AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“May I help you, sir?”
“I need a moment of Miss Stone’s time.”
“Is she expecting you?”
“No, but if you could tell her Detective Danny Padovano is here?” Danny flashed his badge.
“Of course, sir.” The concierge picked up the phone and punched a few numbers. “Miss Stone? This is George at the front desk. There’s a police detective here to see you. Your name again, sir?”
“Padovano,” Danny repeated. “Detective Padovano.”
“A Detective Padovano.” George waited. “Yes, of course. I’ll send him right up. You’re very welcome, Miss Stone. My pleasure.”
“If you’d follow me, Detective.” George walked across the private lobby area to an elevator bank, and Danny wondered if he was going to be escorted the whole way. George got on the elevator with him, swiped a key card, and punched in a code. Then he pushed the button for the penthouse.
“Once you exit the elevator, go to the door straight ahead of you and knock. Miss Stone is expecting you.”
“Thanks.”
George slipped out, and the door slid shut.The penthouse suite,thought Danny.Fancy.He looked at himself in the gleaming interior of the elevator. There was certainly nothing fancy about him. His tie was askew, his shirt rumpled. It had been warm out that day, and at one point in the afternoon, he’d rolled his sleeves up. Now one was sagging halfway down his arm. He looked like he’d just fallen out of bed.
He leaned his head back against the wall. He was going to have to explain to Heather where he’d been, but he knew if he’d tried to talk to her about it ahead of time, she would have lost it. That made him doubt his decision to come talk to Lauren at all, and he almost changed his mind. But when the elevator door opened, he took a deep breath and stepped into the hall. He’d come this far, and he wasn’t going to chicken out now. He knocked on the pristine white door. It opened immediately.
“Danny! This is a surprise. C’mon in,” Lauren said as she pulled the door wider. Her hair was down and loose, the soft wave giving it a tousled look. Barefoot, she was dressed in comfortable jeans and a maroon tank top that hugged her curves. Everything inside Danny coiled tighter, a visceral, almost primal response. He stuck his hand in his pocket and rubbed his thumb along his wedding band.
“Sorry to drop in without calling. I’m not interrupting, am I?”
“No, not at all.” Lauren stood back and held the door open.
Once he stepped over the threshold, Danny’s mouth sagged a little. He was pretty sure her “suite” was bigger than his entire house. The gourmet kitchen opened to a large living room that had a full view of Central Park. There were a few other doors he could see, and he guessed there were at least three or four bedrooms along with a master suite. It boggled his mind to even consider what this place cost.
“Not that I mind, but why are you here?” Lauren asked.
“I was hoping we could catch up a little more. I should have called first…” Danny wasn’t quite sure what to do next. What was he thinking to just show up here unannounced?
“No, it’s fine. I’m glad you came by. Can I get you something to eat? Drink? I assume you’re off duty?”
“Off duty. A beer would be great.”
“Go get cozy.” She gestured towards the living room, where a leather sectional sofa made an L shape, the longest side facing a wall with a large television mounted to it. There was small upright piano tucked in a corner and a couple guitars propped in stands. Some notebooks were scattered on the coffee table, but when Danny sat down, what he noticed was Lauren’s copy of their high school yearbook. He unknotted his tie and pulled it out from his collar. He stuffed it in his pocket before flipping through a few yearbook pages.
“You brought your yearbook with you from LA?” He took the beer Lauren offered. She put a bowl of chips on the table.
“No. I grabbed it when I was over at my mom’s.” Lauren sat on the adjacent cushion. “Being here, seeing you. Decided to wander down Memory Lane.” She pointed at one of the photos. “Do you remember Triple M?”
“Mary Margaret McLellan! I haven’t thought of her in years.”
“Man, she was the pride and joy of the nuns, wasn’t she?”
Back in the day, Mary Margaret could always be counted on to rat out her fellow students if they evenlookedlike they were going to do something wrong. The Sisters loved her—her fellow students, not so much. Their Triple M conversation turned to other familiar faces from the past.
“What ever happened to Brendan Chan?” she asked. “Always figured he was either going to find the cure for cancer or become a serial killer.”
“He’s a teacher—at St. Catherine’s!” Danny was laughing so hard he was nearly crying.
“No shit?”
“My hand to God—Matty has him for social studies.”
