Naked Heat by Richard Castle Read Free Book Online

have a feeling it’s a case of find the body, find the killer.” As the meeting broke up, she said, “Roach?”
    “Yo,” they answered in near-unison.
    “Knock on some doors along Seventy-eighth. Start in the upstairs of her building and work out from there. Any sound, any detail, any relationship . . .”
    “Looking for another odd sock,” said Raley.
    “You got it. And while you’re en route, fill in Ochoa on our male Hispanic.”
    “Coyote Man?” said Ochoa.
    “I’ll give you a pass on that one since you survived today. Yes, Coyote Man. Rook and I will start building a set of likelies into a manageable enemies list.”
    “You and Rook,” said Ochoa. “You mean, like . . .”
    “I’m ba-a-ack,” answered Rook in the old, familiar singsong.
    As they were preparing to go, a delivery box arrived from the Columbus Café. Rook told everyone to help themselves to a sandwich. He popped for it as a welcome-back gesture. As Raley grabbed a tuna on white and turned to go, Rook called him back, holding up a large cup. “Got this ’specially for you, Rales.”
    Raley took it from him. “Oh, uh, thanks.”
    “And I know how you like it sweet, so there’s extra packets of honey in the bag just for you, Sweet Tea.”
    Hearing the despised nickname a former partner had stuck him with because of his love of tea with honey irritated Raley enough. Hearing it from Rook after he’d divulged it in his article set him on edge. The skin was mottled white around Raley’s lips as he tightened them. And then he relaxed and set the cup back down. “Not thirsty, I guess” was all he said before he showed a confused Rook his back and then left.
    Detective Heat got into her unmarked car with Rook belted in beside her. She asked where they were going, and he only winked and put a shush finger to his lips and instructed her to take the West Side Highway south. She wasn’t crazy about the arrangement, but he had spent all that time with Cassidy Towne and maybe some of his insight could come to something useful. And besides, without any leads yet, the price to pay for needing Jameson Rook was to actually have to spend time with Jameson Rook.
    “How about this?” he said as he and Nikki Heat rolled along beside the Hudson.
    “How about what?”
    “I’m talking about the flip-flop. The switcheroony. It’s still a ride-along, except this time, instead of a journalist’s ride-along with a cop, it’s a cop’s ride-along with a journalist.”
    She paused and then looked over at him. “Have you noticed, I’m the one driving?”
    “Even better.” He powered down his window and breathed in the clean fall air. As he surveyed the Hudson River, Nikki watched the wind rustle his hair and remembered how it felt to have a handful of it. She thought of grabbing it and pulling him to her the first night they had sex, and could almost taste the limes from the margaritas they had improvised in her living room that night. He turned back and caught her staring and she felt her face grow flush. She turned away so he wouldn’t notice, but she knew he had. Damn him. Damn that Jameson Rook.
    “What’s the deal with Raley?”
    “What do you mean?” God, she was glad he was going off-subject, away from the two of them.
    “Did I somehow piss him off? I’ve been getting a vibe off both your guys, but Raley truly gave me the stink eye just now.”
    She knew what it was for her, same as she knew what it was for Raley and Ochoa. Ever since Rook’s piece about his summer ride-along experience with her squad hit the October issue of First Press , Nikki had been battling the negative attention the article gave her. So many colleagues felt left out and were either jealous or hurt. The fallout was not pleasant and it was in her face every day. Even Raley and Ochoa, the strongest allies on her team, harbored their own bruised feelings about getting footnote status in what turned out to be, unhappily for Heat, a love letter to her. But Nikki