Free Finders Keepers Losers Die by Carolyn Scott Page A

did that
go by the way?"
    The man was teasing me again, and although I
got flirting vibes off him, he was beginning to annoy the shit out
of me. "Lots of fun," I said. "But I suck at poker."
    "You suck at stripping too, so I hear."
    Stankovic's brows dove. "You're a
stripper?"
    "No! I told you, I'm a P.I."
    Stankovic looked disappointed. He moved away
to make a call on his cell phone.
    "That was a stroke of luck yesterday,"
Scarface said, "knowing the neighbor."
    "Yeah, we're old friends."
    "Sylvia?"
    I cringed. "All right, I lied to her. No big
deal. At least I didn't sneak in."
    "She didn't suspect you?" He looked
impressed. "Nice job. I tried her. She didn't buy any of my
lines."
    "Maybe if you didn't look so scary…"
    "You think I look scary?"
    I held my fingers half an inch apart. "Just
a little."
    "That could be why I can't get a date."
    "Could also be because you hang out at
places like The Grotto. The women there look even scarier than
you."
    He grinned. "Which is why you stood out like
a nun at a brothel. I wouldn't go back there if I were you. Mad Max
was already suspicious. Next time he might want a personal
performance as proof."
    I didn't tell him Lou had figured me out,
and threatened me. Thinking about Lou brought back reality with a
rush. Flirting with Scarface—I think that's what we were doing—had
distracted me from the cold fact that I was standing in a dead
man's apartment and I was no closer to finding Roberta's
jewelry.
    "So, you won't tell me why you were watching
Scarletti?" I asked with what I hoped was a sexy look.
    "You're catching on fast."
    So much for sexy. "Can you at least tell me
how he died?"
    "Nope."
    I cut a sideways glance to Stankovic who was
talking to a female cop. "Come on, give me a break. This is my
first big case." No need to tell him it was my one and only. "And
if I leave here with nothing, Will's going to chew me out. He might
even fire me." Scarface didn't blink. "And after everything you and
I have been through together, we're…buddies." I put just the right
amount of pause before it to infer something more.
    It worked. He draped an arm around my
shoulders and drew me into his chest. Ooh, yeah, baby. A girl could
get used to the scariness if it came with a rock hard body like
that.
    "We can't have Knight firing you," he said.
In a low voice so Stankovic couldn't hear, he gave me the known
facts surrounding Lou's death.
    Scarletti had been shot in the chest with
his own gun after a struggle. For that reason, the killer was most
likely a strong man, or had an accomplice. The apartment had been
turned over as if someone was searching for something, but not
thoroughly, probably because the killer knew the gunshot would have
been heard and he had to get out before the cops arrived.
    The neighbor, Angela Lafayette, heard a
single gunshot and called the police. She didn't see Scarletti or
anyone else arrive because she was asleep, but she saw someone
running down the stairs about five minutes after the shot. She
thought it was a man but he had a hood over his head so she
couldn't ID him. The gun, found next to Scarletti's body, had been
wiped clean of prints.
    "Anything missing?"
    He shrugged. "Nothing obvious but we'll have
his girlfriend check to be sure."
    I shrugged. "So that's it?"
    "Yep."
    "So basically you don't have much."
    Scarface leaned against the kitchen bench
and crossed his arms and ankles. He knew how to do sexy.
"They're looking for prints now."
    We both knew that wouldn't yield much. I'd
watched enough CSI to know that if the killer had cleaned
the gun, he'd probably made sure his prints didn't appear anywhere
else either.
    "And I'm working my contacts," Scarface
added.
    "Yeah, I can see that."
    "I will be, as soon as Stankovic and I
debrief."
    I sighed and slumped against the bench next
to him. Prickles of heat crept along the back of my neck and I
could feel a headache coming on. I needed to go to the pool for a
swim, or to the mall for a pedicure to clear my