Page 24 of NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We better find this old codger in a big hurry,” she said, flashing me a grin. “Before he dies of natural causes.”

CHAPTER 17

It was after elevenwhen I got to Cheryl’s place. We have separate apartments, but more often than not we cohabit, and this was one of those nights I didn’t want to go to bed alone. She was sitting on the sofa doing theNew York Timescrossword puzzle.

“What’s afive-letterword for hardworking cop desirous of physical intimacy?” I said, leaning over and giving her a long, hungry kiss.

She waved her hand and pointed at the armchair—the universal sign foryou’re not getting laid till wetalk.

I plopped down in the chair.

“How’d it go with your witness?” she asked.

“He was solid and gave us an amazingly detailed sketch.”

“I had a long talk with Shane after you left,” she said.

My first clue. We were going to be talking about her little project.

“How’d that go?” I said. “By now Shane must be getting used to Kylie walking out in the middle of a date.”

“Oh, he’s not only used to it. He thinks that bolting from the room to fight crime is just another fascinating layer of thishigh-octanehotheaded,gun-toting,up-for-anythingmystery woman he’s dating.”

“Did he elaborate onup-for-anything?” I asked, leering salaciously.

She ignored myfrat-boyhumor. “Shane is smitten,” she said. “There’s only one problem.”

“All relationships have problems,” I said. “Take us, for instance. I put in a long hard day at work, I come home exhausted, and you don’t even crack a smile at myup-for-anythingjoke.”

She cracked a smile. It was genuine.

“That’s better,” I said. “Now, what’s Shane’s problem?”

“Spence.”

“What about Spence?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Kylie is still married to him.”

“Legallymarried to him. There’s a difference.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Zach, but ‘legally’ is the very essence of the definition of the word ‘marriage.’”

“And your point is...?”

“My point? Shane is falling hard for a married woman, and that’s unnerving, to put it mildly. What happens to him if Spence decides to come back?”

“You can tell Shane that if Spence ever shows up again, Kylie will get a lawyer and pull the plug on the marriage.”

“Are you sure? Because that hasn’t been her MO in the past.”

“Ouch,” I said.

“I’m sorry, babe. That came out wrong.”

“No, it came out right. Twelve years ago, Kylie and I were going at it hot and heavy. Spence suddenly showed up with his hat and hisone-monthclean-and-soberchip in hand, and bam—it’s goodbye, Zachary; hello, Mrs. Spencer Harrington.”