Read Online Walking After Midnight by Karen Robards - Free Book Online Page A

when the woman with whom he’d been having an affair – a fellow detective’s wife, no less – had hanged herself in his office. In police headquarters, in downtown Nashville. The fact that the dead woman had been an aspiring country singer on the verge of making it big added to the drama. So did the fact that the woman had left behind not a suicide note, but a videotape. The footage included sensational shots of herself and Steve Calhoun, her husband’s lifelong best friend as well as fellow detective, in the throes of some very steamy sex. On a desktop, in the selfsame office in which she’d taken her life. According to the tape, she had killed herself when he’d broken off their adulterous affair.
    TV had loved it. The papers had loved it. The story had even found its way into the National Enquirer.
    Steve Calhoun had gotten his proverbial fifteen minutes of fame with a vengeance.
    „Yeah, well, don’t believe everything you hear. About half the stuff that was flying around then wasn’t true.“
    „You mean half was?“ Summer couldn’t help it. The question just popped out.
    The look he shot her was withering. „Don’t be a wiseass, Rosencrans. I don’t like wiseasses.“
    „Ooo, you’re scaring me.“
    „Good. I like you better scared. At least you keep your mouth shut.“
    „And my name’s not Rosencrans. It’s McAfee. Summer McAfee. Lem Rosencrans and I are divorced.“
    „Smart guy.“
    „If I remember my scandals correctly, you got fired after – all that came out. So you’re not a cop. Not even kind of. Not anymore. And certainly not in Murfreesboro. Which translates to, I’m out of here.“
    „Go on, Rosencrans. Try to leave. Make my day.“
    She looked at him. He looked back. Dirty Harry couldn’t have topped that look – and Dirty Harry had had the use of both eyes. Folding her arms over her breasts, Summer made a huffing sound, leaned a shoulder against the van – and stayed.
    „Glad to know you’re not as dumb as you look.“
    Summer chose to ignore that. „So what were you doing on an embalming table in a funeral home in the middle of the night, anyway?“
    „Haven’t you ever heard of Harmon Brothers’ early-bird special? Come in before you’re dead, and they give you half off all their services.“
    „Ha-ha.“
    „I like a woman who laughs at my jokes.“
    Summer shot him a killing glance. It appeared to leave him unfazed.
    „I’m serious. How did you get there? Were you in an accident, or what?“
    „An accident. Right.“ He snorted. „Your friends beat the bejesus out of me, doused me with kerosene, and were firing up the crematorium in my honor when you decided to check my pulse. Good thing my head’s harder than they thought, or by now my ass would’ve been french-fried.“
    „I keep telling you, they’re not my friends. I don’t have the faintest idea who they are.“ The unusual volume of the funeral home’s air-conditioning was suddenly explained. The increasing roar hadn’t been her imagination at all, but the crematorium being fired up. Summer recalled that it was located right next to the embalming room and shivered inwardly.
    „You know, I almost believe you.“
    „Glad to know you’re not as dumb as you look.“ This comeback earned her an acknowledging glint. „So who are they} The men who did this?“
    „You tell me.“
    Summer drew in a deep breath. „Forget it. Just forget it. I don’t care. If they’re trying to kill you, they’re probably the good guys. Anyway, they’ve got my vote. And now I’m going home.“
    She pushed away from the van in anticipation of doing just that – a walk of sixteen or so miles with only one shoe was nothing compared to the aggravation of remaining in his presence for another second, and the way she felt at that moment if he tackled her, he’d get his daylights punched out – only to have him rise to his full height and block her way.
    „Rosencrans. Uh-uh.“
    „Go screw yourself, Frankenstein.“