Read Blind Faith for Free Online Page B

minutes to locate him. When he finally showed up, he recognized Kelly right away, even from a distance. He hadn't changed at all since she'd last seen him, at Jonathan and Victoria's fourth wedding anniversary party. Of medium height and build, he walked with the quick, long stride of a man sure of himself.
    His eyes were dark, his mouth wide and well-defined. Thick black hair, touched with gray and cut longer in the back, curled around his collar, giving him the kind of bad-boy appeal women loved.
    He assessed her quickly, with an appraising head to-toe glance, and smiled, exposing perfect white teeth. "Miss. Robolo ," he said, taking her hand into his. "How good to see you again. And I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. We had a crisis in the theater.
    Pavarotti is scheduled to perform in exactly eight hours and the sound system has chosen this very moment to break down."
    "I'm sorry, too. I seem to have caught you at a bad time." Kelly allowed him to hold her hand a second longer before withdrawing it. "If this visit could wait, I'd leave right now, but it can't."
    "What made you think I'd let you leave?" Before she could think of an appropriate answer, he took her arm and led her toward a bank of elevators behind the lobby. "Still no news of Jonathan?"
    "Not the kind we wanted to hear." She told him what she knew but made no
    reference to Detective Quinn's drug-trafficking suspicions.
     
    He pushed a button labeled Executive And Administrative Floor. "Do you have any idea what Jonathan was doing in
Miami
?" he asked.
    "Not yet. I was hoping you could help me with that."
    "I don't see how, but I'll do my best."
    On the eighteenth floor, the doors slid open and he led the way toward a door with a simple brass plaque bearing his name. There were other offices on this floor and Kelly assumed one of them belonged to Jonathan.
    Webber's office was a surprise. There was no flash here and not a speck of gold. Elegant and masculine, the room was furnished with teal chairs upholstered in a nubby fabric, a large mahogany desk, an Oriental rug that didn't look like a reproduction and large wraparound windows that offered an unobstructed view of the
Atlantic City
skyline and its famous boardwalk. The ocean, murky gray at the moment, stretched out as far as the eye could see.
    "Great view, isn't it?" He stood in front of a well stocked liquor cabinet and poured sparkling water into two crystal tumblers.
    "Fabulous."
    "The view is the reason I put the executive offices on the eighteenth floor." He handed her one of the glasses. "Please sit down, Kelly.
    It's all right if I call you Kelly, isn't it? It's such a pretty name."
    He gave her another of his dazzling smiles. "Though not very Italian."
    "My father's choice. My mother won the other round, with my middle name."

He took a sip of his water. "Which is?"
    "Very Italian. Noemi." She chuckled as she said it. "After my grandmother."
    "It's lovely, too."
    "And you're very flattering, Mr. Web--"
    "Uh-uh." Holding up his glass, he raised his index finger and shook it.
    " Syd . Please."
    Deep inside her mind, Kelly heard the sound of a warning bell. Her host was much too charming, almost to the point of being distracting. She might even have enjoyed flirting with him a little if the circumstances of her visit were different.
    She uncrossed her legs and assumed a more professional pose. " Syd it is." She put her glass down.
    "I know you're busy so I'll try to make my questions brief. First of all, I'd be a hypocrite if I pretended to have never heard of your ...   alleged mob connections."
    The remark brought an amused twinkle to his eyes. "As long as you remember they're alleged."
    "Did that bother Jonathan? Did he question you about the problem you'd had with the Casino Control Commission prior to opening the Chenonceau ?"
    She already knew the answer to that question but she wanted to hear it from him.
    "We discussed it. Those rumors, as it turned out, were manufactured by another