The Killer Sex Game (A Frank Boff Mystery) by Nathan Gottlieb Read Free Book Online

Angel tend to your cut.”
    Feeling suddenly contrite, Cullen turned to his roommate. “Mikey? I’m sorry. That was stupid of me.”
    “Hey, no problem, Danny boy. I’ll get even with you. Count on it. Either here or at the apartment.”
    “As for me,” the trainer said, “I’ll get even right now. Danny, I want you to pound the truck tire for twenty minutes.”
    “What? I can’t do it for twenty minutes. My arms’ll fall off.”
    McAlary smiled. “Tough shit. And for complaining, when you’re done with the tire, I want you to hit the heavy bag for another fifteen minutes.”
    As Cullen climbed out of the ring, the other boxers parted to let him pass. He walked to the rear of the gym, where there was an enormous truck tire on the floor and a sledgehammer nearby. Picking up the twenty-pound hammer, he lifted it over his head and began pounding the crap of the tire. What he was seeing was his trainer’s face.
     

Chapter 9
     
    When Cullen and Bellucci left the gym after their training session, they found Boff leaning against the passenger door of his Malibu listening to a Fifties rock CD that was blasting through the open window.
    Boff pointed at Cullen’s bruised face. “Who beat you up?”
    “Nobody friggin’ beat me up ! Ryan had me spar with Mikey, but I wasn’t allowed to throw punches back at him.”
    “Why not?”
    “It was a stupid defensive training exercise.”
    Boff grinned. “Looks like you performed it well.”
    “So, chief,” Bellucci said to Boff, “where’re we off to today?”
    “Do you guys like Cuban food?”
     
    After driving through the Lincoln Tunnel into New Jersey, Boff headed for Union City, which was less than a mile from the tunnel. On the drive over he thought about why, as a longtime loner, he took these two boxers around with him. This was the third time he had teamed up with Cullen to hunt down a killer. The natural link between him and Cullen was that all three of the murders involved the world of boxing, which Danny knew a lot better than he did. Then, again, sometimes he thought the real reason he let them tag along was he enjoyed the respect these kids gave him. Something he didn’t receive from his own kids.
    Turning onto Union City’s main drag, he wasn’t surprised to see the sidewalks were crowded. Although Union City was only a little over a mile square, it was the most densely-populated city in the country, with almost seventy-thousand residents. What was surprising was that he found a metered space just a few doors down from his destination, Café Cuba.
    As they got out of the Malibu, Boff pointed to the restaurant. “This place has the best Cuban food in the city,” he said. “And that’s saying something. The owner’s a friend of mine. The place has been in his family since the first wave of Cubans came here in the nineteen-forties.”
    Taking a quarter out of his pocket, Boff walked over to the meter.
    “Watch this, Mikey,” Cullen said.
    “Watch what?”
    “Boff and the meter.”
    After partially inserting the coin into the meter, Boff didn’t let it drop. He just held it there. Half in. Half out. And whistled while he waited.
    “What the hell’s he doing?” Bellucci asked.
    “He calls it foreplay. He’s going to tease the meter and give it a case of blue balls.”
    “Blue balls?”
    “It’s his term for frustrating the meter until it goes out of order.”
    Bellucci made a face. “The man’s, like, totally weird.”
    It took over a minute, but finally the meter’s screen went haywire and changed from EXPIRED to OUT OF ORDER. Boff pocketed his quarter and turned to Bellucci.
    “By law we can park an hour at an out-of-order meter,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in saving money whenever I can.”
    As they entered the restaurant, a pretty young hostess greeted them with a smile. “Table for three?” she said.
    “Actually,” Boff said, “There’ll be a fourth party. I’m Frank Boff. Armando is expecting me.”
    Nodding,