Read Online Unlovable by Sherry Gammon - Free Book Online Page B

You saw to that.” I nodded and took a
deep breath to calm my gut.
    “ I should have arrested
him.”
    “ On what charges? Gawking at
a cute girl?” Booker laughed. “I would have had to charge you too.
I’m sure you were doing some pretty heavy gawking yourself at Ms.
Brown.”
    “ I can guarantee you my
thoughts weren’t lascivious. All I wanted was to talk to her. He,
on the other hand...”
    “ I have no doubt your
thoughts were pure, Son of a Preacher
Man ,” Booker said, walking back over to my
desk. My dad served in the Air force as a Chaplin, among other
things, and Booker was forever singing the old Dusty Springfield
song to me as we were growing up. “This guy was probably some loser
guy hoping to score. No need getting uptight over
nothing.
    I knew Booker was trying to downplay
the incident. Until we had any evidence proving otherwise, he saw
no need for me to tie myself up in knots. Vintage Booker. Out to
save the world.
    “ Which reminds me,” I
narrowed my eyes at him, “it’s not working.”
    “ What’s not
working?”
    “ The scheme you had to, how
did you put it? Win the lady's
heart . Cheesy, Booker, even for
you.”
    “ So what’s not working? You
must be doing it wrong,” he said playfully.
    “ You said to make her laugh,
make her the
nervous one. Well, she doesn’t laugh at my jokes, instead they seem
to put her on edge. Although, I do believe she’s nervous. She has
this cute habit of twisting her hair around her fin—” I looked over
at Booker. His chest was bouncing with laughter. I smiled. “I did
kiss her last night,” I admitted. “Twice, actually.”
    “ See. I hate to say I told
you so,” he glowed proudly.
    “ But she got mad after I
did.”
    “ You must be a pretty rotten
kisser. Did she kiss you back, or was she cringing the whole
time?”
    “ I kiss just fine, thank you
very much. And yes, she kissed me back. Actually, she kissed me
first,” I bragged. “But I don’t think she’s interested in having a
boyfriend. Maybe I should try being her friend.”
    “ No, no, no. You’re making
real progress, kid. You need to—”
    Thankfully, a knock on my office door
brought Booker’s love advice to a premature end. In walked a lanky
blond woman in an MET uniform with a sheet of paper in her right
hand.
    “ Hey, Connie. What’s
up?”
    “ Captain, you said you
wanted to be notified if another stabbing occurred with the same MO
as Michelle Stringer.” Booker nodded slowly. “A 24 year-old female
identified as Tammy Byrne was found shortly after two A.M. this
morning behind some empty buildings near Applegate Park. She had
several knife wounds almost identical to those of Ms. Stringer. She
didn’t survive, Captain.”
    “ Was she raped?”
    “ It’s hard to tell, the
body’s a mess, but the forensic team doesn’t believe so. Sir, the
woman who discovered the body is a reporter for The Democrat and Chronicle . She and a
staff photographer were there doing an exposé on the growing drug
scene at Applegate park. It’s already hit the morning
papers.”
    She handed the report over to Booker
along with a small plastic bag. “This was found under the body. We
couldn’t get any fingerprints off it, we’re not even sure it’s part
of the crime scene, but I thought you might want to see
it.”
    “ Thanks, Connie.” Booker
closed the door as he read over the paper.
    “ What’s in the
bag?”
    Booker twisted the baggy with his
fingers, quickly pulling the small notebook from his left breast
pocket. “I believe the guy who attacked Michelle Stringer had a
silver disk in his right ear lobe,” he said, thumbing through his
notes.
    “ A silver disk?” I took the
evidence bag from Booker. “The guy in the park last night wore a
silver disk.” I shoved it back into Booker’s hands and stumbled
over to my pleather chair, all but falling into the cold seat.
Dropping my elbows on the desk, I buried my face in my
hands.
    “ Book! If I hadn’t hung
around