Sugar and Spite by G. A. McKevett Read Free Book Online Page A

time wasn’t a big concern of mine.”
    “What was your ex-wife doing there in the first place?”
    Dirk turned in his chair to face Jeffries. “What are you talking about? There’s something wrong with my former old lady dropping by to shoot the breeze?”
    “But you weren’t shooting the breeze. You were arguing… loudly. Your neighbors heard you. What was the fight about?”
    Dirk released a long, weary sigh and shook his head. Savannah could tell that he was exhausted, and it worried her; Dirk wasn’t at his best when he was tired. And under the circumstances, he needed to be top-notch.
    “I thought she had come by to… you know… touch base, to hang out for old times’ sake,” he said. “She gave me a flower, because of Valentine’s Day comin’ up. But then she admitted that she was in trouble… again… and wanted me to bail her out. I got pissed off and told her, ‘No way.’ I was sick of her using me.”
    Jeffries walked back to his chair and sat down again. “What kind of trouble did she say she was in?”
    “She didn’t say. I didn’t ask. I just told her I wasn’t going to be her patsy this time. Money, or whatever it was she wanted, I wasn’t interested. I told her to take a hike; then I took a shower.”
    “And she got shot. With your gun.”
    “Well, maybe you take your weapon into the shower with you. I don’t. It specifically says not to in the manufacturer’s manual.”
    Jeffries said nothing, but made a five-second attempt to stare Dirk down. It didn’t work. The lieutenant was the first to look away.
    “I’m tired,” Dirk said. “I’ve had the day from hell, and I want to leave now.” He stood and shoved the chair against the table. “I told Jake McMurtry everything I could think of at the scene, and I’ll write you a two-hundred-page report before the end of the day. But right now, I’ve gotta lie down somewhere, or I’m going to fall down.”
    Savannah stood with him. “He’s going to my place. He’ll be there if you need him; just call.”
    It isn’t going to work
, she thought. No way would Jeffries cut him loose after only half a dozen questions.
    “All right. Go get some sleep,” Jeffries said. Savannah braced her jaw to keep it from dropping. “Have your report on my desk by five.”
    Savannah hurried to Dirk, grabbed his elbow, and hustled him toward the door before the lieutenant could change his mind.
    “One more thing,” Jeffries said before they could make their exit.
Uh-oh
, Savannah thought.
There’s always a catch.
“Don’t talk to the press. Not one word, or I’ll haul your ass back in here so fast it’ll make your dick spin.”
    “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. I’m not talking to nobody ‘bout nothin’,” Dirk said.
    Savannah shoved him through the door and closed it behind them. In less than thirty seconds she had him out of the station and was leading him, like an obedient cocker spaniel, across the parking lot, toward her Camaro.
    “So, after all these years,” he said, “you’re inviting me to spend the night with you.”
    “Only because your place is a crime scene,” she told him, slipping her arm through his. “And don’t get frisky on me. You’re sleeping in the spare room.”
    He leaned down and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. “Don’t worry, kiddo. I just want to drink a fifth of Jack Daniel’s and quietly pass out. Any horizontal surface will do. Believe me: Frisky’s the last thing on my mind.”
     
    * * *
     
    “I know that you never liked Polly,” Dirk said as he poured himself the fourth shot of the evening. And the evening—at least the drinking part—was only thirty minutes old.
    Savannah watched, a little concerned as his unsteady hand replaced the bottle on her coffee table. He didn’t spill it, but he definitely set it down with more force than necessary. Dirk’s depth perception was always the first sense to go when he became inebriated. Which wasn’t all that often. He liked an evening beer