Street Rules by Baxter Clare Read Free Book Online Page A

fresh blood at this table.”
    When Gail asked, “Pun intended?” Frank answered with a rare and genuine smile.

Chapter Six
    “Hey. What are you doing here?”
    Noah slapped into the squad room in rubber thongs. Wearing faded red shorts and a cut-off, paint-stained sweatshirt, limbs dangling, he looked like a Southern California scarecrow.
    Frank’s squad worked 6:00AM to 2:00 PM, Monday through Friday, rotating on call outs after hours. Unless they’d caught a new case, Frank usually had the squad room to herself on weekends.
    “Aw, Trace and Markie got the flu. I got ‘em some videos and the girls are at the mall with some friends. I figured I may as well come in and get that Torres report wrapped up.”
    “Yeah. You’re late on that. I want it by Monday.”
    “I know, I know. So how was your night?” Noah asked innocently, sniffing the coffee pot.
    “Fine,” Frank replied, equally innocent.
    “Get any sleep?”
    “Plenty.”
    Noah chuckled at her and said, “You’re drivin’ Johnnie batty. All these women lining up for you and he can’t even get one. He was gettin’ bitter last night.”
    “What’d he say?” Frank asked, unsettled by the vision of Johnnie rambling drunkenly about her love-life.
    “Aw, nothin’. He was just thinkin’ he’d do better with tits and a pony tail.”
    “All I got’s the ponytail,” Frank corrected.
    “You got somethin’,” Noah pressed, “I’m tellin’ you — Nance, Kennedy, the doc …”
    “You’d probably make more money on Love Line than you do here, No.”
    “Damn right,” Noah agreed. “I should be charging you a finders fee. The doc was asking questions after you left. I like this, she called you — and I quote directly — intriguingly impenetrable.”
    “What did she want to know?”
    “If you and Kennedy were an item.”
    Frank raked Noah’s face for signs of a joke.
    “What’d you say?”
    “I told her she’d have to ask you.”
    “Nice. Very subtle.”
    “What was I supposed to say?”
    “Could’ve tried no.”
    “Then I’d be lying… wouldn’t I?”
    Now Noah looked for answers in Frank’s stony face.
    “Are you two not… you know … ?”
    “No. We’re not.”
    Frank tried to walk away, but Noah blocked her.
    “Since when?”
    “Since when’s that any of your business?”
    “It’s my job to keep abreast of these things. So to speak. So since when?”
    “Since a while ago,” she relented. “Okay? Can I get some work done now?”
    “That’s perfect,” Noah exclaimed. “Now you can make your move on the doc. Trust me, Frank; your efforts won’t go unrewarded.”
    “So you keep telling me,” she muttered, then to change the subject she demanded, “Listen. Guess what I did this morning.”
    “Let’s see. You hired a hooker?”
    Frank shook her ponytail. “Couldn’t find one at six AM.”
    “You’re lookin’ in the wrong places,” Noah suggested. “Okay. You registered for a cruise around the world.”
    “Cruise is partly correct.”
    Noah narrowed his eyes, carefully assessing Frank. The faded, neatly pressed jeans, the blue LAPD shirt, were standard weekend attire, but the battered running shoes weren’t.
    “Knowing you … at six AM on a Saturday morning, you’d probably worked out already and you were probably back at work, either at home or here. But cruise is part of the answer … let’s see. I know you’re not happy that we’re pinning the Estrella case on Luis … I’m guessing you cruised out to Topanga and did a little bush-whacking. That would explain the scratches on your arms. Correct?”
    Frank chuckled, surprised, pleased, and a little embarrassed that Noah knew her so well.
    “Did I hit the jackpot?”
    “Three cherries, my man. Not that it did any good. All I found were ticks and gnats.”
    “Lucky that man-eating cougar didn’t find you.”
    “I’m too tough. She’d have spit me out after one bite.”
    “So what were you lookin’ for?”
    “I don’t know.