Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler Read Free Book Online

hoped he hadn’t been tipped or gotten spooked. By the end of the night Yvette had seemed annoyed, and Stacy wondered if it was because of the boyfriend’s absence.
    It’d been interesting watching the girls work. The way they turned it on and off. When performing for a customer, it was as if no one existed but him. The minute they walked away, it was all about the next guy.
    It seemed like such a lie.
    Or was it? The guys knew, right? They couldn’t really think these girls were all turned on? It was just one big, hot fantasy.
    Was that what guys wanted? Stacy wondered. A big, hot fantasy? Was that what Spencer wanted?
    What did he want? They’d moved in together almost by accident. Because of Katrina. Because she’d needed a place to live and he’d had one.
    And she had stayed. By a mutual, unspoken agreement. It’d been two years and she would have to say their feelings for each other had neither progressed nor deteriorated.
    Inert. Is that how she would describe their relationship? She hoped not because thinking of it that way made her feel uncomfortable—and a bit ridiculous, as well.
    How else should she describe it? They’d moved in together “almost by accident.” They had stayed together by an “unspoken agreement.”
    He hadn’t brought up marriage. He hadn’t said he loved her.
    And neither had she.
    She stood in the bedroom doorway, watching him sleep. She had showered, washing away the stink of cigarettes and the layers of makeup, and changed into an oversize T-shirt. Was she waiting for Spencer to take the lead? she wondered. Did she want him to?
    She wanted marriage, children. A normal life. Those longings had prompted her to try leaving police work behind, to try a fresh start in a brand-new city.
    Instead, she’d gotten pulled back into police work—and she’d met Spencer. Become involved with him—and ended up in this almost-by-accident, unspoken-agreement relationship.
    But how could she have a normal life when the future was so uncertain? Look at Sammy: wrong place, wrong time, and now Patti was a widow. Neither she nor Spencer were cut out to be anything but the cops they were. Was it fair to want children, to offer them such an uncertain future?
    Stacy slipped into bed beside Spencer.
    â€œHow’d it go?” he mumbled.
    â€œOkay. Suspect never showed.”
    He muttered something she couldn’t make out.
    She propped herself up on an elbow. “Malone, you ever pay for a lap dance?”
    That woke him up. He rolled onto his side and looked at her. “Excuse me?”
    â€œYou ever go to those places, like the Hustle?”
    â€œHave I ever?”
    He looked a bit like someone who’d been awakened by an electrical shock.
    â€œYes,” she said. “Have you ever? Just curious.”
    â€œYeah, I’ve been in those places, hooted it up with the other guys. But paying some woman to grind herself against me…It’s just not my thing.”
    â€œIs it the ‘paying’ part? The ‘some woman’ part…or—”
    He cocked an eyebrow. “Or what? The ‘a sexy woman all over me’ part? Give me a break, Stacy. I’ve got wood just talking about it.”
    She smiled. “I think I can help with that.”
    â€œThat so?”
    â€œMmm.” She sat up, pulled off the T-shirt and tossed it on the floor. “I’m feeling generous tonight. I’m thinking I might just give you one for free.”

9
    Saturday, April 21, 2007
3:30 a.m.
    Y vette sat curled up on the couch of her tiny French Quarter apartment. She had showered, washed her hair and scrubbed her face clean. She wore cotton pj’s and SpongeBob SquarePants slippers. She’d made herself a cup of hot chocolate, homemade with milk and Hershey’s syrup—not that powdered crap. She knew she looked more the part of naive teenager than cynical stripper who’d seen it