Read The Other Daniel - A Camille Grisham Novella for Free Online

uphill battle
against the inevitable, Camille quickly made her way up the
driveway and into her father’s open front door, not giving herself
any time to think about what she would say to Crawley or what he
would say to her.
    “Just go in there, accept your Bureau
visitor’s badge, and get it all over with,” she muttered to
herself, her quiet tone laced with resignation.
    She knocked on the screen door as she walked
through it. “I’m here dad,” she announced before she saw anyone. “I
would have been here sooner but I had an unfortunate run-in with…”
She froze at the sight of the woman sitting on the couch. “Oh,
hello.”
    The woman’s heavy eyes lit up as she stood.
“Hello.”
    Camille looked at her father, suddenly
confused. “Hey dad.”
    “Hi Camille,” Paul Grisham said, rising to
his feet. He looked flustered.
    “Your phone call sounded urgent. What’s
going on?”
    Her eyes drifted back to the woman. The
tall, slender brunette was dressed in a beige Anne Klein business
suit. Camille had the same suit hanging in her closet; a holdover
from her Bureau days. But this woman wore it much better. A
matching clutch was tucked tightly under her arm, as if she was
wary of putting it down. Were it not for the purse, Camille would
have immediately tagged her as FBI. But the designer accessory,
along with her nervous demeanor, made it clear that she was
something else.
    Paul approached his daughter while the woman
stood frozen. His six-foot-three-inch frame momentarily blocked her
from Camille’s view.
    He gave her a light hug. “Thanks for coming
so quickly.”
    “Based on your tone I knew I didn’t have
much of a choice.” She looked past her father to the woman, who was
holding her purse even tighter now.”
    “I suppose an introduction is in order,”
Paul said as he stepped aside. “Camille, this is Meredith Park. Ms.
Park, this is my daughter Camille.”
    Despite her obvious nerves, Meredith was
quick to extend her hand. “Hello.”
    “Hello, Meredith. I understand you’re here
to see me.” Camille’s handshake was cautious.
    “I am.”
    “Ms. Park arrived this morning from New
York,” Paul added.
    “Do we know each other?” Camille asked with
genuine confusion.
    “We’ve never met before. But you may have
met someone close to me. He’s the reason I’m here.”
    “Go on.”
    Meredith opened her purse
with unsteady hands. “As your father said, I’m from New York City.
I run a boutique literary agency out there.” She gave Camille a
business card for Park and White
LLC .
    A literary agency. The finely embossed card
stock suddenly felt like a fifty-pound weight in Camille’s hand.
She handed it back without saying a word.
    Meredith took the cue to continue. “I
represent a true-crime author named Jacob Deaver. He is in the
process of writing a book and he may have attempted to contact you
about it.”
    Camille’s expression darkened. “So I have
you to blame for that.”
    Meredith seemed genuinely caught off guard
by the sharp reply. “You talked to him?”
    “Yes I did. No less than twenty minutes
ago.”
    A wave of relief washed over Meredith’s
porcelain face. “Oh thank God.”
    “It’s nice to know that you’re so excited
about it. But I should inform you that I almost called the police
on him.”
    “What?”
    “What do you mean you almost called the
police?” Paul said in the pit-bull tone that Camille had come to
know all-too-well.
    “He’s been following me.”
    Meredith shut her eyes as if she were
struggling to process Camille’s words. “For how long?”
    “I’m not sure. All I know is that this
morning I went to a coffee shop two blocks from my apartment and
from out of nowhere he approaches my table trying to pitch his book
idea. I politely declined the offer and left. Then I get the call
from my dad telling me to come over, and guess who I run into
outside my apartment building?”
    Meredith’s breath caught. “It just doesn’t
sound like him