Free Slow Dancing by Suzanne Jenkins Page B

was putting it on thick, but she was lonely, and he hoped, desperate. She smiled and it changed her appearance, for which he was grateful.
    “That’s so sweet of you, Alan. I wonder if there isn’t a way I can find out something for you?” He feigned surprise. From their first meeting, partial honesty about his reason for being in Saint Augustine would make the request for snooping seem less like he was using her to gain access to hospital records.
    “In what way?” he asked. “You mean by asking around at the hospital?”
    She was looking off, chewing on the inside of her mouth. “I know some of the women from medical records,” she said. “My cousin is the receptionist in the department.” Not showing much interest, like his heart rate didn’t just increase exponentially, he nodded his head.
    “Gosh I wonder if they’d help.”
    “It couldn’t hurt to ask, I guess,” she said uncertainly. Rather than rouse her suspicions, he’d ask her to dinner.
    “Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?” He’d avoid any mention of lost children and disappearing girlfriends, the Persian Gulf and Army service. He’d never even held a gun.
    She frowned. “ You want to have dinner with me ,” she said cynically. It just didn’t feel right. He was too handsome. “Why?”
    “Why? Because I do. I think you’re pretty and interesting. Isn’t that enough? We’ve had coffee everyday. Now, let’s have dinner.” His flattery hit its mark because as she felt better about herself, she smiled more, which changed the shape of her face. She was almost pretty.
     
    Alan was eager to start a relationship with her, albeit a strange one, so he could better take advantage of her connections. Locating her apartment the first time wasn’t easy; in a dark neighborhood outside of Saint Augustine, he had to navigate behind an abandoned factory, reaching a dead end at a chain link gate. Backing up, he found the street, little more than an alley, and turned into it, looking for her building. Checking his appearance in the rearview mirror first, he was then careful to look around the area before he unlocked to get out. After he knocked, he looked over his shoulder again nervously before she answered. She was surprised he didn’t just beep the horn for her.
    “Nice neighborhood,” he let slip out. But she didn’t take offense, chuckling.
    “I like the rent.”
    “You look nice,” he said finally looking at her. He was relieved, not having seen Noelle in anything other than scrubs he wasn’t sure what she’d wear. They went to a seafood restaurant he remembered being fancy years before, but seemed to have fallen on hard time.
    “I’ve always wanted to eat here and now I hope we’re not too late,” he said, worried.
    “It’s fine,” Noelle said. “They stopped having entertainment about five years ago. But I hear the food is still good.” Alan made the effort getting to know Noelle, but wondered about his ability to take it the next level. He didn’t see her becoming a scout for him unless he slept with her, and that might take some effort.
    Noticing odd wounds on her legs and arms, almost too precise, Alan began to worry they were self-inflicted, but didn’t want to call attention to them. There was definitely something not quite right about Noelle, but he decided to let it go. Her value was in the facts she could gather.
    The following week, he moved into her cramped apartment. Interspersing talk of their relationship with hints that he’d be going back to Galveston some day, he was trying to soften the blow for when he did take off again. “When I go back to Texas,” was a frequent phrase. But Noelle wasn’t listening, hearing only “I love you, I want you, I need you,” when they had sex, always with the lights off. She was in love with Alan and would do anything for him, anything at all.
    “I’d even kill for you,” she said one night in the throws of passion.
    “It’ll never come to that!” he