Free Fall by Robert Crais Read Free Book Online Page A

of France brassiere. I held it. It was real.”
    She shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. They knew you would look so they planted it there to make you think he was seeing another woman. What do they call it? A false lead?”
    “Later that evening, I staked out a country-and-western bar called Cody’s. It’s a place where the police officers who work with Mark tend to gather. At a little bit after eight last night, Mark and his partner Floyd Riggens arrived. Mark was with a tall woman with dark brown hair.” I felt bad telling her and the bad feeling was oily and close, but there didn’t seem to be any other way.
    “And?”
    “I wish I had better news, but there it is. I have looked into the matter and this is what I have found. I think my work here is done.”
    “You mean you’re quitting?”
    “The case is solved. There’s nothing left to do.”
    Jennifer Sheridan’s eyes welled and her mouthopened and she let out a long loud wail and began to cry. The woman with the big hair gasped and looked our way and so did most of the other people in the restaurant.
    I said, “Maybe we should leave.”
    “I’m all right.” She made loud whooping sounds like she couldn’t catch her breath and the tears rolled down her cheeks, making dark tracks from the mascara. The waiter stormed over to the maitre d’ and made an angry gesture. The woman with the big hair said something to an elderly man at an adjoining table and the elderly man glared at me. I felt two inches tall.
    “Try to see it this way, Jennifer. Mark being involved with another woman is better than Mark being involved in crime. Crime gets you in jail. Another woman is a problem you can work out together.”
    Jennifer Sheridan wailed louder. “I’m not crying because of that.”
    “You’re not?”
    “I’m crying because Mark’s in trouble and he needs our help and you’re
quitting.
What kind of crummy detective are you?”
    I spread my hands. The maitre d’ said something to the waiter and the waiter came over.
    “Is everything all right, sir?”
    “Everything is fine, thank you.”
    He looked at Jennifer Sheridan.
    She shook her head. “He’s a quitter.”
    The waiter frowned and went away. The woman with the big hair made a
tsk
ing sound like she thought they should’ve done something.
    Jennifer said, “I want to be sure, that’s all. If he’s seeing this other woman, then who is she? Do they work together? Does he love her? Did you follow them home?”
    “No.
    “Then you don’t know, do you? You don’t know if they slept together. You don’t know if he kissed her good night. You don’t even know if they left the bar together.”
    I rubbed my brow. “No.”
    The woman with the big hair whispered again to the elderly man, then stood and went to three women sitting in a window booth. One of the women stood to meet her.
    Jennifer Sheridan was crying freely and her voice was choking. “He needs us, Mr. Cole. We can’t leave him like this, we
can’t.
You’ve
got
to help me.”
    The woman with the big hair shouted, “Help her, for God’s sake.”
    The three women at the window booth shouted, “Yeah!”
    I looked at them and then I looked back at Jennifer Sheridan. She didn’t look seventeen anymore. She looked fifteen. And homeless. I dropped my napkin into the niçoise. I’d had maybe three bites. “You win.”
    Jennifer Sheridan brightened. “You’ll stay with it?”
    I nodded.
    “You see how it’s possible, don’t you? You see that I’m right about this?”
    I spread my hands. The Defeated Detective.
    She said, “Oh, thank you, Mr. Cole. Thank you. I knew I could depend on you.” She was bubbling now, just like Judy Garland in
The Wizard of Oz.
She used her napkin to dry her eyes, but all she did was smear the mascara. It made her look like a raccoon.
    The woman with the big hair smiled and the elderly man looked relieved. The waiter and the maitre d’ nodded at each other. The three women in the window booth