Skip Case (David Dean Mysteries)

"You bet your ass it was. Why can't two people talk to each other without the rest of the world thinking they're screwing their brains out? Who sicced you on me, anyway?"

Normally Dean wouldn't have considered for a minute betray­ing a confidence, but somehow he felt this young girl deserved to know. "Jackie Rudman. Young, blond hair, skinny. He saw you and Jeffrey Byrne having lunch."

"I know him. The little bastard. He followed me everywhere."

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Because the creep was hot for me and I wouldn't give him the time of day. He got really nasty."

"There are laws against that sort of thing, you know."

"Oh, sure," she said sarcastically. "If you don't need a job. Who was I supposed to tell? Mayer? He was almost as bad as Jackie. He couldn't keep his hands off half the office. There wasn't a soul up there who'd believe me. Except Jeff Byrne. He was the only decent person in the whole shitty place."

Here we go again, thought Dean. Saint Jeffrey.

"Rudman was the worst-he wouldn't let me alone. You know what he did? He said if I didn't go out with him, everyone up there would, 'know about me,' whatever that means. That's the kind of prick he is. You wouldn't believe what shit went on up there, just because I told a couple of those jerks what I thought about them pawing me."

"Tell me about Jeffrey Byrne." Dean asked quietly. He was beginning to like this girl who had hurt written all over her.

"He was the nicest guy I ever met. That's God's honest truth. He didn't want anything-he was nice without a reason. He found me crying in the stairwell one day and just took my arm and hauled me down to this little restaurant on Walnut. Never even asked. He just ordered for me and made me eat it. He didn't even ask why I was crying. I figured he was going to hit on me but he never did nothing. After that, sometimes we'd talk together. He got me to go back to school. He'd leave little notes on my desk sometimes, say­ing 'Stick with school,' or sometimes he'd send a postcard from his business trips saying the same thing."

"Did he send one from Norfolk?" Dean asked.

She shook her head no. "I was kind of hoping he did, after I heard." Dean thought she might cry but she continued. "I have this night waitress job now; it isn't so bad. I can study in between 'cause they don't do much business after supper. I'm going to get an education and a decent job." She looked away. "I only had lunch with him three or four times and those bastards tell you I'm...."