Murder in Death's Door County Read Online Free Page B

shyness—I had to make this call. Establishing first contact with
clients made me a bit wobbly. I had done it a million times. Every time I told myself,
I had nothing to fear. What’s the worst the client could do to me anyway?
    “No, I’m sorry. He will have to call you
back,” the voice said rather curtly and with a faint accent. I tried to place
the accent. Greek maybe?
    “Do you know wh-?”
    Click.
    I rubbed my temples. Okay. That was
weirder than usual. I sat and stared at my phone, willing it to ring.
    Imagine my when it did two seconds
later. I almost jumped out of skin. Grabbing my phone with shaking hands, I saw
that caller ID said “Publisher.”
    “Doll.” Harry?
    “Harry?”
    “Yeah. Doll. I forgot to tell you
something important about this project. Have you called Marcos yet?”
    Sigh. My stomach sank a little. I
started pacing around my living room.
    “Yep. I just tried to call him a few
minutes ago. A woman answered the phone. I tried to leave a message, but she
hung up on me.”
    “A woman answered? Hmmm… it must have
been his wife, Diana. Well, he's difficult to reach, that’s part of what I need
to tell you, Sweetheart.”
    “I’m listening,” I ground out through
clenched teeth. Whatever joy I had felt from ditching CritiCentric was being
replaced by a feeling I knew well—anxiety.
    “There’s actually a reason why you’ll
have restricted access to Marcos. He doesn’t want visitors.”
    “Oh, he doesn’t like having people over?
    “Kind of.”
    Harry cleared his throat. “Gosh, I’m
starting to feel bad about putting you in this position. I really should have
told you how limited your access would be to Marcos.”
    That struck me as a very odd thing to
say. Alarm bells started clanging in my head. Suddenly, I realized exactly what
Harry was trying to tell me. I reasoned, no, Harry wouldn’t do this to me.
    I yelled into my phone, “Are you saying
he’s still in PRISON? What are doing to me, Harry? Is this why I got this
project?”
    Flopping onto the couch, I tried to get
some perspective. I quit my job for this gig. Oh. My. Gosh. I. Quit. My. Job.
    “Ssh. Ssh, Annie! Calm down! No. No, it’s
not that. He’s a little—just a little, mind you—crazy.”
    “Crazy! Like that makes it better. Well,
maybe it does a little. But you said to calm down? Okay, seriously, I’m not
even sure I want this project anymore.” My mind started racing: I could
waitress. I like people. I can take food orders. The break from Corporate
America will be good.
    It had occurred to me that the pay was
suspiciously high for this project—something I should have paid more attention
to before.
    “No, no. Please don’t quit this project,
Annie! We need you because of your lo-,” Harry stopped himself. I burned with
curiosity to know what he was about to say. He continued, “What I mean to say
is, we really need you to stay with this project. Actually, there’s an extra
five grand—in advance—if you stay on. I’ll bring it up personally, myself. I
can meet you up in Door County. Are there any good steak joints up there?”
    Shooty booty. An extra five thousand?
Wait? What? Did Harry say Door County?
    “Did you say Door County, Harry?”
    He gave a nervous laugh, “Oh yeah, doll,
didn’t I tell you? I’m gonna need you to temporarily move to Door County for
however long this book takes.”
    “I’m sorry, what?
    “You’re going to need to move up there
to complete this one.”
    “Why?”
    “He needs to be near his doctor.” Then
he whispered, “His psychiatrist. He has had some psychotic episodes.”
    His voice rose again, “Besides, it’ll be
a nice little vacation for you, right? Anyway, you’ll be staying on Egg Harbor.
He lives nearby, near Fish Creek, or some similarly crazy named place. I dunno.
You live up there, not me.”
    “I live up there? No, I don’t. How close
do you think Milwaukee is to Door County?” Squeaking again, I emphatically
pointed out, “it really