The Root of All Trouble Read Free Page B

all."
    " Considering what?" I asked, my nosiness at an all-time high.
    " The bloody rhinestone hammer that fell out of the tree with the body. I'm guessing it was what did that to his skull." Perry tsk ed and said mournfully, "It's a shame, really. He had such a nice head of hair. Not many men can wear a shag cut and pull it off. That's about the only nice thing I can say about him."
    Mr. Cabrera nodded in agreement. "The shag is a toughie. I tried it once in the seventies."
    Perry gasp ed. "With your bone structure?"
    " It was a mistake I've never repeated."
    " Your Clark Cable slick suits you. Don't fix what ain't broke."
    Mr. Cabrera patted his hair with a smug smile. I didn't think his 'do was in danger of change since he had a cabinet full of pomade at home that he wouldn't want to go to waste.
    Sadly, I couldn 't argue with Perry's assessment of Joey. The man was a bit of a...cretin. He'd pinched my ass more than a few times, and he leered at every woman he ever met. There was an air of slimeball about him that made me squirm. He was the type to steal a granny's retirement fund and milk from a baby.
    It hadn 't surprised me at all that he was dead.
    What did surprise me was where he was found.
    I stood up and peered out the slider. I hadn't seen the hammer when I arrived. "Wait a second. That hammer... Wasn't that Delphine's?"
    " Have you ever seen anything more ridiculous?" Mr. Cabrera shook his head. "A rhinestone encrusted hammer?"
    I was about to mention his shirt again, but decided against it and took another sip of my drink.
    Jean-Claude mentioned the hammer had gone missing, but he neglected to mention it had gone missing at the same time as Joey.
    " Do you think she's the one that bashed in his head?" Perry asked, his eyes aglow.
    He was going to fit into this neighborhood just fine.
    "I can't see it," Mr. Cabrera said. "She has the fight in her all right, but she's too tiny to get him into the tree."
    " On her own ," Perry said ominously.
    Mr . Cabrera nodded. "True, true."
    " I wouldn't rule her out. The opening of that hollow was only three feet off the ground, and she's stronger than she looks."
    Through the glass, I studied Delphine as she hunkered beneath a plain black umbrella. She was small, maybe five foot one or two, but she was as curvy as any 1940's pinup girl. She had long dark hair and smoky black eyes. A skintight black leather micro-mini skirt clung to her wide hips and nipped in at her narrow waist, and a tight t-shirt barely contained her double Ds. One of her crew members, Bear Broward, held the umbrella over her head, and she kept dabbing at her heavily-lined eyes with a tissue.
    There was a don 't-mess-with-me look about her that made me believe she wouldn't think twice about using that hammer on someone. But why? "Okay, conspiracy theorists, why would Delphine kill Joey? What's her motive? And wouldn't she have been stupid to leave the hammer behind?" She struck me as a lot of things but stupid wasn't one of them.
    Perry finished off his drink and wiggled his eyebrows. "They were a couple."
    " A couple of what?" Mr. Cabrera asked.
    Perry shot him a look.
    I said, "He can't handle his alcohol. It makes him loopy."
    " A couple." Perry made kissing noises. "I saw them making out in the front seat of her truck once. Could be this head bashing is the result of a lover's quarrel."
    " I like it," Mr. Cabrera slurred, making kissing sounds.
    Perry pried the glass from his hand and said, "Ooh, here comes someone who can probably sort it all out. Man, does he get more gorgeous every day?"
    Yes. Yes, he did. Not that I noticed or anything.
    Kevin had arrived, and he didn't look too happy about the scene before him. A scowl tugged at his lips as rain spilled down his face.
    " Don't let Mario hear you talking like that," I said, hating the pangs I felt in my stomach.
    Perry made the sign of the cross.
    Kevin looked around, then swiped a hand through his wet hair, slicking it back. He turned his face up