Free Deadly Deceptions by Linda Lael Miller

so free with the gory details, okay? I could get fired if anybody finds out I called you from the crime scene.”
    Guilt washed over me. I bit my lower lip. Who needs collagen when you can get the plump look by gnawing on yourself? “I might have let something slip to Tucker,” I confessed.
    Jolie stared at me, her eyes going huge and round. She was beautiful, even clad in khaki shorts, a Phoenix PD T-shirt and hiking boots. Her long hair, done up in about a million skinny braids, was tied back with a twisted bandana. “Mojo Sheepshanks,” she said, “you didn’t tell him I told you about Alex?”
    â€œHe guessed,” I said.
    â€œRight,” Jolie snapped, glaring.
    â€œNot to worry,” I said, holding up two fingers pressed close together. “He and I are like that. ”
    Jolie swirled an index finger around one temple. “You and Tucker are like this. Both of you are crazy!”
    â€œTucker isn’t,” I said.
    Jolie turned back to the soup, her spine rigid.
    â€œYou’re going to have to sit with Greer tonight,” I told her. “So I hope you don’t have any plans.”
    Jolie didn’t look at me. “And where will you be?”
    â€œI have some investigating to do.”
    Jolie muttered something I didn’t quite catch, but I thought I heard the words real job in there somewhere.
    â€œI’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said. “And how hard can it be to hang out with Greer for a couple of hours?”
    Jolie rounded her eyes at me.
    Just then the front door crashed open, and Greer came in. She went immediately to the cupboards and started ripping through them, a one-armed marauder. She found a package of Oreos—Nick liked to smell them, and even though I seriously doubted he’d ever be back, I kept them around just in case—and started stuffing them into her mouth, two at a time.
    I figured a size-twenty-two wardrobe might be one of the dark secrets hidden in my foster sister’s mysterious past.
    â€œAlex is dead,” she said, spewing crumbs. “He’s dead! ”
    Jolie and I exchanged glances.
    â€œSit down, Greer,” I said as Jolie pulled back a chair and pushed her into it. Greer looked up at us, her mouth rimmed with cookie dust.
    â€œWhat?” I threw in when nobody spoke, hoping it sounded as if the news had come as a shock.
    â€œThe bastard isn’t off boinking some floozy,” Greer informed us, wild-eyed. “He’s a cadaver!”
    â€œCalm down,” I said, “and tell us what happened.”
    Greer’s eyes filled with tears. She opened her mouth, shoved in three more Oreos and tried to talk around them. “I just got a call from the police,” she said, the words garbled. “Some hikers stumbled across Alex’s body in the desert this morning. He’d been shot. ”
    I tossed Jolie a See? She’s surprised kind of look.
    Jolie took the soup off the burner and set the saucepan aside.
    â€œWhat am I going to do?” Greer asked.
    Jolie pulled up a third chair and sat down. “You can start by telling us whether or not you killed him,” she said.
    Greer gasped, and then went into a choking fit. Obviously she still hadn’t swallowed all the Oreo residue.
    I jumped up and pounded on her back, while Jolie got her some water.
    â€œKilled him?” Greer gasped once she’d recovered the ability to breathe.
    â€œThe man was probably cheating on you,” Jolie said evenly after flinging a shut-up glance in my direction. “He’d moved out and you hired Sherlock here to get the proof. The police are going to want to know if you offed him, Greer, or paid somebody else to do it.”
    Greer bolted for the bathroom.
    Power vomiting ensued.
    â€œGood work,” I told Jolie in a harsh whisper. “Why didn’t you just ask her how much she stood to inherit and when she plans to remarry?”
    Jolie