“Poor old Douglas,” I sighed. “I’m glad that he chickened out at the last moment.”
We sat and sighed for a long time. Jorgeson came through at one point, gave us a curious look, and left the room. Hendrix even appeared briefly, looking much more palatable in a trim uniform and clean-shaven face.
I stuck out my hand. “You owe me five dollars.”
Hendrix rummaged through his pocket and returned the bill. “I’m sorry about that, ma’am, but the lieutenant told me to watch out for a woman with red hair. He said she’d—” He halted, glanced in terror at Lieutenant Rosen, and backed out of the room, his mouth still open.
“Humph!” I snorted in the ensuing silence.
At last the lieutenant cleared his throat. “I seem to detect a certain emotional barrier between us, Mrs. Malloy.”
“I just assumed we didn’t much like each other, Lieutenant Rosen.”
“Oh, really?” Insufferably egotistical.
“Ask your wife to explain it to you.”
“I can’t. My ex-wife lives in Montana and we communicate through lawyers. They’d never understand.”
“Then it will remain a mystery, won’t it?” I murmured, pleased with my nefarious ploy. “You may never understand why women don’t fall into your arms whenever you crook your little finger.”
“Why don’t you let me run the investigation, for a change?”
It was time for a second drink. At the bar, I raised my eyebrows in response to the broad, pearly grin that shone across the room like the rising sun. I flashed all my teeth back at him.
“Have at it, Sherlock.” He could think whatever he preferred. Who was I to meddle in a CID investigation?
ALSO BY JOAN HESS
A Really Cute Corpse
A Diet to Die For
A Conventional Corpse
Dear Miss Demeanor
The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn
Out on a Limb
Roll Over and Play Dead
Death by the Light of the Moon
AVAILABLE FROM ST. MARTIN’S/MINOTAUR PAPERBACKS
Other titles from St. Martin’s MINOTAUR Mysteries
FORTUNE LIKE THE MOON by Alys Clare
AGATHA RAISIN AND THE FAIRIES OF FRYFAM by M. C. Beaton
QUAKER WITNESS by Irene Allen
MIDNIGHT COME AGAIN by Dana Stabenow
COUP DE GRCE by J. S. Borthwick
THE INDIAN SIGN by Les Roberts
DEAD TIME by Eleanor Taylor Bland
MURDER WITH PUFFINS by Donna Andrews
THE BIRD YARD by Julia Wallis Martin
A DANGEROUS ROAD by Kris Nelscott
LARGE TARGET by Lynne Murray
BLUE DEER THAW by Jamie Harrison
LIE LIKE A RUG by Donna Huston Murray
A CONVENTIONAL CORPSE by Joan Hess
THE GREEN-EYED HURRICANE by Martin Hegwood
THE IRISH MANOR HOUSE MURDER by Dicey Deere
LAST SEEN IN MASSILIA by Steven Saylor
AMNESIA by G. H. Ephron
PISCES RISING by Martha C. Lawrence
THE HEAT OF LIES by Jonathan Stone
LEAVIN’ TRUNK BLUES by Ace Atkins
FILM STRIP by Nancy Bartholomew
St. Martin’s Paperbacks is also proud to present these mystery classics by AGATHA CHRISTIE
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY
THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS
THREE BLIND MICE
and other stories
STRANGLED PROSE
Copyright © 1986 by Joan Hess.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-25146
ISBN: 0-312-96864-7
EAN: 80312-96864-9
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / November 1998
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
eISBN 9781466815728
First eBook edition: September 2013