Read Haunted in Death for Free Online

rolled her eyes. “He waits up. I’m twenty-four and he still waits up.“
    “I was reading in bed.“ But her father smiled, a little sheepishly. “Maeve came in, and I… well…“ He sent another look toward his daughter. “I went down about midnight and checked security. I know, I know,“ he said before Maeve could speak. “You always set it if you come in after I’m in bed, but I feel better doing that last round. I went to bed after that. Maeve was already in her room. We had breakfast together about eight this morning, then we were here at nine-thirty. We open at ten.“
    “Thanks. Is it all right if we take a look around?“
    “Absolutely. Please. If you have any questions – if there’s anything we can do…“ Buchanan lifted his hands. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this, so I’m not sure what we can or should do.“
    “Just stay available,“ Eve told him. “And contact me at Central if anything comes to mind. For now, maybe you can point me toward what you’ve got on Bobbie Bray.“
    “Oh, we have quite a collection. Actually, one of my favorites is a portrait we bought from Rad a few months ago. This way.“ Buchanan turned to lead them through the main showroom. “It was done from the photograph taken for her first album cover. Hop – the first Hopkins – had it painted, and it hung in the apartment he kept over Number Twelve. Rumor is he held long conversations with it after she disappeared. Of course, he ingested all manner of hallucinogens. Here she is. Stunning, isn’t it?“
    The portrait was perhaps eighteen by twenty inches, in a horizontal pose. Bobbie reclined over a bed spread with vivid pink and mounded with white pillows.
    Eve saw a woman with wild yards of curling blond hair. There were two sparkling diamond clips glinting in the masses of it. Her eyes were the green of new spring leaves, and a single tear – bright as the diamonds, spilled down her cheek. It was the face of a doomed angel – lovely rather than beautiful, full of tragedy and pathos.
    She wore thin, filmy white, and between the breasts was deep red stain in the blurred shape of a heart.
    “The album was Bleeding Heart, for the title track. She won three Grammys for it.“
    “She was twenty-two,“ Maeve put in. “Two years younger than me. Less than two years later, she vanished without a trace.“
    There was a trace, Eve thought. There always was, even if it was nearly a century coming to light.
    Outside, Eve dug her hands into her pockets. The sky had stopped spitting out nasty stuff, but the wind had picked up. She was pretty sure she’d left her watch cap in her office.
    “Everybody’s got an alibi, nobody’s got a motive. Yet. I think I’m going to go back to the scene, take another look around.“
    “Then you can fill me in with what must be a multitude of missing details on the way. I had my car taken home,“ Roarke continued when she frowned at him. “So I could get a lift with my lovely wife.“
    “You were just hoping to get a look at Number Twelve.“
    “And hope springs. Want me to drive?“
    When she slid behind the wheel, she tapped her fingers on it. “What’s something like that painting going to go for on the open market?“
    “To the right collector? Sky would be the limit. But I’d say a million wouldn’t be out of the park.“
    “A million? For a painting of a dead woman. What’s wrong with people? Top transaction in the vic’s account from Bygones was a quarter of that. Why’d Hopkins sell so cheap?“
    “Scrambling for capital. Bird in the hand’s worth a great deal more than a painting on the wall.“
    “Yeah, there’s that. Buchanan had to know he was getting bargain basement there.“
    “So why kill the golden goose?“
    “Exactly. But it’s weird to me neither of them had heard by this time that Hopkins bought it at Number Twelve. They eat breakfast at eight? No media reports while you’re scoping out the pickings on the AutoChef or pulling on