Finders Keepers Losers Die (10 page)

When he didn't answer, I turned round to
make sure he was listening. (To appreciate the effects of the diva
mode, it helps if the other party is present.) He was. He stood at
the end of the corridor, leaning against the door frame, arms
crossed over his chest. He still looked angry but for the first
time, it struck me how sexy he was. With his dark hair, dark eyes
and shadowy stubble, he had the mysterious and broody look of a
highly paid movie star but without the stylist. Why I noticed at
that moment was a mystery.

Sexiness aside, I couldn't work with a man
who didn't respect me.

I wasn't sure if I'd just quit or he'd fired
me, but the semantics didn't really matter. I was outta there. Will
didn't say anything, not even goodbye, as I left. Carl on the other
hand, followed me out like a puppy.

"You're really going?" he said. "Just like
that?"

"Yep. See ya." I was still too pissed off
with Will to give Carl a proper farewell.

"But…what'll you do now?"

I shrugged. "I'm sure I'll find another
secretarial job." Although I wasn't sure I wanted one.

"Not without a reference from Will, you
won't."

Damn it. I hadn't thought of that. "Maybe
I'll go back to acting."

"Not too many movies get made in
Renford."

I threw up my hands. "Then I'll return to
Hollywood."

"Who's going to Hollywood?" Gina joined us
on the footpath. She wore a pretty floral dress that showed off her
curves and sent Carl's eyes spinning. The smile she also wore
quickly faded when she saw my expression. "What's the matter?"

"Will fired me," I said, just as Carl said,
"She quit."

"Well, which is it?" Gina asked.

I shrugged. "It's a little unclear."

"You must have quit," she said matter of
factly. "I don't believe Will fired you."

"Why not?"

She shrugged. "He just wouldn't. He feels
obligated to your dad, and besides, he likes you."

"Yeah, you could probably hear how much he
likes me through the wall." I grunted. "I'm going home and taking a
bath with a glass of champagne to celebrate my new freedom from the
Kaiser."

"That's unfair," Gina said.

"You never had to work for him. Tell her,
Carl."

He hesitated before giving a small nod. "He
can be a bit of a task master," he whispered, glancing back at the
office. "He expects everyone to work as hard as him, but the truth
is, it's
his
business. Why should I put in extra effort to
make him rich?"

Did I sound as whiny as that?

"I think you're both being too harsh," Gina
said with a sniff. "He's under pressure. And it can't be easy
finding out his ex-girlfriend stole from him."

"If you feel so sorry for him, then you go
work there." I regretted the words as soon as I said them. Gina was
my best friend. If she liked Will, then I'd still be her friend. I
may not help her get him, but I'd—

Who was I kidding? If she wanted Will, he
was hers, easy. She didn't need my help. A woman looking like Gina
could have any man she set her mind to.

Why she'd set it on him was something I'd
never understand.

"I'll call you later," I said to Gina.
"Maybe we can go out after you close the shop."

"Sounds good." She squeezed my arm and
disappeared back inside after a customer.

"Getting back to what you're going to do
next," Carl said. "What about Roberta?"

"Roberta?" Oh. I'd forgotten about her. It
was one thing to snap at Gina, but to forget about my client too? I
briefly wondered if I could beg Will for my job back but I
dismissed the idea while I still had some pride. "Oh, Carl, what
should I tell her?"

"It's a shame to have to tell her anything.
Why not keep looking for the jewelry? I mean, you must be close or
Lou wouldn't be dead."

A cold chill rippled down my spine. I
shivered. "You think the two events are related?"

"Don't you?"

I lifted one shoulder. It just seemed so
unlikely that anything I was involved in could lead to murder. My
world was full of light and fluffy things like movie stars and
designer bags that it had sort of escaped my notice that the person
I was investigating had wound up dead. I mean, I knew he was dead,
I just hadn't put his death together with my investigation. I hated
to admit it, but up until then, following Lou and looking for the
jewelry had been a bit of a game, a way of relieving the boredom at
work.

But the more I thought about it, the more I
felt in my bones that Carl was right. God, I sounded like
Roberta.

"Do you think that's why he died? Because I
was getting too close so somebody killed him to keep him
quiet?"

"I don't think you were
that
close,
Cat." I must have looked offended because he added, "But it's
possible."

"So what are the legalities? I don't work
for Knights anymore so can I still investigate the case?"

Carl smirked at me. "Off the record."

I smirked back. "That's not illegal?"

"If there's no contract between you, and if
no money officially changes hands then who's to say you're not just
helping out a friend?"

My insides slowly stopped rolling around in
misery. Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel. Carl had just
given me something to focus on, something to keep me busy while I
looked for paying work.

But I still had my doubts. I wasn't an
investigator. I wasn't even semi-trained. I had my mother's books
and the internet, which I'd have to use at Mom's now that I'd quit.
That wasn't a broad skill set to fall back on. It wasn't even a
narrow one.

"I don't know," I hedged.

Carl placed his hands on my shoulders and
ducked his head to look into my eyes. "Cat, listen to me. You're
smart. You're good at figuring things out and God knows, you can
talk your way out of a sticky situation better than anyone I
know."

"I don't know if that's enough."

"Will agrees with me," he added.

"He thinks I can lie my ass off when I have
to?"

"He thinks you're clever. And intuitive. He
would have got around to telling you too, when things weren't so
hectic."

Yeah, right. I shook my head.

"Cat, forget about Will. Forget about Knight
Investigations and do this for Roberta. And for yourself. Show Will
you've got what it takes." He kissed my forehead. "And your
Dad."

Dad? Something inside me lurched and welled,
making my heart feel like a brick as it pounded into my ribcage. I
bit my lip. Scarletti had been Dad's case. Now it was mine. My
chance. My way of giving the old man the finger for all those years
he tried to force me into the perfect daughter mold.

Something about the Scarletti case had
bothered Dad back then. If I figured it out, and found the missing
jewelry as well…

I gave Carl a hug. "You're a smooth talker,
Carl Fortune."

He gave me his wickedest grin. "So they tell
me."

CHAPTER 6

Gina and I sat on stools facing each other
at a table in Code Red, a bar in Downtown Renford where the office
crowd liked to drink their boring week into oblivion on Friday
nights with over-priced cocktails. My not-so boring day was still
bothering me, so I ordered another couple of vodka and limes.

"Cat, I haven't even finished my second,"
said Gina. "If you keep this pace up, you'll be throwing yourself
into the arms of…" She checked out the suits standing at the bar.
"That guy." She nodded in the direction of a short, bald man who
was well on his way to thinking he was the hottest guy in the bar
if his stumbling was anything to go by.

"I'll be fine," I said. "Just one more then
I'll slow down."

"No, you'll stop and I'll take you
home."

"But I might get lucky," I protested.

"No, some annoying drunk guy will get lucky,
and you'll call me in the morning feeling sorry for yourself and
I'll feel bad for not making sure you at least scored the
cute
drunk guy."

I gave her a smile that sort of slipped at
the edges. After a few drinks, everything felt lopsided. "Great.
Sounds like a plan. You're the best friend a girl could have."

Gina and I became friends when we were two
pig-tailed little girls with a passion for dressing up in her
mother's fake diamonds. Nothing much had changed since then. We
both still liked dressing up and neither of us could afford the
real bling. And Gina still looked better than me in a halter neck
dress.

Her family moved into my neighborhood when
we were both seven. I instantly connected with the friendly girl
who liked everybody, even the kids who teased her for having an
unpronounceable last name.

I suppose the teasing made me feel sorry for
her at first, so I took her under my wing, but our friendship
quickly developed thanks to her infectious personality and her
large, multicultural family. They were so different than mine.

Growing up, dinner at home had been a quiet
time to reflect on the day's achievements. Since my achievements
never included winning in athletics carnivals, winning the state
spelling bee or winning the Teacher's Pet award (like my brother),
meal times were tortuous. To avoid Dad's probing questions about
the latest science/math/geography/whatever test, I made sure my
mouth was always full and my eyes averted.

In contrast, dinner at Gina's house was
chaos. I loved it. With her parents, grandmother, four brothers and
one sister all talking—and sometimes shouting—over each other, and
with the TV turned up loud enough for the benefit of partially deaf
Nonna, it was Heaven to a noise-deprived child.

The first time I visited, I thought they
were having a family argument and I slunk into the corner,
embarrassed. They talked decibels above anyone in my household and
they talked about stuff my parents wouldn't dream of discussing
around a visitor, and often around their own children. Like money
problems, work problems and even sex problems.

In contrast, my family just didn't stack up
on the excitement meter. From then on, I tried to eat at Gina's
place as much as my father would allow.

"Cat, I should tell you—" Our drinks arrived
and she waited until the waitress left.

"What?" I swallowed half my drink in one
gulp.

"That I went to see Will after work
tonight."

"You did
what
?" A few of the suits
looked at us but I didn't care. I blinked at Gina, unable to
understand her betrayal. So much for my so-called best friend. "You
didn't tell him I want my job back did you?"

"Do you?"

"No!" I think.

"Then no, I didn't."

I wasn't sure whether to believe her. Gina
was a wily fox—

Whoa, wait a minute. Gina
was
a fox.
A sexy one. And I bet Will noticed it too, just like every guy in
Code Red had when she sashayed in. And since she'd already
expressed an interest in him…

Ugh
. Not enough alcohol in my system
to erase that image. I downed the rest of my drink and waved at the
waitress to get her attention.

"Cat, slow down," Gina warned. "You don't
want to get drunk tonight. You've got to find a new job
tomorrow."

"So you didn't talk to Will about giving me
my job back?" I didn't want to probe, but like a motorist passing a
car crash, I felt compelled to find out more.

Gina avoided my gaze. "Not exactly."

She squirmed in her seat. Yep, definitely
something going on there.

"Hello, ladies."

We both turned to the man dressed in an
expensive pin-stripe suit holding an imported beer bottle. He was
blond, okay looking with perfect teeth. I knew about the teeth
because he gave me a face-splitting smile. He turned to Gina and
the smile grew even wider.

"Can I buy you lovely ladies a drink?" he
said to Gina's breasts.

"No thanks," I said before Gina said yes. I
love her but she has a problem saying no to men. She thinks if she
says no, she could be turning away The One.

"I was asking this lady," the blond
said.

"Actually you were asking us both while
looking at her breasts. Now push off."

He ambled away, mumbling something under his
breath about stuck-up bitches.

"Cat!" said Gina. "That wasn't very
nice."

"Well, he was rude. We were in the middle of
a conversation." I crossed my legs and smoothed my skirt so the
side split didn't ride high and flash too much flesh. Suddenly I
didn't feel like picking up men anymore.

"Right, where were we?" she said. "Ah, yes,
Will."

"I don't want to talk about him." I held up
my hands. I needed time to get used to the idea before I heard the
details.

She looked reluctant to let the subject go,
so I quickly said, "I met this cute guy the other day." I frowned
into my empty glass. "Actually, he's not cute, he's more…scary.
He's got this horrible scar over one eye and he—"

"Is he good in bed?"

"Don't know, but something tells me he could
teach even you a few moves."

She laughed. "So where did you meet
him?"

"He's an undercover cop. I met him while
working on Roberta Scarletti's case."

"A cop. Wasn't Will a cop once?"

I nodded. "They know each other. But
something must have happened between them because you could have
cut the tension with a butter knife. Maybe I should ask Will.
Oh."

Gina covered my hand with hers, and frowned
sympathetically. "Cat, ask for your job back. He's not that
mean."

"
He
fired
me
, remember. If he
wants me back, he has to come begging."

"That's not what I heard."

"You don't know the full story." And she'd
probably believe everything Will said if they were bonking
partners.

The night deteriorated after that. A couple
of guys hit on us, and when I sent them packing, a couple more took
their place so I threw a drink over one. Since I didn't have any
more money and no one offered to buy me another after that display,
I suggested we leave. Gina looked only too happy to get out of
there.