One O'Clock Hustle: An Inspector Rebecca Mayfield Mystery (Rebecca Mayfield Mysteries Book 1) Read Free Page A

arresting me before I've had a chance to speak my piece.”
    “Let go of my handbag first!”
    He did. She placed it back on her shoulder and then folded her arms, still glaring. “You've already been arrested.”
    “Is there someplace warm we can go talk?” he asked, rubbing his arms. “I've been freezing my ass off out here waiting for you to come home. Where the hell have you been all this time?”
    “You've been here all night?” His words made no sense to her. Even a quick release after booking took time, and his case involved murder.
    “I asked the cop who was walking me to the squad car to loosen the handcuffs and then ... I don't know what happened. Something came over me, I guess. Or maybe the cop and Sutter tripped, because they were suddenly on the ground, and so I ran. Luckily, I'd left my car down by Sakura Gardens. I got out of the area easily except for one problem.” He held up his left wrist. One end of the handcuffs was still attached to it, and dangling down, the other end of the cuffs was wide open. Then his head cocked slightly as he studied her. “You mean Sutter didn't tell you?”
    Sutter! She could imagine that he didn't want to tell his partner that he'd managed to lose their main suspect. Suspect, hell! He had two eyewitnesses, and from all she'd heard and seen, enough evidence to incriminate a saint. And Richie Amalfi was no saint.
    But something--call it “cop sense” or whatever--told her he was innocent. And now, for some weird reason, he came here to her. She wanted to know why. Also, the more she thought about it, the more pissed off she became at Sutter. Why didn't he tell her immediately what had happened? Everything was so crazy, and she was so tired—and cold—she decided to take Amalfi up on his request. “We'll go to my apartment,” she said through gritted teeth. “My house keys must still be in the breezeway door lock.”
    He held out her keys, dangling them by the National Rifle Association medallion on her key chain. He glanced at it. “You are one bad-ass broad.”
    She grabbed the keys, shut and locked the door to the breezeway, and then marched to her apartment door and unlocked it. “Get inside, and don't try anything funny.”
    “Yes, Inspector,” he said with a grin.
     o0o
    For a moment, he thought she had unlocked the wrong door. The apartment was nothing like the gun-toting, NRA-joining, leather-wearing, karate-chopping, baton-wielding super cop he knew she was. He even heard she could watch autopsies and not flinch.
    Guys on the force called her the Iron Maiden, and from their comments, they weren't only talking about her prowess as a cop.
    Yet the homey, old-fashioned apartment reminded him of a country cabin. Quilts and throws in varying combinations of red, blue, and green ginghams, checks and plaids covered mismatched furniture, probably from second-hand stores. Ruffle-edged pillows looked comfortable and inviting. From the front door, he could see the whole apartment, a living room with a small kitchen area in one corner, and a bedroom with a queen-sized bed (hmm, what was the lady not telling?) piled high with a fluffy down comforter and more pillows.
    He took a couple of steps into the room and then froze at the sound of a low, deep growl.
    On a red satin pillow stood the silliest looking dog he had ever seen. Smaller than most cats, it was furless except for a tuft of hair pulled up into a blue ribbon on the very top of its head. Its eyes could have been big brown jawbreakers.
    “What in the hell is that ?” he asked.
    The mutt barked at him then ran to Rebecca and stood on its back legs, its front paws against her knee, wagging its tail and begging to be lifted.
    She scooped it up. “You're right to bark, Spike,” she said, cuddling the beast as she carried him to the kitchen area. “He's a bad man.”
    Spike?
    “This is just a temporary reprieve,” Rebecca said to Richie as she dished barely more than a tablespoon of Alpo into a bowl.