"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Remodeling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Finally, she went to the business's bank and closed her shop accounts effective on Friday—letting the bank know ab
the outstanding checks and making sure the bank would pay them.

The rest of the store's reserves she took in a personal money order, carefully folding it and setting it in her wallet.

Now her time was limited. Rick might try to use the accounts and he would figure out what she had done.

She had to be quick and she had to be smart.

***
 Gavin Markham's office was as familiar as her own. The Chagall print she'd snared for him at an estate auction was
focal point of the room. His mahogany desk, off to the side, seemed like an afterthought. A wall of windows brought in
filtered daylight, and the plants in front of them made the place comfortable despite the expensive trappings.

Markham met her in his shirt sleeves. Files stacked on top of his desk meant she'd interrupted him in the middle of
preparing for a case.

“What's wrong, Ada?” he asked. “You sounded upset on the phone.”

And from the way he was peering at her, she must have looked upset as well. Maybe she wasn't as calm as she was
pretending to be.

She sat in the original Eames chair she had found at a f lea market. Gavin sat on the edge of his desk, arms crossed.
clearly wasn't going to treat her the way he would treat a normal client.

He was treating her like a friend.

His kindness made her hands shake. She took a few deep breaths, then reached inside her purse, removing two of t
1996 disks, her wallet, and her checkbook.

She slid the disks to him and explained what she had found. Then she took out the money order she'd made from th
Urbanicks’ funds and handed it to Gavin.

“I want you to go to the police for me,” she said, “and turn in Rick. Then I want you to return the Urbanicks’ money
contact their creditors. Everything is documented on this disk. I made one copy for you and another for the police.”

Then, without looking up, so that she wouldn't have to see his reaction, she opened her checkbook and wrote him a
check for ten thousand dollars. As she signed, she had an odd prescient f lash: This would be the last time she would us
married name. In the future, she would have a new name, a made-up one, maybe, but one that would get her a fresh sta
somewhere else.

Her mouth was dry. She had loved Rick once. She wasn't sure what had happened to that love, but it had been par
her. It still was, like the memory of summer sunsets and the promise of a bright future if she only followed all the rules.

“Ada?” Gavin said.

She looked up. He was watching her with concern.

She handed him the check. “This is your retainer plus,” she said. “Put it in some kind of account and take what you
for my case from it. I'll let you know where I'm going so that you can send me the monthly accounting. I'm sure this'll co