Mary asked Judy, as they hustled toward Walnut Street. The crowd flowed around them, students heading for the Quad, runners in red-and-blue singlets jogging toward Franklin Field, and Penn and Drexel employees burdened with briefcases and messenger bags, heading for trains and buses out of the ci...
Mary wouldn’t have noticed it but for one thing. The windshield wipers weren’t on, despite the downpour. She picked up the pace, using the absurd brim of the hat to sneak a look backward. Was the car following her? Was she being paranoid? Still. It was pouring rain. Who would drive with no wipers...
Raindrops pounded on the hood of the car and sliced the night in front of her headlights, which froze them like a camera flash, making vision difficult. She’d checked for pickups on the way, but none had a Delaware plate. Still, she was relieved to finally reach Barb Saunders’s house. She parked,...
Penny slept peacefully on the navy rug beside her, with a tummy full of chicken lo mein. They both felt well fed and reasonably safe, given the lock on the conference room door, the double lock on the firm’s reception area, and the armed guard at the desk downstairs. Rosato & Associates wasn’...
It wasn’t. “It’s Jake,” said the voice. “Who?” “Tobin? Remember? Your partner?” “Oh, yeah. The ponytail.” He laughed. “I hear you need me.” “Why? I got m...
Because I think of acknowledgments as a special thank-you, in the past I have thanked my readers here. But I’ve come to think that it’s my readers who should get the ultimate thank-you—the dedication. And now they have. Courting Trouble is dedicated to my readers, for giving me their support and ...
If you’re there, would you pick up?” She listened to the silence, then swung the car onto Broad Street. “I’m not blowing you off, but I got held up at my meeting, and I’m sorry. Please call when you can.” She pressed End, then put her emotions aside. She couldn’t worry about her love life now; sh...
The squad room was a dirty light blue, crammed with battered gray desks, lined with dented file cabinets, and encircled by water-stained curtains. It seemed to Bennie that everyone was on the night tour as she walked through their silent ranks and was led into the interview room for questioning. ...
Her BlackBerry started ringing as soon as she left the block, and she steered the car with one hand and dug in her purse with the other, finding the device by its smooth feel. She pulled it out, and the screen showed the same unknown number as before, so she answered the call."Ellen, where are yo...
The tall, triangulated mound hid them from view of the lookout, smoking a cigarette halfway down the block. And both women were in extraordinarily professional disguise; Reheema's knit cap covered her hair and Exxon-station sunglasses hid her eyes, and Vicki wore Dan's Phillies cap and Chanel sun...
She didn’t see any of the FBI agents, and she didn’t care. It didn’t matter now. Nothing did. She slid the newspaper from its clear plastic sleeve dotted with raindrops, and unfolded it, separating its soaked pinked edges. FEDERAL JUDGE WIELDS KNIFE, screamed the headline ...
The chart rested on an easel and contained the names of all of R & B’s associates, with a grease-pencil grid to the left. I took one look at it and saw what Grady had learned, but he wanted to explain it to me anyway. “Are you listening, Bennie?” he asked. Wielding a l...
And then there’s the times when I’m not. Security scanners. I just watched the TV news, and everybody is outraged about the new body scanners and pat-downs as they go through airport security. I’m not criticizing those people, but I travel all the time and I don’t feel that way at all. On the con...
He flopped miserably into his desk chair and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t think, he could only feel, and what he felt was abject misery. He didn’t see any way out of the situation, of his own making. He had wanted Pam to agree to keep their secret, and he’d gotten what he wished for,...
Marc Videon was The Necessary Evil. Corporate law firms didn’t want their CEO clients to go elsewhere to off-load their wives, because there was a chance they wouldn’t come back, so the firms were forced to employ a Necessary Evil. Davis had encountered one in every white-shoe Philly firm, and th...
It’s mercifully clear of reporters and crowds, but it looks like martial law has been declared. There are double the number of marshals, and even the lawyers and court employees have to go through the detectors. I join one of the lines, predictably the slowest moving. “What gives?” I say to a ski...