Ruthless Game (A Captivating Suspense Novel) by Danielle Girard

Kincaid. Someone else will go through it after you. I never leave anything to one person's opinion."
    "Thank God," she muttered when he left. She started at the desk, reading each piece of paper, trying to soak in its content and figure its worth. Next, she separated the papers by subject and created piles on the floor. Organizing the life of a dead guy wasn't exactly how she had envisioned spending her days, but she knew as a detective it would be a large part of her job. She wondered who would organize her stuff when she died. As she started to look through things, she also couldn't help but wonder if she would find something to explain why she'd been on Loeffler's street that morning.
    Pushing the thought aside, she picked up his Palm Pilot, searching for anything that looked interesting. It was just a cursory check since the contents would be downloaded to a computer and systematically searched back at the station. The conveniences of technology.
    Sitting in Loeffler's big chair, Alex used the stylus pen and clicked through his calendar. He had notations all over the place, but few of them made any sense to her. An L followed by a person's name seemed to indicate a lunch date. D probably meant dinner. The names looked mostly like last names, so it was tough to tell if they were men or women. Three days ago he'd had an "L=Sam School." She assumed Sam must be one of his clients.
    In between meals, he had names with shorthand notations that she thought probably referred to his cases. The day before he died, he had three meetings. One read "NT SEC @10, SQ." Maybe NT was a person or maybe it referred to a case. The only thing she could think of for SEC was the Securities and Exchange Commission, but Loeffler was in a different type of law. Alex made notes: NT? Name? Person? Case? SEC? SQ? Some questions? Was that a place? The next was "L=Mrs. @1." Alex guessed that was probably a lunch with his wife.
    The last entry on that day was at six p.m. It read "Call: N, K, DR, and PAPD." Alex wrote the initials down. PAPD sounded like Palo Alto Police Department. It was the only one she could figure. She made a note to look for cases that involved the Palo Alto Police. She worked her way backwards in his calendar without much success. He seemed to have lunch with the missus two or three times a week. Perhaps they were trying to work things out. She made a note that someone should find out where they'd eaten and how it had gone.
    Loeffler also had a standing breakfast on Wednesdays with someone named Keith. And he ate every Thursday night with Cam. She wrote the names down to cross-reference with the rest of his files, although she assumed they were friends. Also, there was a weekly notation for "Q" at 7:30 each Monday, which Alex thought was probably was Mrs. Quay's weekly cleaning date. She could confirm that one easily enough. Other than that, she couldn't make out a single thing in Loeffler's shorthand.
    By noon, she was exhausted and famished. Brenda and her partner, Lou, a short, stout Italian with dark sideburns and a thick mustache, brought by sandwiches.
    "I got you turkey, lettuce, tomato, pickles, yellow mustard, no mayonnaise," Brenda said, handing her the Subway bag.
    "You're an angel."
    "I know." She motioned to Alex's head. "That guy really smacked you, didn't he?"
    Alex nodded.
    "Hurt much?"
    "Not so much anymore."
    Brenda nodded. "Listen, I was hoping we could have dinner this week. Just to talk."
    Alex looked at her friend and raised an eyebrow. "Roback talk to you?" she asked, wondering how much he'd told her.
    Brenda raised her arms in a gesture of innocence. "Can't a girl ask a friend to dinner?"
    Alex opened the sandwich and took a bite. "Right."
    "He's a little worried. So?"
    Alex swallowed, realizing how famished she was. "I'll come, but I'm fine." She glanced over her shoulder. "Just embarrassed as all hell," she lied. "So, if we go, just regular girl talk. Agreed?"
    Brenda touched her shoulder and shook her