Free Fall by Robert Crais Read Free Book Online

younger than the first time I’d seen her. Maybe she wasn’t twenty-three. Maybe she was seventeen and the people around us would think I was her father. If she looked seventeen and I looked thirty-eight, that would work out. Bummer.
    She said, “I hope this won’t take long.”
    “It won’t.”
    I motioned to the waiter and told him that we were in a hurry and would like to order. He said fine and produced a little pad. I ordered the niçoise salad with sesame dressing and an Evian water. Jennifer Sheridan had a hamburger and french fries and a diet Coke. The waiter smiled at me when she ordered. Probably thought I was a lecher. When the waiter had gone, Jennifer Sheridan said, “What have you found out, Mr. Cole?” The mister.
    “What I have to tell you will not be pleasant, and I want you to prepare yourself for it. If you’d rather leave the restaurant so that we might go someplace private, we can do that.”
    She shook her head.
    I said, “Typically, when an officer is profiting from crime, it shows up in his lifestyle. He’ll buy a boat or a time-share or maybe a high-end sound system. Something like that.”
    She nodded.
    “Mark hasn’t. In fact, I checked his bank balances and his credit card expenses and there is no indication that he has received any undue or inordinate sums of money.”
    She looked confused. “What does that mean?”
    “It means that he has not been acting strangely because he’s involved in crime. There’s a different reason. He’s seeing another woman.”
    Jennifer Sheridan made a little smile and shook her head as if I’d said three plus one is five and she was going to correct me. “No. That’s not possible.”
    “I’m afraid that it is.”
    “Where’s your proof?” Angry now. The older woman at the next table looked over. She frowned when she did. She had a lot of hair and the frown made her look like one of those lizards with the big frill.
    I said, “Five minutes after you left my office yesterday, Mark came to see me. He had been following you. He explained to me that he was seeing someone else, and that he had not been able to bring himself to tell you. He asked me not to tell you this, but my obligation and my loyalty are to you. I’m sorry.” The detective delivers the death blow.
    Jennifer Sheridan didn’t look particularly devastated, but maybe that was just me.
    The waiter brought our food and asked Jennifer Sheridan if she’d like catsup for her french fries. She said yes and we waited as he went to the counter, found a bottle, and brought it back. Neither of us said anything and Jennifer Sheridan didn’t look at me until he had gone away. He seemed to know that something was wrong and frowned at me, too. The woman with the big hair was keeping a careful eye on our table.
    When the waiter was gone, Jennifer Sheridan ate two french fries, then said, “For Mark to come to you and make up a story like this, he must be in bigger trouble than I thought.”
    I stared at her. “You think he’s making it up?”
    “Of course.”
    I put down my fork and I looked at the niçoise. It was a good-looking salad with freshly grilled ahi tuna, and I think I would’ve enjoyed eating it. Jennifer Sheridan had asked me for proof and I told her about my visit from Mark Thurman, but I hadn’t told her therest of it and I hadn’t wanted to. I said, “He’s not making this up.”
    “Yes, he is. If you knew Mark, you’d know that, too.” Confident.
    I nodded, and then I looked at the salad again. Then I said, “What size bra do you wear?”
    She turned a deep shade of crimson. “Now you’re being ugly.”
    “I put you at a thirty-four B. I went into Mark’s apartment to look through his bank papers and I found a thirty-six C-cup brassiere.”
    She looked shocked. “You broke into his apartment? You went through his things?”
    “That’s what private detectives do, Ms. Sheridan.”
    She put her hands in her lap. “It isn’t real.”
    “It was a red Lily