Read 004 Smile and Say Murder for Free Online Page B

yesterday.”
    Mick pressed his lips together. “That’s another thing I want to apologize for—my outburst in Yvonne’s office. I shouldn’t have stuck you in the middle of my fight with Yvonne. And Ishouldn’t have taken my frustrations with her out on you yesterday in the studio.”
    “I won’t argue with that,” Nancy joked. She smiled at Mick sincerely for the first time, realizing that her feelings about the art director were changing. Sure, he was more than a little thoughtless, but he no longer seemed like the crazy, malicious person Nancy had first taken him for. He’d behaved badly, and he was apologizing for it. Nancy thought that was honorable. Mick would probably be a really nice guy, Nancy decided, if he hadn’t gotten successful so young.
    “Well,” said Mick, “you’ve just got to understand that I never asked for an assistant.” The bitterness was clear in his tone. “Yvonne is driving me insane. She hired you just because it suits some weird plan of her own.”
    “It was kind of bizarre that she made me your assistant without telling you about it first,” Nancy admitted.
    “Anyway,” Mick continued, “as long as you and I are going to be working together, we’ve got to try to get along. I mean, my problems with Yvonne and MediaCorp aren’t your fault.”
    “MediaCorp,” Nancy said, playing innocent. “Isn’t that the international news syndicate? They own just about every newspaper and magazine on the East Coast.”
    “Right, and if I don’t watch out, they’re going to own mine, too,” Mick told her. “But I’m not going to let that happen.”
    Nancy decided to ask Mick a few more questions about MediaCorp. A master at getting information from people without their even knowing it, she set to work. She stretched her long legs and leaned back in her chair, hoping to make Mick feel less formal
    “I used to know someone,” the sleuth said easily, “who worked for MediaCorp. Editor in chief at the Law Review, I think.”
    “I hope he wasn’t a good friend,” Mick said with the hint of a smile. “I wouldn’t trust anyone connected with that place.”
    “Then you wouldn’t hire anyone who’d once worked for MediaCorp?” Nancy asked.
    “No way,” Mick told her. “I hope your friend doesn’t want a job here.”
    “Oh, no,” Nancy said quickly. Her mind was racing.
    So Mick doesn’t know about David’s old job, she realized. But Yvonne probably did! There was no way she’d hire an editor in chief without knowing his background. Yvonne was that kind of person. And she must have hidden David’s background from Mick.
    Nancy pursed her lips pensively. She wondered if anyone else around Flash knew about David—and if not, why not? She let her eyes wander around the office as if they could somehow discover a clue.
    Suddenly she noticed something that made her break into a huge grin. Mick had a whole library of mystery novels displayed on shelvesnear his desk. “You must be a fellow mystery lover,” she said with a laugh, pointing to the books.
    “Definitely,” Mick said enthusiastically. “I’ve been reading thrillers ever since I discovered the Hardy Boys back in grade school.”
    “Yeah, I always loved them, too,” Nancy smiled. “I’ve been reading a lot of Raymond Chandler lately.”
    “I guess Agatha Christie is still the great master for me,” Mick confided. “There’s always some bizarre twist in her stories that no one else would ever come up with.”
    Nancy had to smile. Who would have guessed that Mick was a mystery freak just the way she was? If I don’t watch it, she warned herself, I may end up actually getting friendly with Mick.
    Mick stood up and extended his hand to Nancy. “You know, you’re okay,” he said.
    Nancy smiled and shook Mick’s outstretched hand. Mick had become human to her that morning—which would help her predict his next move if he really were the culprit.
    “You did a good job developing that film yesterday,