Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (18 page)

"Neat," I finished, taking in the large mahogany desk, inlaid with a leather writing pad.
Except
, the leather chair behind it wasn't empty.

It was occupied by Martin Dean.

Lily screamed and grabbed my arm. I
jump
ed
and scream
ed
too. After a moment, we both clapped hands over our mouths and stared, bug-eyed, at my dead boss.

I moved to take a step closer
,
but Lily clung onto me. So instead
,
I strained forward
,
taking in his ghostly gray pallor and his slack,
still-
open eyes. He wore the same suit as when I
found him dead in the office. H
e didn't smell good.

"Is he dead?" asked Lily, her voice shaking.

"Yes."

“Still?”

“Ye-
e-
es.”

"Maybe we should call the police?"

"How
c
ould we explain being here?" My heart
raced
, and I
felt
the creeping onset of panic.

"Maybe we came to visit?"
she suggested.

"Maddox said the police swept the place already and there wasn't a body then. They might think we brought it
…
h
im." I flapped a hand at Dean. "Let's search and get this over with."

"You take the desk. I'm not going near a corpse."

"I don't want to go near a corpse either!"

"You already found him dead once!"

And it seemed pretty damn mean that I had to find him dead a second time.

"Okay, I'll take the desk," I said with a sigh.

Lily walked shakily over to the bookcases flanking the near side of the room and I crept towards Dean, half expecting him to jump up and shout
,
"Punk'd!" any moment. I'd probably die of a heart attack if he did that. As it was, he stayed completely dead while I
moved towards him, edging
my way next to him
. A set of drawers
occupied
each side of the desk. I opened
all
of them
in turn, poking through the papers with my mittened hands. I didn't find any death threats, demands for money, blackmail notes or confessions, which was a trifle disappointing
,
given that I at least had the corpse. And boy, oh boy, was he too close to me right now. All the time I w
as going
through his drawers, I expected an icy hand to land on my back. Or worse, my ass.

"Here's something interesting," I said. "It's an address book. Oh, it's new. There's nothing in it. Sorry."

Lily peered from across the room. "I got nothing," she said. "Lots of books on tax, accountancy and biographies of business leaders. Yawn."

I moved my attention to the top of the desk, crossing around so I wouldn't have to stand hip to corpse with Dean.

There was a hole in the desk for power cords, but no laptop or PC, which I found interesting. There was a small
,
black notebook that I flicked through
,
but it was a jumble of numbers,
and
nothing that made any sense. I put it to one side, because it was an oddity and oddities were what
undercover operatives look
for.
A
leather pen holder
held
an assortment of pens
and pencils
. I fisted them in one hand and shook the pot upside down, but the only things that fell out were a few paper clips and a litt
le notepad. I put the pens
and paper clips
back
,
almost screaming in frustration at picking each one up in my wooly
,
mammoth
paws
,
and picked up the notepad, turning it over. It wasn't a notepad at all, but a little matchbook. It was black with a single flame. No name or phone number. I opened it
,
just in case something was written inside, but there wasn't.

"Uh
-
oh, we've got company," said Lily, flattening herself against the wall. I dropped to the floor, despite the wooden blinds at the window, as the electronic gates swung open and a community security vehicle
maneuvered
inside.

"Time to go!" I pocketed the notepad and the matchbook
,
and we half crawled, half ran for the back door, shutting it behind us just as the doorbell rang.

"Given that Dean isn't exactly going to answer the door, I think we should run," I said and Lily nodded enthusiastically. We sprinted for the rear exit,
arms and legs pumping,
nearly getting ourselves stuck in our
race
to
squeeze
through
the half-open gate
at the same time. We slun
k around the side of the house
and crossed the road, trying not to hurry as we walked back to my car. I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw the security guard standing at Dean's door,
before he started to
walk around the house.

"I don't think he saw us," I said, pulling out my key fob and beeping the car open. We slid in on either side and I rested my hands on the wheel for a moment.
I pulled my mittens off and stuck them in my pockets.

"I can't believe we found your boss!" Lily exclaimed. "Do you think we broke the case?"

Occasionally, Lily wasn't the
sharpest knife
in the
drawer
. "Nope. I just think we found the body."

"We have to tell someone."

I nodded. "I know. But I can't tell Maddox without
admitting
we broke into Dean's house."

“Won’t he be pleased? You found Dean and he didn’t!”

I wasn’t sure he would see it that way. “Don’t know,” I said.

"So leave an anonymous tip. People do it all the time."

"You'll have to call. I don't want the line picked up by Traci." I wasn't sure if my sister-in-law was even on duty in the dispatch office at the moment, but I didn't want to risk it.

"Fine. Do you have a burn phone?"

"
No.
"

"
All
undercover agents
have a burn phone,
"
protested Lily.

"I don’t
. I have a two
-
year plan."

"Never
mind. It was just a thought." Lily pulled the seatbelt around her and buckled up. "
I know! S
wing by my manager's office. He's always got a drawer full of phones people leave at the clubs. We'll use one of th
ose
."

"Cool." I switched the engine on, pulled a three
-
point turn and drove back the way we came, heading to Lily's manager's office. The lights were off when we got there
,
after
fifteen minutes of speeding
,
but she let herself in with a key,
and
turned off the alarm
. She
rooted around in the lost property box, producing a little cell phone with two bars of battery life
remaining
. She
dialed
911 and placed a call, adopting a weird accent
and telling
them there was a dead body
. When she
gave the address,
she
dropp
ed
the 'h' on Hyacinth, and h
ung
up when they asked her
for
details. Lily tossed the phone back in the lost property box, and reset the code on the door.

"Didn't sound like Traci," she said as she locked up, pushing the handle to test it.

"Good. What was up with the Australian accent?"

"
That was
British!"

"Oh!"

"That was totally Lara Croft."

"Um, okay."

We dived back into
my car. "What now?" asked Lily as she turned down the collar of her jacket.

"Pick up a pizza and go home? Spend the evening looking really innocent while bleaching our eyeballs so that I don't see a corpse every time I close my eyes."

Lily was quiet for a moment, then
,
"Sounds like a plan."

Lily
dialed
, using her own phone this time
,
and ordered a large margherita, a side of garlic bread, and a tub of ice cream. We picked it up and went home. In Lily's apartment, we finished off an open bottle of red wine and munched on the pizza.

"You think they found him yet?" she asked, diving in for a third slice.

"Maybe. Maddox will tell me in the morning if they did."

"You think he's going to drop by on a Saturday?"

In all the excitement, I had forgotten it was Friday night and that I wouldn't be in the office in the morning. Normally, it would be a blessed relief. I would go out, shake off the office cobwebs,
with
my nails painted,
wearing
a pretty dress and hit the bars with Lily, if she wasn't working, or maybe with Traci or Alice if they could get a pass out. Or
I would
have a nice night in front of the television, facemask on, nail polish ready and a bunch of snacks by my side. My third option was spending the evening with one of my brothers, or, on rare occasions, babysitting. Serena, funnily enough, never fit into my plans and that was a mutual thing. As it was, I'd veered out of my routine and started the weekend with a B&E a
fter
fleeing the scene of a crime. I was fairly certain tampering with a corpse would never stick, seeing as I hadn't even touched Dean.

But the thought of Maddox dropping by was a little weird, and, if I really thought about it, quite nice. It was sweet that he had checked
up
on me several times through the past couple of days and even offered to come to my parents
’
with me
. Although
I was still a little cross about the whole drugging thing.

However, h
e hadn't mentioned anything about stopping by, but then, I doubt he thought it was necessary
as long as
someone else was keeping an eye on me. Maybe I was reading to
o
much into it because I liked him.
He was good looking, and he had a cool job and danger didn’t scare him. I
liked him
a whole lot more now than when he
was just my new, annoying boss.
I'd take an excuse to hang out with him quite happily, so long as the conversation
avoided
dead things and the possibility of me being next.