A Man to Die for by Eileen Dreyer Read Free Book Online Page A

prevent saying something unkind to her mother. “Just tell me what time, Mom.”
    “Nine. Nine o’clock mass. We could pray for Benny, don’t you think?”
    He had his hand on Millie’s arm, stroking it as he smiled. An almost unconscious gesture of intimacy that seemed to make Millie purr. After Evelyn’s report, Casey was intrigued anew.
    “…feel terrible about it, but you know you haven’t been to mass this week, Catherine, and well, even though I don’t like to insist, it would be so good for you…Catherine? Honey?”
    The worry in her mother’s voice snapped her back. One curiosity at a time. “That’ll be fine, Mom. I’ll see you in the morning.”
    Hunsacker laughed, a comfortable rumble, and Millie answered, delighted and coy.
    “Be careful on your way home, sweetheart,” Helen McDonough warned. “Not everyone is kind.”
    Casey’s eyes were on Hunsacker when her mother spoke. It seemed the words were directed at him, at this smiling man who made women dip in attendance. Casey enjoyed a delicate shiver of fascination. Her mother was a little scary sometimes.
    “Well, I haven’t seen you in a while have I?” Hunsacker asked with a broad smile as he approached.
    Casey carefully hung up the phone. The smile she offered was leftover surprise, more than just a little curiosity. There was something just a little different about him tonight. An intangible, like wind currents, invisible yet present. Casey couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
    “Thanks for the pizza,” she acknowledged, resisting the urge to squint her eyes, as if that could better focus the man before her.
    What was different?
    Same clothing, upper-class casual, striped Oxford shirt, pleated khaki slacks, those ubiquitous Dock-Sides. Same attitude, close body contact and teeth. Same throb of charisma.
    “My pleasure,” he assured her, reaching out to her much as he had Millie. It was as if words weren’t enough with him. He fed on physical contact.
    Casey was a physical person. She touched. She hugged and patted with the best of them. But there was something about his touch that crossed invisible boundaries.
    Of course, they could have just been her boundaries. She hadn’t trusted a toucher since her late unlamented marriage to the world’s most professional patter and hugger. She might just be projecting all of Ed’s worst faults on Hunsacker.
    Or he could just be doing those three-fingered pelvics.
    “Good to see you, too, babe,” he greeted Janice with a lingering pat to her arm. “You have my lady here?”
    “She’s all ready to see you,” Janice answered, snagging Casey’s attention.
    Janice had been distant before. Suddenly she was agitated. Almost jumping to her feet, she handed over the clipboard as if it were the holy grail, Casey had thought Millie glowed. Janice was positively flustered. For Janice, anyway. She took at least two swipes at her perfectly styled hair, and was trying to cover up that unsightly orange spot with her hand. It made her look as if she were pledging allegiance.
    Hunsacker didn’t even seem to notice. He skimmed the chart, nodded once, and then pulled out a gold Cross pen to make his own notations on the form. This entailed checking his watch, copying the time on the chart and the fact that he’d arrived. Then he pulled out that little notebook and made another memo to himself.
    “Ready?” he asked Janice with that sudden, bright smile as he pocketed his personal notes. Without waiting for her answer, he took her by the hand and led her into the room. Casey just sat where she was and stared.
    “There you are! Damn it, what the hell did you run off for?”
    Casey didn’t even look away from where Janice was closing the blinds for the pelvic. “Abe, do Jews believe in vampires?”
    That brought him to a halt. “Romanian Jews, I guess. I want you to know I just escaped the clutches of that—that…”
    “Slut puppy,” she offered absently.
    “Yeah. Right.” His gaze followed