The Winter Man Read Online Free

note, addressed to Millie, with only a threat: ‘You’ll be sorry.’ The police haven’t told her yet, and they warned me not to say anything. But I’m afraid for her.”
    â€œWhat do you think John did with the money?” Tony asked.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    Tony was frowning. “Any of those gang members ever been suspected of murdering anybody?”
    â€œYes,” came the curt reply. “John had a vindictive nature. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t put out a contract on Millie.”
    The John whom Tony knew as a teen wouldn’t have been capable of such actions. The man he was only now coming to know might well have done it. He could hardly get his mind to function. He’d come home with clear-cut ideas of the good guy and the bad woman, and now his theories were worthless. He was remembering Millie’stragic expression when he accused her of murdering his friend. He was remembering, too, what Frank had just told him, that Millie had cared about him. It was a good bet that she didn’t anymore, he thought cynically.
    Frank checked his watch. “I have to get back to the funeral home. Millie said she was coming over to see John. I tried to talk her out of it, but she said that it was something she had to do, that she felt responsible. Even after all John had done to her, she still felt sorry for him.”
    Tony closed his eyes and groaned. He didn’t know how to tell his friend that Millie had already come to see John, and that Tony had treated her like dirt and made her run out of the building in fear of him. It wasn’t a revelation he was looking forward to.

F rank actually winced when Tony told him how he’d treated Millie when he’d seen her at the funeral home earlier.
    â€œGood God,” Frank said heavily. “That poor woman. How could you, Tony?” he asked accusingly.
    Tony grimaced. “I didn’t know any better,” he defended himself. “All I had to go on was the letter John sent me and the memory of those visits I made home, when he’d cry on my shoulder about how bad she was treating him. I was sure that she’d killed my friend with her heartless behavior.”
    Frank sighed heavily. “I wish she hadn’t gone to the funeral home early.”
    â€œYeah. Me, too,” Tony replied. He was never going to be able to forget Millie’s mad dash out the door. It would haunthim. “Look, that friend of yours at the precinct,” he said. “Could you get him to ask around and see if there’s any word on the street about a potential hit?”
    â€œI could do that,” Frank said, and brightened a little.
    â€œMaybe John just left a lot of money to an animal shelter and made the threat to scare her,” Tony said.
    Frank gave him a sour look.
    Tony held up both hands. “Sorry.”
    â€œIt won’t matter what he finds out,” Frank said. “There’s no budget for protective custody on supposition, no matter how educated. They won’t be able to assign anybody to protect her.”
    â€œI’m off until the new year,” Tony said. “I can handle that.”
    Frank blinked. “I’m sure she’ll welcome having you around, after the warm reception you gave her at the funeral home.”
    Tony flinched. “Yeah. Well, I’ll have to apologize, I suppose.”
    Frank didn’t say anything to that. Privately he thought Tony was going to find it difficult to bend enough to convince Millie that he was sorry. His friend had spent most of his life in violent surroundings. His social skills were a bit rusty, especially around women like Millie. Tony’s taste was the brassy, forward sort of females he could find in bars. Millie was both refined and reserved. It would be a tough combination to crack for a hard nut like Tony.
    * * *
    The next morning, a penitent Tony joined Frank at the funeral home for John’s last