Free K is for Killer by Sue Grafton Page B

game.
    â€œThis looks all right to me. Honey, what do you think?”
    She held out the contract for him, but he ignored her. She turned back to me. “I’ll be right back. The checkbook’s in the other room. Will a thousand dollars be all right?”
    â€œThat’d be fine,” I said. She left the room, and I turned my attention to him. “It will save me some time if you can give me the names and addresses of Lorna’s friends.”
    â€œShe didn’t have any friends. She didn’t have enemies, either, at least as far as we know.”
    â€œWhat about her landlord? I’ll need his address.”
    â€œTwenty-six Mission Run Road. Name is J. D. Burke. Her place was at the back of his property. I imagine he’d give you the tour if you ask him nice.”
    â€œYou have any idea why she might have been killed?”
    â€œI already told you my opinion,” he said.
    Janice returned to the room, catching my last remark and his response. “Ignore him. He’s a pill,” she said. She took a swat at his head. “You behave yourself.”
    She sat down on the couch with her checkbook in hand. From the glimpse I caught of the check register, it looked as though it had been a while since she’d done her subtraction. She seemed to favor rounding everything off to the nearest dollar, which made all the amounts end in zero. She wrote out the check, tore it off, and passed it over to me, making a note of the check number and the sum. Thenshe scribbled her name at the bottom of the contract and handed it to Mace. He took the pen and added his signature without glancing at the terms. The very gesture conveyed, not indifference, but something close to it. I’ve been in business long enough to smell trouble, and I made up my mind to have Janice pay me as we went along. If I waited to submit a final bill of any substance, Mace would probably get his undies in a bundle and refuse to pay.
    I glanced at my watch. “I better go,” I said. “I have an appointment in fifteen minutes on the other side of town.” I was lying, of course, but these people were beginning to give me a stomachache. “Could you walk me out?” I asked.
    Janice stood up when I did. “Be happy to,” she said.
    â€œNice meeting you,” I murmured to Mace as I departed.
    â€œYeah, ditto for sure.”
    Neither Berlyn nor Trinny was visible as we passed through the living room on our way to the door. As soon as we hit the front porch, I said, “Janice, what’s going on here? Have you told him about the tape? He doesn’t act like he knows, and you swore you would do that.”
    â€œWell, I know, but I haven’t had a chance yet. He’d already gone to work when I got home this morning. This is the first opportunity I’ve had. I didn’t want to mention it in front of Berlyn or Trinny. . . .”
    â€œWhy not? They have a right to know what she was up to. Suppose they have information that’s relevant. Maybe they’re holding something back, trying to be protective of the two of you.”
    â€œOh. I hadn’t thought of that. Do you really think so?”
    â€œIt’s certainly possible,” I said.
    â€œI guess I could tell them, but I hate to tarnish her memory when it’s all we have.”
    â€œMy investigation may turn up worse than that.”
    â€œOh, Lord, I hope not. What makes you say that?”
    â€œWait a minute. Let’s stop this. I can’t be effective if you keep on playing games.”
    â€œI’m not playing games,” she said, her tone indignant.
    â€œYes, you are. You can knock off the bullshit about Lorna, for starters. The detective I talked to says you knew what she was doing because he told you himself.”
    â€œHe did not!”
    â€œI don’t want to get into this ‘did too, did not’ stuff. I’m telling you what he