Rescue Read Online Free PDF Page B

not that I’m trying to settle here or anything—fuck, no—it just seems like a good place to lie low for a while.”
    She said it as if she were used to lying low. As if she were an outlaw.
    “You know you’re in the police records,” Webster said. “Your boyfriend being a cop, he can easily find you.”
    She shrugged, but he could feel the vibration of the tip of her boot against the center pole of the table. Her eyes slid off
     his face.
    “What did he do to you?” Webster asked.
    “What do you think?”
    The ER nurse had said evidence of old bruises. Webster felt anger toward a cop he’d never met.
    “So what about you?” she asked. “You been here all your life? In Hartstone, I mean?”
    “Sort of.”
    “Ever lived in a city?”
    “Rutland. Didn’t live there exactly, but I did my training there.”
    “That’s a city?”
    “Maybe.”
    “How can you stand it?” she asked, turning and stretching out again in the booth. Dinner over. She blew the smoke away from
     him. It didn’t much matter. Webster could hardly see the pool tables against the back wall for all the fog.
    “Stand what?”
    “The… I don’t know… the
nothing
.”
    “People lead full, rich lives all over the planet,” he said with a half smile.
    “A philosopher now.”
    He liked watching her in profile, especially as she smoked. She had long fingers, a sophisticated drag, a lovely purse to
     her mouth as she exhaled. He hated smoking, but he knew the look was the reason girls took up the habit.
    “And you would know this how?” she asked.
    “I read,” he said.
    He was surprised when she let that go.
    “You have family?” he asked.
    “I’ve got a sister in Manhattan.”
    “You could have gone there.”
    “First place he’d look. Besides, she lives in a one-bedroom with her boyfriend and a baby on the way.”
    “You like her?”
    “My sister? What’s it to you?” She was facing him now, restless, but blew the smoke sideways this time. A mouth poised to
     play the flute.
    “Just want to know if you like anyone.”
    “I like her,” she said. “We’re different, and she doesn’t approve of me, but I like her.”
    “Older or younger?”
    “Older.”
    Webster nodded, took another sip of beer. He’d been glancing around from time to time to see if he recognized anyone. His
     being there—fraternizing with a patient he’d recently worked on—was questionable at best, unethical at worst.
    “What about you, Mr. EMT? You have any sisters or brothers hanging around?”
    “No.”
    “Only child,” she said, mulling it over. “And where’s your house?”
    “I’m… ah… I’m living with my parents,” he said. “I’m saving up for a piece of land I want to buy.”
    “Your parents. Wow.”
    “You want to go?” he asked, looking around for a waiter to give him a check. He thought he’d had enough.
    “No,” she said. “I want to shoot some pool.”
    “You any good?”
    “I’m great.”
    “Next you’ll be telling me you’re a hustler.”
    “You give me seventy-five, I can double it.”
    He didn’t believe her. If he gave her seventy-five with those sharks, she’d go home empty-handed.
    “Those guys back there?” he said, pointing his finger. “They’re good. They’ll take your money in five minutes.”
    “Watch me,” she said.
    He gave her the seventy-five.
    She chalked the end of the cue as if she were coloring it. She sidled up to a skinny guy with a blond mullet and asked if
     she could get into a game. Webster could tell that she’d already blown Mullet’s concentration, but he wasn’t the guy with
     the clout. Mullet looked to a large man with a black zippered vest over a blue and gray flannel shirt. The man’s head was
     shaved, as if he’d just gotten out of the military.
    “Luker, she OK?”
    Luker took a long look at Sheila and nodded at Mullet. Webster could see that they both liked the way her jeans fit. A good-looking
     woman could always get a game. Sheila pretended to