American Sextet by Warren Adler Read Free Book Online

make matters worse, a legal curtain had descended,
engineered by Daddy's money and, as she knew, her report constituted the only
real unvarnished truth. The girl was a teenage prostitute who was also a drug
addict.
    Clinton had dogged the eggplant for
two days and he had ducked the man with equal persistence. Drugs and
prostitution did not reflect proudly on the police force. Nor was there a
mystery to be solved or glory to be had. When Clinton put pressure on the
Chief, the Chief put pressure on the eggplant, who put pressure on Fiona.
    "You go," he ordered her.
    "Me?"
    "Yeah. Only watch your mouth."
    She met him at the Regency Hyatt, her first mistake. She
would have been better off meeting him in the ugly anteroom that served as an
interrogation spot for suspects. Windowless and stinking of stale smoke and
fear, the room itself always gave her the upper hand. But the hotel cocktail
lounge, dark and cool with its lush ambience, designed for salesmanship and
seduction, caught her off guard, softening her up for what she would later refer
to as the romantic kill.
    Not that he was consciously seducing her. He was
professional to a fault.
    "His father is up for a federal judgeship."
    "It's the son, not the father."
    "I know," he said. "I have two myself."
    The remark further disarmed her. Or was it the chemistry of
the man himself, that shock of curly gray hair? Almost from the beginning, she
wanted to shove her fingers through it. He reminded her of Bruce. Was she
destined always to be attracted to the same type of man?
    "The kid got drunk. He picked up a floozy then ran her
over. Pure accident. What has that got to do with the father?" She was
oddly defensive.
    "I spoke to the man. He blames himself."
    "Then he's a fool."
    "He blames himself anyway."
    "Only because it hurts his chances. Bad publicity. I
know the disease."
    "Hey," he said. "I know the guy. He really
loves the boy."
    "I thought newspapermen are supposed to be
neutral."
    He shrugged and emptied his glass. "There's no law
against compassion." Behind the words, she caught his vulnerability, drawing
her interest. She saw, too, that he hadn't bargained for the intimacy.
    "I've never been a parent," she said, sipping her
martini.
    "I owe it to the guy not to make it seem lurid. We all
give our kids too much. He had a car, too much pocket money."
    "Are you talking about him ... or yourself?"
    "Generally. As a father."
    He'd made her uncomfortable. Maybe she was getting too
hard, too indifferent. As if to compensate, she spelled out the facts again.
    "Now who's to blame?" she said when she had
finished. By that time, too, her martini had disappeared. "The girl had
thrown away her life, walking a treadmill to hell. All the boy was looking for
was a thrill." Her anger was disturbing--something about the man had
touched her, shaken her.
    "Will it really hurt his chances?" she asked.
    "Yes."
    "But that's unfair."
    "What's that got to do with it?"
    He had put away his notebook and ordered them another
round. There was a long silence as she felt his gaze, like a warm tide, lap
over her. The feeling, although long dormant, was a familiar one. Her business
was finished. She knew she could get up and leave, refuse the second martini,
run like a bunny. She stayed, although she made an attempt to blunt the
onslaught.
    "Aren't you going to ask?" she said in an attempt
to ungrapple their greedy mutual stares.
    "Ask what?"
    "Why a cop."
    "Is that what I was going to ask?"
    "They all do."
    Her guard was down by then. She felt foolish and afraid,
open and vulnerable. Does it happen like this sometimes? She hadn't the will to
unlock her eyes from his. Her heart was pumping furiously. Watching him, she
sensed the mystery of attraction.
    Her mind told her to be clinical. Was he a widower,
divorced? At her age, she could confront that kind of second choice. I won't
ask, she decided. By then it was too late.
    A few days later, he invited her for dinner. They went to a
restaurant in Prince