Smith's Monthly #6 by Smith Dean Wesley

Author:Smith, Dean Wesley [Smith, Dean Wesley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: WMG Publishing
Published: 2014-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THREE

September 2014.

Pleasant Hills.

Las Vegas, Nevada

JULIA WAS STUNNED at how attracted she was to Lott. Over the years, since her husband’s death, she had dated a few times, and even had one relationship that lasted for a few years. But mostly the relationship part of her life had been shut off for a long time. She had just assumed it would always remain that way. There just weren’t a lot of men looking for fifty-some-year-old retired police detectives with a limp.

And until she had been shot and then retired and moved to Las Vegas to be near her daughter, she hadn’t noticed that she missed having a man in her life. But now, for some reason, since joining the Cold Poker Gang, she had been attracted to retired detective Lott.

More than she wanted to admit.

He had a calm way about him, and seemed frighteningly smart. She had even caught herself a few times looking at his wonderful head of thick, gray hair.

His daughter, Annie Lott, was one of the best poker players in the world and her boyfriend, Doc Hill, was pretty much acclaimed to be the best. Julia had met and liked them at a few tournaments, and sat next to Annie at one tournament for a few hours. When Annie, who also used to be a Las Vegas detective, learned that Julia was a retired detective, she told her about her father and the Cold Poker Gang. It had sounded wonderful and it had turned out to be to be even better than Julia had imagined it might.

Julia looked forward to Tuesday night now. Fun poker, fantastic company, and so far she had been involved in solving two cold cases, which had given her intense satisfaction, something she hadn’t felt as an active detective in Reno for years.

And she loved the banter between the detectives, just like she had never left her department. She hadn’t realized how much she missed talking with people who were blunt, funny, and trying to solve bad things that had happened to people. The gunshot wound had given her an out, but many times she wondered if she should have taken it.

Now she needed to have some answers as to what happened to Stan. And if the gang would take on the case, she might actually get the answers, good or bad, and feel like finally she could move on with her life.

They sat in Lott’s kitchen, eating the wonderful-smelling KFC chicken and talking while waiting for Andor. They went from talking about the late-season heat wave to what Annie and Doc had done this summer up in the Idaho Wilderness.

“They keep wanting me to go with them once,” Lott said, shaking his head.

“Sounds like fun to me,” she said. And it did. Four days rafting in wilderness area down the River of No Return seemed so distant from poker tables and murders, she loved the idea and had promised Annie she would try it next summer.

“Oh, no, you too?” Lott asked, shaking his head.

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