Read Hooked for Free Online Page B

room.”
    “Sit down.”
    She turned to face him.
    “Please.”
    She sat down, forcing herself not to act like a petulant child, but it strained her.
    “You are one hard woman.”
    “What did you expect, Mary Poppins?”
    He shook his head. “Someone must have really done you over. Who was it? College boyfriend? Married professor who wouldn’t leave his wife?”
    Fire heated her cheeks. “You’re an arrogant son of a bitch.”
    “So I’ve been told. Like you, I’m just doing my job.” He waved to the waiter and pointed to his drink with two fingers―a double―then stared at her long enough to make her uncomfortable. “I apologize,” he said. “I had no right to put you down.”
    “That’s twic e you’ve said sorry, and it must have hurt both times.”
    The waiter came with a fresh drink, and Walsh drained the vodka in progress and handed him the empty glass. “After this one,” he said pointing to the replacement, “I won’t feel a thing.”
    “You’re going to find this hard to believe, Walsh, but I had an idyllic childhood with perfect, caring, middle-class parents. No one beat me or threw me out, and no one screwed me up along the way.” Walsh obviously didn’t know about the one time somebody did, and she wasn’t about to unload the story. “It’s not very complicated.”
    He put a good dent in his drink. “You seem damn complicated to me.”
    “Actually, I’m rather shallow. I liked excitement, travel, and money. And I liked sex. My college friends were giving it away. I charged and made men happy while I took their money. Most men were intelligent and interesting and knew how to treat a woman. Everything first class.”
    “And what did you have to do to make them happy?”
    She picked up her water and held his gaze over the rim of the glass. “In my world, I set what I would and wouldn’t do. They either accepted or rejected me on that basis.”
    She could tell he was salivating to know the parameters she’d set, but the vodka was getting to him. Though steady, his words slurred slightly. “You must know this stuff, Walsh. That’s what you do, isn’t it?”
    He surveyed the room. “We have all we can handle with the perverts of the world: sexual predators, child pornographers, sex traffickers. Doesn’t leave much time to go after consenting adults unless there’s a reason.”
    “And now there is.”
    This time it was Walsh who stared over his glass. “Only to get the man in charge. And yes, murder is a reason.”
    “Just because the murdered gal mentioned Benny Cooper’s name doesn’t mean he murdered her. How do you know he’s involved?”
    “We don’t. If we did, you’d still be sitting on the beach with a bunch of college boys creaming in their bathing trunks.”
    “I’m not an undercover cop. I wouldn’t know what to look for.”
    “Ask a few questions of the other girls and listen for anything that sounds suspicious. Find out if Sarah Marshall worked there. That would give us something to go on.”
    “Then there’s the real problem. How do you make Cooper come after me?”
    “I’ve a few ideas, but I need to mull them over. Right now I’m a little fuzzy.”
    “You’ve had a lot to drink. Maybe you should eat something.”
    “You’re probably right, but my steak’s cold and a little undercooked.”
    Tawny motioned for the waiter, and the guy came running. “Warm this up for my friend, will you? Mine too, please.”
    “Certainly, ma’am,” the waiter said, hustling off with both plates.
    “That guy would do anything for the pretty lady,” Linc said, slurring more obviously now. “Is that how you take care of your men?”
    “You’re drunk, Detective Walsh.”
    Linc nodded. “Yes, I am.”
    Walsh avoided her eyes, except when he pushed away his drink. He knew he’d drunk too much. The waiter brought their food. Tawny watched him. He ate slowly and methodically, working off his high. His flushed cheeks heightened his olive complexion. A hank of