Do You Want To Play: A Detroit Police Procedural Romance by Charlotte Raine Read Free Book Online Page B

Richmond says into the phone. “Mm-hm. Okay. Okay. Yep. We will check it out. Thank you.”
    He hangs up. Lauren pulls up Marcus O’Dell’s criminal record. It isn’t an exact match to the sketch—the nose is a bit bigger and the cheeks are wider—but it’s close enough to check out.
    “He recently got out of prison for bribery and extortion. He was also accused of selling child pornography,” she says.
    “He’s a professional photographer,” Richmond says, reading from his own computer screen. “For a company called Dalliance , which is a pornographic website which features young women. That’s why he was accused of child pornography. There were a few underage women on his website.”
    “It doesn’t fit the profile of the killer, though,” Lauren says.
    “But it could be someone the killer hired…or blackmailed,” I say. “Should we go see Mr. O’Dell?”
    “Absolutely,” she says. She picks up her badge. As we walk out, she grins at me. “I would have preferred it was Bono.”
    “Next time,” I say. “I promise.”
     
    ~~~~~
     
    Marcus O’Dell looks ten times bigger than his driver’s license makes him appear. His dark hair flecked with gray doesn’t make him seem old. It only makes him look like an alpha wolf, which is amplified by the fact that his teeth are bared when Lauren and I step into his photography studio.
    “Ladies!” he yells out. “I need sensual, not constipated. Try to look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
    Two naked women are stroking each others’ thighs in front of his camera. Their smiles are forced and they glare at Marcus every time he glances away from them. The camera flashes as Lauren and I approach him.
    “Mr. O’Dell?” I ask.
    “You can wait,” he says, waving his hand to dismiss us. I scowl.
    “Mr. O’Dell, I am a detective at the Detroit police department,” I say. “And any amount of time I wait for you will be time that I’m thinking about what I can charge you with.”
    He looks over his shoulder. He focuses on Lauren.
    “Now, she can’t be with the police,” he says to me. To her: “But you could be in this photo. Let me tell you, two women are good for business. Three women are good for pleasure.”
    I take his camera off the tripod. He eyes me warily.
    “What are you doing?” he asks. I toss the camera from my right hand to my left hand. He jerks forward, panic in his eyes.
    “What does this camera cost?” I ask. “Ten? Twenty dollars?”
    “Nearly two thousand,” he says, trying to snatch the camera from me. I take a step back and throw it higher up in the air.
    “Really? That much to take nude photographs?” I ask. “Let me tell you…the men that look at your photographs aren’t looking for high-definition. They just want the general idea.”
    I step out of reach again as he lurches forward to grab the camera. I turn toward the naked women.
    “You two should grab a blanket or something. This is going to take awhile,” I say. The women nod and scurry for their clothes. Marcus grabs the camera, but I don’t let go of it.
    “What do you want?” he demands.
    “Do you know Timothy Wood?” I ask.
    “No. Why?” he asks. “Is he a jealous boyfriend? Angry dad? These girls give me their consent, so I did nothing wrong. You can tell him to go fuck himself.”
    “Well, do you remember taking a photo of a man and an underage prostitute?” I ask. He shakes his head.
    “What? No. My business is legitimate. I don’t deal with prostitutes,” he says. I let go of his camera and he cradles it in his hands.
    Lauren pulls out a photograph of Timothy Wood. She shows it to Marcus.
    “Have you seen him before?” she asks. He shakes his head.
    “No,” he says. “I haven’t. He looks like something I would wipe off my shoe.”
    “Well, we have someone who saw a guy that looks like you taking photographs of this guy with a young prostitute in his car,” I say. “Are you sure you don’t remember?”
    “Where did I