Finders Keepers Losers Die (25 page)

It swung inwards but I didn't move. All of a
sudden I was paralyzed. I was breaking and entering. Proper
breaking and entering, not like Lou's when the neighbor had let me
in, which technically wasn't breaking the law.

"Yoohoo, anyone home?" No answer. I crossed
the threshold and half expected Mad Max to jump out at me. But the
apartment felt empty.

And looked filthy! Dishes were piled up in
the sink with slimy, gray-green goo stuck to them, and newspapers
and magazines were strewn across the table, the couch or on the
floor. I picked one up between the tips of my fingers. A blonde
with enormous breasts wearing a bikini that barely covered her
nipples pouted back at me. The couch itself was gray with various
unidentified stains brightening it up.

Then there was the odor. I screwed up my
nose and tried to take only shallow breaths. I'd have to
decontaminate my clothes before I wore them again.

I had no idea what I was looking for, or
where to start looking for it, so it was fortuitous that Mad Max
walked in at that moment. Not fortuitous that I should be caught
red-handed in his apartment holding a porn magazine.

"Hey! You're that cop b-b-bitch."

"I'm not a cop. I'm a P.I. But I am a
bitch." See, I could be tough. "You know, you really should clean
up this place. It's a pig sty."

He looked taken aback. "W-what?"

"Look at this place. I wouldn't let a dog
live here."

"What are you, the f-f-fucking neat
police?"

I tossed the magazine onto the couch and
clasped my handbag to my side. I could use it as a weapon if I had
to. "I wanted to talk to you," I said, "but you weren't here and
those stairs are a bitch so I needed a drink." I pointed at the
kitchen.

He stared at me for a long time then moved
into the kitchen. He picked up a glass from the sink and turned on
the faucet. He handed me the full glass. The full,
dirty
glass. It still had the previous drinker's lip marks on the
rim.

"Actually, I'm fine now. Thanks." I placed
the glass on the table beside a plate with a half-eaten piece of
toast on it.

"W-what did you want to t-talk to m-me
about?" He sounded suspicious but not threatening. Maybe I'd got
him all wrong.

"You were in jail with Lou Scarletti," I
said.

He nodded. "Poor b-b-bastard."

"Did he happen to say anything to you about
the bank robbery he was doing time for?"

He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back
of his hand. "M-maybe."

"Maybe? Well, did he or didn't he?"

"M-maybe I c-can't remember."

I swore under my breath. "Either you
remember or you don't. Did he or didn't he speak to you about the
money from the bank job?"

He rubbed his nose again. "R-refresh my
m-memory," he said.

"What? Don't be dumb. Now you're just trying
to annoy me."

He sighed and said, "M-me? Dumb? You're the
stupid c-cow who doesn't get it. J-j-just give me some c-cash and
I'll answer you're f-fucking question."

Oh. Right. Bribe money.
I wonder if it's
tax deductible.
I gave him ten.

He rolled his eyes and kept his hand
outstretched.

"Well, I don't know how much these things
cost! It's not like it's in the manual." At least I didn't think
so. I'd have to reread the interrogation chapter in Mom's book when
I got the chance. I gave him another twenty.

"T-tight ass," he said and pocketed it. "He
s-said he's still got the m-m-money but he can't get it without his
p-partner. The plan was to g-get it when he g-got out and to g-go
legit. Set up a g-gardening business or s-something."

"Do you know who his partner was?"

He shook his head. I gave him another
ten.

He took it and pocketed it but said
nothing.

"Hey, I gave you money. You're supposed to
answer my question."

"I d-don't know the answer. I t-told
you."

Seems I had a lot to learn about
interrogation. "So do you know why he hadn't found it, three months
after getting out?"

"Lou wanted to leave his w-wife first. She's
a g-greedy bitch."

"So what's this got to do with Grimes? Why
was Lou working at Doors Galore?"

He shrugged. "He needed the c-cash. My
c-cousin gave him the j-job."

"But your cousin's business is in the red,"
I said.

"How d-do you know?"

Ah, so I was right. "How could he afford to
pay an employee? And why keep Lou on?"

Mad Max shrugged but this time I was certain
he was holding out on me. "Just tell me how much you want," I
said.

"A h-hundred."

"A hundred! That's steep."

"It's g-good information. And if they f-find
out I t-told you…"

I handed him the hundred. "It better be
good."

"Baz is f-fucking Lou's ex w-wife."

"If that's all you've got I want my money
back. I already knew that much."

"There's m-more. Baz told Lou he could
launder his stolen m-m-money for him. But we were going to double
c-cross Lou. Keep the m-money for ourselves."

"But Lou died first." I frowned. "We? So
you're in on it. Then why are you telling me? What's in it for
you?"

"I think Baz is g-going to cut me out. I
d-didn't know R-Roberta hired you to find the money till the other
d-d-day. Baz said he j-just forgot to t-t-tell me. They reckon I'm
too s-stupid, but I'm n-not. I figure I've got n-nothing to lose."
He laughed, a creepy, maniacal laugh. I shivered right down to my
pink shoes.

Time to go. "Thanks," I said, picking my way
across the floor to the door, being careful not to step on anything
icky. "Oh, and one more thing. Do you know why Detective Stankovic
would visit your cousin? Is he in on it too?"

He shrugged boney shoulders.

I thanked him again and got out of there
fast, racing down the stairs. Mad Max freaked me out, even though
he'd practically been a gentleman by his standards. I made it to my
car and turned the air conditioner on high. Finally, fresh air. I
breathed in as much of it as I could then headed far, far away.

Actually, I went to the office. Half way
there, my phone bleeped inside my bag. Damn. I'd forgotten to
charge it the night before. Not surprising since I'd been too drunk
to remember to undress.

I rummaged through my bag and found the
phone near the bottom. Plugging it into the car charger, I glanced
at the screen. Three missed calls. Probably all from Will. He'd
called several times at the club but it had been too noisy to hear
most of what he said. Still, I gathered the inference. He'd wanted
to know if I was okay.

You'd think after the first call, he'd be
satisfied. I mean, would I be shouting, "What do you want?" over
loud music with a drunken slur if I was in danger?

Actually, you'd think after the eleventh
call he'd get the picture. At that point, I refused to answer the
phone. He must have left the three messages then given up. I wasn't
looking forward to facing him again.

I seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

Fortunately, he wasn't at the office when I
arrived. Only one person was. Someone who made me want to turn
around and go right back to the psycho I'd just left. Even Mad Max
and his putrid habits were better than what greeted me at the
office of Knight Investigations.

CHAPTER 14

"Cat," said Tanya with a smile that made my
skin crawl. "You made it." She checked her fake Cartier watch. It
had to be fake because she wasn’t a
super
model and I was
pretty sure she couldn't afford the real thing.

"It's a miracle, isn't it?" I said,
breezily. "Unfortunately my manicurist couldn't fit me in. So here
I am." I threw my handbag onto my chair and took off my denim
jacket with a jaunty flourish.

Going by her catty smile, my attempt at
being upbeat didn't fool her. Guess my panda bear look was a dead
giveaway that I was hungover and feeling like someone had scrubbed
my brain with sandpaper.

Did I already say I'd never drink again?

"Forgetting your place again, Tanya?" I
said, pronouncing her name the way she hates. I sounded as catty as
she looked but I couldn't help it. My head hurt, my tongue felt
heavy, and I just didn't like the bitch.

"Pardon me?"

Even the way she said those two words grated
on my nerves. I mean, why can't she say "huh?" like regular people?
And why had she gone all Gwyneth Paltrow with the fake British
accent she'd mysteriously acquired over the last few months?

"You don't work here any more," I
elaborated. "Why do you care when I arrive?"

"Will's still…a friend."

I snorted. Friend, my ass.

She gave me the evil eye. "I'm looking out
for him since he's not here to see what his staff are up to."

"Carl and I do the same amount of work
whether Will's here or not."

"Yes," she said haughtily, "that's what I
suspected."

Oh boy. Someone hold me back before I wiped
the condescending smile off her face with my fist.

Not that I'd ever resort to violence. Not
that I
could
. She was several inches taller than me and
choreographed, theatrical combat moves probably wouldn't win
against her talons.

"It seems Will doesn't consider you as much
of a close friend as you consider him," I said, "otherwise he would
have mentioned that I was working this morning."

"What could you possibly have to do out of
the office that doesn't involve fetching coffee?"

"Oh, didn’t he tell you? I'm now an
investigator. I was working on my first case."

The stunned stare was priceless but she
regained her composure quickly. "You?" She snorted. "An
investigator? What of? Bargain basements?"

"Actually I'm involved in a murder case. But
I can't talk about the details." Ooh. That felt good. The shocked
silence that followed felt even better. One for Cat. "So how did
you get in here? Still got a key? Because maybe you should hand it
over, in light of…well, you know."

Tanya's face clouded and for a moment I
thought I'd gone too far and I'd have to apologize. But she held it
together and I swallowed my apology, even though a little bit of
guilt lingered.

"I didn't steal from Will," she ground out
in a staccato beat. "I told him that and now I'm telling you.” She
leaned over my desk, knuckles resting on a stack of filing. "But I
suppose you're the one who started the rumor." She practically
threw the words at me.

"Actually, I—"

"Well, let me tell you something. First of
all, you can get your grubby little claws out of my man. It's not
over between me and Will. It never will be."

"It isn't? That's not what—"

"Just ask him."

"I did and—"

"And secondly, I did
not
steal any
money from this office. Will believes me."

"But all the evidence points to you,
Tanya."

Fury spilled from the cracks in her
carefully manufactured persona. She'd lost her English accent,
droplets of spittle landed on the keyboard every time she said a
word with an S, and the way she bared her teeth like a fighting dog
was definitely not something she learned in modeling school.

"Fucking hell," she spat across the desk at
me, "do you think I'd be intelligent enough to hide it for so
long?" She seemed to calm down a little after venting. Her scowl
vanished and she moved away from the desk, suddenly looking
sheepish. Guess it's not every day she admitted her stupidity to
someone she hated.

"So if you didn't, who did?"

She lifted one shoulder. "If it was before
your time, it must be Carl."

I ignored the barely veiled slight on my
honesty. "Carl? Why would he steal from Will?" I'd already
considered him. If it wasn't Tanya, there was no one else. Still,
it was too unbelievable. "But Carl's so…nice." I couldn't think of
another adjective to describe him. Carl
was
nice. Boringly
so.

She crossed her arms, looking smug again.
"He's not as squeaky clean as you think, Cat." She walked around
the reception area with a jaunty catwalk step, looked out the
window, then strolled back and hooked me with her amused gaze.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's he done?"

She licked her lips, curved in a cocky
smile. "He slept with his boss's girlfriend."

"Will's girlfriend?" Then it hit me. I
gasped. "He slept with
you
.
You
slept with
Carl
! While you were seeing
Will
!" If I didn't think
she was a bitch before, I sure did now.

She looked offended, as if I'd missed the
point. "Well, you would too if Will ignored you all the time. You
think dating a workaholic is fun?" She snorted again. "He never had
enough time for me. He worked most nights and weekends, and when he
didn't, he was too tired to go anywhere. I had parties to go to, I
was trying to make contacts with modeling agencies but did he
attend anything with me? No. Did he go out to dinner with the
agents? No."

"He hates that sort of thing," I said before
I even realized I knew that he hated that sort of thing. "He's an
ex-cop. He likes eating pizza in front of the TV, not schmoozing
with stuck-up snobs." She should have known that.

"Did he even notice when I slept with Carl?”
she went on as if I hadn't said a thing. "No. I flirted with Carl
right in front of him, I even wore the same clothes to work two
days in a row after I'd spent the night at Carl's, but stupid Will
didn't even care." She threw up her hands, as if imploring me to
take pity on her.

Not likely. The whole conversation made me
uncomfortable. I was talking to my lover's ex-girlfriend about her
affair with his employee while she didn't know I was sleeping with
him. Dr. Phil would love it.

"Uh, Tanya, so how
did
you get in
here?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.