Richard & Judy's Bookclub Novels & Stories

Still, by the time I stood up an hour later, I was checking out six books. Judith stamped them with a practised thud and slid them across the desk. Her gaze skimmed the titles, then rose to my face. “Research project?” she asked lightly. “Something like that,” I said. She smiled a little. “Moonbrook inspires curiosity.” “That’s one word for it.” Judith’s expression turned unreadable in that small town way that made me feel like she knew more than she intended to say. “Some stories survive because people keep feeding them,” she said. “Others survive because they started from something real.”

About what they were seeing. About what they were not being allowed to see. She pressed her fingers against her eyes briefly. Then dropped her hands. Went home. Richard had dinner at the Knickerbocker Club that evening. A private room. Three men who had known him for thirty years. Two of them are judges. One a former attorney general. The kind of dinner that didn't appear in any diary but that shaped the texture of things in ways that were difficult to trace. He ate well. He was in good company.

The allure of power and control beckons to him, setting the stage for a high-stakes game where every move could tip the scales in his favor. Audrey enters her cabin at Ashford Corporations and is taken aback to find Richard sitting there, his presence unexpected. She eyes him warily and demands, "What are you doing here?" Richard's smirk only widens as he meets her gaze. "It seems like the deal we have is about to come to an end," he cryptically replies. Audrey's expression darkens as she presses him, "What do you mean?" her voice tinged with anger and suspicion. Richard chuckles softly, enjoying the tension in the air. "I've discovered that your sweetheart, Jenkins, is suffering from a term