Left to Lapse (An Adele Sharp Mystery—Book Seven) by Blake Pierce (book club suggestions txt) 📗

with a wince. Quickly, she answered,turning a shoulder to her father’s seated form. “Yeah?”

The voice on the other end replied, “Adele…” It was John,and Adele went suddenly stiff. She hadn’t left things with her old partner in aparticularly healthy place.

“Yeah?” she said; the word had worked the first time, andshe saw no reason to change it.

“Foucault wants us both in. A new case.”

Adele swallowed, trying to compose herself. For a moment,she had hoped John was calling for personal reasons.

“All right,” she said, “when?”

“Right now. Urgent.”

“I’m with—with my dad.”

“Germany?”

“No, he’s here. He just got in.”

“You want me to tell the Executive—?”

“No, no,” she said, quickly. “I’m on my way.”

She hung up and glanced at her father, flinching. If he’dbeen listening at all, he didn’t show it. His head was still tilted, his eyesfixed on the ceiling, his arms splayed out across the top of the couch, hischest rising and falling slowly beneath the thin fabric of his white T-shirt.

“Work,” she said, hesitantly.

At first, he didn’t seem to be aware he was beingaddressed.

“Dad, I’ve gotta go in to work.”

He looked over now, his eyes cloudy, some of the darknessshe’d seen before having faded, as if to be replaced by a sudden stupor. Hemurmured something softly, then shook his head.

“I’ll try to get back as soon as possible,” she said,wincing. “Feel free to order food or raid the fridge. Whatever you want.”

Her father looked at her for a moment, his eyes sad in away she wasn’t accustomed to. The normally rigid and rough man before herlooked raw, exposed, as if a veneer had suddenly been stripped away. She saw anaked look of grief in his eyes, for a moment, and she wasn’t sure she wantedto stay near it.

At last though, he shook his head and sighed. “You know…you got closer than I ever could,” he said, and for a faint moment a smile evencrossed his normally dour expression. “As Yogi Berra said, ‘It ain’t over tillit’s over.’”

Adele blinked. She wasn’t sure what a cartoon bear had todo with it… Was she remembering that name right? No matter. But despite herfather’s words, his eyes still held another trait… something deeper, darker,lurking behind his gaze. “Go,” he said. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tonight.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure. Duty calls.”

She shook her head hesitantly, then muttered anotherapology, hating that she was leaving her father only a half hour after he’darrived. She sighed, waited to see if he’d say anything else, and when no wordswere forthcoming, she quickly marched to where she’d left her keys and wallet,snagged them, gave one last, “See you in a bit,” and then, grateful for theexcuse, she hurried out the apartment door, shutting and locking it behind her.A new case would provide a distraction. And right now that’s exactly what sheneeded.

CHAPTER THREE

Adele took the elevator from the bottom floor of the DGSIheadquarters in that strange, pink building outside the old café. Theheadquarters was a relatively new structure as was the agency itself.

As the elevator doors dinged, passengers got on and off,carrying with them—from the adjoining corridors—the smell of fresh coats ofpaint, where workers were still completing the building over a contract thatseemed like it might take twenty years thanks to a combination of slow workersand ridiculous security protocols hampering the painters’ workdays andpersonnel.

Not every part of the DGSI, though, was so guarded. Adele thoughtbriefly of the basement. John Renee liked to keep his own speakeasy down there,a hidden bachelor pad. She’d been invited into the sacred space more than once,but not recently. Recently, things between them had been less than ideal.

She took the elevator to the second floor first, adjustingthe sleeves of her suit and smoothing a lock of blonde hair behind an ear.Adele bid a quick farewell to the two other passengers still waiting in theelevator, and then stepped out onto the carpeted hallway. She moved rapidlytoward Robert Henry’s spacious office which overlooked a portion of the parkinglot and a view of the distant city.

Renee had said the meeting with Foucault was urgent, butAdele still couldn’t shake thoughts of her old mentor. What could it hurt justto check in quickly? Just to see his smiling face, to see how he was doing?

As she neared Robert’s door, though, she noted it wasclosed. Adele frowned, glancing up and down the hall. She tapped delicately onthe door. No answer.

She knocked a bit louder, then tried the handle. Locked.

“Robert?” she called.

A head poked out from the doorway across the hall, and awoman with short hair frowned. “He’s sick,” she said. “Didn’t come in today.Please keep it down.”

Adele winced in apology and then turned, moving dejectedlyback to the elevator. Robert had been coming in to work over the last week asmuch as possible. If he hadn’t come in today, his health must have declinedagain.

She gave a shuddering little breath that rattled her throatbefore boarding the elevator again. She made a mental note to visit Robert assoon as possible.

Adele took the elevator one floor up, to the third level,and the doors dinged open, revealing another carpeted hall. Adele walkedbriskly toward a bench which faced an opaque door.

For a moment, she stopped. Normally, John Renee would waitfor her outside the Executive’s door. It had been a ritual of sorts. They wouldoften enter the room together, facing the wrath of the Executive with backup.

But now she could hear voices from inside, and the opaqueglass door was half ajar, suggesting John had already entered ahead of her.

Adele stepped away from the bench in the carpeted hall andpushed her fingers against the opaque glass. She hesitated, listening throughthe glass at the slow growl of Agent Renee’s voice. For a moment, she felt aflash of recollection, how things had been left the last they’d spoken. Howpoorly she’d treated him and yet how angry she’d felt. Now, some of the angerhad numbed, but the sheer pain, the grief of the situation, ten years in themaking, wouldn’t allow her to settle. Would John be angry to see her? Would heignore her? How could she patch things up? Did she even want to?

She pushed against