A Taste of Sin by Jennifer L. Jennings, Vicki Lorist Page A

only dish I made consistently well; chunks of breast meat, diced vegetables and tomato sauce with some Italian herbs. Throw it all in a crockpot and it’s pretty hard to screw up.
    I was in the middle of slicing the red peppers when Max came through the door.
    “Hey,” he said, eyeing me at the cutting board. “You’re making dinner?”
    “It’s the least I can do for all your help with Emily’s case.”
    His face morphed into a pout. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I can’t stay for dinner. I just stopped by to give you a kiss and grab a few things. I’m leaving again. I’ll be in New York for five or six days.”
    “Really? What for?”
    “This client wants me to outfit his entire office building with new surveillance equipment. He’s a Fortune 500 geek, he’s loaded and, of course, he needs me today.”
    “It’s so last minute.”
    “Have to take the jobs when they come, right?” He popped a slice of pepper in his mouth “But I haven’t forgotten about our weekend getaway. Let’s make plans when I get back.”
    “I wanted to discuss something important with you, tonight.”
    He ran his fingers through my hair, tilted my head back, and planted a warm kiss on my lips. “I’ll call you when I get to my hotel room. You can tell me all about it then. I have to go.”
    “What about Emily? I told her you were going to remove the surveillance equipment tomorrow. She’s leaving to go stay with her parents.”
    “Good. She should’ve left days ago. You could remove the cameras from the smoke detectors yourself.”
    “I could?”
    “Piece of cake, Sarah. I’ll e-mail you the diagram.”
    “Fine, but I will not be held responsible for damaged goods.”
    “You can handle it.”
    Max swiped another pepper and chewed while gathering up his personal items. Within a minute he was blowing me kisses as he rushed out the door.
    I felt drained; physically and emotionally. I was really hoping to discuss the Gavin job with Max.
    Maybe it was better that I didn’t tell him.
    I thought about giving Linda a call. I could invite her over for dinner and we could talk about Emily and Paul, or talk about nothing at all. The fact that I still hadn’t heard from her had me worried. I decided not to push it.
     
    After dinner, I poured myself a glass of wine, then set up my laptop on the couch next to me. Since the surveillance was still up and running in Emily’s kitchen, I decided I might as well keep an eye on it. At six-thirty, I didn’t expect to see Paul in the kitchen. It would be another thirty minutes until he got home from spin class.
    Just as I put my feet up, Carter’s ring tone echoed through the living room.
    I answered the call.
    “Hey Carter, you got something for me?”
    Carter cleared his throat. “I have some information. Good and not so good. Which one you wanna hear first?”
    “How about the good stuff first.”
    “Well, I checked into Dr. Gregory Knowles. He’s squeaky clean. No complaints or malpractice suits. Glowing patient reviews. He’s well respected in his field.”
    “Okay, that’s encouraging.”
    Carter cleared his throat. “So, are you ready for the scoop on your landscaper friend? Hector’s real name is Julio Ramon Medina and he’s not a landscaper.”
    I swallowed hard. “Then what is he?”
    “A criminal. He’s been in jail twice in the past year and he’s currently on probation.”
    “For what?”
    “Drug dealing and assault.”
    I closed my eyes, shook my head. “Damn it, I knew something wasn’t right about that guy. Paul gave Emily a story about how he and Hector were doing a barter; landscape work for tax services.”
    “Well,” Carter said. “That seems highly improbable considering Hector has not once filed a tax return since he moved to the states six years ago.”
    The wheels began turning in my mind. “Let’s say Paul wants his wife gone but he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. He takes eight hundred out of the bank account to give Hector as a