Free Melissa Bourbon Ramirez - Lola Cruz 01 - Living the Vida Lola by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez Page A

him, uncharacteristically submissive, and walked away. Neat trick. Guess Manny had won the battle. What the heck had he done to turn her into a Stepford detective?
    My creative brain concocted the absurd theory that they were sleeping together—or had. Yuck. It was too horrible to contemplate, and yet… It might explain why he tolerated her unprofessional behavior and why she fell back into line at the slightest reprimand. I suspected that once a woman had Manny Camacho, it’d be tough to give him up.
    Unless, of course, she had someone like Jack Callaghan waiting in the wings.
    Still, I had trouble imagining Manny and Sadie doing the zigzag. I’d have to pick Reilly’s gossipmonger brain some more about the idea. Maybe put it on my list of things to investigate off the clock. Inquiring minds wanted to know!
    After I found Emily.
    Neil headed off to work on his own confidential cases. And that was that. Class dismissed.
    I went through Emily Diggs’s file and found that Walter Diggs, Emily’s brother and Camacho’s client, had supplied the last known address for his niece. With any luck, she’d still live there—and she’d be home.

 
     

Chapter 5
     
     
    A llison Diggs’s small house sat close to the sidewalk on a seedy-looking side street off Del Paso Boulevard. There were no spaces available at the curb—didn’t anyone on this street work? I parked in the short driveway, tucked my CDs into the glove box, and made sure nothing valuable was in plain sight. Slipping my backpack purse on, I peered up and down the street, climbed out of my car, and locked the doors.
    Cracks in the driveway splintered out from underneath my car. The postage stamp front yard was overgrown, weeds long ago choking out any trace of lawn. I headed up the short walkway, stepping over cracks, not wanting to break any backs, least of all my own.
    Something scurried past my feet, and I shrieked. It was either a small cat or a large rat.
Ew!
I toe-sprinted through the rest of the growth, leaping up to the front stoop.
    A young woman stared blankly at me from behind a shredded screen door, clutching a smoldering cigarette between two fingers. Even through the aged mesh of the screen, I could see a tattoo creeping down her arm. Leopard print, in full color. Very high-class. “Hi,” I said, darting a glance behind me, stillon the lookout for the furry creature. The low buzz of a fan came from inside the house.
    “Yeah?” Smoke crept out of the girl’s mouth as she spoke.
    “I’m looking for Allison Diggs.”
    Nothing. No response. More smoke.
    I rifled through my purse and held out a business card, hoping to detect some sign of acknowledgment.
    She pushed the screen door open and took the card from my hand. Her dwindling cigarette was in a death grip between her lips, and the smoke filtered up into her face. Very attractive. She must spend a fortune on Altoids.
    The steady purr of the fan filled the dead air while she studied the card. It seemed to take an eternity. I couldn’t tell if she was a slow reader or just high. Really, I didn’t care. I was too concerned about the mutant rat that lurked somewhere behind me.
    Finally, she cracked open the door and, just as the fan circulated in my direction, flicked the gray ash that hung from her cigarette onto the porch. I jumped back and turned my head to avoid a faceful of cigarette dust. Lovely.
    She leaned against the screen door, holding it open. “So, are you Allison?” I asked again.
    “Yeah.” She smashed her cigarette butt into a rusted sand-filled coffee can that sat next to the door, and then she moved aside, making room for me to pass. No “nice to meet you” or “come on in.” Whatever.
    I pasted a smile on my face as I peered into the depths of her house, wishing I’d worn my crucifix or that I had a hunk of garlic in my purse—or a gas mask. The fan was clearly useless in the smoke dungeon.
    The screen door slapped closed behind me, and I automatically tensed,