An Ex to Grind in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 5) Paperback – September 4, 2014 Read Free Page B

he wants me to tell you that he found a dead body.”
    I hung up as the shit hit the fan.

Chapter Two
    The sky had fallen.
    Outside, the rain dumped in buckets. Mixed with pellets of hail, it pinged on the Galena House porch roof and plunked off the hood of the Picklemobile.
    Inside, Detective Cooper thundered. I could hear him barking orders to his buddies in blue, his rumbles resounding down the long hallway and pouring out the front door.
    “I can’t believe you pinned this tail on my ass,” Harvey said from where he leaned against one of the white pillars, his arms crossed over his chest.
    “What?” I pulled my cell phone from my sweater pocket. “You found her first.”
    “I was here helping you .”
    “If you’re gonna be my bodyguard, you’re going to have to get used to getting your hands dirty.”
    He stuck out his chin. “I’ll play in the mud any day, especially if bikinis are involved, but I don’t like blood on my hands.”
    “I didn’t see any blood.” How could there be no blood?
    “You know what I mean, girl.”
    I joined him at the column, frown and all. “Seriously, did you notice any blood?”
    “Nope. But that corner had a lot of shadows.”
    “I didn’t smell blood either.”
    Harvey nodded. “That other stink hid everything else.”
    “It’s like all of the juice was sucked right out of her.” I cringed, thinking about how her arms and legs had looked like gnarled twigs covered in flesh. “How can that be? She was just talking to me.”
    “Are you sure she and your caller are one and the same?”
    Now that he mentioned it, no. “You think someone else might have called me from her phone?”
    “It’s a possibility.”
    “Why? To lure me here?”
    He stroked his beard, taming some of the stragglers. “That’s another possibility.”
    I rubbed the back of my neck, pondering Harvey’s question some more. “What? A setup then?”
    “Could be. Or a warnin’.”
    A warning? I shivered, tightening my sweater belt.
    “You have been meddlin’ in some kooky shit lately, what with those white-haired weirdos.”
    “Those white-haired weirdos have been meddling with me not the other way around.” Ever since I had run into two of them at Mudder Brothers Funeral Parlor, I’d turned into a magnet for the super pale population in the hills.
    My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out. “It’s Doc.”
    “Coop said no phone calls.” Harvey checked over his shoulder. “He’ll bust your balls if he catches you gettin’ all leaky-mouthed on the phone.”
    Yeah, but it was Doc. For him I’d take my chances with the detective’s temper. “Run interference for me.”
    “Fine, but you better be quick as a hiccup.” He left the column and slipped between the yellow strips of police tape crisscrossing the doorway.
    I held the phone to my ear. “Hi, Doc.”
    “What do you mean you found another body?” The sound of his baritone voice warmed my chills even if it was tight with tension.
    “You got my text.” It wasn’t a question. I’d sent him a message as soon as I’d hung up on Cooper’s curses.
    Doc didn’t bother with an answer. “Where are you?”
    “The Galena House.”
    “That’s up behind the old Fairmont Hotel, right?”
    I leaned my shoulder against the column, looking out over the backsides of the buildings bellied up to Deadwood’s Main Street. They didn’t look so fancy from behind, more cluttered and disheveled, like the back of a film studio where real life took place. “Yeah, on Williams Street.”
    “I’m on my way.”
    “You can’t come right now.” As much as I would have liked his company at the moment, he needed to stay away.
    “Why not?”
    “Detective Cooper and his pals are here asking questions and taking pictures. I’m not even supposed to be talking on the phone. If Cooper finds out—”
    Someone plucked my phone from my grip.
    I whirled around. There stood Cooper. He’d confiscated my phone. His steely eyes had a frosty