Page 41

CHAPTER 41

DAVE SUMMERLY LEANED AGAINST the wall in the hall with his arms folded in that smug and superior and undeniably sexy way while I made my excuses to Mark and Summer Rayburn and promised we’d talk again tomorrow. They left and I let Summerly in but only as far as the guest chairs, which I blocked so he couldn’t sit down.

“What the actual hell, Dave?”

He lifted his hands in mock helplessness. “You tell me, Rhonda. You tell me why I have to play dirty like this. Because I don’t want to. I want us to help each other out here. But you want to play cat-and-mouse games. So I’ve had to cook up some bullshit to come over here and turn your life upside down.”

“What reason could you possibly have to enter these premises?”

“I got a dead guy on my hands,” Summerly said. “Martin Rosco. The Cable-Tie King. Remember him? You killed him in your house. Now I’ve got to put that case to bed. I gotta decide whether I’m going to file it under self-defense or homicide.”

“You’re not going to charge me with homicide.” I leveled a fierce gaze at him. “You might be trying to piss me off, but you’re not that big of a time-waster.”

“I told the judge I’d feel better about calling it self-defense if I could just get a look at your files. I need to find out which case Martin Rosco was trying to dissuade you from working on.” Summerly smiled. “Clever, right?”

“What baloney. That judge must have owed you a huge favor to sign such a garbage warrant.”

“He did. I looked the other way on his nephew’s possession charge a few years back.”

“Dave, you’re not going to touch a single sheet of paper inside this office,” I said. I lifted a finger in warning. “You’re not going to unstick a single Post-it note or open a single manila folder. I’ve been clearing my dad’s stuff out of this place for months. Everything is exactly where it’s supposed to be and it’s staying there.”

“Rhonda,” Summerly growled, his eyes locked on mine. He took a step toward me. “I am going to absolutely trash this office. I’m gonna make it look like a hurricane swept through here. And I’d just love for you to try and stop me.”

He took another step forward. I refused to be backed into my desk. I stood with my arms folded until he was within reach.

Then I grabbed him and kissed him hard.