Broken Dolls (A Jefferson Winter Thriller) by James Carol Read Free Book Online

face registered surprise, but she recovered quickly, cool and confident and back in control. The change was almost instantaneous, so quick you could have imagined it. Templeton was obviously someone who didn’t get knocked off her game easily. Hatcher had mentioned her a couple of times, so it wasn’t that difficult to put two and two together.
    I nodded to her half-empty glass. ‘Can I get you another?’
    Templeton shook her head. ‘Thanks, but no. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.’
    ‘I can’t twist your arm?’
    ‘You could try, but I have to warn you I came out on top in all my self-defence classes.’
    Her comment sparked a whole load of interesting mental images. ‘I wasn’t being literal,’ I said.
    ‘And I was joking.’
    I smiled and she smiled back. It was a great smile, one that reached all the way from her mouth to her eyes and back again.
    ‘You’ve only just got here,’ I said.
    ‘It’s a school night. I should have been home ages ago. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Not that that’s anything new. Every day’s a busy one. Particularly at the moment.’
    ‘We’re going to catch him.’
    ‘And you’re sure about that.’
    ‘Absolutely positive. No doubt about it whatsoever.’
    ‘Are you really as good as Hatcher says?’
    I reached for my glass and took a sip. ‘And that’s the real reason you’re here, isn’t it? So how did it go down? Did you all get together in the office and draw straws?’
    Templeton drank some of her drink, a small sip followed by the tiniest licking of her lips. Jack Daniel’s and Coke, judging by the smell and colour. ‘I’m not here to check you out, Winter.’
    I raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
    ‘Okay, I am here to check you out. But, like I said earlier, I’m doing this for my own curiosity. I’m not reporting back to anyone.’ She paused and fixed me with those big blue eyes. ‘Nice deflection, by the way. Avoid the question by putting me on the defensive.’
    A shrug and a smile. Busted.
    ‘So,’ she said. ‘Back to my question.’
    ‘I can’t answer it.’
    ‘Can’t or won’t?’
    ‘Can’t. It’s a trick question. The problem is that I don’t know what Hatcher thinks of me.’
    ‘He says you’re the best profiler in the business.’
    ‘In that case, he’s right. I am the best.’
    Templeton laughed. ‘You don’t do modesty then.’
    ‘Modesty has nothing to do with it. You’ve checked my track record. The stats speak for themselves.’
    ‘How do you know I’ve checked your track record?’
    I raised an eyebrow again, said nothing. This time it was Templeton’s turn to shrug and smile. She held her hand out over the table and we shook. Her skin was soft and warm, her grip confident yet feminine. That was good. She obviously didn’t feel the need to overcompensate.
    She smiled that great smile and said, ‘It’s good to meet you, Winter. It’s going to be interesting working with you.’

9
    Templeton disappeared into the lobby and I was left wondering what the hell that was all about. I felt like I’d just done an exam or a job interview, but I had no idea what for, or why. For a while I just sat there nursing my drink and thought about Templeton. I’d ruled out the idea of anything happening between us the moment she walked over to my table and every male in the room had checked her out, both the married ones and the single ones.
    It wasn’t that I didn’t want anything to happen, I was just being realistic. The bottom line: women like Templeton didn’t happen to guys like me. If we’d been at college, Templeton would have been the head cheerleader and I would have been the straight-A student who ended up giving the valedictorian speech. Cheerleaders went for the jocks, they didn’t go for guys who could count without using their fingers, or read without moving their lips. It was one of those laws that governed the universe, an unbreakable rule that made sure everything and everyone