Free Victoria Houston - Loon Lake 14 - Dead Lil' Hustler by Victoria Houston Page A

waited. “No, are you kidding? Thanks.” She clicked her cell phone shut. “The signal from Liam’s phone indicates it is here in the house. At this location—where is his bedroom?”
    “Around the corner on your right,” said Phil.
    They hurried to a closed bedroom door and Lew pushed it open. An unmade bed, a small plywood dresser, and two folding chairs heaped with clothes that had been thrown at them. A pair of waders hung from a hook on the wall. Lew lifted a three-ring binder from the top of the dresser and under it found a cell phone. She picked it up and pressed the power button. “Um, out of juice.”
    “That happens a lot. Liam forgets to plug it in at night. His laptop runs down, too.”
    Jake shook his head. He walked over to the waders and stood staring at them. “I wonder why he didn’t take these.”
    No one had an answer.
    As they left the house, Jake’s secretary called his cell phone. She had reached the professor and learned that the trout stream he’d told Liam about was in the Nicolet National Forest: the Pine River. Problem was, he hadn’t been there in twenty years and couldn’t remember how he’d found it. “One of those twisty back roads—I found it by accident,” was all he could offer.

Chapter Thirteen
    After the nurse’s aide removed her dinner tray, Nancy Jarvison relaxed back against the pillows and opened her iPad. She was halfway into the first chapter of the new book she had just downloaded when she heard a bustling in the hall.
    “Sssh,” she said as loud as she could. She looked down at the screen but the annoying clatter continued, this time punctuated with snorts and feminine laughter.
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” she said to herself. “What’s the purpose of a private room if I have to listen to all this nonsense? Idiots.”
    Bracing her bandaged left shoulder with her right hand, she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Peering through the half-open door into the hallway, she could see the two nurse’s aides wheeling a large canvas cart toward the next room. She was about to lambast them both when she heard one say, “That’s Bud Jarvison’s ex-wife in 324. What a bitch. No wonder he dumped her.”
    “They’re divorced? I didn’t know that. I have to tell my sister. She had a fling with him a while back. He’s a pretty handsome guy even if he is kinda heavy and, man, that dude has money.”
    “I think they’re divorced. Yeah, I’m sure. After fishing last Saturday night, Jimmie and I stopped into Thunder Bay Bar for a couple beers. Bud was there with a woman. He kept trying to get her to stand up for the pole dance contest but she refused. I heard him promise her a hundred bucks if she’d get up and strip.”
    “For a hundred bucks? I’d do it.”
    “Yeah, well, she looked to be six months pregnant so I don’t think you would if you were that far along.”
    Nancy backed away from the door. Bud at that disgusting strip joint with another woman? A
pregnant
woman? She could feel her blood pounding in her ears. How many times had he promised not to embarrass her like that?
    The aides were moving down the hall, away from her room, still talking. Nancy edged closer to the crack in the door.
    “Who’s the girlfriend, anyone we know?”
    “Never saw her before. But very pretty. I think she’s Hispanic. Maybe one of the waitresses from the Mexican restaurant in Rhinelander? Yep, pretty and pregnant—poor thing. She’ll be lucky if she gets anything from Bud. Somebody shoulda told her…”
    Back at her bedside, Nancy picked up her cell phone and pressed familiar numbers. “Hi, Brenda, would you do me a favor? Pick me up tomorrow morning early—like eight o’clock, please? And don’t tell Bud. I’m planning a surprise.”
    She sank onto the bed, thinking. Then she inhaled sharply and, moving carefully, sat back against the pillows. She needed time to figure this out.
    She heard a gentle knock on her door and her husband walked into the room.