Read Reilly 02 - Invasion of Privacy for Free Online

laugh. She let him spend his fury. Finally, he came back and sat with her on an icy patch of sand right at the water’s edge.
    They talked for a long time, looking out across Lake Tahoe and into a night so clear, Nina could see the lights of Incline Village and King’s Beach on the northwest shores, twenty-six miles away. A huge inland sea, deep, impersonal, full of secrets, the lake showed its personality in colors and moods, exerting invisible influences on its neighbors. Now black and impenetrable, its still surface slicked like wet tar, it called like a dangerous road to those outside on a winter’s night like this. A few foolhardy adventurers bobbed in distant boats. A few stayed safe, their yellow lights close in, beaming out of the boat harbor at the Tahoe Keys.
    Paul arrived as Matt had begun unpacking his goodies. Nina got up to greet him and let herself be enveloped. Bigger than ever in his overcoat, his breath warmed her frosty cheek. He shook snowflakes off his sand-colored hair, kissed her, and held out a large shopping bag bunched at the top and tied with a red ribbon.
    "For me?"
    "Found it today in a store window. I thought of you," Paul said.
    "Should I open it now?"
    "Let’s wait until we get back to Matt’s."
    They all sat down and demolished big bowls of hot stew in about five minutes. The kids ate everything, without picking out onions or carrots for a change, starved and flushed from all the running around. Later, when the red thermos was empty, Matt got up to make camper’s coffee, boiling water in a pan over the flaming stove, and tossing grounds in to steep and settle. He filled the adults’ mugs and refreshed the kids’ hot chocolates.
    "So how was court today?" Paul said.
    "He lunged. I parried, and attacked from the side. He stepped back, and I thought I had him, but then his henchmen poured boiling oil over my head. I released the lions, and they made short work of him," Nina said. "My head is bloody, but unbowed."
    "I feel that way sometimes after a day home with the kids," Andrea said.
    "What kind of case is it?"
    "My client made a film about a girl who’s been missing from the Tahoe area for a long time. The parents and friends didn’t like the way she portrayed them in the film, and decided they wanted to stop her from distributing it. They couldn’t sue her for libel, because she didn’t lie about anything, so they sued her for invasion of privacy."
    "That’s a quaint notion," Paul said. "As if anybody has any of that in this day and age."
    "The trouble is, I think I’m on the wrong side, Paul. She couldn’t care less about the feelings of the people involved. Plus, there’s the way she looked at me today."
    "How did she look at you?" he asked.
    "Like ... she hates me. I’m used to looking for hidden motivations, you know, figuring people out as quickly as possible. Most people are pretty simple. But she’s buried deep. She’s an angry woman, and I definitely got the impression she’s turning some of that anger my way for some reason I can’t figure out. Suddenly, it’s not business between us. It’s personal."
    "Creepy," said Andrea. "Why the sudden interest?"
    Nina shrugged, and sipped from her mug.
    "What happened to the missing girl?" Paul asked. "The one in her film. Does she say?"
    "No. Tamara Sweet had some problems at home. The Tahoe police listed her as a missing person, because there’s never been any sign of an abduction or anything criminal."
    "How long since anyone has heard from her?"
    "Twelve years."
    "That’s a long time," Paul said. He was an ex—homicide detective. Nina knew what he was thinking.
    "I think that what really led to this lawsuit is my client’s idea that the girl was murdered. Not only that, she tries to link up her disappearance with three other disappearances of young women around the lake over the past decade."
    "Does she have any hard evidence?"
    "No. She insinuates, you know, Paul? And it’s hard on the parents."
    "She’ll get