Lost Innocents Read Online Free Page B

cup a day. That’s it for me. That stuff is terrible for your stomach lining. You know that, don’t you?”
    Dr. Foreman nodded and added sugar.
    “Now if you had a beer, I’d take you up on it,” said Frank.
    Dr. Foreman walked back around behind his desk, pausing to look admiringly at his reflection in the glass doors on the bookcase behind his desk. He looked good—the jogging had taken away that layer of fat. He looked especially good compared with the chief, whose white shirt and tie only drew attention to a stomach that protruded over his belt. Larry resumed his seat in his tufted leather swivel chair. After taking a sip, he placed the coffee carefully on a napkin. “Why do you think your wife would do that?”
    “Why does she do anything she does,” Frank snorted. “To piss me off.” He shook his head. “Are you married, Doc?”
    Dr. Foreman nodded, and Frank picked up a framed photograph of the doctor and his wife and daughters that was sitting on the psychologist’s leather blotter. Frank gazed at it for a moment and then looked up at the doctor. “You gonna keep on trying for a son? Or did you give up?”
    “We were never trying for a son,” Larry Foreman said coldly.
    “Hmph,” Frank muttered. “I have a son. Frank junior. He’s married, got a good job, a baby on the way. He never gave me a minute’s trouble. Not once. They say boys are more trouble than girls, but that Frankie…he was in Little League, honor society, the works. I’ve always been proud of him….”
    “As opposed to Heather,” Dr. Foreman said.
    “Don’t shrink me, Doc. Please, spare me. I have to deal with your kind in court every day.” Frank grimaced. “You think you’re fooling somebody. Slipping in little remarks. I’m wise to you. So give me a break. I wouldn’t be here at all if the judge hadn’t insisted we bring her to someone. I guess my wife picked your name out of a hat,” Frank mused, trying to be as insulting as possible.
    Dr. Foreman avoided the bait. “You were saying you’re proud of your son…”
    “And I’m proud of Heather. I’m proud of both my kids. They’re good kids. But Heather just…she’s just in those teenage years. A lot of kids run into trouble in those years. I ought to know. I see ‘em every day down at the station. Yours aren’t there yet, am I right?”
    Dr. Foreman shook his head cautiously and glanced at the picture on his blotter.
    “Just wait. You’ll see,” Frank warned him. “Even girls. More of ‘em all the time. So you better treat me right so I’ll go easy on ‘em when they show up down there.”
    Dr. Foreman ignored the remark about his children. “But this is more than just a little trouble Heather’s gotten into, Frank. She could have ruined this teacher’s life, his career. That’s a serious thing.”
    Frank Cameron peered at the doctor with a sour expression. “You can call me ‘Chief,’ ” he said.
    “You’re not the chief in here,” Larry said mildly.
    This time Frank chuckled. Then he glowered and consulted his watch. “She’ll be late to her own funeral,” he muttered. “Jesus Christ.”
    Frank Cameron found the ensuing silence oppressive. He got up from his chair and began to prowl around the office, like a panther in a cage. “Yeah, this is a fancy little office you got here,” he said, glancing out the window. “The best neighborhood, plenty of parking. Smells like big bucks around here. No wonder my wife picked you,” he snorted. “My Mary Beth’s developed a taste for the finer things in life.”
    Rain had begun to spatter against the pane. Frank peered out the window at the boutique-lined street. “When I was a boy growing up in Taylorsville, this was a nice town. People knew each other. In those days you had your rich people and your working people. Now we got a whole new class of well-heeled social climbers. People like my wife see that and they want it so bad they can taste it.” Frank shook his head in disgust and