Page 17 of Fear the Reaper
I checked on Star. Her dark hair was a mess, covering her face. Gently, I eased it all away and backed off. To occupy my mind, I grabbed my laptop and began pouring over the information Swede had sent me through a secure network. There wasn’t much on her private life. Most of the information was about people she’d either researched or written up. She took no mercy—politicians, athletes, actors, famous plastic surgeons—no one was above her scrutiny. Most importantly, none of these people had the know-how of making a bomb. Perhaps the doctors but I didn’t see them trying to blow someone up.
I sighed.
Then again, with enough money, anything was possible. Hired killers weren’t a thing of the past and all someone had to do was know a guy who knew a girl who went to school with another guy.
That might be a maze I really shouldn’t be trying to navigate.
The next thing I read was about a Roger Tandridge who was married to an Estelle Parks. I arched a brow. According to what I was reading, Star had an affair with Roger who had been married to Estelle. Star’s Estelle had to be a different person. Either that, or the two of them were the strangest friendship I’d ever seen.
“Reaper?”
I looked up. How long had I been binge reading her world?
“How you feeling?”
“Better. What happened?”
“You went into shock.” I rose and closed the screen.
“Oh—Sorry about that. It’s not every day my entire life blows up before my eyes.”
“Understandable.” I shoved my fingers into my back pockets.
“I’m starving.”
“I know. Montana is sending us some stuff.” I motioned to a chair beside my own. “Sit down for a while. I need to ask you something—its personal.”
“Hard questions again, Reaper?” I teased.
I grunted but smiled. “You’re worse than the guys.”
She crinkled her nose at me but slipped to the chair I offered. “Okay.” She sounded nervous.
“Tell me about Roger.”
“Oh.” Star rubbed her palms against her thighs and looked away from me. “I met him online. That’s how everyone is finding their Mr. Right these days. I thought I was a little more street savvy than most women. I could navigate the ax murders and muck to find a diamond, right? Someone once joked that I did better research than the FBI. I’ve done the research for other people, dug into my targets’ personal lives. I knew what to look for—or so I thought. We dated for a while. Things were perfect—I mean, yeah, we had arguments, but what couple doesn’t?”
She paused, and I nodded.
“We dated for almost a year. I didn’t want us to rush things so we never moved in together. But we talked about it—even talked about having children, getting—getting married.” Star’s shoulders rose and fell. “All these things I wanted—I wouldn’t settle for anything less. I mean, yes, sometimes he goes MIA but he always had an excuse. Anyway, one day I got the bright idea to surprise him at work. I figured, he was working hard. Him being on the road and my work taking me away from time to time. We didn’t really have much—um—alone time. I went out and bought lingerie—new stuff, that he’s never seen. I made him a lunch then got ready in just my coat, lingerie underneath—you know?”
A shiver trailed down my spine. The thought of taking her in an office, over the desk, against the walls—glass walls, had me fighting off a moan. Just the thought of pushing everything to the floor and having my way with her made for a very clouded mind. Somehow, I managed to give her another nod.
“I wanted to spice up our relationship. I didn’t want to have my man leave me because things got stale. I mean, they say you should never let your man leave the house hungry or horny, right?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
She frowned at me. “So, like I said, I even wore stilettos. I hate stilettos. But I knew he loved a woman in them—I did it for him. I showed up, his secretary wasn’t at her desk, so I let myself into his office. Turns out, the surprise was mine…his wife was there. She’d brought their daughter and lunch.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” Star sighed. “He was married with a child and I had no clue. Of course, Estelle was angry. I couldn’t blame her.”
“Same Estelle who is your best friend now?”
She nodded. “Yeah. She probably saw how shattered my world was. I wanted so much to have my Mr. Right. I thought Roger had been the man I had been searching for. He would spend nights with me. Whenever I wanted to have time together he was always there.”
“What did he tell his wife he was doing?”
