Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (16 page)

"So...
y
ou have nothing."

"Not exactly
nothing
. Y
ou were in his office. What did you see?"

It was my turn to shrug. "Everything looked normal. Fresh newspapers, new diary page and
a bunch of
sticky notes. I couldn't get in the top two drawers of his desk and there were a few candy bars and things in his bot
tom drawer. Nothing that sa
id,
'H
ey, I'm in the fraud biz!'" I thought about it some more. "Oh,
and
no blood
on the carpet
."

"We
already replaced
the blood stained
section
."

"That's f
ast. It took my parents' carpet people
day
s.
” I s
hook my head. “Don’t ask. So...
I didn't see
anything unusual. Is there something I should be looking for?"

"Not in there."

"What else am I supposed to do?"

"Just keep your eyes and ears open," said Maddox. "Don't do anything to attract attention." His eyes flickered to the open top buttons of my shirt. "And don't do anything dangerous."

"Ten
-
four," I said.

"And when your day
's
over
, just go home
,
like normal."

Nothing exciting
happened all afternoon
, which was disappointing,
and no one was in a talkative mood
,
so my snooping went
downhill
fast. I left
right
on the dot of home time and drove
without incident
, my VW having decided to come back to life that morning
. Lily hammered on my door five seconds after I kicked off my shoes and I let her in.

"Okay," she said. "What gives?
You were acting really weird last night and I've seen two guys in your sex
-
famine
d
apartment in the space of two days."

“Wait. How do you know about the second one?”

“
I saw him when he left yesterday.
Mrs. Crichton next door asked if you were a masseuse
and if she could book Mr. Crichton in
.”

"
Yuck.
Nothing's going on.
What did you tell Mrs. Crichton?
"

"
I said they must be your brothers.” Lily took my hand, put
ting
on her best pout. “
I'm your best friend and I will never forgive you if you don't tell me."

"Nothing is going on," I protested, but at the same time
,
I put my finger to my lips and motioned to the floor.
Ever s
ince Maddox had mentioned our cell phones were bugged and our work computers were being monitored, I had a sneaking suspicion that he might have installed some kind of bug in my apartment too.
It wasn’t so farfetched
, coming
from a man who drugged me.
I walked through the living room, turned on the television and went back to where Lily waited, confusion etched all over her face. "Listen, I'm going to have dinner, maybe a bath
,
then an early night. Let's talk tomorrow."

"Sure, s
weetie. Maybe you're just tired,
"
she replied, contorting her face into a WTF? expression.
I opened the door and we both slipped out. I followed Lily downstairs to her apartment and flopped onto her couch.

"Okay, my weirdie friend, what was all that about?"

“I think my apartment is bugged.”

"No shit
?
Why?"

I couldn’t contain it any longer. My subconscious had been
nagging
me to tell somebody.
I told her everything. When it happened,
I was
determined to tell Lily nothing
, especially after the warning I’d
received;
but
since
she lived in t
he same building
as I,
to my mind
,
that
put her in danger
too. Plus, even though
Garrett
had confirmed Maddox existed
—short of running his badge—and
that he would help me get the gun permit, I still wasn't okay with the whole
“trust no one”
thing. I thought I was being realistic about it. If Martin Dean could get
shot
in the head and chest, then disappear without a trace, it could happen to me too. I wanted someone
close to me
to know
and
start looking for me if the worst happened.
A very sober
ing
thought for a Friday night.

"No. Way," she said when I
finished
explaining. "And I thought I had a rough couple of nights working the door for happy night at Mulligan's last weekend."

"I don't know why you still work there."

"No one gets shot in the head there and I get free drinks."

"Point taken."

"You should come hang out next Saturday."

I hated Mulligan's. It was loud and crowded and I always got groped. On the other hand
,
I liked free drinks
,
which
they
always poured
with
generous measure. "Okay," I agree
d.

"So what's going to happen now? Are you going to keep
working at
Green Hand?"

"I guess. No one fired me."

"Always a plus."

"And I hate my temp manager."

"Word. Your boss
,
Shepherd, Maddox,
whatever
,
is a fox though." Lily snapped open a bag of marshmallows and we sat
together,
munching on them. "You know what I want to know?"

"What?"

"Where Dean's body is."

"Me too."

"Do you think it's intact?"

"Huh?"

"You know..." Lily mimed chopping her hand up and down across her body.

"Oh, yuck! I hope so."

"Why? It's not like he's going to need it."

"Because it w
ould
be gross otherwise."

"True. Do you have any leads?"

"No." I thought about the address I saw on the credit card bill folded on Dean's desk. "I have his address," I told her and her eyes widened. For a moment
,
we just looked at each other. "I think I need to do some investigating."

"We," Lily corrected. "We are so in this together."

"
We
need to do some investigating."

"Are you serious?" she breathed.

"Deadly serious."

"Cagney and Lacey serious?"

"Castle and Beckett serious."

"I don't want to be Castle."

"Hey! Castle is sexy. Besides I'm Beckett."

"I want to be Beckett!"

"Rizzoli and Isles?" I countered.

"So much better. Two hot, clever chicks
,
who don't need a man."

Here was the thing: we probably did need a man for this one. Maddox had been trained for this sort of
event
, and Solomon prob
ably killed people in his sleep. Our
training consisted of
TV
detective shows and overactive imaginations. We weren't
exactly
what you would call qualified.

"Do we need to wear disguises?"

I knocked that one on the head quickly before Lily got any ideas. "Hell to the no."

"Fine. Tell me the plan."

"So when I snooped through Martin Dean's office, I didn't find anything. It was as clean as a whistle. Nothing personal like photos or toys
except this little sand garden thing
.
”

“I really want one of them.”

“I’ll note it for Christmas. Anyway,
I've never seen a desk so tidy." I twisted my mouth in concentration.
What was my
, er,
our
plan?
"I think we should go to his house."

"And break in?"

"No! Investigate, Lily." And break in.

"Cool. What are we looking for?"

My shoulders slumped. "I have no idea. Anything that could have
targeted
Dean?"

"Like a weapon?"

"No, the killers took the gun with them. I was thinking more like anything that would show a connection between Dean and those men. Pictures
,
memos… m
aybe a diary. Stuff like that." I knew that
I
was
grasping
at straws because I couldn't imagine Dean ke
pt
a diary about
any
illicit activities.
I could
see
Dominic doing it for him, but I couldn’t imagine Dominic
a
s an underground crime boss in a fraud ring.

"
W
here
does
he live?"

"
Hyacinth Avenue in Bedford Hills
. I got
the
address from his desk."
I even remembered the number.

Lily
dumped the empty packet on the table and
grabbed her coat. "Let's go."