Hot Trick (A Detective Shelley Caldwell Novel) by Patricia Rosemoor

cop. Walker had cautioned me not to blow off Norelli, that he dedicated his life to the job. Even though Norelli still drove me nuts sometimes, I had a new respect for him.
    Lately, my days were filled with surprises.
    “How long have you been away on business?” Norelli asked Martin.
    “Since the day before yesterday?”
    “And you spoke to your wife last…”
    “Yesterday morning. We both had busy days. By the time I tried calling her last night…”
    She’d been murdered , I finished silently.
    “But you’ve been through the mail?” Norelli asked.
    Martin nodded. “And the phone messages.”
    “What about her emails?” I asked.
    “I don’t invade her privacy.”
    “Maybe it’s time you do.”
    Martin agreed to bring up his wife’s email program. She’d left her laptop at home. It took him only a few minutes to log on.
    “Lucky for us she set it so the computer remembered her password.” Martin gave the enter key a last tap before handing over the laptop to me.
    I started. “Fifty-seven emails between yesterday and today?” Who in the world spent that much time on the internet?
    As Norelli picked up his questioning, this time concentrating on personal relationships, I did a quick inventory of the email situation. A third were sent to Julie Martin after her death. Of the rest, more than half were advertisements, junk or otherwise. That left less than twenty emails to check. I started going through them, skimming the first lines of one before going on to the next. Most were inquiries or responses about houses the Martin woman had represented. A few were personal.
    One was too personal.
    If you don’t want your husband to know where you were last night, meet me at ten o’clock…
    The email gave an address in Bridgeport, one of the neighborhoods adjoining the murder site.
    I stared at the missive, wishing I weren’t the one who had to give the husband the bad news. I didn’t know where Julie Martin had been the night before she’d been murdered, but obviously she hadn’t wanted her husband to know. This wasn’t going to bring him any joy.
    Suddenly, I felt like the bad guy.

Chapter Nineteen
    Staring out the window, Sebastian closed his eyes and concentrated, but though he sent his inner vision reeling through the night, he couldn’t sense Shelley Caldwell. How was she blocking him? Could he only get to her through her dreams when her defenses were down?
    A sharp peal snapped his eyes open. He hurried to the intercom and buzzed in his visitor. Perhaps with her help, he would get the insight he needed.
    Opening the door, Sebastian said, “Silke—just the woman I was hoping to see.”
    “Well, yeah, you called and told me to come here.”
    “Of course I did. As I said, since you’re new, I thought we should go over a few things.”
    Silke grimaced. “I didn’t live up to your expectations last night.”
    “Not at all. You more than lived up to them. You’re in, so relax. Everything was so rushed that you never got proper time to get familiar with the tools of my trade. Get some pointers on how to work the crowd.”
    “Oh, sure. Like I told you before, though, I’ve had plenty of practice improvising. And I’m a quick study.”
    “Good. Then we won’t be at it long.”
    Sebastian knew firsthand that siblings could be at opposite poles, but Shelley and Silke were identical twins and he’d mistakenly thought they might be more alike. While Silke was sweet, somewhat innocent and definitely malleable, Shelley was a wildcard.
    Which made his plan more difficult to execute.
    And more interesting.
    “Where’s Oriel?” Silke asked as she wandered over to his collection of handcuffs and shackles.
    “Oriel has been part of the team for several months, so she’s quite familiar with all the props and escapes. The ones I’ve already planned out, that is.”
    “So it’s just you and me…” She grinned. “Where do we start?”
    Sebastian got the distinct feeling that Silke was interested