Free Caliber Detective Agency - Box Set - Case Files 1-6 by Donald Wells Page A

but what’s this about? She did kill him in self-defense, right?”
    Velma nodded. “As far as we know, yes, but we’re just trying to tie up some lose ends.”
    “Such as?”
    “Well, what about Gary Rollins? He was Reuben’s best friend according to Mira.”
    “True, but what Reuben didn’t know is that he was also pretty friendly with Mira, that is, when Reuben was at work.”
    “Mira and Gary Rollins were lovers?” Velma said.
    “I never caught them in the act, but he spent a lot of time over there when Reuben wasn’t home.”
    “Maybe that’s why they were getting divorced; maybe Reuben found out about them.”
    “It could be; I know I haven’t seen him around lately.”
    “I saw Gary and Reuben together yesterday; and there didn’t seem to be any love lost between them. What’s Gary do for a living?”
    “He’s a lawyer,”
    “You wouldn’t happen to know where he lives, would you?”
    Sammy smiled and pointed toward the floor.
    “Fifth floor, apartment 5-H,”
    ***
    G ary Rollins opened his door and stared at them.
    “Is this about Reuben?”
    “Yes,” Chris said, while taking Rollins’ measure. Like his recently deceased best friend, Reuben, Gary Rollins looked to be in exceptional condition. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt and his biceps bulged with his slightest movement.
    Rollins squinted at them. “Are you two cops?”
    “We’re private detectives; Mira Asher hired us to protect her from Reuben.”
    “Someone should have protected him from her, no?”
    “You don’t sound as if you like Mira much.”
    “I always told Reuben that she was a bitch, and now she’s killed him. I think she only married him in the first place because she knew that someday he’d inherit his father’s business, Reuben’s dad was already sick when they met, and to make things worse, she made him go deep into debt to buy that dress shop for her.”
    “If you disliked her so much then why were you sleeping with her?” Velma said.
    Gary Rollins looked surprised by her knowledge, but then he shrugged.
    “She threw herself at me, more than once, and well, you’ve seen her. What man wouldn’t want to sleep with her? But now I know she did it just to end my friendship with Reuben, but the bitch miscalculated, Reuben didn’t just end our friendship, he also ended his marriage, or would have.”
    Velma smiled at him. “May we come in?”
    “No. Anything else?”
    “Yes,” Chris said. “Your upstairs neighbor, Sammy, how do you feel about him?”
    “He’s too damn nosy for his own good.” Rollins said, and a moment later, he slammed the door shut.
    ***
    O n the ride back to the office, Chris and Velma discussed what they learned.
    “Sammy was right about Mira and Rollins being lovers, but his hatred for Mira also seemed genuine.” Velma said.
    “Do you think he could be Mira’s partner?”
    “Maybe, or maybe there’s someone else that we haven’t come across yet.”
    Velma’s phone rang and she answered it; it was Jake with news.
    “Tommy got the lab reports back on those guns. The one that Mira killed her husband with had a trace of blood on it. On a hunch, he checked it against the men Reuben supposedly mugged, and there’s a match. Granddad thinks that she meant to plant that one on her husband, but got confused. The cops are headed over there now to bring her in for questioning.”
    “That’s good news, maybe she’ll give up her partner in order to make a deal.”
    Velma ended the call and soon they were back at Caliber . When they entered the office, they heard the news.
    “Mira won’t be making any deals,” Jake said.
    Chris looked at him. “Why not?”
    “She’s dead, when the cops went to her dress shop; they found her dead of an overdose of sleeping pills with a suicide note typed out on her laptop, in the note, she says that she can’t live knowing that she murdered someone, even if it was in self-defense.”
    “That still doesn’t explain what drove Smith to rush to the