Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 36428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 182(@200wpm)___ 146(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Perturbed – yet again – Huckabee’s eyes narrow my direction.
“You have four minutes if my next appointment is early and six minutes if he stopped to send one last dick pick in the parking lot to his girlfriend.”
“Appointment?” the agent quietly questions during his descent into the seat across from me. “That implies you were expecting me, Mrs. Kessler.”
“Because I was.”
“How could you possibly know I planned to stop by today?”
“The same way I know you have to have your morning coffee with oat milk whenever you’re not working alone.” Folding my hands in my lap is followed by a casual lean back in my leather chair. “It’s quite respectable of you to not force your colleagues to endure the gastro havoc that dairy wreaks upon your system.”
New waves of worry flicker in his brown gaze.
“You have twenty seconds less than you did.” A nefarious eyebrow pump wedges itself between sentences. “Perhaps you’d like to ask the questions you intended on asking me?” I allow my expression to deepen in viciousness. “Or we can continue to play this very disappointing game of Are You Smarter Than a Federal Agent?”
Evans poorly stifles his amused chortle.
The slight change in Huckabee’s breathing is accompanied by him scooting to the edge of his seat. “Where were you the night in question?”
“You have to be specific about which night you’re putting into question.”
“You seem to somehow already know everything, Mrs. Kessler. Therefore, I’m certain you already know which night that is.”
“Your textbook traps will not work on me, Huckabee.” I release a heavy sigh of annoyance. “And if you really came into my office – and more importantly this situation – expecting them to than you’re not only wasting your time but the department’s already very strained budget.”
“The night Timbers went missing…” he not so slyly baits. “Where were you?”
“Neither of the deceased Timbers went missing, Huckabee. Glenn was mauled by a wild beast while his father, the senator, suffered a heart attack. Or maybe it was a stroke. It’s been so many years it’s hard to recall. Either way, his death may have been unexpected so to speak, but considering his drinking problem, poor diet, and high stress levels from being a politician, it wasn’t that difficult to believe.” Keeping my face expressionless is effortless. “As for Gilbert, last I heard he was alive and well. He had gotten out of politics in hopes of staying that way. Nonprofits are not necessarily easier; however, they are less…dangerous if you will.”
Unless of course you steal from them.
Like the man who stole from mine.
“Dangerous is a telling word choice.”
“Dangerous is an accurate word choice since stress does kill, Mr. Huckabee.”
“Special. Agent. Huckabee.”
“My six-year-old has been dancing longer than you’ve had that title.”
An irritated grunt is cut off by my continued counting.
“Two minutes and forty-five seconds.”
“Fuck it, let’s cut right to the chase,” he seethes, leaning onto the piece of furniture separating us.
“Is that what really took you so long to get that badge? Anger management issues? I mean I know that’s why your wife left you.”
“Are you a good wife, Mrs. Kessler?”
“Better than the one you had. She left you for a dog groomer who works out of his own rape van.”
“How-”
“Not that I know for a fact that he rapes, although your ex-wife doesn’t mind that fantasy.”
“Wh-”
“I was just trying to be descriptive regarding the vehicle she now gets fucked doggy style in.”
“D-”
“Irony, huh?” Vileness returns to my smirk. “Are you familiar with the definition of irony, or would you like to play Professor of Etymology again to prove that you indeed do?”
“I’d like to know if your husband is aware of the mafia monster he married? The monster that tucks his kids into bed every night,” Huckabee rushes to bite, “or do you even bother trying to be a good mother and wife? I mean is there really any time between cleverly trying to hide the murders and other heinous monstrosities you commit?”
Seeing his neck muscles strain is hilarious to me, yet I swallow my delight.
Study the way his chest is now heaving.
His words which are now filled with more venom.
“Timbers – both Timbers – were just the tip of the iceberg for you.” Huckabee leans forward as if hoping to intimidate me. “You wanna know what I think? I think you’re a fucking serial killer who enjoys toying with her victims before she guts them like the fish her mail order, Russian husband used to do before he magically appeared in this country.”
A haughty hum precedes a taunting finger wag. “Didn’t like me bringing up the ex-wife and her barely legal play toy, did you?”
“This isn’t about her.” He struggles to declare. “This is about you.”
“And you, Huckabee,” the buzzing of my office intercom expectedly appears, “are out of time.”
I reach over to answer the summons only to have his fingers make the mistake of crossing the desk and curling around my forearm to stop me. “We’re not done talking.”