Free Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt Page A

‘There you are. I was on my way back from the loo and I must have taken a wrong turn. Then I heard a voice and I was about to ask for directions.’ My excuse sounded ridiculously lame.
    He stepped past me and pushed open one of the French doors. He and Johnny Vogue exchanged looks. Vogue shut his phone then inclined his head in an abrupt semi-nod which could have meant anything.
    Delgado grabbed my arm and steered me back towards the ballroom. I didn’t like the way his fingers were digging into my flesh. His face had lost all the colour it had gained from ogling Nick Tozzi’s wife, and was now a furious kind of white.
    ‘Look,’ I said, trying to pull my arm away. ‘I’m not sure I’m the right person for this job you have in mind.’
    ‘Well, I’d think twice before making a decision like that. What did you just hear, Ms Sharp?’
    ‘When?’ I asked dumbly, as we re-entered the ballroom.
    His fingers dug deeper. ‘Don’t bullshit me.’
    ‘N-nothing,’ I said. ‘Nothing. Just a muffled voice.’
    ‘Well, I would stick to that story if I was you.’
    I felt sick. Delgado knew I’d overheard something I shouldn’t have. And now the arsehole was threatening me. For the second time this evening I wished Bok was with me. He knew how to handle even the most practised slime balls. Hell, the fashion industry teemed with them.

Chapter 14
    I WAS SPARED ANSWERING Delgado because an explosion of uniformed police suddenly piled in the doors, one of them holding the leash of a sniffer dog. A couple of the party-goers tried to bale out the windows but there were more cops waiting outside with torches and tasers.
    I saw Delgado reach into his pocket and dump a dozen or so capsules into the drip tray of the ice statue. With his other hand he punched some keys on his cell phone. From the few grunted words he uttered, I guessed that Johnny Vogue had managed to get clear of the fracas.
    Delgado flipped his cell shut, his mouth set in a grim line. I didn’t need to have ESP to know he was trying to figure out who’d tipped off the cops.
    I searched above the heads of the milling crowd but couldn’t see Nick Tozzi. Lucky for him, he’d left before the cops arrived, and taken his wife with him.
    A cop stood up on a chair and told everyone to quieten down! He then explained that it was a raid – doh! – and that each person would be searched for illegal substances. No one was allowed to move unless instructed to do so. The search would proceed as quickly and painlessly as possible – but no attempts to evade the search would be tolerated.
    Sweat ran down the inside of my LBD. I didn’t take drugs, I didn’t have any drugs on me, and yet I felt as guilty as hell. Maybe it was because I was standing next to a gangster’s lawyer.
    The cops had told us not to move so I was stuck there. The best I could do was turn away from Delgado and study the ice statue, pretending we were accidentally caught next to each other, and I didn’t know him.
    I wondered how many others were trying that one.
    The cops worked their way through the crowd while the sniffer dog ran around the room. When the dog stopped beside me I thought I might faint. It flung its paws up on the ice statue table and began to yelp. In a flash I was surrounded by cops.
    Not only that, but the water around the ice statue was slowly turning blue.
    One of the cops produced a vial and scooped up some of the coloured icy water. ‘Could be trail mix,’ he said, holding it up to the light and peering at it.
    Trail mix? What in fuck’s name was that? I glanced behind me. Delgado had taken advantage of the surge of cops around me and slipped further back.
    ‘Identification please, Miss.’
    I jumped. Dammit! The cop was talking to me. I fiddled in my clutch purse and found my driver’s licence.
    ‘Step this way, Ms Sharp,’ he said, after looking at it.
    Two cops escorted me back to the entrance hall and then into a side room. They told me to stand in the centre