Read Deadly Little Secrets for Free Online Page B

Gallery.”
    â€œPrometheus?” That rang a faint bell in the back of her mind. Where had she heard it? Something recent, connected to this new case.
    Jen made a rude noise. “Keep up, Ana. It’s only the most exclusive gallery in the Bay Area. These openings? Invitation only. Big charity deal this time too, so there’ll be celebrities and power brokers and stuff.”
    â€œSo who’s the artist?” she asked Jen, just to keep the conversation going as she dumped the McDonald’s bag on her desk. Pretzky couldn’t slap at her for taking a personal call at lunch. Meanwhile, she was booting up her computers, getting into the system, opening the art fraud file.
    Jen rattled out a name and then continued to gush about the high profile of the event. “And maybe meet Carrie McCray, you know, she’s been nearly a recluse since her husband died. She’s only like forty and she looks, like maybe, I don’t know, twenty-eight or nine? I swear she’s got one of those paintings in the basement, you know, the one that ages for you.”
    â€œ The Picture of Dorian Gray, ” Ana absently supplied the name of the famous book and film. “So what happened to the husband?”
    â€œOh, really sad, you know? Just dropped dead of a heart attack in a Peet’s Coffee shop right down from the gallery. By the time the ambulance got there, he was gone.”
    Ana frowned, switching monitors. One of the dead guys in this cold case had died of an apparent heart attack. The only way the original team had figured the connection was that the dead man, Bob Wentz, had notes on the forgery in his safety deposit box, no history of heart disease, and a foreign substance in his tox screen.
    â€œWhat did you say the husband’s name was?” Ana opened the files, sifted, and waited for Jen as she muttered through names, searching for the right combo. This was probably nothing, and no connection, but she never ignored that tickle at the back of her brain that said, Check this.
    â€œOh, uh, Luke Gideon. They had different last names and all, like some people do.”
    Ana typed the name in and hit S EARCH .
    â€œSo, you wanna go?”
    â€œGo? Go where?” Ana scrambled to tune in. What had she missed?
    â€œTo the gallery opening. Jack said he had several tickets and was there anyone I wanted to ask along. So I’m asking you, goofball. There will be, like, serious man action there. Rich man action.”
    Ana rolled her eyes. “Let me think about it. Hey, I gotta get back to work. I’ll call you later, okay?” She was about to hang up when another thought occurred. “Wait a sec, what did you say the charity was?”
    â€œOh!” Jen piled pounds of enthusiasm in that one word. “It’s this totally cool thing, Jack’s really involved. It’s called the Bootstrap Foundation. They do, like, microloans and stuff. They do some here, in South Central LA, and in Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama and stuff. Some in Detroit, he said.” Jen paused, and Ana could almost hear how hard she was thinking. “It’s all about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps or something. Do you know what that means? You know that kind of stuff. What the hell’s a bootstrap anyway?”
    She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “It’s the way you get tight boots on, with the loops at the top. Mostly it’s a metaphor for helping yourself, or getting a little help and turning that into something big. I think that’s probably the concept here.”
    â€œOh, okay. So anyway, this Bootstrap thing is the charity. Jack donates to it and so does Carrie McCray, so he has like, tickets, you know?”
    â€œYes, I get it. Okay. I’ll let you know, all right?” She was itching to dig into the file. Maybe, finally, a lead she could hook into and fly with.
    Ana hung up, snatched up her burger, and began tracking down