Finders Keepers Losers Die (26 page)

"None of your business."

"But it is mine." The voice startled us
both, partly because it was so commanding and partly because it
belonged to the man we'd just been discussing.

"Will!" we both said together.

"I didn't hear the door open," I said
pathetically. What else could I say? Did you hear your ex admit she
slept with your employee?

"How long have you been there?" Tanya asked
with a nervous little eye flicker. She crossed the floor to him and
placed a hand on his chest.

He stepped aside and glanced at me, his
initial gruffness having disappeared, probably because he realized
he was living his worst nightmare.

I raised my brows in a semi-amused question.
It could be fun to watch him squirm.

"Tanya, answer Cat," he said.

She pouted. "I have a key. Remember? You
gave it to me."

"That was when you worked here." He held out
his hand. "I forgot to collect it, but thanks for stopping by to
return it."

She hesitated before placing the key in his
palm. Her fingers caressed his hand until he snatched it away,
first closed around the key. "Actually, I didn't come to return
it," she said, her voice barely audible to me on the other side of
the room. "I came to see you. I thought we could go out to dinner
again. It was lovely last time. I know a place—"

"I don't think so."

"But we connected so well! I really enjoyed
myself and I know you did too." She stepped closer to him and
wrapped her long, bare arms around his neck. Her nose reached his
chin. Mine reached only to his chest. "We could go back to my new
apartment after…"

He disentangled himself from her limbs.
"Tanya, you do realize that Cat and I are—"

"Will!" I shook my head. I don't know why.
Call it a gut reaction, but I didn't think Tanya was ready to hear
the truth. I knew what it was like to be dumped for another woman
and it wasn't fun. I could only imagine how humiliating it would be
to be dumped in front of that other woman. Maybe I'm soft, but I
couldn't do it to her. Will had to do it somewhere else.

"What about you and Cat?" she prompted,
suspicion making her skin bloodless under her makeup.

"We, uh, um…" He shrugged.

"We're working together on the investigation
I was telling you about," I said. "He doesn't have time for
dinner."

She didn't seem convinced. "Will? Is that
it? You're working on a murder investigation? With your
secretary?"

"Cat is no longer just a secretary around
here."

"You make it sound like I clean sewers for a
living," I said.

Will sighed. "What I mean to say is—"

"Oh, Will, Darling, be careful." Tanya flung
herself into his arms. "It could be dangerous." She hugged him,
resting her head on his shoulder.

Puh-lease. Give me a break.

He looked past her to me then patted her
bare shoulder gingerly, as if her skin was spiky.

"Um, Tanya, I think we should talk."

"Yes," I said, moving past them and opening
the front door. "In private."

He raised a brow and I gave him the you-know
wink and slit my throat with my finger. Later, I wondered if he
realized I meant break it off with her and not kill her.

Will followed Tanya out and locked the door.
"Don't let in any strangers," he shouted through the glass. "And
stay inside unless absolutely necessary."

I rolled my eyes but didn't unlock the door.
Maybe it was safer.

A few minutes later, Carl arrived. He said
he'd been in a meeting with one of his clients. I couldn't help
studying him as he walked past me. It was bad enough that he'd
slept with Tanya, but could he have stolen the money too?

Was Tanya even telling the truth? I wouldn't
put it past her to make it up. I mean, she'd invented the
rekindling of her romance with Will, could she have invented the
fling with Carl to throw the suspicion elsewhere?

He didn't seem like the sort to sleep with
his friend's girl, but then again, he and Will weren't exactly best
buddies. They didn't see each other outside of work, I was sure of
that.

"Hey." He frowned. "Why are you looking at
me like that?"

"What do you think of Tanya?"

"She's a low-class slut with a high-class
attitude. I don't know what Knight ever saw in the bitch."

All-righty then.

"Why?"

I shrugged. "No reason."

"Cat, you've got nothing to worry about
where Tanya's concerned. Will's not going back to her. He knows
what she's like now." He turned and disappeared into his office,
almost slamming the door behind him.

What did he mean, Will knew what she was
like? Had he told Will about their affair? Or had Will come to his
senses on his own?

Nah, Will worked too hard to have any senses
left for romance.

I passed the time by filing. Five minutes
later, I was on the Net, looking up Bank Swiss. They had a branch
Downtown but I found nothing else of use. I gave up and was jotting
down all my suspects names and the evidence against them when Will
returned.

He wore jeans, which was unusual for Will at
the office. They molded to his powerful thighs and hot ass like a
comfortable, lived-in skin. But there was nothing casual about the
smoldering look he gave me. Guess it wasn't so much fun telling
Tanya she was history. "Cat, we need to talk," he said.

"About Tanya?" It was none of my business,
and I'd been determined not to butt in, but curiosity got the
better of me. I had to know how she took the news.

"I told her it was over but I didn't mention
you and me. So why didn't you want me to tell her?" He stood by my
desk, arms crossed.

"She wasn't ready to hear that the man she
still loved was sleeping with another woman. Trust me, I know."

He stared at me for a long moment, not
blinking, not giving away any thoughts. He didn't move for so long
I almost got up and poked him just to make sure he hadn’t turned to
stone.

"Your choice of words are…enlightening," he
finally said.

"What?"

He shook his head and moved off. "I've got
work to do," he growled. "I don't want to be disturbed."

"But I thought you wanted to talk to
me."

He stopped and turned round. I could tell by
the troubled expression that his mind had already turned to work
matters. "Oh yeah, right. Last night, you hung up on me."

"You called me eleven times! I could barely
hear you over the noise the first time."

"Where were you?"

"Out with Gina."

"Where?"

I dug my fingernails into the soft material
of my swivel chair. "None of your business," I managed to say
oh-so-sweetly.

He nodded and gave a sort of strangled
laugh. Or maybe it was a cough. "How did I know you were going to
say that?"

"Well, what do you expect me to say after
you badger me like a possessive husband. We're not married,
Will."

"Not even close," he muttered.

I didn’t like the ominous way he said it. In
fact, I didn’t like
what
he said either. Why, I couldn’t
say. "Right. So I can go wherever I want without reporting to the
Gestapo."

He took a step toward me and stabbed the air
with a long finger. "Cat, you were nearly killed yesterday because
of a case you're working on for me. Sorry if my concern for your
safety cramps your style, but I can't help it."

"But eleven times—"

"I couldn't hear you!" he bellowed.

Sheesh, I was sitting only a few feet away
from him. "All right! I get the picture. But in future, if you hear
lots of music and drunken voices in the background, I'm probably
not being murdered."

He shook his head, his brow deeply furrowed.
With a frustrated grunt, he turned and stormed up to his office.
"Don't disturb me unless it's important." He slammed his door.

Asshole.

I sat back in my chair and expelled a long
breath. Christ, talking to Will was becoming a balancing act. There
was a fine line between concern for my safety and possessiveness
and he teetered high up on the wire without a protective net.

I turned back to my computer and stared at
the screen, unsure what to do next. I'd wanted to get advice from
Will about our approach to the Scarletti case, but in light of that
outburst, I’d have to go it alone.

The website for Bank Swiss was still on the
screen but it offered nothing helpful. I looked down at the names
on my notepad. Mad Max's admission still played in my mind.
Something hadn't been quite right about our interview. I couldn't
put my finger on it but it still bugged me, even after I left the
office and headed for Doors Galore.

I sat out front in my Civic and watched. It
was the middle of the day and a few customers went in, mostly
grungy looking tradesmen. There was no sign of Roberta, Max or
Stankovic. Not that I'd expected to see any of them but it would
have been useful.

Since talking to Mad Max, I'd cooled on the
idea of Grimes killing Lou, or even having been his partner in
crime on the bank robbery. If Max was telling the truth—and that
was debatable—then Grimes and Roberta needed Lou alive so they
could extort the money from him.

Unless Lou's death had been unintentional.
Then Grimes and Roberta weren't entirely in the clear. Maybe in
their frustration they'd resorted to violence.

Whether innocent or guilty of the murder and
the original theft, one thing was for sure. Grimes was one
suspicious character. And his relationship with Stankovic had me
intrigued. It just didn't add up that the crusty old detective
would talk to him alone.

Boy, the case was beginning to bug me. I'd
lost my clothes, my apartment and nearly my life and I'd learned
almost zip. I was tired of being in the dark, tired of being the
loser. I wanted to find some answers, damn it.

And Grimes still seemed like the way to get
them. He knew Roberta intimately, he was an acquaintance of Lou's,
he knew about the money through Max and he was one greedy man. Not
to mention he
looked
guilty. Someone so slimy couldn't
possibly be innocent.

Before I'd left the office, I'd taken a
couple of listening devices out of the storeroom. I waited until a
customer walked into Doors Galore and drew Grimes' attention to the
back of the large showroom, then I snuck into the office area and
placed the device inside a fake potted plant. Easy.

Well, it
should
have been easy.
Before I could get out, Grimes's customer left and he headed toward
the office.

I broke into a cold sweat as I frantically
scanned the room for a place to hide. A desk pushed against the
wall, a stained swivel chair and one door. Not a lot of choice.
Fuck
!

The door it had to be.

It led to a bathroom. I slipped inside and
silently closed the door as Grimes entered the office. The bathroom
wasn't much bigger than a closet. A very small closet, with a
toilet, sink and gray tiles that had probably once been white.

It stank of stale urine and a more sinister,
putrid odor that I really didn't want to analyze further. I
breathed through my mouth but after a few shallow breaths I could
taste
it.

I gently placed the lid on the toilet seat
without looking inside and sat down. And waited.

I could hear Grimes shuffling papers and
answering the phone but he never left the office. So I waited some
more, until I thought I'd have to lift the toilet seat to pee.

Apparently Grimes got the same urge because
when I was trying hard not to think about going, he walked in.

"Fucking hell!" He jumped at the sight of
me. But his surprise quickly turned to anger. "What the fuck are
you doing here?"

"I, um, had to use the bathroom and since I
was driving past I didn't think you'd mind if I stopped in, but you
were with a customer and I didn't want to disturb you so I thought
I'd come right in and, well, then you came back and I got
embarrassed—"

"Shut up! For fuck's sake, stop talking.
Jeez, you've got a mouth on you." He stepped toward me, his fists
clenched, a vein bulging in his throat. He looked like a snarling,
snapping bulldog, ready to bite my head off if I so much as opened
my mouth.

My skin prickled and my knees felt loose and
weak. I wanted to take a step away but there was nowhere to go. The
backs of my legs were up against the toilet.

Don't show him you're afraid
, a
little voice told me. I gulped back the sour taste of fear and
tossed my hair in a show of bravado. And I mean show. Inside, I was
quaking. Grimes was a suspected rapist for Christ sake! One look at
his cold, merciless eyes, and I
knew
he'd committed horrible
things.

"I think I'll go now," I said. I tried to
move past him but he rested a hand on the door frame, blocking the
exit.

"I said, shut up. Don't you listen either?"
He shook his head. "Women. Dumb and rude. Someone should teach you
all a lesson."

Bad, bad choice of words. I mean, how can
any twenty-first century girl let that slide by? "If anyone needs
to be taught a lesson, it's you. You're ignorant," I poked him in
the shoulder, "disrespectful,"
poke
, "obnoxious,"
poke
, "and a misogynist. I can't stand you. You contaminate
the air with your stinking presence, you denigrate the human race
by pretending to be a part of it, and you give decent men a bad
name." I was on a roll, not thinking before I spoke. Not thinking
at all really. Maybe it was stupid to bad mouth a man like Grimes,
but I had to get it out of my system. It felt
soooo
good.
Anger flowed out with the words. "I don't know what Roberta sees in
you. In fact, I don't know why anybody, man or woman, would give
you the time of day."

A twisted grin spread slowly over his face.
"You want to know what women see in me?" He grabbed my hand and
shoved it into his crotch. He was hard under his jeans.