Free Swift Justice by Laura DiSilverio Page B

out of the goodness of your heart. You want something.”
    “You wound me,” I said, smiling. “I’m not looking for the murderer,” I assured him. “I’ve got a client who wants me to locate the baby’s father.”
    “The Sprouse girl’s baby?” He chucked a handful of peanuts in his mouth.
    I nodded. I could see him turning that information over in his mind, trying to decide if he was interested in the baby, if it had any bearing on the homicide. “Just stay out of my way,” he finally said, “and if you find out anything that links to thegirl’s death, you let me know pronto. That includes the father’s name.”
    “You didn’t get it from the hospital?”
    “Nope. We can’t find a record of her giving birth in any hospital in the area.” He relaxed against the back of the bar stool, and his sport coat gaped to show the shoulder holster beneath.
    Damn. I’d known the police would try to track down the birth records, and I’d hoped he could make my job easier by telling me what was on the hospital form. The hospital certainly wasn’t going to give me access to anything more confidential than the public restroom.
    “Quid pro quo for the phone number and address: Give me access to the apartment.” I’d run the phone number through the online reverse directory I liked and found that “Lizzy Jones” rented an apartment just off Austin Bluffs, an area populated by University of Colorado at Colorado Springs students.
    “If it’s not the crime scene, I’ll see what I can do.”
    Interesting. Wherever they’d found the body, it wasn’t where she was killed. Pretty much ruled out suicide.
    Montgomery watched me figure that out, a half-smile crooking his mouth. “So, what’s your next step, Super Sleuth?”
    “Interview the parents,” I said. I debated a third beer and decided it would do too much to undermine my policy against gorgeous men. Montgomery’s smile was doing enough to weaken my resolve. “How’d they take the news?”
    “The mother, about like you’d expect. Broke down in tears. The father . . . now, he’s a strange one. Started ranting about ‘the wages of sin is death’ and other Bible stuff. I wasn’tsure if he was saying that Elizabeth deserved to die or if he was going to kill whoever killed her. He’s definitely on my list. Be careful.”
    “Always.” I slid off the bar stool and found myself too close to Montgomery for comfort. A jazz sax sashayed from the speakers, twining its smoky notes around us as if we were the only people in the bar.
    His eyes glinted, and he put his hands on my waist, drawing me in between his thighs. I was absurdly conscious of the strength in his hands, the heat of his body. “Dinner?”
    I surprised him by leaning forward to plant a kiss at the corner of his mouth, then pulling back beyond his reach. “Sorry. I’ve got plans. Rain check?” He didn’t need to know that my plans included shoveling the ton of lava rock I’d had delivered today into a new rock garden in my yard.
    “I must have twenty rain checks already,” he said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you weren’t interested.” He kept his eyes locked on mine as he swallowed the last of his beer.
    “Impossible!” I layered on the sarcasm.
    “Exactly.” He smiled the smug smile of a man who’s made his point and thunked the bottle down on the bar.
     
    (Friday)
     
    Before heading over to the Sprouses’ house the next morning, I stopped by the office to give Gigi an assignment. Going undercover at a fast food joint hadn’t dissuaded her from working as a PI; maybe some interminably boring surveillance would. I didn’t think she was the type who’d be comfortableslouching in a car all day, peeing in a bottle so as not to miss the target if he or she emerged, and keeping a low profile to avoid being spotted. Frankly, I didn’t think she’d last four hours with the job I had in mind, one I’d turned down several times because the missing persons