The Mystery of Jessica Benson Read Online Free PDF Page B

brain hurt.
“Well, this is really kind of embarrassing, but yeah,
that’s pretty much it. Sex, and of course, he took her out pretty
nice.” Rafe stared at the floor, examining his spotless silver
plush carpeting.
“Sure,” Will spat. “Nothing about murder is easy to
discuss, but we need to get this over with already.”
“I understand, detective. You know, I read a lot of
crime novels myself, so I feel as though I’m fairly conversant
with the procedure here.”
“Terrific.” Will rolled his eyes.
“Oh, you know, fiction only! But these days the authors
are so into realism. I mean, in the books I read, anyway.”
“So, okay, then. I think we have a fairly good picture of
the situation between them.” Karen wanted out of there, feeling
desperate for a moment to herself. “Is there anything else?”
“Well, the reason Jessie felt she could keep Kyle and
juggle other guys was football.” Sensing that Karen was
somehow off, Will asked, “How’s that?”
“Because of football, Kyle was out of town every other
week or so. Jessica used to make a joke about how she never had
to worry about him coming home early and catching her in the
sack with anyone. She had him right there in her television
where she could watch him.
“Pretty ironic, uh? Jess played her home games while
Kyle was playing his away games.” He giggled yet again.
“Did you meet any of the guys she was dating while she
was going with Kyle?” Karen asked.
“No, she was pretty secretive about them. Guess she was
covering her butt, you know, like we couldn’t tell what we didn’t
know.”
This is not happening , Karen thought. The Kyle Sands I
knew is no murderer .
“What about your partner? Is he around? We’re gonna
need to talk to him too.”
“Oh, sure, I understand. But he’s at a seminar in New
York. Ron works for Chanel at Neiman Marcus. He’s a make-up
artist.”
“Mmph. Yeah, okay,” Will said, squirming as though
he’d swallowed live worms. “When did he leave town?”
“Thursday. He’ll be back tomorrow night though.” He
scrunched his eyebrows and then suddenly his mouth dropped
open in shock. “You weren’t thinking about Ron as a suspect
were you? Oh God! You’re looking for some kind of a monster!
My Ron wouldn’t hurt a fly. Anyway, like I said, he left
Thursday. He’s staying at the Lowell. You can check it out if
you don’t believe me.”
Karen couldn’t take Strickland’s babbling any longer.
She stood and started for the door. Will handed his card to him
and said to call if he thought of anything else.
Down the hall Rojas still stood guard outside Jessica
Benson’s apartment. Will looked in and exchanged a few words
with Frank Garcia.
“Nothing new,” he said to Karen. “Let’s boogie.”
CHAPTER FOUR
    I n the car, Will looked over at his partner of eight years. She was
too quiet. It was obvious something was wrong, but he couldn’t
get her to talk about what was bothering her. To him, she was
beautiful in every sense. When they had first partnered up years
ago, he had become deeply infatuated. She was pure energy,
always with a new angle or piece of the puzzle no one else was
able to find. Today her dark mane of hair was, as usual, pulled
carelessly back with stray wisps haphazardly framing her face.
Yet there was something in her eyes that unsettled him.
Anything that bothered Karen, bothered him.
    Eventually he had fallen in love with her and come too
close to confessing his feelings. It had been at his lowest point,
shortly after his marriage slipped onto the rocks some five years
ago. Margaret, his wife, had run off with another man and the
divorce was ugly. He’d grown bitter and was drinking out of
control. Every night after work he’d shown up at Karen’s place
with a case of beer and a bad attitude. She listened to his sad
songs and when he was too drunk to drive home, she would set
him up on her sofa for the night.
    One particularly long evening when he might have