Read Online The Profiler's Daughter (Sky Stone Thriller Series) by P.M. Steffen - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: P.M. Steffen
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example, Jenna? Something specific?”
“Sure. Perfect example. Nicolette took graduate statistics last year. I always knew when she was stuck on an assignment because she would be smiling and laughing with Stanley Grabowski. A graduate student, into computational genetics.”
“Time after time, I watched Stanley help poor little Nicolette with her homework. Then she wouldn’t give him the time of day. Until the following week, when she needed his help again. She’d toss her hair and giggle his name. Made me want to hurl. Seriously. You could hear that obnoxious giggle all the way down the hall.”
Jenna arched a pale brow. “And then there’s Horace. He had such a woodie for Nicolette. Totally repulsive.”
Kyle was dusting the trim around the bedroom doorway, but he looked up when Jenna spread her long arms out in a gesture of confusion and said, “You’d think guys as smart as Horace Fisk and Stanley Grabowski could tell when they were being used by a woman, wouldn’t you? What’s up with that?” Jenna fixed Kyle with an accusatory glare.
Kyle smiled and shrugged. Sky knew Kyle suffered few illusions on this point. The man was on his third marriage, after all.
Sky said, “Did Nicolette flirt with other men?”
“That’s like asking if she breathed. It’s just the way Nicolette was. Pathological, really.” Jenna tugged at a legging. “It was all that red hair. Didn’t matter where we went, guys stared at her. Hit on her.” Jenna perched on the sofa with crossed arms and hunched shoulders, the posture of a petulant child. “I thought blondes were supposed to have more fun.”
Sky could imagine Jenna and Nicolette club-hopping together in Faneuil Hall, or the Theatre District. The two, side by side, sipping drinks under pulsing strobe lights – cocktails with names like Sex on the Beach or maybe a Red Death. Pale Jenna, forever eclipsed by a brighter, hotter Nicolette.
“Did Nicolette have a gym routine?” Sky asked.
“She ran. Five miles a day, sometimes more, if she was training. Said it was either run five miles every day or puke every day.” Jenna illustrated by sticking an index finger into her open mouth.
“Where did she run?”
“Nicolette always ran on Commonwealth. It was like a religion with her. She loved running by that statue on Heartbreak Hill. Said it inspired her.”
Sky knew the statue. It was Johnny Kelley, local legend, competed in over sixty Boston Marathons, even won a couple of times. It was a double statue, actually. Young Johnny and old Johnny, running hand in hand. It stood on the northwest corner of Commonwealth and Walnut, not two hundred yards from the spot where Nicolette’s body was found.
“Was anybody angry or upset with Nicolette?”
“No, I can’t think of anybody. But, like I said. Once she moved in, she sort of dropped me. She was using me for the apartment. She was a user. A bitch, actually.” Jenna gave a furtive look around and whispered, “I guess I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”
Kyle walked into the living room and nodded to Sky, an indication that the latent prints had been gathered. Axelrod followed, glancing at Jenna and patting his cowlick.
“Mind if I look around?” Sky left Jenna with the detectives and entered Nicolette’s bedroom. She closed the door behind her.
The small room was dominated by a queen bed swathed in crumpled pink sheets. The white walls were bare save for a tattered poster of the LA skyline taped above the bed.
A table beneath a south-facing window held a black laptop, a desk lamp, a stapler, a ceramic cup jammed with pens and pencils, a Day of the Dead skeleton holding a guitar, and a small black jewelry case marbled with turquoise inlay. Lifting the lid, Sky found a necklace with a jeweled letter N, an assortment of costume rings, and a tangle of keys.
Sky lifted the keys from the box. It was a cumbersome collection, strung on various chains that were all attached to a single pink lanyard. Sky
“Sure. Perfect example. Nicolette took graduate statistics last year. I always knew when she was stuck on an assignment because she would be smiling and laughing with Stanley Grabowski. A graduate student, into computational genetics.”
“Time after time, I watched Stanley help poor little Nicolette with her homework. Then she wouldn’t give him the time of day. Until the following week, when she needed his help again. She’d toss her hair and giggle his name. Made me want to hurl. Seriously. You could hear that obnoxious giggle all the way down the hall.”
Jenna arched a pale brow. “And then there’s Horace. He had such a woodie for Nicolette. Totally repulsive.”
Kyle was dusting the trim around the bedroom doorway, but he looked up when Jenna spread her long arms out in a gesture of confusion and said, “You’d think guys as smart as Horace Fisk and Stanley Grabowski could tell when they were being used by a woman, wouldn’t you? What’s up with that?” Jenna fixed Kyle with an accusatory glare.
Kyle smiled and shrugged. Sky knew Kyle suffered few illusions on this point. The man was on his third marriage, after all.
Sky said, “Did Nicolette flirt with other men?”
“That’s like asking if she breathed. It’s just the way Nicolette was. Pathological, really.” Jenna tugged at a legging. “It was all that red hair. Didn’t matter where we went, guys stared at her. Hit on her.” Jenna perched on the sofa with crossed arms and hunched shoulders, the posture of a petulant child. “I thought blondes were supposed to have more fun.”
Sky could imagine Jenna and Nicolette club-hopping together in Faneuil Hall, or the Theatre District. The two, side by side, sipping drinks under pulsing strobe lights – cocktails with names like Sex on the Beach or maybe a Red Death. Pale Jenna, forever eclipsed by a brighter, hotter Nicolette.
“Did Nicolette have a gym routine?” Sky asked.
“She ran. Five miles a day, sometimes more, if she was training. Said it was either run five miles every day or puke every day.” Jenna illustrated by sticking an index finger into her open mouth.
“Where did she run?”
“Nicolette always ran on Commonwealth. It was like a religion with her. She loved running by that statue on Heartbreak Hill. Said it inspired her.”
Sky knew the statue. It was Johnny Kelley, local legend, competed in over sixty Boston Marathons, even won a couple of times. It was a double statue, actually. Young Johnny and old Johnny, running hand in hand. It stood on the northwest corner of Commonwealth and Walnut, not two hundred yards from the spot where Nicolette’s body was found.
“Was anybody angry or upset with Nicolette?”
“No, I can’t think of anybody. But, like I said. Once she moved in, she sort of dropped me. She was using me for the apartment. She was a user. A bitch, actually.” Jenna gave a furtive look around and whispered, “I guess I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”
Kyle walked into the living room and nodded to Sky, an indication that the latent prints had been gathered. Axelrod followed, glancing at Jenna and patting his cowlick.
“Mind if I look around?” Sky left Jenna with the detectives and entered Nicolette’s bedroom. She closed the door behind her.
The small room was dominated by a queen bed swathed in crumpled pink sheets. The white walls were bare save for a tattered poster of the LA skyline taped above the bed.
A table beneath a south-facing window held a black laptop, a desk lamp, a stapler, a ceramic cup jammed with pens and pencils, a Day of the Dead skeleton holding a guitar, and a small black jewelry case marbled with turquoise inlay. Lifting the lid, Sky found a necklace with a jeweled letter N, an assortment of costume rings, and a tangle of keys.
Sky lifted the keys from the box. It was a cumbersome collection, strung on various chains that were all attached to a single pink lanyard. Sky
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