NYPD Red Read Online Free Page B

decisions.”
    “Yeah, but you’re going to be with me twelve, fourteen hours a day. She’s going to want your input.”
    Which is exactly why Cates called me in to her office.
    We caught a red light at 63rd and Park, and I turned to Kylie. “I hope you’re not going to spend twelve, fourteen hours a day overthinking shit like this.”
    “Look, you don’t have to tell me anything. If she did ask you, she probably told you not to tell me anything. And if it makes you feel any better, I hope she did ask you.”
    “Why?”
    “You already know I’m a better cop than you are, so I don’t care if you get a vote.” She laughed. “As long as she doesn’t ask my husband. Spence is dead set against me getting this job on a permanent basis.”
    The committee inside my head called an emergency meeting. Spence knows you never got over Kylie. You’re a threat. He doesn’t want you spending sixty hours a week with his wife.
    As far as I was concerned, the answer was clear, but I needed to hear it for myself. “What’s Spence’s problem with this assignment?” I asked.
    “He wants me to get pregnant,” she said. “I was just about ready, but when Red came along I told him it was my dream job, and if I got it full-time, we’d have to put the baby on hold for a few years.”
    The committee regrouped. Spence isn’t in competition with you. He’s in competition with the job. If she stays on as your partner, she doesn’t get pregnant. Now what are we going to tell Cates?
    There was a line of limos parked in the No Parking zone in front of the hotel. I had to hit the siren three times before the driver at the front of the line even looked at me, and twice more before he reluctantly gave up his spot.
    We got out of the car.
    “What’s the drill?” Kylie said. “You’re the senior. You want me to stay in the background, or jump in with both feet?”
    “There are no senior partners or junior partners,” I said. “You’re here because you’re a good cop. Besides, Cates said the vic was a Hollywood producer, and you have the extra bonus of being married to a guy in the biz, so you understand what makes these people tick.”
    Kylie shook her head. “I’ve got news for you, Six. Nobody knows what in the hell makes these people tick.”

Chapter 8
    “SETTLE DOWN, PEOPLE,” the assistant director bellowed. “Picture is up. Roll sound.”
    Henry Muhlenberg took a deep breath. He was finally back in control. Thirty feet away, looking elegant in a vintage Casablanca black shawl-collar tuxedo, The Chameleon had the same thought.
    “Speed.”
    The clapboard snapped shut, and the assistant director called out, “Background action.”
    The Chameleon and ninety-nine other wedding guests slid into character, chatting, laughing, drinking, all without making a sound.
    “And action,” Muhlenberg called.
    The bride and groom, Devon Whitaker and Ian Stewart, stepped onto the dance floor, and the assembled guests stopped pretending to talk and pretended to be enthralled as the happy couple began to dance.
    The band pretended to play. The music would be added to the sound track in postproduction. Ian and Devon twirled around the room.
    “Dancing, dancing, dancing,” Muhlenberg called out, waiting for the couple to hit their marks. “And now!”
    Edie Coburn stepped into the scene wearing a pair of wide-legged, high-waisted Katharine Hepburn trousers and a loose-fitting chocolate brown silk blouse.
    “Well, well, well!” she screamed, pointing a nine-millimeter SIG Pro at the couple. “The former Mrs. Minetti finally gets to meet the current Mrs. Minetti.”
    The crowd reacted with appropriate horror. Muhlenberg looked at the video monitor on the close-up camera. Edie Coburn was calm and cold on the outside, but seething with rage on the inside. Hardly a stretch for her to play the jealous ex-wife, Muhlenberg thought, but still, she was brilliant.
    Ian turned to her, his eyes filled more with anger than fear. “Put the