Bad To The Bone Read Free Page A

often just a bargaining chip in the battle over the jackpot. I
wasn't about to get involved unless I was sure it really was the
daughter—and not just a fat support check—that this lady
wanted.
    "What can I do to convince you to help me?"
she asked.
    "Start by telling me how you found me."
    "A friend in the police department
recommended you."
    "What kind of a friend?" I was reluctant to
get caught between an estranged husband and wife, much less between
an estranged husband and wifey's new gun-toting boyfriend.
    "Not that kind of friend. Just someone who
has been very helpful to me in my current predicament."
    "Name?" I asked impatiently.
    "Bill Butler." Her tone was disinterested,
but her eyes narrowed as if she knew about my relationship with
Bill and was daring me to turn the job down.
    "How is good old Bill?" I asked dryly.
    "As tall, dark and handsome as ever."
    'Today must be my day for exes," I said out
loud.
    "Pardon me?" she asked.
    "Nothing. Why doesn't Bill help you find
your kid?" Last I'd heard, he was working the Bod Squad, helping
decoy rapists. A little out of this lady's needed area of
expertise, but Bill was not one to turn down a damsel in
distress.
    She swallowed, wincing as if her throat
hurt. "My husband is a very powerful man," she explained. "A lot of
people don't want to get involved, including the police. They're
saying all the right things, but they're really just blowing me
off."
    A warning flag hit the field with a clunk.
"Who's your husband?" I asked.
    "Robert Price," she said. "Maybe you know
him? He's a Wake County commissioner."
    Yeah, I knew him. He was as tall and
handsome as Bill Butler—and a hell of a lot darker. What was he
doing with the Nordic Ice Queen for a wife? The African-American
community would crucify him.
    "You're married to Robert Price?" I asked,
aware that I was spending most of my time repeating her statements.
Seeing Jeff had blown my brain fuses.
    She nodded, clutching her pocketbook to her
chest, as if to ward off imaginary blows. "It's the second marriage
for each of us," she added, seeing my face. "Maybe you're thinking
of his first wife?"
    It came to me—I was. Robert Price's first
wife had dropped out of sight a while ago, before he'd gotten
reelected, if I remembered correctly. I wondered if it was because
of Tawny.
    "I didn't realize they had divorced," I
said. "What was her name? Linda?"
    She nodded. "They divorced about five years
ago."
    "How old is your daughter?" I asked
casually—though I don't think I fooled either one of us.
    "She's almost five." She hesitated. "Robert
and I met right after his separation. It was love at first sight.
We married as soon as we could."
    "You don't believe in wasting any time.
Looks to me like the marriage went down the tubes just as
fast."
    "I should have researched his character a
little bit better," she admitted. "But love is blind, as they
say."
    Love is blind, all right. Deaf, dumb and
blind. And I get paid to pick up the pieces once people's eyes have
been opened to the madness.
    "Got the court papers?" I asked, grateful
that at least it had been kept out of the media. Powerful black man
beats the crap out of tiny blond wife and absconds with their kid.
If this case turned into a race thing, I was going to run the other
way. I'm into helping people, not causes.
    Tawny Bledsoe pulled a thick envelope from
her pocketbook and handed it to me, along with a neatly typed list
of information. "Here are his particulars."
    I scanned the list. She was pretty damn
particular about his particulars. She had detailed all of his
personal data— social security number, date of birth, addresses for
the past ten years, credit card account numbers, names of friends,
even his favorite restaurants. I now knew more about Robert Price
than I knew about myself. The woman was more prepared than a
frigging Boy Scout.
    I looked up. "Have you done this
before?"
    She shook her head. "I just tried to
anticipate what it was you might need to