Free When All The Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz Page A

Caribbean?”
    “That’s right. She’s at a convent run by a cloistered order. They offer retreats to women several times a year. It’s their primary source of income.”
    “What’s the name of the island?”
    “St. Adela. The convent is named after the saint. Why?”
    “How did your stepsister find it?”
    “Jocelyn said she researched tech-free retreats online and chose St. Adela. Look, where are you going with this?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I usually don’t, not until I get there.”
    “Very philosophical.”
    He thought he heard a smile in her voice. Maybe it was just his imagination.
    “Very philosophical for a PI, do you mean?” he asked.
    “For anyone.”
    “I see.” He tried to think of some way to extend the conversation. “Got plans for tonight?”
    “Oh, yeah. Wild evening ahead. After dinner I’m going to do my nightly meditation and then I’m going to watch some television and then I’m going to go to bed and read. And during that entire time I will be worrying about Jocelyn and wondering why Louise Flint is dead.”
    “Sounds like a full evening. I’ll be doing pretty much the same thing. Except for the meditation thing.”
    There was a long pause on the other end of the line. He waited for her to end the connection first. But she didn’t make the move, at least not right away.
    “Max?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Do you think my sister is okay?”
    He hated questions like that.
    “I have no idea,” he said.
    “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
    He was pretty sure she was going to hang up.
    “I just remembered a question I wanted to ask you,” he said.
    “What is it?”
    “I checked Louise Flint’s GPS. It looks like the last trip she made was to Loring, Washington.”
    He heard a sharply indrawn breath.
    “Loring?” she whispered. “Are you sure?”
    “All I know for certain is that Loring was the last destination registered on the GPS. I can’t find anything that tells me that Louise had any acquaintances there. Daniel Flint has no idea why she would have made the trip unless it was to see a foundation donor. But the receptionist at the foundation said there was no record of any big donors in Loring.”
    “When did Louise make the trip?” Charlotte asked quietly.
    “The day she died.”
    “I have no idea what is going on, but if it is in any way connected to Loring, Washington, it can’t be good.”
    “Tell me why.”
    “My stepsister went to college in Loring. She dropped out in her sophomore year and finished somewhere else.”
    “Why did she drop out?”
    “She was attacked on the campus. Raped. They never caught the bastard. Jocelyn could not identify him because she didn’t get a good look at him. He came up from behind with a knife and blindfolded her.”

CHAPTER 10

    “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m damned scared,” Victoria Mathis said. She tightened her grip around the stem of the martini glass. “First Jocelyn takes off on a monthlong retreat and now Louise is dead. I’m telling you, something has gone very, very wrong.”
    She was the one who had texted the others late that afternoon, summoning them to an unscheduled meeting of the club that night. Normally there would have been all five members present. But with Louise dead and Jocelyn in the Caribbean, there were only the three of them. And of the three, she and Emily Kelly appeared to be the only ones who were truly frightened. It was obvious that Madison Benson thought they were overreacting.
    Maybe it was her background in marketing that was making her nervous. She was very good at spotting trends in the hothouse environment of the fashion world. She also knew just how fast a trending style could go south. She relied on her intuition for success and right now it was warning her that there was no way she could pretend that Louise’s death and Jocelyn’s disappearance didn’t make for a disturbing trend. They all knew that they had been taking risks.
    Madison