Read Closet Confidential for Free Online Page B

coffee going already.
    Patsy hovered. “Breakfast folks?”
    “Coffee for me.” Tierney probably didn’t want to get crumbs on that immaculate shirt.
    I slid into the battered red leather booth ahead of Jack and across the table from Tierney. Even so, every now and then I got a gentle whiff of his aftershave. I am particularly susceptible to that.
    “Wheat toast with raspberry jam and cream cheese,” I said.
    “Are you people crazy?” Jack said with the enthusiasm of a person who has no kitchen skills, and who finds himself in the place that serves the best breakfast in town, poised to order said breakfast on someone else’s dime. Mine in this case. “I’ll have the Americano special, extra eggs, extra hash browns, extra bacon, and extra toast. Extra jam, too. Very large coffee.”
    “Cheese with those eggs?” Patsy said.
    “Sure.”
    “I’ll make it extra then. Orange juice?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “Large, I’m guessing.”
    Patsy filled up my coffee cup, sauntered off toward the kitchen, her tie-dyed skirt swaying, her gray braid keeping time with it.
    “I don’t know why we came all the way out here if you guys don’t even want breakfast,” Jack said. “The food is great.”
    I had a theory that Tierney probably didn’t want to be seen eating breakfast with me. I don’t know how he felt about my buddy, but Jack’s hungry presence certainly made me look less like I might be pursuing Tierney.
    Jack’s food arrived in what seemed like seconds. We’d hardly got past the awkward part. While Jack stuffed his lanky frame, I filled Tierney in on the background of Anabel and her parents and then got to the point. “I know you haven’t lived in Woodbridge all that long, but I wondered if you could tell me, honestly, if there was any question at all about the way she died.”
    I felt the ice blue eyes on me. Tierney can be a disturbing man.
    Jack swallowed and said, “I told her that she shouldn’t get involved in anything to do with murders. What if—?”
    “Jack,” I snapped. “I’m merely getting information so that I can reassure Lorelei, that’s all. I need facts.”
    “Lorelei? That’s the mother? Cover girl? Model?”
    “Right.”
    “I remember her.”
    “Oh. I guess I should have realized that.”
    “I do live here now. And I’d met Anabel, too. She wasn’t much like her mother. Very down-to-earth, casual dresser, kind of boyish even. I don’t think she wore makeup.”
    I was glad I’d scrubbed my face. “I didn’t realize you’d met her.”
    Still jingling those keys. “Woodbridge is a pretty small place, hard to avoid people.”
    Was he talking about yesterday? Was he talking about me avoiding him or him avoiding me?
    Back to topic. “How did you meet her?”
    “She was working with some kids at Hope for Youth at Risk, and we thought they were a little too close to some badass types we were keeping an eye on. There are some serious criminal activities in that area, and we’re having trouble keeping a lid on.”
    This took me by surprise. “Did she cooperate with you about that?”
    Tierney laughed. “Not even a little bit. Basically told me to get lost. Her job was helping these kids, not the police.”
    “Do you think there’s some kind of connection? I mean with these badass types you were keeping an eye on?”
    “No I don’t. We didn’t find any connections, so I don’t think there’s anything there. Bad as they are, these people have no history of attacking unconnected civilians. Anabel was a special young woman, and she died accidentally. It was a horrible tragedy, but it shouldn’t be too surprising. I saw the site myself. It was a muddy mess the day she died. It had been raining for a week or more, and the earth from the excavation had turned completely to mud. There must have been five feet of water in that hole. The walkway around the inside of the site was a slick disaster waiting to happen. And anyway, it was all investigated thoroughly by competent