Read Online Divorced, Desperate and Dead (Divorced and Desperate Book 5) by Christie Craig - Free Book Online

wasn’t real.
    He was just . . . her imaginary boyfriend.
    Cary Stevens was a figment of her imagination.
    Someone pressed her doorbell again and then again. Still feeling groggy, she looked at her clock. Six a.m. Who would be at her door at this time?
    She popped out of bed and went into her living room. A loud knock sounded at the door. Cupcake ran out of the kitchen and darted into the bedroom. She almost wanted to join her. Her gut said whoever was poking at her doorbell could not be bringing good news. Good news only arrived after eight.
    “Who is it?” she asked, moving a little closer to the door and hugging her pillow tighter.

Chapter Seven
     
     
    “Police. Open the door. We need to talk to you.” Chloe didn’t unhook the chain, but she opened the door and peered through the crack.
    Two men dressed in jeans and unbuttoned shirts with T-shirts underneath stood on her apartment’s porch. One of them, a blonde, held out a badge. It looked real, so she opened it.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    “It’s about the accident that occurred yesterday.”
    She nodded, and suddenly realized they were staring at her a little odd. Probably because she stood there in her nightshirt, hugging a pillow as if it was her only friend. “I’m sorry, I was asleep.”
    “We’re sorry for waking you,” the dark-haired man said. “I’m Detective Calder and this is Detective Henderson. We think your accident could be related to another case.”
    Henderson? The second name bounced around her head, hitting a lot of familiar brain cells. Brain cells that didn’t function very well until after coffee.
    She noted his blond hair and blue eyes and she heard Sheri’s voice. Dan Henderson. He’s the hot detective. Blond, good-looking.
    “Dan Henderson?” she asked.
    “Yes,” the blonde answered, looking at her as if he was trying to place her.
    “Is this a joke?” she asked. It would be just like Sheri to have him drop by.
    “No,” both men said in a non-joking manner.
    “Don’t you know Sheri Letterman?” Chloe asked.
    “Sheri?” Dan stood there as if confused. “Yes, I know Sheri. She does some PR and the website for a friend of ours, Kathy Hunter. She owns a florist shop.” Suddenly, his eyes widened. “You’re Chloe, the friend that she was telling me about?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “It’s really nice to meet you,” Dan said. “And I’d love to do dinner sometime, but that’s not why—”
    “No,” she blurted out.
    “Excuse me?” he said.
    “I mean, I wasn’t saying I wanted to . . . Sheri was trying to . . . but I wasn’t . . . I just . . .” She closed her eyes, told herself to stop talking, and then opened them. “I’m sorry, I’m still half asleep.”
    Both of the men looked at her as if she was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. And maybe she was. She had an imaginary boyfriend.
    Well, maybe he wasn’t her boyfriend. Just an imaginary one-night stand. Oh, goodness, she really was still half asleep.
    “And we’re sorry about that,” said the dark-haired guy, appearing impatient to get the conversation going in another direction. “Look, the reason we’re here is about the accident.”
    “Yes,” she said. “I’m supposed to go down this morning and give a description to a Detective Harris. But . . .” She looked at the badge the dark-haired guy still held in his hand. “Didn’t that say Glencoe? This accident happened in Hoke’s Bluff.”
    “Yes,” said the blonde. “But there was a shooting of a Glencoe officer that involved a black Chevy truck on Saturday evening, and we’re thinking it could be the same guy.”
    I was in Glencoe. So they might not be looking at your case and mine as linked.
    Chloe tried to wrap her head around what Dan Henderson said, but it was hard. It couldn’t be.
    Impossible.
    Completely improbable.
    Farfetched.
    “An officer was shot?” she asked, her voice sounding like an off-key instrument.
    “Yes, my partner,” Detective Dan Henderson