Free Murder on Olympus by Robert B Warren Page A

ingredient be?
    As I lounged on the recliner, waiting for the secret ingredient to be revealed, my mind wandered. Two Gods had been murdered, children of Zeus and Hera. Who was the killer? What was their angle? And what did they hope to gain out of all this? Those were the questions of the hour.
    But they weren’t mine to answer.
    When the sun came up, I showered, got dressed, and headed over to the Stone residence. Collin didn’t work weekends. It was afternoon before he finally came out of the house, wearing a green polo and khaki shorts. A pair of sunglasses hid the black eye Enyo had given him. I wondered how he’d explained the injury to Bellanca. I bet he told her that he’d been mugged again, or that he had fallen down a flight of stairs. Or maybe he went with the ever-popular I-ran-into-a-wall story.
    I followed him to Enyo’s mansion and parked on the parallel street. I turned on my dashboard camera and waited for the action to start.
    Collin rang the bell. Enyo answered the door wearing a black bra and tight red sweatpants. Without so much as a hello, she grabbed Collin by the collar and yanked him into the house. The door slammed shut.
    After an hour, the door burst open and Collin ran outside in his boxers. The rest of his clothes were bundled in his arms. Enyo ran out after him, in a pair of black panties and no bra. Her breasts were all but nonexistent. Metal rings flashed in both her nipples. In her hand, she clutched one of Collin’s brown loafers. She shouted something and flung it at him.
    The shoe struck Collin in the back of the neck and caused him to stumble and fall. The clothes tumbled out of his arms. Picking them up never seemed to cross his mind. He scrambled to his feet and ran like a frill-necked lizard to his car. He started the engine and screeched out of the driveway.
    Enyo chased him down the road and out of view of the camera. It would have been nothing for a Goddess to catch up with a speeding car. So when she returned to her driveway without a mangled bumper in hand, I assumed she had let Collin escape. She snatched up Collin’s shirt, ripped it in half, and threw the pieces onto the lawn. She then stormed into the house, slamming the door behind her.
    I shut off the camera. A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. Collin’s dirt was finally catching up with him. Unfortunately for him, his problems were about to get even worse. It was time to show Bellanca the footage.

16
    Monday morning, I was editing the footage of Collin in my office when Hermes made another impromptu appearance.
    “Good morning, Mr. Jones.”
    “What do you want now?”
    “You should know the answer to that by now.” Hermes sat down and crossed his legs. “I told Zeus about your involvement in last weekend’s investigation.”
    “Is that so?”
    “Yes. He was pleased. He strongly insists that you reconsider helping us.”
    I closed my laptop. “Is everyone on Olympus hard of hearing? I am not—I repeat—am not investigating the murders.”
    “I think you will,” Hermes said with a straight face.
    “Zeus pays you to think now?” I said. “You do everything your daddy tells you to do?”
    Hermes returned a humorless laugh and stood up. He removed his sunglasses and slipped them into his pocket. “At first I found your impertinence to be quite amusing. But now you’re starting to piss me off.”
    I shrugged. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    Hermes reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves. He slid one onto his hand. I felt a twinge of fear in my gut. Inconspicuously, I opened my desk drawer, where I kept my gun.
    “You are, as they say, a tough nut to crack.” Hermes tugged the other glove onto his hand. “Zeus suggested that I come up with more . . . creative forms of persuasion.”
    Every muscle in my body tightened. The pulse in my neck throbbed. My hand was poised above the open drawer.
    “You think that by roughing me up, I’ll agree to help you?” I