Read Always a Thief for Free Online

I.D.”
    “Or maybe the killer is a boob man. Gets his rocks off looking or copping a feel, and took the clothes as a trophy.”
    “Equally as likely,” Keane admitted. “At least until we have some solid evidence either way.”
    “It's clear he didn't want her identified. The doc says her fingers were burned with a blowtorch.”
    “That'll do it,” Keane said grimly. “Maybe forensics can get something resembling a print, but it'll take time if it's even possible at all.”
    “In the meantime, back at the office they're checking her description against the missing-persons file,” Gillian reported briskly. “Nothing so far. We're doing the usual door-to-door, but so far nobody saw a thing. Not surprising, considering how remote this place is. Area's being searched, but I think we both know this is just where the body was dumped. Nothing else happened here.”
    “Great,” Keane muttered. “So unless she turns up in our files as missing or we get wildly lucky and somebody recognizes a photo, we don't have a hope in hell of getting an I.D.”
    “Well, there is one thing that might point us in a specific direction. Or at least point us where the killer wants us to go.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “During the preliminary exam, the doc found something. In her panties. It's a strip of paper torn from one of those guides you pick up when you visit a national landmark—or a museum. You know, information, a map. I sort of doubt it got in her underwear accidentally.”
    Keane began to feel queasy for the first time. “Ah, don't tell me. Please don't tell me.”
    “Sorry. It's the Museum of Historical Art.”

CHAPTER
    THREE
    “W hat I don't understand,” Storm Tremaine drawled somewhat absently as she typed commands into the computer, “is why you're still snapping at Jared. He's just doing his job.”
    “What I don't understand is why you have to work on a Saturday. Max told you to take weekends off.” Resting a hip on the corner of her desk and wearing her little blond cat on his shoulder, Wolfe Nickerson, security expert and representative of Lloyd's of London, was waiting for his lady to finish the work she insisted had to be completed today.
    “I just wanted to fix this glitch before Monday. Now tell me why you're still pissed at Jared.”
    Jared had left the room only moments before, and though a security problem had been ironed out successfully, neither man had been happy with the other.
    “He nearly got you killed,” Wolfe muttered, reaching up to absently scratch Bear under his chin. “Besides that, I don't like being lied to.”
    Eyeing him shrewdly, Storm said, “You haven't been snapping at Max—or me. Neither of us was especially truthful there for a while. Give Jared a break, will you, please?”
    “I
am
giving him a break. I'm still speaking to him.”
    Storm laughed softly, shaking her head. If she had learned anything since meeting him, she had learned that Wolfe's stubbornness equaled her own. “Well, just try to remember that he
is
on our side, after all. He's not the enemy.”
    “All right.”
    She sat back in her chair as the computer digested her commands, and smiled up at him. “Besides, there are better ways to focus your energy. Do you realize you haven't thrown me to the floor and had your way with me even once today?”
    He frowned. “Wasn't that you this morning? Among all the boxes in the living room?”
    “Yes, but that was before breakfast.”
    He leaned across the desk, meeting her halfway as she straightened in her chair, and kissed her. “And wasn't that you I had lunch with today?” he murmured.
    “Yes, but that was in a bed.”
    Wolfe glanced aside at the minuscule floor space of the computer room, then eyed her rather cluttered desk. “Well, there's no room in here.”
    Storm sighed mournfully. “I knew it. Engaged just a few weeks, and already you're getting bored with me.”
    “If I get any more bored with you, they're going to have to put me in