Free A Bitch Called Hope by Lily Gardner

for people who clock in at suppertime and don’t get home until three or four in the morning. Both bosses claimed she was a quiet girl and the customers liked her. During the day, Alice took business courses at the community college. Clean driving record, an okay credit score.
    At first look her early life seemed as uneventful as her current life, excepting one little factoid. She was expelled from Saint Mary’s her freshman year and, according to Sarge, that would’ve been the year she claimed having a sexual relationship with Bill Pike. How had she met Bill in the first place? The one connection, and it was a beaut, was Bill’s cousin and business partner, Father McMahon. He happened to be Saint Mary’s pastor. But when she called Saint Mary’s the staff made it clear as clear Lennox wasn’t going to get any details of Alice’s expulsion without a court order.
    And setting up an interview with Alice proved nearly as hard. Alice told Lennox no way was she going to cooperate in the investigation if it meant it would help the Pike family. Lennox pressed her case. Alice hung up.
    Best chance for finding an unwilling witness at home? Wake them up. Lennox figured Alice for a late riser. She worked nights for one thing, and her classes were all scheduled in the afternoon.
    So December 7th at nine in the a.m. Lennox ducked in the lobby door of the Cornerstone Apartments behind a dog-walker, rode the mirrored elevator up five floors to Alice’s apartment, walked down the carpeted hallway. The place smelled like the inside of a new car. Lennox would’ve guessed something older and funkier for Alice and her boyfriend. The carpet muffled the sound of the all-Spanish station behind an apartment door. Farther down the hall, someone practiced scales on the piano. There was no sound coming from Apartment 509, the abode of Alice Stapely and Gabe Makem.
    After four minutes of persistent knocking, Lennox heard a woman’s voice say, “Give me a sec, babe.”
    Alice cracked the door the width of the security chain, revealing a bleary eye, a flash of bare leg, a black tee shirt.
    “Oh,” she said the way you do when you’re faced with a total stranger.
    Lennox thrust a to-go cup up to the space allowed by the security chain. “I figured you for a mocha triple espresso,” she said. “Was I close?”
    “Who are you?” Alice said.
    “A friend. Leastways I could be if you give me half a chance.”
    The bleary eye narrowed suspiciously. “You’re that detective working for Bill’s wife.”
    “I heard you got a raw deal. Maybe I can help.”
    Alice closed the door on Lennox’s face.
    “I used to be a cop,” Lennox said through the door.
    A brown-haired woman in a raincoat stepped out of the apartment next door.
    Lennox changed strategy, raised her voice. “I’m not going away.”
    The brown-haired woman locked her door, shot Lennox a puzzled look before she headed towards the elevator.
    “I’ve got a good idea why Bill Pike gave you the ten thousand dollars.” Lennox’s voice near echoed down the long hallway. Apparently that did the trick. The chain slipped off and Alice opened the door.
    Quiet girl, steady worker, the only extraordinary thing about Alice was her looks. She was tall, the same height as Priscilla. Bill Pike seemed to have a thing for tall, leggy brunettes, difference being while Priscilla was about four inches wide, the only word for Alice was voluptuous.
    “You trying to get me evicted?” she said.
    Her full breasts perched high in the Tex Mundi tee shirt she was wearing. Her thighs were curvy. Her hair a dark mass of curls falling past her shoulders.
    “We need to talk,” Lennox said.
    “Just what I need,” Alice muttered. “Another person sticking their nose up my life.” She left the door half opened.
    Lennox followed her into a studio apartment. Large uncurtained windows dominated two walls of the room. One direction took in a half-finished glass high-rise, the other direction overlooked a