Free The Saucy Lucy Murders by Cindy Keen Reynders Page A

“Why?”
    “Can’t tell you on the phone. Meet me at the Westonville police station today.”
    “I’m covering the café alone this week.”
    “Then I’ll come over to Moose Creek Junction. But I won’t be able to get away till Friday night.” The line was silent a moment. “Have dinner with me.”
    “Dinner?” Lexie squeaked. She had to admit, the prospect of him coming here seemed somehow safer. She had the impression that if she went to the police department in Westonville she’d get sucked into a deep, dark jail cell and never come out again.
    “How about six?”
    “I never said yes.”
    “You’re still under suspicion, lady.”
    “All right,” she agreed reluctantly, hating the way
under suspicion
sounded. “I just need to be done by seven-thirty. I have a … a prior engagement.” Man, she definitely needed to find Whitehead’s murderer so the police would leave her alone. It was getting too hot to handle.
    “A date?”
    “I think that’s none of your business, Detective.”
    “It’s my business to make sure you don’t travel outside of Moose Creek Junction.”
    “Believe me, my brother-in-law would draw andquarter me if I ventured beyond the boundaries of our fair little berg. I’m just going to MacGreggor’s Pub. In fact, they serve some awesome buffalo burgers and steaks. We could have dinner there.”
    “You
eat
buffalo around here?”
    “Never heard of buffalo burgers? Where are you from? The dark side of the moon?”
    He chuckled. “New York.”
    “You’re a long way from home, detective. Why did you move out here?”
    “Be there Friday at six,” he growled, and hung up.
    Ru roh.
Lexie sensed she’d ventured into the forbidden waters of Stevenson’s past and he was not happy.
    Lexie hung up in somewhat of a daze. The man, Deputy Dog as she referred to him in her mind, had ticked her off, but he’d definitely piqued her interest, too. How was it possible he could annoy her and intrigue her, all at the same time?
    It was baffling.

C HAPTER 4
    M OM, COULD YOU SEND ME $50?”
    Lexie hugged the phone to her shoulder as she slid into her jeans skirt, then leaned over to slip on her high heels. It was Friday and she had actually dredged up a skirt, low cut blouse, and sexy shoes from her closet for the MacGreggor Pub investigation, thinking the male patrons might be more talkative if they could see a little leg and cleavage.
    Or was it because she was having dinner with Gabe Stevenson?
    Brushing the latter idea from her mind, she concentrated on her daughter and her latest crisis, a little peeved by the tone of her greedy greeting. “Gee, and how are you dear? What was your week like at school? And did you miss me? Of course you did.”
    “Sorry, Mom. I just really need the cash.”
    Lexie straightened and clipped on hoop earrings. Studying her face in her dresser mirror, she applied makeup from a mostly untouched basket ofcosmetics. “Well, I really need to know what’s going on. I don’t speak with you for a week, and out of the blue you call needing money? It doesn’t sound good.”
    Annoyed, Lexie glanced at her watch. Stevenson expected her at MacGreggor’s in a half hour. It was as if Eva had ESP and knew Lexie didn’t have the time to argue. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what was up. She was a mom, first and foremost.
    “Trust me. It’s going for a good cause.”
    Like what? Save the whales?
    Lexie sighed and fluffed her hair like the women in all those glamour magazines, then spritzed it with hair spray. “Hon, I asked last weekend if you needed anything. I would have bought it for you before you went back to school.”
    “But I
don’t
need anything, Mom. The money is for something, um … different.”
    Oh my God. She’s getting a belly button ring. Or maybe a tattoo …
    Lexie’s mind reeled for a minute. She wanted to ask Eva if that’s what the money was for, but then she’d stew and fret if Eva confirmed what she feared. No, maybe it was