The Darkest Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

the date, as I usually do. She was in a complete snit.” Rosy sniffed. “Most of those women think they’re too good to be dealing with the common folk.”
    And maybe the Trollops weren’t the only ones with a chip on their shoulders. “Was Alana the first Trollop your boss dated?”
    “No.” She wrapped her hands around the coffee again and slid it toward her. “I kept telling him they’d get him into trouble one day, but he liked the contacts they could give him.”
    “Who else did he date, then?”
    “There were several of them. He was with one for about a year, but she got very clingy and he called it off.”
    Meaning she probably wanted a commitment. Poor woman. I wondered whether she’d received the roses, or if she’d simply been shown the door. “What was her name?”
    She frowned. “Cherry something. It’ll be in the files—although I believe she’s changed address, so those details won’t be right. It’s filed under T.”
    This time, my grin broke free. Rosy definitely had more fire in her than first appeared. “Are Alana’s details there, too? I need to speak to her.”
    “Yes.”
    “Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything that might be useful?”
    I reached out telepathically as I asked the question and linked lightly to Rosy’s mind. Her thoughts were a confusion of sadness and grief for her boss as well as worry about her age and whether she’d actually find another job. I couldn’t find anything resembling lies or half-truths, or anything she was concealing. So I gently withdrew.
    She took a sip of coffee, then frowned. “Like what?”
    “Well, had he been sick recently? Had he received any threats? Had anything unusual happened in the last week or so?”
    “No. To all of that.”
    “Then for the moment, there isn’t much more you can help me with.” I waved the cop back over, then added, “I’ll get the officer to take you home, if you like.”
    Said officer didn’t look too happy at being relegated to chauffeur duties, but Rosy looked pleased. “That would be lovely. Thank you.”
    I picked up my coffee and the uneaten bit of cake, then said my good-byes and got out of there. I munched the chocolate cake as I walked back up the stairs, leaving a trail of crumbs behind me.
    Cole looked up as I reentered the office. “You expect me to just fall into bed with you, and yet you didn’t even have the decency to get me a cup of coffee? Women these days. So selfish.”
    I grinned. “Yep, it’s all about me and my appetites, buddy boy, not yours.”
    Amusement briefly touched the blue of his eyes. “What can I do for you now?”
    “You seen a Rolodex?”
    He waved a hand toward the desk. “Second drawer.”
    I dumped my coffee on the desk, then put on some gloves before opening the drawer and retrieving the Rolodex. Alana’s address was indeed listed under T for Trollops. In fact, there were a total of seven women listed. Gerard had obviously been making his way through the Trollop ranks. I jotted down all their names and addresses, then retrieved my coffee and nodded a good-bye to Cole. I was almost out the door when I remembered what Rosy had said about clothes, and stopped.
    “Cole, have you found Gerard’s clothes yet?”
    He answered without looking up. “Yeah, they’re neatly stacked up in the bathroom.”
    “Really?”
    I couldn’t help the surprise in my voice, and he looked up with a smile. “Yeah. I suspect our boy is a bit of a neat-freak. Both offices are extraordinarily tidy.”
    “Except there was nothing neat about what they were doing last night.”
    “Well, no, but then, not even a politician would expect sex to be neat.” He paused to pick up a strand of hair and place it in the bag. “The bathroom window is broken, though, which is odd.”
    That raised my eyebrows. “So if our killer was a cat-shifter, she could have escaped that way?”
    “If it wasn’t for the five-story fall to the pavement, yes.” His voice was edged with