Page 157 of Hidden Nature

“Since we’ve cleared that up, how about we eat and you tell me about this woman who’s good at trapping men?”

She rolled the rest of the stiffness out of her shoulders and sat. “I should start with the wife.”

He listened as they ate, as the dog went back to his chew toy. When she’d finished telling him about Karen Rigsby, he said something that hit home.

“She still loves him. He broke her heart, and if he were alive, she’d divorce him—and make sure it hurt. But she still loves him.”

“Yes, she does. Part of her is a widow, grieving for the man she loved more than half her life, and the other is a woman angry and humiliated by her husband’s betrayal.”

“It must be hell to have that fighting it out inside you.”

“I thought the same. When I talked to her, I thought exactly that. She’s in hell, and will be for a long time. Even after we find the answers, she’ll be in hell.”

“You’re sure she didn’t have any part of it. I don’t have to ask if, because I can hear it.”

“If I wasn’t before, I am after talking to her. And the leads have cleared her. They looked hard because she’ll end up with everything—which is a lot of everything. But she’d end up with it faster with a body.”

“So if she’d known, wanted to get rid of him, how would she have done it?”

“The smart way, kill him in the motel room right after the blonde leaves, plant evidence that implicates her. Not that she’d get away with it, but she’d try to punish them both.”

“Why didn’t the blonde do it?” He took a swig of his beer. “It’s a classic, right? He decides to end things, and she doesn’t want things to end.”

“She didn’t care enough. Let me tell you about Maci Lovette.”

When she’d finished, Nash ate a fry, washed it down with another swig of beer. “That’s the blonde on the wall of your office. She’s got the sexy going, sure, but she doesn’t look like a player.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s only one picture, but yeah, that’s so. And that’s part of how she gets away using middle-aged men stupid enough to think she wants them for anything but what they can and do buy her.”

What did it mean, she wondered, that his thoughts ran right along the same line as hers on the subject?

“She can play guileless, and she’s not.”

“That works for her, too. Can’t call it extortion or even sex for pay.I imagine she didn’t have to wheedle much for the gifts. And I’m betting she rarely pays her own rent.”

Impressed, Sloan sat back.

“You’d win the bet. She has a system. She works one sucker at a time, but starts the flirt, as she calls it, with the next either when the first guy starts talking about leaving his wife or breaking things off. She prefers the latter as that usually involves a nice parting gift.

“She’s got a very nice nest egg.” Sloan lifted her wineglass toward Nash. “She could probably use your financial management skills there.”

“No, thanks. She’s scary. But not scary enough, I take it, to have made the dentist disappear.”

“No. She’s cunning, calculating, but that doesn’t make her bright. Nice apartment, good location, but it’s chaos. She’s disorganized and careless as well as dishonest. Sex work’s honest, a business transaction.”

His eyebrows lifted. “That’s one way to look at it.”

“You want a blow job, here’s my rate. You want the full round, this is what it costs. Want me to dress up like a high school cheerleader, that’s extra. Business.”

He considered her for one long moment. “You don’t happen to have one of those uniforms? The little skirt and sweater? Maybe just the pom-poms?”

“Sorry. I ran track and cross-country. The thing is, it doesn’t bother her a bit to damage a marriage—and she doesn’t take full blame there because she’s not forcing anyone. But she’s good at spotting a man who’s vulnerable to the flirtation, to theOoh, Daddy, I’m so attracted to you.”

She batted her lashes and made him laugh.

“Then she exploits that for whatever she can get out of him. And she wants them older and married because she isn’t interested in the long term.”

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