Free The Stranger by Harlan Coben Page A

it. You didn’t ask the victim if they had time to talk or if they wanted to sit down or go someplace quiet. You just launched.
    “What?”
    “It purports to be a modern online dating service. But it’s not. Men—supposedly wealthy men with disposable income—sign up to meet, well, sugar babies. Have you heard of it?”
    Heidi looked at him another second. Then she turned her gaze toward Ingrid. Ingrid tried to smile reassuringly.
    “Who are you two?”
    “That’s not important,” he said.
    Some people fight it. Other people see that it’s an irrelevant waste of time in the big picture. Heidi was in the latter group. “No, I’ve never heard of it. It sounds like one of those sites married people use to cheat.”
    The stranger made a yes-no gesture with his head and said, “Not really. This site caters to more of a business transaction, if you know what I mean.”
    “I don’t know what you mean at all,” Heidi said.
    “You should read the material when you have a chance. The site talks about how every relationship is really a transaction and how important it is to define your roles, to know what is expected of you and what is expected of your lover.”
    Heidi’s face was losing color. “Lover?”
    “So here is how it works,” the stranger continued. “A man signs on, for example. He looks through a list of women, usually much younger. He finds one he likes. If she accepts, they start negotiating.”
    “Negotiating?”
    “He’s looking for what we call a sugar baby. The website defines that as a woman he’d maybe take out to dinner or escort to a business conference, that kind of thing.”
    “But that’s not what really happens,” Heidi said.
    “No,” the stranger said. “That’s not what happens.”
    Heidi let loose a long breath. She put her hands on her hips. “Go on.”
    “So they negotiate.”
    “The rich guy and his sugar baby.”
    “Right. The site tells the girl all sorts of nonsense. How everything is defined. How dating like this means no game playing. How the men are rich and sophisticated and will treat her well and buy her gifts and take her to exotic overseas locales.”
    Heidi shook her head. “Do the girls really fall for that?”
    “Some, maybe. But I doubt too many. Most understand the score.”
    It was as though Heidi had expected him to visit, expected this news. She was calm now, though he could still sense the devastation. “So they negotiate?” she prompted.
    “Right. Eventually, they reach an understanding. It’s all spelled out in an online contract. In one case, for example, the young woman agrees to be with the man five times per month. They spell out possible days of the week. He offers eight hundred dollars.”
    “Each time?”
    “Per month.”
    “Cheap.”
    “Well, that’s how it starts. But she counters with two thousand dollars. They go back and forth.”
    “Do they reach an agreement?” Heidi asked.
    Her eyes were wet now.
    The stranger nodded. “In this case, they settle for twelve hundred dollars per month.”
    “That’s fourteen thousand four hundred dollars per year,” Heidi said with a sad smile. “I’m good at math.”
    “That’s correct.”
    “And the girl,” Heidi said. “What does she tell the guy she is? Wait, don’t tell me. She says she’s a college student and needs help with her tuition.”
    “In this case, yes.”
    “Ugh,” Heidi said.
    “And in this case,” the stranger continued, “the girl is telling the truth.”
    “She’s a student?” Heidi shook her head. “Terrific.”
    “But the girl, in this case, doesn’t stop there,” the stranger said. “The girl sets up different days of the week with different sugar daddies.”
    “Oh, that’s gross.”
    “So with one guy, she’s always Tuesdays. Another guy is Thursdays. Someone else gets weekends.”
    “Must add up. The money, I mean.”
    “It does.”
    “Not to mention the venereal diseases,” Heidi said.
    “That I can’t comment