Free Pleasuring Anne by Tessie Bradford Page B

two had jewelry missing after he was in their home. They each met him at one of Corbly Winery’s events.”
    Anne groaned and rolled her eyes. “I heard an ad on the radio for their Finely Aged Wine Tasting singles parties. I’ve never gone to anything like that before. I figured with having to register and pay a hefty attendance fee, there would be a higher caliber of attendees. Silly me, huh?”
    “Not at all. Your reasoning was sound.”
    “How did you connect us?” she asked, continuing to direct her attention to Garth. “Were you following him or something? If you were, I’m kind of bummed you didn’t arrest his ass during our one and only date. It would have been the best part of the evening.”
    “Sorry we weren’t there to help,” Mark replied.
    “The owners of the winery were keeping an eye on Charles last Friday because they found it odd he’d been at every one of their parties.” Garth continued to command the conversation. “They told us he spent the entire time with you, and that the two of you left together. We had no idea you’d gone out on another date with him.”
    “In my defense, he makes a very good first impression. He was polite, articulate and had a great sense of humor. And yes, we did leave the winery together, but we parted company in the parking lot. By the way, he drives a silver Ford Taurus,” she added. “I agreed to meet him the following night for dinner and dancing at Garbo’s on the River.”
    “He didn’t want to pick you up?”
    “You bet he did. Made kind of an issue of it for a few minutes, saying how it was the gentlemanly thing for him to do. I actually made a joke about wanting to be able to cut out if I discovered his intentions were less than honorable. Geez, that’s rich, isn’t it? Anyway, Chuck started prying into my personal life before the appetizers arrived. Then he went straight into gushing over ‘perfect’.” Anne made quotation marks in the air with her fingers, “investment opportunities he could get me in to.”
    “Did you give him money?”
    “Good Lord, no,” she answered, frowning at Garth. “And I’ve gotta say I’m sort of depressed that others of my gender fell for his lame swindling.”
    “The other women said he was extremely persuasive and charming.”
    “Chuck must have been off his game with me then. He couldn’t have been any more transparent once he started flapping his gums.”
    “Did he give you any information about himself?”
    “No, not really, but during his financial pitch he said his mansion is in Oakland Township. Who describes their home that way if that’s what it actually is?” she asked, shaking her head. “I agreed to dance with him because he begged, and I thought it would shut him up, but it was a chore for me to keep his hands from straying to places they shouldn’t be. I ended the evening as soon as I could; using the age-old headache excuse. He’s called me every day since. Can you believe that? Our date sucked hard, but he’s trying for round two.”
    “Have you talked to him?”
    “Nope, he’s currently having a relationship with my answering machine. His first message was hilarious. He went on and on about how I forgot to give him my cell number and what an effort he’d exerted to find my home phone number. Apparently, using the white pages was a tough thing. Oh, he actually reprimanded me for not being on any of the social media he searched.”
    “It is out of the ordinary for you not to be on at least one,” Garth commented.
    “You checked for me on the internet?”
    “Investigating people is a big part of what we detectives do, Anne.”
    Anne loved properly placed sarcasm. She smiled at Garth, and the desire to play with him for a moment kicked in. “Oh, I’m on the web, Detective Slaiter, if you know where to look. I’ve worked really hard to stay in deep stealth mode.”
    “Why don’t you explain that to me,” Garth ordered.
    “As long as you assure me you’re not going