Read Picture Me Dead for Free Online Page B

tripped up the first step. Jake shifted his arm, lifting Brian’s feet in the air, and moved quickly. Brian grinned at him when they hit the landing.
    â€œDid I fall?” he said, laughing, but the sound was pathetic, bitter, and directed against himself. “Hell, yeah, I fell. Into your fist, right?”
    â€œBrian, give yourself a fucking break,” Jake muttered.
    Jake dropped Brian on the king-sized bed and did as he’d said, getting his shoes off. He was about to walk out when Brian said, “So…you know Norma.”
    â€œI saw her on a flight, Brian.”
    â€œI bet she’d rather sleep with you, too.”
    â€œQuit being such a royal pain,” Jake told him. “You’re one lucky bastard. You had a great wife, and now…seems this girl loves you. Don’t mess this one up. You’ve got another chance. Don’t be an idiot.”
    He started out.
    â€œSo what’s it been like for you, Jake?” Brian called to him.
    He turned back. Brian was smiling ruefully. “The D.A.’s assistant. She was a real beauty. That lasted, what, three months? I hear there was a Hooters’ waitress—girl who was pure body. Ten dates, maybe? You’re still pining after Nan, too, aren’t you?”
    â€œBrian, sleep it off. Five years is a long time.”
    He went down the stairs as Norma was coming up them. “Thanks for bringing him home.”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œSomething like this went down last year, too. His wife’s birthday…that’s really all he ever says. I knew, soon after we met, of course, that she had died in a tragic accident. He must have really loved her. Anyway, thanks. A man who’s dealt with something like that needs help now and then. Hey, would you like coffee or something before heading out?”
    â€œThank you, no.”
    â€œWell, thanks again. This was really good of you.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œHey, I do remember you from a flight, you know. You’re a cop, right?”
    â€œYeah, that’s right.”
    â€œSo you knew his wife.”
    â€œYes, I did. I was her partner.”
    Jake didn’t say anything more, just continued down the stairs and let himself out. When he returned to his houseboat, he discovered that Nick and Sharon had left him a covered dish of shrimp and pasta.
    Good. He was hungry. The long weekend had allowed him a day off, but moving the boat had given him plenty to do. He ate, realizing he was starved.
    He fell into bed, exhausted, but knew damned well it would be a while before he slept. Nancy’s birthday. She would have been thirty. Hell.
    It was usually good to sleep on a houseboat. The light rocking of the waves. Ocean air. Both usually eased his tensions.
    Not tonight.
    He tossed around for a while, thinking that maybe he shouldn’t have opted to spend the night alone. And he thought about Brian’s words.
    The D.A.’s assistant.
    The waitress.
    Yeah, there had been women in his life. But still, he would go so far…and back away. Hell, yes. He’d been in love with Nancy. Then. And now…
    Now she was a ghost in his life. A phantom. A memory, a scent. Sometimes, he would swear he could still hear her laughter.
    He compared every woman he met to her. And he’d never found anyone even remotely like her.
    Around two, he fell asleep. He awoke later in a sweat, having slid into the nightmare again. He’d been in the water. The clear ocean water. It had been a beautiful day. Light shone through. Then clouds covered it. The water grew murky. It was canal water, and he was in it, trying to backpedal, knowing what he was going to see. And he’d heard her voice….
    He got out of bed, made his way to the kitchen took a beer from the refrigerator, then went out to stand on deck. He needed to feel the ocean breeze in the night. He all but inhaled the beer, and he knew he was no more over any of this than Brian was.
    She