Pillow Stalk (A Mad for Mod Mystery) by Diane Vallere Read Free Book Online Page A

finds himself waiting around for a woman. Only, if he was waiting around for me, nobody had told me that we’d had a date. I didn’t know what he was doing at my building. And that made me a little angry.
    I looked around for my pink and white terrycloth robe, until I remembered I’d loaned it to Pamela and now it was part of a crime scene. I belted a flimsy cotton duster over my PJs and padded down the stairs to the back of the building. It was going on seven o’clock and I knew from history that most of my tenants weren’t even up yet. Not the best time to make a scene.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked, crossing the parking lot to Lieutenant Allen.
    “I’m afraid we got off on the wrong foot yesterday.”
    “Am I under some kind of surveillance?” I asked angrily. “Is this your way of keeping an eye on me?”
    “You’re not a suspect. Too many credible people saw you swimming and a couple of them know you offered Pamela your robe.” His eyes jumped to my chest and back to my face.
    “So you’ve been sitting around my parking lot hoping to run in to me to tell me that?” I asked.
    “Consider me your personal escort for the day.” He flashed me a mouthful of pearly whites that hit me like a two-gallon drum of unmixed plaster.
    “Let me get this straight. You, a lieutenant, are offering to drive me, a non-suspect, around for the day?”
    “Your car’ll be released soon. I thought it best not to keep you under house arrest. Not having a car must’ve been nightmarish.”
    I shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. I walked to-” I stopped. I wasn’t sure how to describe my relationship with Hudson. Until yesterday, it would have been easy, but something had changed and I didn’t know what. “a colleague’s house,” I finished lamely.
    “I thought you were in business for yourself?”
    “I’m smart enough to recognize when I can use a little help.” Smart enough to recognize a chauffeur, too , I thought. “Are you seriously offering to drive me around for the day?”
    “I’m here, aren’t I?” he answered.
    All of a sudden I realized I was standing in the parking lot in my very sheer pajamas and robe. I knew how transparent one layer was, that’s why I’d pulled on the robe. But I’d never looked in the mirror. Instinctively I balled up my fists and brought my arms in front of me, pretending that I was cold so I could cover my chest. In the middle of a Dallas summer heat wave, where it already felt like we’d hit the eighties, it was a wasted gesture.
    “Nothing I haven’t seen before, Night. Go get dressed and meet me out here. I’ll wait.”
    I wanted to say something brilliant and snappy. I wanted to tell him he’d better have appreciated anything that he did see because he’d never see it again. But I wanted to get back inside the building more. So I did. But I did make him wait another half-hour while I showered, dressed, made coffee, and took Rocky out the front door for a quick piddle.
    Somewhere after the shower and before the coffee I admitted to myself it’s not every day a private citizen gets the opportunity to be driven around by an attractive cop, even if he did seem to be overly aware of his charms, so it was my civic duty to take it. When I finally returned to the parking lot it was in a white cotton v-neck dress with a full skirt, carrying two mugs of iced coffee.
    “Peace offering?” I said, extending one of the mugs toward him.
    He eyed me up and down before taking the offered blue metallic mug. He took a long drink without asking what it was, and the sun sparkled against the blond hairs on his tanned forearm.
    “I almost called you last night,” I said while he was drinking. He pulled the mug away from his mouth.
    “I almost called you, too.”
    “Why did you almost call me?”
    “You first.”
    I set my mug on the hood of his Jeep and pulled the notebook out from under my arm. “I borrowed a couple of files from the Mummy and when I got home I found