Parallel Lies. Kate Donovan

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СКАЧАТЬ me if you don’t believe me,” she added in Zack’s direction.

      “That’s not necessary.” Theo stepped between his two visitors. “You were going to play a recording for us, weren’t you?”

      “Right. There are two messages, both from Shell.”

      Sabrina pushed the switch, and Shelby’s recorded voice said, “Hey, Brie. Pick up if you’re there. I was hoping we’d get to say goodbye. Johnny’s whisking me away for a week of lust on some top-secret tropical island. We’ll be incommunicado, but I’ll call you as soon as I get home. Take care. We love you!”

      The first call disconnected, then a second message began.

      “Breezie?” Shelby’s voice was hushed. “I’ve only got a sec. Johnny was in the room before, and he’s really hot on this incommunicado thing, so I’ve been pretending to go along. But obviously I’m going to call you. And I’ll have my cell with me, so leave me messages, okay? I know I’ll miss you. Plus, I’ve been getting a funny feeling lately—like in the Dad days. I’ll be worried if I don’t hear from you. Watch your back, okay?

      “But don’t worry about me,” Shelby’s voice continued, “because I’ll be with Johnny, so I’ll be safe. And happy. Sooo happy. Can you believe how great he is? And before you roll your eyes, I’m not just talking about the sex. He’s so different from other guys. Doesn’t just go to sleep when he’s done, you know? We stay up for hours afterward, talking about everything under the sun. It’s so—oops, I hear him coming. Gotta go. Love ya!”

      Sabrina switched off the recorder, trying to keep a cool head. But the sound of Shelby’s sweet, trusting voice had brought a lump to the older sister’s throat again, just as it had every time she’d listened to the messages.

      “How long ago did you say she left?” Zack prodded.

      “It was Saturday morning.”

      Something flickered in his green eyes and she knew that even a jerk like Zack Lansing thought four days without a call was too long.

      But she wanted him to be wrong, so she insisted, “Shelby doesn’t have her cell phone with her. I know that because yesterday I finally began to panic, so I went to her house. Her phone was lying right on the kitchen table. The innocent explanation is that Johnny took it out of her purse when she wasn’t looking. Because he wanted her all to himself. She didn’t realize it was missing until they were already in the middle of nowhere and now she can’t call even if she wants to. Or something. But…”

      “Take it easy,” Zack advised. “We’ll check the guy out. We’ve probably got information on him already.”

      “Really?”

      “Sure. We don’t stalk you or anything, but we’ve always kept tabs.” Turning to Theo, he asked, “Where’s last week’s report?”

      “We don’t get weekly reports on the girls anymore,” Theo told him with a wince. “Just monthly ones. The next one isn’t due for a few days.”

      “Monthly? I never authorized that.”

      “I know,” Theo replied. “I did.”

      Zack’s eyes flashed and Sabrina thought he was going to lose his temper again. Then he shifted direction, literally and figuratively, and pushed a series of buttons on the phone on Theo’s desk.

      After three rings, a recorded voice said over the speaker, “You’ve reached Connor Boyle’s message service. Leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you.”

      “Connor, it’s Zack. Where the hell are you? I’m at Theo’s and we need to talk right away. Call back on his home number, and make it quick.”

      Breaking the connection with a flourish, Zack gave Theo a scowl. “That guy never answers his phone. What the hell are we paying him for?” Without waiting for a response, he asked Sabrina, “Where did Shelby meet this Miller guy?”

      “At my house.”

      “Huh?”

      She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a nice story, actually. Like she said in her message, he’s a sweet guy. And he’s probably harmless. But I had to know for sure. So I came here.”

      Theo gave her an encouraging smile. “We’re glad you did. Aren’t we, Zack?”

      “Yeah. Thrilled. Let’s hear the sweet story.”

      Sabrina settled into a gray-velvet wing chair. “A few weeks ago, my cat disappeared. He does that a lot, so I didn’t take it too seriously. But after a week passed with no sign of him, I started posting notices around the neighborhood. The next day, Johnny came to my door with Zorro. That’s the cat’s name. Anyway, he had a cast on his leg. Zorro, not Johnny,” she clarified sheepishly. “Johnny explained that he had found him a week earlier, lying by the side of the road, hurt. So he took him to the vet.”

      “Miller lives in your neighborhood?”

      “No. He was just visiting his sister in Sacramento. He’s from Seattle. Apparently he was out jogging when he found Zorro. Anyway, I was grateful to him. Obviously.”

      “Obviously,” Zack drawled. “Go on.”

      Sabrina wasn’t sure what he was implying, but she was sure she didn’t like it. Turning away from him, she addressed her uncle. “I invited him in. He stayed for dinner and we had a lot of fun. He seemed like such a nice guy.”

      “He probably is,” Theo told her. “Your father raised you to be a good judge of character.”

      She smiled in genuine relief. “Thanks, Uncle Theo. I hope you’re right. Even now, looking back, I can’t imagine a nicer guy than Johnny. We had so much in common. We talked and talked, long into the night. I was coming down with the flu as it turned out. Otherwise—” She flushed but admitted, “Who knows what might have happened? But as it turns out, I was too sick to be even remotely attractive. So we just talked. About a million different things. Then the next day, when Shelby heard how sick I was, she came over to take care of me. Johnny came back to check on me, and they hit it off. Like an inferno.”

      Sabrina stared down at her hands, suddenly embarrassed. “Just listening to myself, I can imagine how I sound. Jealous, right? But I’m not. I guess I’m just overprotective. The truth is, she found someone. Someone terrific. And he wants to spend some time alone with her. Sounds like a victimless crime, right?”

      “I have a question for you,” Zack said.

      She looked up, surprised. “Sure. Ask me anything.”

      “What specifically did you and Miller talk about?”

      “Hmm?”

      “You said you talked long into the night. About what?”

      “Well, about everything. All kinds of things.”

      “Everything under the sun?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.

      “What?”

      He reached over and took the recorder from her СКАЧАТЬ