Read Online Ultraviolet by Nancy Bush - Free Book Online
Authors: Nancy Bush
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Detective and Mystery Stories, Women Private Investigators, Pug, Plastic Surgeons, Kelly; Jane (Fictitious Character)
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teenagers.”
“They’re your best sources of information. I wish I had your gift,” he said, and with a muscular twist from his deceptively relaxed position, he grabbed my arm and the binoculars and wrested them from me. “Steal a cripple’s binoculars,” he muttered.
He was lucky I didn’t smack him alongside the head with them. No one makes me want to act infantile quicker than Dwayne Durbin. It’s like a bad sitcom where you just know the man and woman are going to get together because they’re either acting like they’re going to throttle each other, or they’re goofily trying to one-up the other, or they’re each trying to set the other one up with their best friend with hilarious results.
Half the time I cannot believe my own embarrassing thoughts.
Dwayne’s blue eyes assessed me. “No witty comeback?”
“Teen pregnancy? Dwayne, I’d be useless to the girl. She needs to talk to her parents about it. Maybe she already has. Maybe that’s what the yelling’s about.”
“They’re always yelling. If she’d told them, something new would have happened.”
“You’re making up a soap opera. You don’t know anything.”
“She’s been hanging around at Do Not Enter with a bunch of other kids. They’re drinking and sneaking around. Pretty cagey about it, but I’ve kept an eye on them. They string colored lights. Little ones. Just enough to give themselves some illumination, but not draw too much attention.”
“Do the parents have any idea?”
“No one does, otherwise they’d be busted. There are a lot of guys hanging around. The girls seem to wait to be picked.”
“You have kept an eye on them.”
“I’ve had to watch from inside,” Dwayne admitted. “If my leg were better, I’d go up to the attic and watch from there.”
Dwayne’s cabana has a steep set of stairs to an attic whose roofline makes it hard not to hit your head against the slanted walls. To my knowledge, it’s full of boxes and junk, like Ogilvy’s garage.
“If your leg were better, you wouldn’t have started watching them in the first place,” I murmured.
“Probably.”
“Look, Dwayne, I’m meeting with Gigi later today. I met with Sean last night. I’m finally moving on the Hatchmere case. You were right when you said things would get going. I’m busy, and anyway, it’s not my place to step into some teen scene with sex, drugs and alcohol.”
Dwayne said, “You know those guys, the ones who smile and act responsible and polite in front of parents. The ones who lie through their orthodontia-perfected teeth. Who play sports and give talks on the responsibility of today’s youth. Who denounce drugs and alcohol, then get wasted every Friday night after the football game. The ones who lie to their parents and feel powerful about it. Who promise that they’ll take good care of their younger siblings, then damn near kill them with alcohol poisoning the first chance they get. You know those guys, Jane.”
“Ye-ess…”
“Those are the guys at Do Not Enter. The ones who tell a girl she’s special, say they love her, say they’re her boyfriend to talk her into sex. They’re the same ones who turn their back when she tries to talk to them and whisper and snigger to their friends.”
I’d never seen this side of Dwayne. He was dead serious, and it made me wonder what had happened to him when he was a teenager. Was there a girl from his past who’d been used and abused by some guy? A girl he’d cared about? Someone he couldn’t save?
“What do you want me to do?” I asked, engaged in spite of myself.
“Find out who these guys are, Jane. Get me their names.”
I gazed across the water. Was I really thinking about helping him? “I suppose I could go to Friday night’s football game.”
“It’s the civil war between Lakeshore and Lake Chinook.”
“You’ve done your homework, haven’t you?”
“I’m an investigator.”
I gave Dwayne a sideways look. He
“They’re your best sources of information. I wish I had your gift,” he said, and with a muscular twist from his deceptively relaxed position, he grabbed my arm and the binoculars and wrested them from me. “Steal a cripple’s binoculars,” he muttered.
He was lucky I didn’t smack him alongside the head with them. No one makes me want to act infantile quicker than Dwayne Durbin. It’s like a bad sitcom where you just know the man and woman are going to get together because they’re either acting like they’re going to throttle each other, or they’re goofily trying to one-up the other, or they’re each trying to set the other one up with their best friend with hilarious results.
Half the time I cannot believe my own embarrassing thoughts.
Dwayne’s blue eyes assessed me. “No witty comeback?”
“Teen pregnancy? Dwayne, I’d be useless to the girl. She needs to talk to her parents about it. Maybe she already has. Maybe that’s what the yelling’s about.”
“They’re always yelling. If she’d told them, something new would have happened.”
“You’re making up a soap opera. You don’t know anything.”
“She’s been hanging around at Do Not Enter with a bunch of other kids. They’re drinking and sneaking around. Pretty cagey about it, but I’ve kept an eye on them. They string colored lights. Little ones. Just enough to give themselves some illumination, but not draw too much attention.”
“Do the parents have any idea?”
“No one does, otherwise they’d be busted. There are a lot of guys hanging around. The girls seem to wait to be picked.”
“You have kept an eye on them.”
“I’ve had to watch from inside,” Dwayne admitted. “If my leg were better, I’d go up to the attic and watch from there.”
Dwayne’s cabana has a steep set of stairs to an attic whose roofline makes it hard not to hit your head against the slanted walls. To my knowledge, it’s full of boxes and junk, like Ogilvy’s garage.
“If your leg were better, you wouldn’t have started watching them in the first place,” I murmured.
“Probably.”
“Look, Dwayne, I’m meeting with Gigi later today. I met with Sean last night. I’m finally moving on the Hatchmere case. You were right when you said things would get going. I’m busy, and anyway, it’s not my place to step into some teen scene with sex, drugs and alcohol.”
Dwayne said, “You know those guys, the ones who smile and act responsible and polite in front of parents. The ones who lie through their orthodontia-perfected teeth. Who play sports and give talks on the responsibility of today’s youth. Who denounce drugs and alcohol, then get wasted every Friday night after the football game. The ones who lie to their parents and feel powerful about it. Who promise that they’ll take good care of their younger siblings, then damn near kill them with alcohol poisoning the first chance they get. You know those guys, Jane.”
“Ye-ess…”
“Those are the guys at Do Not Enter. The ones who tell a girl she’s special, say they love her, say they’re her boyfriend to talk her into sex. They’re the same ones who turn their back when she tries to talk to them and whisper and snigger to their friends.”
I’d never seen this side of Dwayne. He was dead serious, and it made me wonder what had happened to him when he was a teenager. Was there a girl from his past who’d been used and abused by some guy? A girl he’d cared about? Someone he couldn’t save?
“What do you want me to do?” I asked, engaged in spite of myself.
“Find out who these guys are, Jane. Get me their names.”
I gazed across the water. Was I really thinking about helping him? “I suppose I could go to Friday night’s football game.”
“It’s the civil war between Lakeshore and Lake Chinook.”
“You’ve done your homework, haven’t you?”
“I’m an investigator.”
I gave Dwayne a sideways look. He
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