After Midnight Read Online Free

opposite the redhead. In the harsh glare of the overhead fluorescent lights, the woman looked older than Jess had first thought. Mid-thirties, maybe. And tired. Extremely tired, if the shadows bruising the skin around her eyes were any indication. Her clothes were Florida casual – a short-sleeved, loose-fitting dress in thin black knit and low heeled sandals. The cluster of seashells polished to shimmering iridescent beauty and looped through a black cord to form a necklace added an unexpectedly sophisticated touch.
    “What can I do for you, Mrs. Babcock?”
    “I heard Eddie… My husband…” She stopped, pulled in a breath. “I heard my ex-husband is supposed to see you this afternoon.”
    “Yes, he is.”
    “I also heard you’re going to bust him. Maybe kick him out of the air force.”
    Jess didn’t bother to ask where she’d gleaned her information. If Sergeant Babcock and this small, nervous woman had been married for any length of time, Eileen Babcock have a good idea what a DUI, a string of failures to repair, and a recent arrest for being drunk and disorderly conduct would do to a military career.
    “I can’t discuss your ex-husband’s situation with you,” Jess told her. “Even if you weren’t divorced, I wouldn’t discuss it until I talked to him first.”
    “I understand! Honestly, I do.” She scuttled to the edge of her seat, gripping her hands so tight Jess thought the bones would snap at any moment. “I just wanted you to know that what happened is my fault. All my fault. You’ve got to give Eddie another chance.”
    “Mrs. Babcock…”
    “He never drank anything more than a couple of beers at a time until two years ago.”
    If the woman’s eyes had looked bruised before, they were haunted now.
    “He was asked to teach a course on fuel additives at the American Petroleum Institute. He was gone for almost a month. When he got home, he found out I’d slept with another man.”
    Jess hadn’t seen that coming. Shifting in her chair, she cleared her throat.
    “You don’t have to say anything,” Eileen Babcock put in swiftly, bitterly. “There’s nothing anyone can say that would make a difference at this point. It happened, okay? I can’t change that, as much as I wish I could. All I’m asking is for you to understand why Eddie went off the deep end.”
    She must have heard the desperation in her voice. She clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes. When the red-tipped lashes fluttered up again, Jess felt a tug of pity for the desolation on the woman’s face.
    “Eddie and I started dating in high school. We were married the day after graduation. I never looked at another man until…until this happened. Never wanted another man.”
    Tears slid down her cheeks. Her throat working, she forced out a full confession.
    “To this day, I don’t know why I did it. He was younger than I was. A college kid! Down here for spring break, if you can believe that. I was flattered, I suppose. And Eddie was gone so much.”
    Pushing away from the table, Jess dug a box of Kleenex out of her desk drawer and offered it to the redhead. Awash in tears and self-loathing, Eileen swiped almost angrily at her cheeks.
    “I’m not like you, colonel. I didn’t want a career. I’ve held odd jobs…I worked as a cashier at the BX and waited tables at the NCO Club…but all I ever wanted was to be a wife and a mother.”
    “That’s a career in itself,” Jess said gently.
    Without conscious thought, she rubbed the puckered skin between her thumb and finger. Like Eileen Babcock, her mother had waited tables to pay the rent and put food on the table, but Helen had saved all her love, all her devotion for her only daughter.
    “Yes, well…” The tissue shredded, falling like snowflakes onto Eileen’s black dress. “It turned out I’m sterile. Eddie and I couldn’t have kids, but for all those years we had each other. Then we lost even that.”
    Jess couldn’t help herself. Although she had no