Read Morgan James - Promise McNeal 01 - Quiet the Dead for Free Online Page A

inscrutable therapist face and wait her out, I began to silently count…one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three…
    At one thousand and four, Becca bolted from her chair and glared at Garland. “Mr. Wang. I refuse to be interrogated any further. If you think this Dr. ( she emphasized the Dr.) McNeal is the right person to establish Paulie unstable and unable to administrate Papa’s trust, I suppose I shall trust you know what you are doing. Certainly, at the hourly price you are charging me, you should bloody well know! Call me when you have positive news. I have business to take care of in Atlanta.” With those words Becca stalked out of the room leaving the door wide open. I heard Paige wish her a lovely day as she whisked by the reception desk and caught the elevator going down.
    Garland shut the conference room door, loosened his tie, and grinned. “Wow, she makes Aileen look like Mary Tyler Moore.” He then removed his suit coat, slung it across one of the vacant chairs and rang Paige. “Hello, Sweetheart. Did that burst of frigid air freeze your lovely curls? Good, we wouldn’t want that, now would we? Would you please ask someone to bring us a cup of tea? I think Promise may need a refresher, and I know I do.” He hung up and reached behind his chair to the credenza for a yellow pad and pencil. “All right now, let’s see what we have.”
    I enjoyed his recovery from the formidable Ms Tournay. The Garland I knew and loved was back in business. Flipping from the few notes I’d taken during our brief conversation, I opened to a fresh page and started a list. “Okay. Number one, your client is the bitch from hell. That, of course, is a personal observation, not a professional assessment. We’ll get to that later.”
    Garland interrupted. “I know she’s a bitch, never the less, a well paying bitch. I don’t need a psychologist, or a psychic, to tell me that.”
    “Garland, please. For the hundredth time, I am not a psychic. A psychic is a person who wears long flowing robes and probably advertises in the personal columns of a new age newspaper. All I have is intuition, no robes. Everybody has intuition. Sometimes I get lucky with my intuition, that’s all it is, luck”
    “Right, whatever you say. Just remember, I’ve seen you in action. You pick up stuff from the universe like a vacuum cleaner, stuff the rest of us have no idea is working around out there. And, I saw your face when you shook hands with Becca. You saw something. What was it? What did you see? What’s Becca’s deep dark secret? Not that it matters, of course, since us attorney types don’t want to know too much about our client’s crimes and misdemeanors. It makes it too hard to spin a convincing story for a jury.”
    “Great, I’ll keep that piece of honesty about attorneys in mind. You are probably right though, what I sensed from Becca may not matter, at least not yet. It’s too early to see where it fits. Let’s just say I’m grateful she wasn’t my mother. Let’s go on to number two: the doll frightened her, though not enough to stop what she is doing. Here we have a very determined lady for a client. Three: she says she’s convinced her son sent the doll. I’m not so sure she is telling us the truth about that; she is too quick to point her well-manicured finger at him. On the other hand, I guess if he did send the creepy thing, it could help us. Tell me about the son.”
    Garland reached back to the credenza for a thin manila file folder just as Paige brought tea. “Thank you, Sweetheart.” He showed Paige a genuine smile and followed her fashionable slim body with appreciative eyes as she exited the room, making me wonder if calling her sweetheart was more than Garland’s usual sexist greeting. I hoped not. I knew Garland’s wife, Aileen, and, as much as I admired her, I felt certain she was the “take no prisoners” type. If she caught her husband in any indiscretion he would be