Read 01 - Playing with Poison for Free Online Page A

he studied the table, I chatted with Lieutenant Densmore. “I thought you guys weren’t supposed to drink?” I asked.
    “We’re off duty, ma’am.”
    Rye sunk the ten ball, and then the thirteen.
    “So you’re here just for the fun of it?”
    “Stanley Sweetzer was here last night.”
    “With the murderer?” I glanced away from the game and up at Densmore. “Maybe?”
    He shrugged noncommittally and watched Rye miss the fourteen ball.
    “What do you know about the Dibbles?” Densmore asked me.
    “They drink Long Island Iced Teas by the bucketful and Audrey’s a Libra.” I excused myself from the lieutenant and returned to the table. But Rye stopped me just as I was about to call the one ball.
    “I’ve been thinking about our discussions,” he said quietly.
    “Oh?” I tried walking around him, but he blocked me from the table and actually turned us around to face the wall.
    “And you still haven’t told me why Sweetzer showed up at your place last night.”
    “Maybe because I don’t know why.”
    “Another thing you haven’t told me.” Rye lowered his voice even further. “Is if he made a regular habit of calling on you. Alone, that is—without your friend Ms. Poppe in tow.”
    I held onto my cue with both hands and blinked at the brick wall in front of me. “Aren’t you off duty?” I asked.
    “Answer the question, please.”
    I continued studying the stupid wall. “There was nothing unseemly going on between Stanley Sweetzer and me.” My tone was firm.
    “So he had never visited you before?”
    “There was nothing sordid going on.” I dismissed the wall and glared at Rye. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
    I turned and somehow forced my way around him and back to the table. “One ball,” I announced a bit too loudly. I knocked at the pocket near my right hip and made the shot. And before Rye could think of any more pesky questions, I took care of the rest of the solids and pointed to where the eight ball would fall.
    Candy hopped off her barstool and walked over to Rye as I made the shot and finished the game. The small group of onlookers clapped accordingly, and I offered a modest curtsy.
    “You see?” Candy said. “I told you Jessie’s good.”
    “Yes, Ms. Poppe.” Rye frowned. “It appears your friend has many talents.”
    I handed my cue back to Bryce and joined them. “Yeah, you know? Shooting pool, poisoning people, whatever.” I held out my hand and the captain shook it.
    “Where’d you learn to play pool like that?” he asked without letting go of my hand.
    I pulled back. “Once upon a time my father taught me.”
    I failed to share my family history with Captain Rye, but my father put the working half of a cue in my hand the day I could stand upright on my own. Our pool table presided over the dining room, and Daddy would drag a chair around for me to stand on until I was tall enough to reach over the rail. I was beating my older brother by the time I was seven and had even won a few games against my father since then. Rarely, but sometimes.
    Candy was still bragging to Rye. “I’ve never seen Jessie lose. Ever!”
    I looked at the captain. “She’s right,” I told him. “I seldom lose.”
    “Neither do I, Ms. Hewitt.”
    ***
    “Oh my gosh, Jessie,” Candy squealed as we arrived back home. “Captain Rye really likes you. I mean, he could not take his eyes off you while you were downing those balls right and left.” She pranced around the lobby, pretending to play pool with an imaginary stick. Apparently Stanley’s demise had slipped her mind.
    “Help me,” I asked Karen.
    She shrugged and unlocked her door. “The guy did keep his eyes firmly planted on your backside every time you bent over to take a shot.”
    “Charming, no?”
    “Actually, for some weird reason it was.” She walked inside and turned to Candy. “Call me if you need anything, Kiddo,” she said and closed the door.
    “He’s not married,” Candy said as we walked up the stairs to