Killer Heels Read Free

here.”
    “Excuse me, ma’am.” Officer Jankowski gave me a polite smile and stood up to follow Officer Hendryx. Cassady, leaning against the desk behind me, moaned.
    “What?” I asked her, trying not to watch the technicians examining Teddy.
    “Definitely not your night. You just got ma’am-ed.”
    “I’m sure he learned it at the academy. Or on TV.”
    “He learned it from his mother. He’s a baby, Molly, showing respect to his elders.”
    “Don’t start trying to make me feel old because your little boy in blue wasn’t handing over his phone number.”
    Cassady waggled a business card in front of me. I caught a glimpse of the NYPD seal. “Would that be his office phone or his cell phone that he wasn’t handing over?”
    “But did you get a home phone?”
    “I appreciate a man who likes to go slow.”
    “Only once you get him home.”
    Cassady was about to say something devastating in return, but something across the room caught her eye. I turned to look, too. The man who had just entered was middle-aged, tall and powerful, African-American, somewhere between imposing and intimidating. I glanced over at Cassady in surprise. He wasn’t really her type: She’s currently in a young-and-malleable phase.
    But then I looked back at the policemen again and saw the second guy and realized why Cassady’s antennae were up. He couldn’t have looked better if he were backlit and walking in slow motion. It was a chain-store suit and his shoes were a couple of years old, but he was breathtaking. Square jaw, tousled hair that got that way honestly and not because of seventy-five bucks worth of product, and amazing blue eyes. The little clarity I’d been able to summon threatened to evaporate, but I took a deep breath. Cassady also gave me a firm jab in the ribs, which is always good for focus. “Dibs.”
    “This is a murder scene, not a nightclub.”
    “The story will delight my grandchildren.” Cassady flashed me a quick smile, then quickly turned back to watch the two new arrivals come across the room to us. Officers Jankowski and Hendryx were obviously filling them in on the situation and their attention was focused on poor Teddy. In fact, the older man peeled off to go look at Teddy and the young hunk came straight to us. How nice.
    “Ms. Forrester, Ms. Lynch, I’m Detective Edwards, Homicide.” Cassady and I stuck our hands out like two debutantes in a receiving line. Detective Edwards missed half a beat, which increased his desirability quotient considerably. He then shook my hand first, which got him even more points. Cassady sniffed loud enough for me to hear.
    “My partner, Detective Lipscomb, and I will be handling this case. The officers tell us you two found the body.” He looked us both over carefully, but in a forensic, not a foreplay, sense. He stopped when he got to our feet. More precisely, to my feet. “You came into the office barefoot?”
    “No, but I stepped in the blood and they asked me to leave my shoes there.” I tried to sound businesslike, but the almost-shrill thing was happening again. I could’ve sworn I’d be better than this in a traumatic situation.
    Detective Edwards glanced at the officers for affirmation, then over at Teddy. “I know you’ve already been interviewed, but we’d like to talk to you after we look around. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”
    Cassady sat, pulling me back down into my chair while she was at it. “Not at all, Detective. Anything we can do to help.”
    Detective Edwards looked us over again, a little less forensically this time, and went over to his partner and Teddy. Officers Jankowski and Hendryx trailed along behind.
    “Have you ever been at a murder scene before?” I asked Cassady. We’ve known each other since freshman year of college, but we didn’t get to be best friends until we both came to the city after graduation, so I don’t know everything about her. Besides, she’s a girl who knows how to keep her secrets.
    “No.