Read Sleight of Hand: A Novel of Suspense (Dana Cutler) for Free Online Page A

information secret.”
    “And we are in my house and not in a courtroom, so you have no legal right to—”
    Glass shattered and a bullet smashed into the wall above Pickering’s head. He looked confused. Dana threw herself across the desk and knocked the professor to the floor.
    “What are you doing?” Pickering protested.
    More bullets tore through the room.
    “Someone is shooting at us,” Dana said as she drew the gun she wore in a holster secured to her ankle. “Get under the desk and stay there.”
    Dana stared into the forest but the light from the fireplace reflected off the window glass. She crawled closer to the windows and crouched behind the sofa, straining to hear any sound outside the house. Then she rose up cautiously and stared over the top of the couch and through the shattered panes. She didn’t see any movement in the forest.
    “Stay here,” she ordered. “I’m going after the shooter.”
    Pickering didn’t protest, and Dana darted through one of the French windows onto a patio. Another shot ricocheted off the outside wall and Dana heard someone crashing through the woods. She waited a moment, drew a second gun from the holster secured to the back of her belt, and crept forward, keeping low and moving her eyes back and forth.
    A car engine started and Dana dashed toward the sound. By the time she reached the road, two taillights were disappearing around a curve. Dana debated getting her car but rejected the idea. The shooter had too much of a head start. Besides, she’d been hired to get information from Otto Pickering that could lead to the scepter, and she was curious to see the professor’s reaction to this attempt to murder him.
    Pickering was still cowering under the desk when Dana reentered the living room. She holstered the gun she kept in the small of her back but held on to the snubnose revolver from her ankle holster.
    “You’re safe now, Professor. The person who tried to kill you drove off before I could get to him.”
    “Kill me?” Pickering said as he crawled out from under the desk and slumped in his chair.
    “I can’t think of anyone with a motive to kill me ,” Dana said. “If I died, my client would send someone else in my place. You’re the one with information that can lead to the scepter, so I have to think that you were the target.”
    Pickering put his head in his hands. “This can’t be happening. I’m just a consultant. All I did was give an opinion about the authenticity of an antique.”
    “For who?”
    “No, I can’t.”
    “Listen, Professor, once you tell me who hired you, the cat is out of the bag and no one will have a reason to kill you.”
    “I don’t know what to do,” Pickering said. He was sweating and he was pale. Dana hoped he wasn’t going to pass out.
    “Professor, someone just tried to murder you. There could be a second attempt.”
    “But you said there wouldn’t be if I told you what you want to know,” Pickering said. He sounded desperate.
    “I think the odds of another attempt will be small if you tell me who asked you to look at the scepter.”
    Pickering didn’t answer right away. He rubbed his temples. Then he sighed.
    “Rene Marchand.”
    “Who?”
    “Rene is an antiques dealer. His office is in Seattle. He specializes in rare European antiquities. He’s more of a broker. He doesn’t have a store.”
    “Did he own the scepter or was he representing a client?”
    “He wouldn’t answer any questions about the piece, but I got the impression that he was acting for a client. He only wanted my opinion on its authenticity.”
    “What was your opinion?”
    “I couldn’t say for certain that the scepter was the object the sultan gave to Gennadius, but it could have been. There are few written descriptions of the scepter, and the jewels had been removed. It was unquestionably from the appropriate time period, and the amount of gold used led me to believe that it had to have been created for someone of immense wealth