Read Dead Lift for Free Online

you know that Platt and King co-owned the Westside Cosmetic Surgery Center?” Afraid of the microbes I knew were there, I kept the visiting room’s scummy telephone handset a couple centimeters from my ear.
    Claire’s eyes, flat and tired, had sunk into a complexion that lacked yesterday’s vibrancy. The pane separating us was so gritty I thought maybe its opaque glass was partly to blame for her weathered appearance.
    “Of course I knew,” she said. “I’ve been a patient there for years.”
    “Why’d you withhold that yesterday?”
    “I didn’t withhold anything.”
    “Now two things trouble me.”
    With her free hand, she massaged her temple in a gesture that hinted at impatience.
    “You suggested you had no connection to Platt. And you didn’t disclose that the woman you
say
set you up is
married
to his business partner.”
    “I don’t have a connection to Platt.”
    “But you knew—”
    She raised her free hand to cut me off. “And I assumed the partnership was common knowledge. My attorney has all that background.”
    When I didn’t answer, she narrowed her eyes. “Who are you to judge me?”
    “I haven’t judged you.”
    “You were in the papers. The out-of-towner who helped the FBI bust up that crime ring last March. You killed a guy.”
    “Those people had my daughter.”
    “You let them take her away from you.”
    “I…
let
them?” I fought to control my anger. She was either misguided or cruel. Racketeers had kidnapped my baby when they killed my husband—I thought I’d lost them both—and then they sold her to an unwitting couple desperate to have a child. Even helping to bust them hadn’t made things right. Annette still thought the Fletchers were her parents, and Jack’s death would forever leave a void. But I couldn’t let my thoughts go there now. I needed to focus on why I’d come.
    I stared at her through the glass. “Did you kill Platt?”
    She smacked the pane. “No. A thousand times, no.”
    I regarded her for a moment. The strange Jekyll-Hyde feeling was back and I couldn’t figure out what it was about this woman that made me alternately think she was innocent, then nuts. “If you knew that about me, why’d you ask yesterday whether I had kids?”
    She shook her head. “I didn’t know yesterday. My mom looked into you. She visited me last night before my transfer. Told me about the news articles she found.”
    “The people responsible for kidnapping my daughter also killed my husband,” I said. “They tore apart dozens of families and took uncounted lives. Your attorney defended them. So I ask myself, if he took
their
cases…”
    She finished. “Would he take anyone’s? Probably. But I’m not guilty.”
    I checked my watch. Visits at County were limited to thirty minutes and we had four left.
    “Got somewhere to be?” she asked.
    “Your gym, actually.”
    She raised her eyebrows, amused. “The shark tank.”
    “We’re still watching Diana.” I paused. “When’s the last time you were there, by the way?”
    “Thursday. Why?”
    I shook my head. “Just curious.” Then, in an inexplicable moment of courage, I added, “Mind if I take a look around your house?”
    She shrugged. “Look all you want. Hide-a-key’s near my bathroom window. Alarm code’s 0606-star, my youngest’s birthday.”
    I didn’t know what I expected to find at her house, but Claire’s cooperation swayed me back slightly toward the Dr. Jekyll end of her personality spectrum. “Thanks.”
    “As for the club,” she said, surveying my faded, off-brand tank top. “Help yourself to my closet. Might give you a head start toward fitting in.”
    Something told me Claire paid more for a top than I paid for a week’s rent.
    “I wouldn’t feel right sweating in your designer clothes.”
    “Standing offer,” she said. “Think it over.”
    ***
    While I was at County, Jeannie power shopped at Houston’s Galleria, browsing expensive stores and probably buying more stuff than