said weakly. “Glad you’re having fun, Pam.”
    â€œIt beats last Christmas,” Pam remarked, eyeing Reva meaningfully.
    â€œFor sure,” Reva muttered.
    Reva said goodbye to her cousin. Then she walked as slowly as she could back to the perfume counter, thinking about Victor.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    After work Reva made her way up to the executive offices on the sixth floor to meet her father. She passed the luxurious reception area with its leather couches, fresh flowers in tall glass vases, and fabric-covered walls studded with modern paintings.
    Following the hall to her father’s office in the corner, Reva paused as the balcony came into view. The balcony from which she could look down on all five floors to the first one. The balcony where she had almost met her death.
    Feeling a cold shiver down her back, Reva held her breath and jogged the rest of the way, her eyes straight ahead.
    Mr. Dalby was standing in the doorway to his office, a stack of files in his hands. He smiled as Reva approached. “How’s it going?”
    Reva’s father was a trim, handsome man who worked out every day and took very good care of himself. He was forty-six but appeared younger. The only signs of age were the creases at the corners of his dark eyes and the sweeping trails of gray on the sides of his black, closely trimmed hair.
    â€œHow’s it going? Not great,” Reva complained.She followed her father into his office and sat down in front of his wide blond-wood desk.
    She turned the photo in the Plexiglas frame on the corner of the desk to peek at it. She had seen it at least a thousand times, but it still made her feel sad. It was a snapshot of Reva, her little brother, Michael, and their mother on the beach at the Cape. It had been taken five years earlier, just six months before Reva’s mother had died.
    What a photo, she thought, turning it back. So happy and so sad at the same time. She always wondered how her father could bear to keep it in front of him all day.
    Mr. Dalby sat in his chair and leaned over his desk, studying Reva’s face. “Ms. Smith complained about you this morning,” he murmured.
    Reva shrugged, as if to say who cares. “I