Read Online Flesh and Blood by Thomas H. Cook - Free Book Online

Pride.”
    Frank’s eyes drifted down to the wide red stain which rose like a gaping wound from the pale blue carpet. Nothing had ever looked more out of place. It was as if something had crept through the window, some creature from another world, and taken her in a single murderous instant that nothing could reclaim.

7
    Frank didn’t bother to return to the apartment before heading for Irini’s later that night. He knew that his own rumpled brown suit wouldn’t fit the elegant decor, but the other one, which hung in Karen’s closet, was not in significantly better shape, and he’d refused, absolutely refused, to allow Karen to refurbish his wardrobe. She’d claimed it was her way of investing in him, and that in return she expected a percentage of his business after it got rolling. For a moment he’d actually considered it, but only for a moment, then his senses had returned to him and he’d simply thanked her softly and said no. To her credit, Karen had never brought the subject up again. She’d even suggested that maybe wrinkled jackets and slightly shiny trousers were what people expected, and that anything a little brighter or with a slightly more recent cut would arouse a certain disquiet in his prospective clientele.
    In any event, the suits had remained unchanged, and as he stepped into the salmon-colored foyer of Irini’s and fell under the disapproving gaze of the tuxedoed maître d’, he realized that it wasn’t really Karen’s money he’d refused, but the crisp, cool tone of her style, and that he sill preferred the look of a slightly battered man to anything he saw in the flashy magazines.
    â€œMay I help you, sir?” the maitre d’ asked quietly.
    â€œI’m meeting somebody.”
    â€œWho might that be?”
    â€œKaren Devereaux.”
    The maitre d’ looked at him unbelievingly. “She’s expecting you?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œThis way, please.”
    Karen was sitting at a table in the far right corner of the room. She was dressed in a dark blue silk blouse and a long black velvet skirt, and as he moved toward her, Frank realized that he would never know a more beautiful woman, that she had fallen into his life as miraculously as a flaming meteor, and that it would never happen again.
    She smiled brightly as he sat down. “Hi,” she said.
    Frank dropped his hat in the chair beside him. “Nice place.”
    â€œYou like it?”
    He smiled. “It’s fine.”
    She leaned toward him. “You look tired.”
    â€œIt’s been a busy day.”
    â€œA new case?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWant to talk about it?”
    Frank allowed himself to laugh softly as he shook his head. He knew that soon he would be alone again, but he did not know when, or how, or why, but only that while he remained with Karen, he wanted her to love him.
    She laughed lightly. “You never want to talk about them. Were you that way with Sheila?”
    â€œSheila never asked.”
    â€œDid you like that better?”
    He shrugged indifferently, the smile fading despite his best efforts to hold on to it. “It doesn’t matter.”
    Karen’s face grew somber. “The way you say that sometimes, Frank,” she said, “the look in your eyes when you say it, it’s as if you mean that nothing matters, nothing at all.”
    Frank picked up the menu and opened it. “What’s good?”
    â€œHave whatever you like,” Karen said dully.
    Frank lowered the menu. “I don’t want to start it off like this.”
    â€œWhy not? It’s become our usual routine.”
    â€œThat’s what I don’t like.”
    â€œIt takes two to make a conversation,” Karen said curtly. Her eyes darted away from him. “Or anything else, for that matter.”
    She meant kids, and he knew it. She wanted a child. Perhaps she wanted his child, but he suspected