Free Tell Me No Lies by Annie Solomon Page A

down."
    Slowly, her fingers formed the letters. Her brain cleared, and she remembered the caterer's name. The rest soon followed.
    Hank said nothing more while she wrote, but she felt him there. A small inner voice urged her to tell the truth and ask for his help. The longing to lean on someone was suddenly overwhelming.
    She gripped the pen tighter; trust no one had been liter motto for thirteen years. She couldn't abandon it now just because a pair of green eyes had looked kindly at her for a moment.
    Finished, she handed the list to Hank. He skimmed it, nodded. "Okay, I'll check this out."
    She rose, collected her things, and with as much dignity as possible, walked to the door.
    "I'll have the coroner call you about the body."
    She stilled, something freezing inside her. "What do you mean?"
    "Someone has to bury him. You're next of kin." -
    An overwhelming sadness gripped her. Burying Luka would be the last kind thing she could do for him. But it was also the one favor she couldn't grant. Not if she wanted to keep her distance. "I refuse the honor." She laced the last word with a touch of acid.
    Contempt flew across Hank's face and shamed her. She raised her chin. Who was he to judge her?
    "You're not going to lay this on the city. Not with all your millions."
    She stiffened at the rebuke in his voice, and used whatever frost she could muster to reply. "If it's merely a question of money, I'll pay for whatever is necessary. But make the arrangements with my lawyer. I'll have him call you."
    "Fine."
    She reached for the knob, desperate to get away.
    "Don't go anywhere I can't find you," he said.
    She ignored that, sailing out into the day. Down the stairs, over the scrap of grass, through the parking areas. Running, she was running, gasping, until the apartment was out of sight.
    At the main road she stopped, a hand to her pounding chest, and gulped in huge mouthfuls of air.
    ***
    Hank stood in the doorway and watched Alex sprint across the parking area and disappear around a corner. Something nagged at him, but he couldn't figure out what A buzz of anger vibrated inside his chest, but below it he felt something else. Something unexpected and not entirely welcome. She'd frozen like a cornered rabbit in there small, white, and trembling. And for a moment some damn soft spot inside him had wanted to hold her the way he held Mandy after one of her nightmares.
    That would have been a stupid move. All he needed was to fall for her. Falling for anyone was a risk he wouldn't take, let alone a suspect in his murder case.
    A damn cold-blooded suspect. Kole must have been a pretty bad guy to turn her off like that.
    Bad enough to want him dead? Want him dead enough to kill him?
    He closed the door and faced the mess inside the apartment. He had to admit he couldn't see Alexandra Jane creating this vast swath of destruction. He examined the tear in a cushion. A deep gash, as if it had been slashed with a knife. But not a precise cut If she had wielded a knife, the cut would no doubt have been careful and meticulous. As careful and meticulous as every move she made.
    But if she hadn't trashed the place, who had? Someone who had been desperate to find something. What?
    And what did her mysterious roadside chat in the middle of the night have to do with any of it?
    He picked up the silver picture frame she'd dropped when he entered. The photo had been ripped out; paper edges stuck to the sides.
    And then he realized what had been nagging at him: She said she'd come for pictures of her mother. Had she taken any with her?
    ***
    Still shaky, Alex reached her car and let herself in. What had just happened? How had she let herself be caught like that? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
    She desperately wanted to get away as fast and as far as possible. Putting the car in gear, she drove off, no clue where she was going. The hunger to run to escape overwhelmed her.
    Her relationship with Luka had been exposed. How soon before it became public knowledge?