Shallow Graves - Jeremiah Healy Read Online Free

men'll stop being such
jerks?"
    Nancy said, "The day genetic engineering becomes
available for household use."
    I stood a little straighter. "Could be that day
has arrived. You're looking at the body of a twenty-year-old
paratrooper."
    The deputy said, "What're you gonna do, he asks
for it back?"
    Nancy was still howling as we went through the
revolving door
    I said, "It wasn't that funny."
    "Oh, John, it was priceless."
    "It was a cheap shot. She can't be more than
twenty-two herself."
    "She's almost thirty, and you've been so
cock-proud ever since you ran the marathon that I was beginning to
wonder how to bring you back to earth."
    "A few weeks of feeling like a young warrior
doesn't seem so long."
    "It does if you're ‘dating' the warrior."
    I decided to change the subject. "So, how was
your day?"
    Nancy shook her head. "The usual. I'm on a bank
robbery. Pretrial, our boy moved to suppress an eyewitness ID from a
photo array."
    "Denied?"
    "Yes. At trial, defendant renewed his motion,
but the judge, bless her, refused to review her denial. At that
point, our boy conceded identification and tried to make like he was
the new Patty Hearst."
    "I thought the Symbionese Liberation Army
abolished their draft."
    "Not to hear this guy. He actually took the
stand, tried to persuade us he was kidnapped and forced to cooperate
at gunpoint."
    "Let me guess. His credibility was not without
stain."
    "Twelve priors, three for armed robbery, seven
all told admissible under the prior conviction statute."
    "You had that kind of ammunition and he still
took the stand?"
    "It was his only shot, John. If he's convicted
of this one, he's going away forever."
    "Jury get the case yet?"
    "I finished my cross this afternoon. My guess is
some wrangling over requests for jury instructions tomorrow, then
closing arguments and charge by lunchtime. Speaking of eating, where
are you taking me tonight?"
    We'd reached the Park Street corner of the Boston
Common. I pointed diagonally across it, though even in bright
daylight you couldn't have seen the building I meant.
    Nancy said, "The Ritz?"
    "You got it."
    "John, it'll cost a fortune"
    "You're each age only once."
    She linked her arm in mine and looked up at me.
Irish, freckled face. Wide-spaced blue eyes. High forehead with
black, fine hair, parted on the right side, long enough to fall just
so onto her shoulders. And a smile that took its time pushing up the
corners of her mouth and dimpling her cheeks and finally flashing
straight teeth under a nose that she'd punch you for calling perky.
    Nancy said, "There are certain advantages to
'dating' successful, 'older' men."
    "I'm not that old."
    She balled her free hand into a fist, threw it
straight into the air and said, "Airborne!"
    Nancy was still laughing so hard, I thought they
might not let us into the second-floor dining room.
    At the table, the maitre d' discreetly pulled out the
birthday girl's chair and seated her. I tipped him a five for putting
us at a window overlooking the Public Garden. The trees were a little
too high to appreciate the flowers, but then it was early enough in
the season that the beds weren't spectacular yet.
    The waiter stepped over immediately for our drink
orders, and Nancy said she'd rather have wine. The sommelier appeared
with the wine list, which should have come in three volumes and an
audiotape. I picked a price range in the red Bordeaux, and he made a
suggestion that I accepted.
    As the sommelier retreated, I said, "You know, I
really don't mind the cracks about my physical condition/'
    "I know. Otherwise I wouldn't make them."
    Nancy covered my right hand with both of hers,
running the edge of a fingernail along the back of my knuckles. "I
read somewhere that holding hands is pleasurable because of the nerve
endings."
    "Nerve endings."
    "Right. For example, it feels good for me to do
this."
    "It does."
    She turned my hand over. "But if I try your
palm, it feels better, doesn't it?"
    "Uh-huh."
    "That's because there