The Good Die Twice (5 page)

“Oh, yes. That is my stepmom. My mother’s
body wasn’t even cold and my father had to find someone to fill her
side of the bed.” His words were laced with sarcasm. He took
another sip of champagne.

“She’s beautiful. Almost looks like a
model.”

“She was. A thousand dollars an hour is what
she earned. That face graced the cover of many a fashion magazine.
I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of the great Rachel. She used only
her first name. Her full name was Rachel Liddie, rhymes with
tittie.” Nick grinned again and gave Sara’s shoulder a squeeze,
stroking her skin with his fingers.

Sara stared at his roaming fingers. “Could
you practice your drumbeat elsewhere?”

Nick removed his arm from her shoulder.
“Sorry about that.” He turned his attention to the individual
portrait of Rachel. “If you ask me, she could have done a lot
better than my old man. But, hell, when you’re after money, you
shoot for the moon. Right?”

Sara looked over her shoulder toward the
stairway, down to the ballroom. “Where is your stepmother? It would
be nice to meet the host and hostess.”

“It’s really quite pitiful.” Nick stifled a
drunken laugh. “Stepmumzey is dead.”

CHAPTER 8

“The secret is to never use a lighter, always
a wooden match.” Leyton Monroe blew out the match and held his
cigar out. “And never puff on it to get it going.”

“It helps to smoke only cigars that cost
fifty dollars or more,” Dagger added dryly.

Leyton filled out the entire width of the
wing-backed chair. A basket of silk flowers sat inside a nearby
fireplace. The room had a feminine touch to it in its pastel colors
and antique roll-top desk. Dagger had declined the offer of a
cigar.

“You know that damn wedding was going to cost
me a hundred thousand dollars.” Leyton finally took a slow puff on
his cigar, closing his eyes and savoring the taste. When he opened
his eyes, he looked at Dagger and smiled. “Good thing I put a
clause in the contract that I could cancel up to twenty-four hours
beforehand. I knew that wedding wasn’t going to take place.”

Dagger settled back in his chair and crossed
his right ankle over his left knee. He felt a little too old to be
lectured to, especially by the likes of Leyton Monroe, who had made
his money by crafty legal maneuvers.

“Well then, I guess we both got what we
wanted,” Dagger said.

“My daughter deserves better than you—a
private dick who lasted six months in the marines, two years in
college, and was kicked out of the police academy. Your father was
a two-bit hustler who lived at the race track and died crossing a
street, too greedy with his winnings to see a semi big as life
barreling down on him.”

Dagger’s eyes challenged him. “You two are a
lot alike. You just do your hustling behind people’s backs. They
never see you or your high-priced lawyers coming.”

If he was ruffled, Leyton didn’t show it. It
didn’t surprise Dagger that Leyton had checked him out. Dagger
would have been surprised if he hadn’t.

“See, I know my daughter pretty well. You’ll
never make the kind of money that would keep Sheila in tennis
bracelets and Gucci pumps.” Leyton paused to take a sip of his
brandy. “She likes to push my buttons, always has. Had her navel
pierced when she was sixteen. Went to her high school prom with a
Hell’s Angels wannabe. Dropped out of college her first year
because she didn’t like the weather in New York. She wanted to go
to college in Hawaii. My daughter is not marriage material.”

“Finally, we agree on something.” Dagger
shifted in his seat and played with the earring in his left
ear.

Leyton took another long drag and blew the
smoke out slowly toward the ceiling light. His cheeks reddened as
though exhaling was too strenuous. “Sheila does not want to be
strapped down by kids or a stove. She’d be hiring nannies and
having meals catered. Now, what I like about you is you also aren’t
marriage material. The only reason she wants you is because she
knows I don’t approve. So if she holds a torch for you, she’ll
never have the chance to meet Mr. Right, who just might lure her to
that little cottage with the picket fence.”

Dagger was finally getting the picture. “So
as long as she’s pining for me, she’ll always be right where you
want her.”

“Now you’re getting it.” The broad smile
brought his plump cheeks close to kissing his eyeballs. “She’ll
stay at the newspaper and take over when I retire, keep it in the
family. She’s my only child, so who else do I have to follow in my
footsteps?” Leyton’s eyes twinkled. They were like two college
roommates joined by a masterful plan, co-conspirators.

Fat chance, Dagger thought.

Leyton reached into his pocket and pulled out
a piece of paper. “You should find this quite adequate. If
anything, you should be able to replace that shit-can you call a
car.”

Dagger’s blood pressure hit boiling point as
he stared at the check made out to him for two hundred thousand
dollars. He glared at Leyton as he slowly folded it in half.

“Not enough?” Leyton’s eyes mocked him.

What Leyton didn’t know was that money didn’t
matter to Dagger. Leyton thought money mattered to everyone, that
everyone had a price.

“Exactly what am I supposed to do for this
money?”

Leyton gave a nod of his head as if perturbed
he had to spell it out. “Do what you do best…keep stringing her
along.”

CHAPTER 9

“You seem shocked, Sara.” Nick took a long
swallow of champagne and emptied his glass.

“It’s just that she was so young. For your
father to have lost two wives is such a pity. When did she
die?”

“About five years ago.”

Sara tried to hide her surprise. Five years
ago. Then who was it that was murdered? “How did she die?”

Nick set their glasses on a narrow table
under a trophy case and leaned against the wall. He seemed to have
to think hard for an answer and she wondered if the champagne was
the culprit. “Rachel went out sailing one night. Got a little too
tipsy and...” Nick motioned with his hands as if diving.

“Was she alone?”

“No. It was a sixty-footer with a two-man
crew. They ran out of wind and out of gas. Drifted for hours.”

“Did anyone see her fall overboard?”

Nick raised his eyebrows. “My, you are full
of questions.”

“Sorry. I’m just naturally curious, I guess.
Someone that young and your father that rich, people might think he
would be a suspect.”

“It would be the other way around, really. If
it was my father who fell overboard and my stepmom who got his
money, then it might draw suspicion to my stepmom.”

“I take it they found her body.”

Nick shook his head. “Never did.”

“What do you want, Sheila? You usually cozy
up to me only when you want something.” Worm maneuvered Sheila
around the dance floor to a brass band tune.

“You’ve always wanted a big assignment. Now
you’ve got one. I want you to find out everything you can about
Sara Morningsky.”

Worm laughed. “Why thank you, boss lady. That
should win me a Pulitzer.”

Sheila pressed her body closer to Worm,
letting her lips touch his ear. “Just think, you can ask her out on
a few dates, get her talking, a little dinner, a few drinks, loose
lips sink ships.”

Worm pulled away from Sheila, digested what
she said, then smiled.

“Is he asleep?” Sara asked as she sat down on
the black leather sofa.

Dagger turned away from the aviary, making
sure the padlock was secured. It hadn’t taken long for Einstein to
figure out how to slide open the grated door to the aviary. Having
a fondness for chewing, he would leave gnaw marks on furniture when
they weren’t around to police him.

“Yes, he’s asleep.” He eyed her yellow
jogging suit. “You didn’t waste any time getting out of those panty
hose.”

“They were sheer torture.”

Dagger stripped out of his tuxedo jacket and
sat down. He pulled the check from his pocket and handed it to
Sara.

“That would be tempting to a lot of people,”
she said. “He probably thinks that rusty Ford is all you drive. He
hasn’t seen the van or the other cars in the garage?”

“No, and neither has Sheila. I save them for
surveillance purposes.” He took the check back and tossed it on the
table in disgust. Leaning against the cushions, Dagger stretched
his legs across the coffee table, hands clasped across his chest.
There was many a night he fell asleep in this position. “The
absolute gall of that man. To think he could buy someone.”

“And you want him to think he has?”

Dagger nodded. “Until I figure out exactly
what I can do with the check that would do him the most harm.”

Sara wanted to ask him if that meant he would
continue to date Sheila. Instead, she hugged her knees to her chest
and changed the subject.

“Nick invited me to his birthday party
tomorrow.”

“See, tonight wasn’t so bad after all, was
it?”

“No. Once I focused my attention on the
mystery of Rachel’s disappearance, I forgot all about my
nervousness.”

“Oh yes. Rachel.”

“It was her, Dagger. I’m sure of it.”

“Okay,” Dagger conceded. “We’ll go together.
Sheila invited me and I told her I would meet her there. This could
be good. We should be able to find out more about Rachel.”

Sara picked up a pad of paper and jotted down
notes. “We should check to see if Robert Tyler had Rachel sign a
pre-nuptial agreement and what effect her death had on anyone’s
inheritance.”

“Good idea.” Dagger stripped out of his shirt
and walked to his bedroom to change clothes.

Sara tried not to stare at Dagger’s firm,
tanned torso. His arms were muscular, his stomach flat. She didn’t
understand the strange feelings that came over her whenever she saw
him.

Dagger returned wearing loose-fitting cotton
drawstring pants and pullover shirt. He pulled the rubber band from
his hair and rubbed his scalp with his fingers. There was a slight
curl to his hair resembling a relaxed permanent.

He sat down next to Sara and plopped his legs
back on the oak coffee table. “Add another note to check the police
report on Rachel’s death. Maybe some of the crew members are still
around.”

“Then we need to find out where everyone was
that night.”

“You can pick Nick’s brain on that one,”
Dagger said. “Sheila might have some information, too. The Tylers
were like a second family to her. I think their fathers went to
high school and college together.”

“Do you think Sheila dated any of them?”

Dagger shrugged. “Never asked. Guess it’s
possible.”

Dagger removed the lid from a painted box and
lifted out the earring they had found at the townhouse. He rolled
the piece of jewelry around between two fingers and watched how the
light reflected off the small diamonds circling the larger stone.
“This is very well made. I think I should bait them by mentioning I
have a new client who found it at the Dunes Resort.”

“Yes, we took care of the problem. When can
we meet?” The hotel suite was spacious with bulky furniture in
conservative brown and gray tones. The man with the phone pressed
to his ear looked like a furniture mover or nightclub bouncer. His
biceps were the size of a normal man’s thigh. Dark, curly hair
hugged his large head and his eyes turned down at the corners. He
had a deceiving choir-boy look to his face. “Why so late?” He
asked. He turned to the two men seated on the couch as he hung up
the phone. “We’ll get the rest of our money tomorrow night.”

“I don’t like it, Luke. We should have been
paid in full the minute we iced the lady.” Mince dragged one leg
over an armrest of the couch, the laces of his untied tennis shoes
dangling. His balding head made him appear older and his pudge face
was marred with enough bumps and craters to resemble a misshapen
bag of flour.

Sections of the newspaper were scattered
around the couch and coffee table. The men looked as out of place
in a four-star hotel suite as a homeless man at Buckingham
Palace.

“Nobody pays in full. You get half before and
the balance after the job. That’s what we agreed to.” Luke gathered
up the papers and stacked them on the table. “You guys are absolute
slobs.”

“We should up the ante,” Joey added, pacing
as he chugged a can of beer. His eyes seemed too close together,
his nose too pointed and slim, like the rest of his body. He wiped
his mouth with the back of his hand.

“We’re lucky we’re being paid anything. You
two fucked up. You weren’t supposed to kill her.”

“Hey,” Mince yelled, pointing a finger.
“Nobody gave us a Plan B. She was trying to escape. How many times
do I have to say it?”

Joey argued, “You weren’t there, Luke. I know
we were supposed to keep her alive. But what did you want? A woman
on the loose or a dead woman?”

“At least you got rid of the body.” Luke
crumpled his beer can with one hand.

Mince and Joey exchanged glances.

CHAPTER 10

Sara was up early Saturday morning making
blueberry scones. After placing the pan in the oven, she went
looking for Dagger.

She cautiously peered into Dagger’s bedroom,
a room she still didn’t feel comfortable entering. It was the only
other part of the house she considered his private domain. After
all, he was paying rent and deserved some privacy.

Sunlight sprayed in through the blinds. A
variety of floral aromas seeped into the room through the opened
windows. In the distance, the wildflowers transformed the backyard
into a botanical garden.

Dagger carried his taste in black and gray
into his décor. A king-sized bed and wall unit in a black lacquer
finish occupied one side of the room with a matching dresser and
entertainment center. The room was almost as large as the aviary
but without the high ceiling. Dagger had his own bathroom and
walk-in closet.