Death By High Heels (The Kim Murphy PI Series Book 1) (18 page)

“What a jerk,” Melissa said.

“Look around, the room is full of them.”

I took my own advice. Most of the guys were dressed in jeans and t-shirts. There were several tables where the groups of men were in suits and ties. I guessed watching a bunch of women dance around half-naked was just what a busy businessman needed to unwind at the end of the day.

For a moment I thought I saw someone who looked familiar in the back of the room just past the bar. When I blinked he was gone. Convinced I’d imagined Kevin, I turned back around. The
charming
atmosphere had me eager to get the job done so I could go home and get out of the ridiculous outfit. I also wanted to spend about an hour in the shower to remove the grime I couldn’t see or feel but was sure was there.

I stood up and was pushed back down into my seat.

“Don’t go now. I want to play.”

One of the strippers was standing over me, wearing a few strips of cloth, waving her boobs in my face. Over the music I could hear Melissa’s laughter.

“Uh, I…I’m not…”

“I can tell this is your first time. Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll be gentle.”

“Don’t, I’m not gay.”

“Neither am I. I’m bisexual. There are just too many wonderful choices out there to limit yourself.”

“Okay.”

“So why don’t you come in the back with me? I’ll give you a private show.”

“No, no, no. I can’t. Sorry. Melissa…”

“Sorry, she’s with me. I’m trying to loosen her up some.”

“That sounds like fun. Here’s my number. If the two of you ever want to make it a threesome, give me a call.” With that she got her boobs out of my face and moved on to the next table.

I turned and glared at Melissa. “Stop laughing or I swear I’ll give her your number.”

“Okay, jeesh, lighten up. I do have one question—real or fake?”

“Bitch. Fake, I think.”

Melissa laughed and tried to cover it with a cough.

“Okay, I’m going over to make my move.”

“On the stripper or…”

“Tell me again, why are we friends?”

“Because not many others would put up with us.”

“True.”

I grabbed money from my purse and made my way over to the bar. As luck would have it, a spot next to my target opened up. I slid in, careful to gently bump into his knee. “Oops, sorry.”

“No problem. Let me buy you a beer?”

“Sure.”

He gestured to the empty stool next to him. I sat down and brushed my hand across his thigh. My new friend ordered our drinks and I watched the bartender open my bottle and set it in front of me. For the next twenty minutes Mr. Possible Cheater’s hands began to roam. I drank half my beer, getting the courage I needed to sit still and not dump it on his head. Besides, I figured it would be a waste of a good beer.

Having downed his own bottle of courage, he leaned forward and put his tongue in my ear while his hand groped my breast. I pushed his hand away and asked him if he wanted to go somewhere more private. In answer he grabbed my hand and rubbed it against his crotch. Oh, I had most definitely gotten his attention. If there weren’t enough pictures already, then that was too freaking bad. As if on cue, my contact strode over and put his arm around my shoulders.

“Hey, baby, sorry I’m late.”

“I thought you’d ditched me.”

“So, what, you were heading out with this guy?”

“No, of course not, honey. I was just sitting here having a beer and I figured since you weren’t here, I was going to go home.”

“Well, now that I’m here, let’s go grab a table.”

“Yeah, great.” I looked at Mr. Possible Cheater’s face and smiled. “It was nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too.”

We watched him walk away and out the door.

“Now there goes a very frustrated man.”

“Thanks for the rescue.”

“No problem. I got lots of great shots.”

“Thank God. Now if only I could go home and wash off the sickening feelings.”

“Good luck with that. Here, this should help.” He handed me a check for three hundred and fifty dollars.

“Wait a minute. This is more than we agreed to.”

“Keep it. You earned it.”

I walked back to the table and found Melissa talking to the guys at the next table. Eager to leave but not wanting to seem rude, I sat down and grabbed my now warm beer. I finished it off and waited for her to finish her conversation. Finally, Melissa introduced me, using a character name from one of her books, to her two new buddies. When it became obvious we weren’t going home to have sex with them, they turned their attention back to the performances on stage.

“So I take it you got what you needed?”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

“Great. Now we can celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?”

“Well, your job is done and I turned my latest book in to my editor this afternoon.”

“Congrats.”

“Thank you. Where are the waitresses? Oh, heck with it. I’m going to go to the bar and get us a couple beers.”

Feeling weird, I grabbed my purse and headed for the bathroom. On my way I bumped into someone I could have sworn was Brian’s jerky friend, Kevin.

I opened my eyes and winced. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep out the bright light.

“I think she’s waking up.”

“Oh, thank God.”

“Maybe you guys should wait outside.”

I recognized the voices as those of Melissa, my dad, and Grant. I opened my eyes and squinted. Sure enough, the faces staring down at me matched the voices. That was good but I could have done without the worried expressions. “What happened?”

“You’re in the hospital. Everything is going to be all right.”

Normally my dad’s voice put me at ease, but not this time. I looked at Melissa. Seeing her tear-streaked face, I began to cry. She grabbed my hand and refused to let go. Not even when a female officer named Gonzalez shooed everyone else, including my father, from the room.

It seemed despite my vigilance I had somehow been slipped a date rape drug. The last thing I remembered was getting up and walking toward the bathroom. The next was waking up in the hospital. Everything between now and then was a complete blank. Melissa explained she’d waited for a few minutes at the table but when I didn’t return she had gone looking for me. She had found me slumped over the table in the back. She had called 911 and rode in the ambulance with me to the hospital. Once here she had called my dad. She had no idea why Grant was here. I’d have to worry about that later, much later, like maybe never.

There was good news. The doctor who stitched up my hands several days ago had evidently examined me and found no evidence of sexual assault. I was grateful. I was also a bit embarrassed. This guy was seeing way too much of my person without having bought me dinner first. Yeah, he was a doctor, but still. Officer Gonzalez asked me about a million questions. I was only able to answer six of them. When it became obvious I was going to be of no help, she left. My father returned to the room without Grant, for which I was grateful.

I was confined to the hospital bed for several hours before I was finally released. My dad drove Melissa and me back to my place. Once there he insisted we stay in the car while he checked out my apartment. Once he deemed it bad guy free, Melissa and I went inside. He left after she promised to stay the night. Too tired to argue or traverse the stairs, I curled up on the couch.

Chapter Ten

Friday

I awoke to the smell of bacon and coffee. If there was a better way to start the morning, besides great sex, I couldn’t think of it. For a brief moment I thought maybe I was imagining the smell. Melissa certainly couldn’t cook breakfast, or anything else for that matter, and I didn’t think someone broke into my apartment to cook me breakfast. Who would do that? Then it came to me, my mother.

Normally I would be thrilled at a free meal cooked with love by her. The downside was my dad had obviously told her what had happened last night. Cooking was her way of dealing with stress, plus she was just so good at it. I closed my eyes and wondered how long I could pretend to be asleep. It took all of about thirty seconds before my growling stomach had me off the couch and walking into the kitchen.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. Have a seat at the table and I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

“Okay.”

A minute later I was seated across from Melissa and my mom. Each of us had a heaping plate of food and mugs of coffee. I gulped down half the cup before stuffing a piece of bacon in my mouth. I could have wept. Two eggs, over easy, and two pieces of white toast completed the meal. Not wanting to answer any questions and spoil the moment, I ate staring at the table while they talked about unimportant things like the weather, gas prices, and the annoying news anchor on one of the local TV stations.

When our stomachs were full and our plates empty, at least in my case, I pushed back in my chair and prepared for the onslaught. Instead, what we got was a reminder to take it easy, hugs all around, and then my mom was off to do whatever it was she did with her days.

“So what are we going to do today?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but we need to do something fun,” Melissa said.

“Jeez, have you already forgotten what happened to me last night?”

“No, of course not, but nothing horrible like that is going to happen again. I promise.”

The decision was sort of made for us. Just after my mom left the vultures arrived. News vans from all the local TV stations were camped out in the front of the apartment building. Melissa peeked out the sliding door and found a few camped out in the back lot. I grabbed the phone, called the police station, and asked for Jackie.

“Hey, girl, what’s up?”

“There are news vans in the back lot. They’re parked in a tow away zone,” I said.

“So what do you want me to do about it?” Jackie asked.

“Hello?”

“Oh man. No way.”

“Come on. Please,” I said.

“Fine, but I’m telling that man my sister insisted on marrying that you owe him a favor, not me. Got it?”

“Got it. Thanks.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

“So, do you want to go shopping?” Melissa looked at me and grimaced. “Guess not.”

“Thanks to that jackass reporter, I can’t go anywhere. Even if we get away, people are going to recognize me—again.”

“Oh please. Less than half the town watches the news. Of those who do, only about five percent will recognize you and only one percent will realize it’s from the news. The others will just think you go to the same church or whatever.”

As much as I hated to admit it, she was probably right, and even if she wasn’t, I had to escape or I’d go mad. “I like your math.”

“I thought you would.” She grabbed her cell phone and called Elijah and asked him to meet us on the other side of the park by my apartment.

Melissa and I kept watch and fifteen minutes later several tow trucks pulled into the parking lot. Three large guys, who looked like they could carry small cities on their backs, got out and walked over to the offending news vehicles. Finding them empty, they didn’t waste any time. All the vans were loaded and on their way out of the lot before the drivers realized what was happening.

There was a bit of shouting but the drivers were out of luck. They stood staring at the signs warning drivers of just such a fate to anyone dumb enough to park in our lot who did not belong. Amid the chaos, Melissa and I slipped out the patio door and walked casually across the lot to the park. It was filled with parents and kids, making it much easier to blend in. Fortunately for us, Elijah was waiting when we finally made it to the parking lot on the other side of the park. We got in the car and went straight to Melissa’s house, conveniently located in a gated community. Unlike the many other such neighborhoods in our town, this one actually used the gates.

House was such a small word for such an enormous place. Melissa’s home was big enough to fit my entire apartment building a couple of times over with room to spare. She parked me on her patio with a nice view of the in-ground pool and a glass of ice cold lemonade. She left and returned with a stack of paperback mysteries.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit early for that?” I said, pointing at the bottle next to her.

“After the night we had I’d say we’re entitled to do a bit of vodka.”

“I’ll pass for now but keep it handy.”

“No problem. While I was inside Charmaine called. She’s coming over later.”

“Oh jeez, I don’t need two babysitters.”

“Of course not. I don’t think she knows about what happened.”

“Good.”

“Kim…”

“I just mean if she doesn’t, then a whole lot of other people don’t know either.”

“Absolutely.”

“Wait a minute. What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“Bull. You always stare at the ground when you lie, and you fiddle with your jewelry.”

“I do not,” she said.

I laughed as she dropped her necklace and put her hand back down at her side.

“Well, hell,” she muttered.

“The truth is easier. Fess up.”

“All right, just remember you wanted to know.”

“Okay.”

“Your favorite reporter is at it again.”

“Now what?”

“He reported about your trip to the hospital.”

“Since when did a hospital visit become news?”

“I don’t know, but I must say, Kim, I’m impressed with how calm and mature you’re being about this.”

“Screw you.”

“Sorry, I would, but you’re not my type, you being female and all.”

“Wow, what a relief.”

Melissa laughed and I laid my head back against the lounge chair and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes and stretched. Ever since I’d been found with the body in Lindsay’s apartment I hadn’t managed to get a full night’s sleep.

***

I looked around. Melissa was nowhere in sight. The pool was a shiny, wet temptation. Though it was one temptation I’d have to ignore. Invigorated from my nap, I got up and went in search of Melissa. I found her in the kitchen and she was not alone. Charmaine, dressed in a pair of white pants and an emerald green blouse, stood pouring soup into bowls. She managed to look completely comfortable in Melissa’s state of the art kitchen where the appliances cost more than my car and a weeklong vacation in the Bahamas.

“Hey, you, good timing, lunch is ready,” Charmaine said.

“Kim, go sit down in the sunroom. We’ll bring everything out there,” Melissa said.

“What can I help with?”

“Plenty,” Charmaine said.

“Nothing right now. Go sit,” Melissa ordered.

Lunch was a salad, baked potato, Diet Coke, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup—the homemade kind, not the stuff in a can that everyone claimed was chicken noodle but tasted more like how my brothers’ feet smelled.

I pushed back from the table. “Okay, I’ve gotten some sun, had a nap, and eaten lunch. So, what’s up?”

Melissa looked at Charmaine and shook her head
no
.

“Spill it.”

“My sister, Shandra, is being blackmailed by her no good ex-boyfriend, Irving the Third. We need your help.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting her to say but that sure as heck wasn’t it. “What?”

Charmaine went on to explain how her sister’s ex-boyfriend had taken nude photos of her while she slept and now wanted money for the revealing pictures or he’d put them on the Internet. Shandra was an assistant district attorney. If those pictures were leaked, they would be extremely damaging to her career.

“What does he want?” I asked.

“Five thousand dollars.”

“Well, he sure is a greedy bastard.”

“I’ll gladly give her the money,” Melissa said.

“You know my sister wouldn’t take money from you or anyone else.”

“She’s going to have to. There aren’t any other options. She has to pay this jerk.”

“No,” Charmaine and I said in unison.

“Why not?” Melissa asked.

“Because if she pays this jerk, what’s to stop him from coming back next month? Or the month after that and the next month?”

“Okay, I get it, but what else can we do?”

“Simple. It’s time for a little breaking and entering.”

“Nice,” said Charmaine.

“Well, we’ll need help,” Melissa said.

“Sorry, but there’s no we, it’s just me,” I said.

“Come on. Let me help. She’s my friend too,” Melissa said.

“What about me? She’s my sister.”

“Which is why you will be nowhere near his place,” I said.

“But—”

“Because, you’ll be busy providing her with an airtight alibi, a very public alibi,” I interrupted.

“Ooh, nice. I like the way your devious mind works,” Charmaine said.

“Thank you. I think.”

“So when does he need the money?” Melissa asked.

“He’s giving her until the end of next week.”

“Wow, how generous of him to give her time,” I said.

“We did try to warn her about him.”

“Not now, Melissa.”

“You’re right. Sorry.”

“Okay, I’ll want to go in at night. Not too late or too early,” I said.

“According to his Facebook page, he’s going to be at a bachelor party tonight.”

“Tonight? That doesn’t give us much time,” Melissa said.

“Me. It doesn’t give me much time. That’s okay, it should work.”

“Fine, but I’m coming with you, and I don’t want to hear a word about it.”

Taking Melissa anywhere was like trying to sneak the entire football team into your bedroom without your parents noticing. I was about to tell her this but stopped once I looked at her face. As was typical with my friends when one of us was in trouble, we could always count on the others to be there for us. How many people were lucky enough to have a friend willing to do a little B and E with them on such short notice?

“Sure.”

“Yay. I have the perfect outfit.”

Of that I had no doubt.

The three of us spent the next twenty minutes gathering as much information as we could. Charmaine called and convinced, or rather harassed, Shandra into having dinner at a restaurant conveniently located across from the Lakeview police station. When in need of an alibi, what better place than a restaurant filled with cops?

With our plans for the evening in place, Charmaine hugged us goodbye and headed back to her store. While Melissa fiddled with a new story idea, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the pool and finished one of Toni McGee Causey’s books. I lasted an entire fifteen minutes before I picked up another book and began to read again. Paranormal romance wasn’t really my thing, but I found my face glued to Jennifer Lyon’s latest one.

At four o’clock Melissa drove to my apartment. She was back half an hour later with everything on my list. A nice surprise was that all the news vans were gone, not just the ones I’d gotten towed away. Hopefully, they were off to bigger and better stories, which was good for me but completely horrendous for whoever they had swooped in on now. With enough problems of my own to fill a dinner plate and the entire salad bar at Wendy’s, I didn’t have much time or energy to worry about who that other person might be. At least not right now.

Melissa hurried off to her room to get changed while I used one of the six guest bathrooms. A few minutes later I stepped out and screamed. Standing five inches from me dressed in black pants, a black turtleneck, and a ski mask was, I dearly hoped, Melissa.

“Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?”

A hand reached up and yanked off the mask, revealing my friend.

“Lighten up, Kim. I thought this was appropriate for a cat burglar.”

“First, we’re not cat burglars. We’re going to the loser’s place to get the pictures, that’s it. Second, it’s summer and it won’t get dark for another three hours. And third, a ski mask is going a bit too far. Don’t you think?”