Most Wanted (53 page)
Authors: Lisa Scottoline
“He's my main competitor.”
“It's more than that. He's your nemesis. The negative to your positive. Your white whale. You've been gunning for him for years, Ahab.”
“I have not!” Mary didn't have time to argue. Plus Judy was usually right, which annoyed her. “You call yourself a BFF? You're supposed to hate who I hate.”
“Meanwhile, this smells like crabmeat.” Judy frowned at the dumplings. “I thought you were going vegetarian. Crabmeat is not vegetarian.”
“It's vegetarian enough,” Mary said on her way out. “I gotta go.”
“There's no such thing as vegetarian enough!” Judy called after her, and Mary hurried to her office, dumped her purse, mail, and messenger bag inside, grabbed her laptop, and hustled to conference room C, where she opened the door.
“Mr. O'Brien, I'm sorry I'm lateâ” Mary started to say.
“Oh, my!” O'Brien looked up from the credenza, where the coffee and Danish were laid out, but he wasn't eating anything, and in fact, he was wiping his eyes with a napkin as if he'd been crying.
Mary hid her reaction, which was dismayed. It figured that Machiavelli would be on the other side of the case that would make a grown man cry. She didn't know what this case was about, but then and there, Mary made a vow to herself.
She was going to win.
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Also by
Lisa Scottoline
Daddy's Girl
Dirty Blonde
Devil's Corner
Running From the Law
Final Appeal
Rosato & DiNunzio Novels
Rosato & Associates Novels
Lady Killer
Killer Smile
Dead Ringer
Courting Trouble
The Vendetta Defense
Moment of Truth
Mistaken Identity
Rough Justice
Legal Tender
Everywhere That Mary Went
Nonfiction (with Francesca Serritella)
Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?
Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim
Best Friends, Occasional Enemies
My Nest Isn't Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog
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LISA SCOTTOLINE
is a
New York Times
bestselling and Edgar Awardâwinning author of twenty-four novels. She has 30 million copies of her books in print in the United States, and she has been published in thirty-five countries. She has served as the president of Mystery Writers of America, and her thrillers have been optioned for television and film. She also writes a weekly humor column with her daughter, Francesca Serritella, for
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
and those critically acclaimed stories have been adapted into a series of memoirs, the first of which is entitled
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog
. She lives in the Philadelphia area with an array of disobedient pets. Visit
www.scottoline.com
or follow Lisa on Facebook or Twitter at
@LisaScottoline
. Or sign up for email updates
here
.
    
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Contents
An Original Essay from the Author
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
MOST WANTED.
Copyright © 2016 by Smart Blonde, LLC. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Cover design by Michael Storrings
Cover photographs: baby feet © Stephen Carroll / Getty Images; blanket © Lee Avison / Getty Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Scottoline, Lisa, author.
Title: Most wanted / Lisa Scottoline.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin's Press, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045858 | ISBN 9781250010131 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250088123 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Pregnant womenâFiction. | MurderâInvestigationâFiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Thrillers. | FICTION / Suspense. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction. | Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3569.C725 M65 2016 | DDC 813/.54âdc23
LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045858
e-ISBN 9781250088123
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at
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First Edition: April 2016