Chosen by a Killer by Laurie Nave (fastest ebook reader TXT) 📕

Was that why he was fine with Celia’s secret, because he knew Tasha well enough to value her privacy? Were they friends, or had they been more? It was long rumored that William was gay, but since he was almost as private as Tasha, no one was sure. Then again, Celia had never shied away from seducing men to her benefit. If that was the case, however, Celia doubted William would care much about respecting her boundaries. It didn’t matter, Celia supposed. However, Celia never liked the feeling that she didn’t know all she needed to know.

Talking to William more about it was a bad idea, Celia decided. But she was certainly going to probe Natasha at the next interview. If something was going on, she wanted to know about it.

Just before 10:00, Celia slipped into the restaurant and sat at the bar. It was almost empty, and servers were already beginning to clean and sweep, removing condiments and centerpieces from the tables. The bartender smiled and brought Celia a glass of wine, and then she began to cash out her register. Marlene was probably still in the kitchen, Celia thought. She sipped the wine and waited.

“Good to see you, Celia,” Dave sat beside her.

“You too,” Celia replied. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

“Yeah, I’m not always here, but I knew Marlene wanted to talk to you. I guess I’m here for moral support.”

“Wow, there really is something going on, isn’t there?”

Dave smiled and glanced at the bartender. “I’ll let Marlene tell you once it clears out here.”

The two of them chatted for about fifteen minutes, and then Marlene appeared from the kitchen, sweaty and disheveled from an evening of supervising. She grabbed a bottle of water from behind the bar. “Let’s go sit at a booth”

The three of them settled into a booth in one of the closed sections that had already been cleaned. Marlene gave Dave a quick kiss and then took a swig of her water. “Thanks for coming,” she told Celia.

“No problem. Looks like you had a busy night.”

“It was very busy. Which is a good thing for the bank account.” Marlene sniffed her shirt. “And a bad thing for personal hygiene.”

Celia laughed. “Nothing a shower can’t fix. So tell me what’s going on. I have to admit, I’m a little concerned.”

Marlene smiled. “I don’t want you to worry. It’s just that now that John has been fired, I think someone needs to know a few things.”

“So John was fired, then,” Celia said. “That was the idea I got too.”

“I can guarantee that John never would have left The Journal. He had too much to lose.”

“What do you mean?”

Marlene hesitated and looked at Dave.

“It’s okay, Marlene. Celia needs to know. It’s past time somebody knew.” Dave looked at Celia. “Marlene is worried about the NDA she signed.”

“Wait, what? When did you sign an NDA? Was it when you left? Was he worried about a story or something?”

“No,” Marlene said flatly. “He didn’t want me to sue him.”

Celia slid her wine glass away and leaned forward. “Why would you sue him? What happened?”

“It started about two years after I went to work there. John went through a crappy divorce. He cheated one too many times, I suppose. I tried to just not listen when he griped, and I did my job. I’d heard things before about his flirty behavior with others on staff. I would bet a couple of other people who left while I was there did so because he made passes. But he’d never been inappropriate with me. At least not until his divorce.”

“He flirted?”

“At first it just seemed like he wanted a shoulder. Or maybe dating advice. Sometimes I was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t until he started drinking even more that it got weird.”

“Define weird,” Celia asked.

“He started asking me what I would look for in a man if I was dating. He’d ask inappropriate questions about Dave. I asked him to back off more than once. He’d pretend I misunderstood and lay low for a day or two.”

“What an ass,” Celia said.

“You’re not wrong,” Dave quipped.

“Anyway,” Marlene continued. “One night he was obviously drunk. It was at the end of the workday, and as I was about to leave, he told me I needed to stay over to make sure a story was ready for the next day. I protested, but he acted like he had told me and I forgot. He was belligerent, and I figured it would just be easier to do what he asked.”

Celia felt herself getting angry. She knew where the story was going.

“Once it was just us, he started getting in my personal space, trying to rub my shoulders as I typed. I excused myself to go to the restroom, took my purse with me so I could just slip out. I’d already talked to Dave about what was going on.”

“And I had told her more than once she had my blessing to quit. She didn’t want to put us in a financial bind, but I told her I didn’t care about money. I cared about her.”

“He did, that’s right. I was just stubborn.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Celia smiled.

“Who me?” Marlene tried to smile. “Well, I walked out of the restroom, and there he was. He pushed me back in, started trying to kiss me. His hands were everywhere. He called me a tease, along with some other choice names. I went full-on fight mode, slapped him across the face. That made him mad, and he punched me. It really rang my bell. Things got blurry, but I knew I couldn’t lose it. I flung my purse in his direction, it made contact and he fell backward.”

“I guess it was a good thing she has a monster purse,” Dave said, taking Marlene’s hand.

“True,” Marlene agreed. “I ran. I drove home and told Dave what happened. He wanted to call the police. I begged him not to