Bubblegum Blonde Read Free

are dealt with by another firm, but Hatchett has more going on than the modeling agency. He has charities and such, and that's what he hired me to keep track of."
    "Sounds complicated."
    That whole set up was way too complicated for me. I could barely balance my checkbook. Not that there was a lot of money in my account to balance to begin with. I was, at the moment, what I liked to call financially challenged .
    "It can be at times," he agreed. "The other firm that takes care of the Hatchett Modeling accounts and I meet once a month to go over the numbers just to make sure we're on the same page, and there're no loose ends. The last thing we want to do is get Hatchett or ourselves into some kind of financial trouble because of oversights. No one wants to deal with the IRS."
    Amen, brother.
    "Wait." I held up a hand to stop him. "Wasn't Robert Hatchett's wife murdered in their home about two weeks ago?"
    At least that's what I thought I'd heard on the bits of the evening news I'd been able to catch. In my line of work, I wasn't home much, so television watching was sparse.
    "That's why I'm here."
    Why did I have the feeling that the shiznit was about to hit the fan? Oh, that's right, because wherever Jason went, crap always seemed to start flying. It was like he had his own troop of poo-flinging monkeys following him everywhere he went. I briefly considered carrying an umbrella to keep myself from being splattered.
    Over the last three years as a private investigator I'd learned that most cases always lead back to one of two things, money or sex. Sometimes both. Most of the time, a spouse suspected their significant other of cheating simply based on behavior, such as not wanting to make love, or their money didn't add up.
    Money or sex.
    With Jason, I had a sinking feeling that I already knew which of the two had landed him in trouble.
    "Were you having an affair with Mrs. Hatchett?"
    Yeah, it was crass of me to ask, but I had to know. I felt the need to get that little tidbit out of the way.
    He rolled his eyes and leaned back against the seat. "No. I wasn't banging Lydia. Jesus, Barb." He glared at me. "I cheated once. It was a mistake. Let it go already. It's not like I sleep with every woman who walks by."
    Could've fooled me.
    I bit my tongue to keep from telling him to go straight to hell on the first bus out. Instead, I motioned for him to continue. When it came to sleeping with a woman, no matter what he told me, I wouldn't believe it. If the woman was willing, Jason was all too happy to oblige. Instead of nagging him about his relationship with Lydia Hatchett, I let the subject drop for now.
    "The day her body was found at her place the police called me in for questioning. They released me a few hours later. Three days after the initial questioning a detective paid a visit to my office. He asked some more questions and informed me that from that point on, I was being considered a suspect."
    "A murder suspect?"
    "Yeah. Imagine my surprise." He shook his head.
    I leaned my elbows on the desk, unable to control my rising curiosity. "What kind of questions did the detective ask you?"
    "How well I knew Lydia. Were we having an affair? Had I ever done any kind of personal work for her that her husband didn't know about? Stuff like that, which were basically the same questions I'd been asked days before at the station. I contacted my attorney. He said that without any hard evidence against me, I was probably safe, but probably isn't good enough for me."
    "You said that the cops don't have any hard evidence against you, but they have to have something or else they wouldn't name you as a suspect," I said as I tapped the end of a pen with my thumb. "So what do they have?"
    He looked away.
    "Jason? Do the cops have any evidence pointing to you or not?"
    He blew out a breath. "Yes."
    "What do they have?"
    He cleared his throat. "They found my jacket and money clip in her bedroom."
    "Your jacket and money clip? I thought you said