Finders Keepers Losers Die

by Carolyn Scott

  I seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

  Fortunately, he wasn't at the office when I arrived. Only one person was. Someone who made me want to turn around and go right back to the psycho I'd just left. Even Mad Max and his putrid habits were better than what greeted me at the office of Knight Investigations.

  CHAPTER 14

  "Cat," said Tanya with a smile that made my skin crawl. "You made it." She checked her fake Cartier watch. It had to be fake because she wasn’t a supermodel and I was pretty sure she couldn't afford the real thing.

  "It's a miracle, isn't it?" I said, breezily. "Unfortunately my manicurist couldn't fit me in. So here I am." I threw my handbag onto my chair and took off my denim jacket with a jaunty flourish.

  Going by her catty smile, my attempt at being upbeat didn't fool her. Guess my panda bear look was a dead giveaway that I was hungover and feeling like someone had scrubbed my brain with sandpaper.

  Did I already say I'd never drink again?

  "Forgetting your place again, Tanya?" I said, pronouncing her name the way she hates. I sounded as catty as she looked but I couldn't help it. My head hurt, my tongue felt heavy, and I just didn't like the bitch.

  "Pardon me?"

  Even the way she said those two words grated on my nerves. I mean, why can't she say "huh?" like regular people? And why had she gone all Gwyneth Paltrow with the fake British accent she'd mysteriously acquired over the last few months?

  "You don't work here any more," I elaborated. "Why do you care when I arrive?"

  "Will's still…a friend."

  I snorted. Friend, my ass.

  She gave me the evil eye. "I'm looking out for him since he's not here to see what his staff are up to."

  "Carl and I do the same amount of work whether Will's here or not."

  "Yes," she said haughtily, "that's what I suspected."

  Oh boy. Someone hold me back before I wiped the condescending smile off her face with my fist.

  Not that I'd ever resort to violence. Not that I could. She was several inches taller than me and choreographed, theatrical combat moves probably wouldn't win against her talons.

  "It seems Will doesn't consider you as much of a close friend as you consider him," I said, "otherwise he would have mentioned that I was working this morning."

  "What could you possibly have to do out of the office that doesn't involve fetching coffee?"

  "Oh, didn’t he tell you? I'm now an investigator. I was working on my first case."

  The stunned stare was priceless but she regained her composure quickly. "You?" She snorted. "An investigator? What of? Bargain basements?"

  "Actually I'm involved in a murder case. But I can't talk about the details." Ooh. That felt good. The shocked silence that followed felt even better. One for Cat. "So how did you get in here? Still got a key? Because maybe you should hand it over, in light of…well, you know."

  Tanya's face clouded and for a moment I thought I'd gone too far and I'd have to apologize. But she held it together and I swallowed my apology, even though a little bit of guilt lingered.

  "I didn't steal from Will," she ground out in a staccato beat. "I told him that and now I'm telling you.” She leaned over my desk, knuckles resting on a stack of filing. "But I suppose you're the one who started the rumor." She practically threw the words at me.

  "Actually, I—"

  "Well, let me tell you something. First of all, you can get your grubby little claws out of my man. It's not over between me and Will. It never will be."

  "It isn't? That's not what—"

  "Just ask him."

  "I did and—"

  "And secondly, I did not steal any money from this office. Will believes me."

  "But all the evidence points to you, Tanya."

  Fury spilled from the cracks in her carefully manufactured persona. She'd lost her English accent, droplets of spittle landed on the keyboard every time she said a word with an S, and the way she bared her teeth like a fighting dog was definitely not something she learned in modeling school.

  "Fucking hell," she spat across the desk at me, "do you think I'd be intelligent enough to hide it for so long?" She seemed to calm down a little after venting. Her scowl vanished and she moved away from the desk, suddenly looking sheepish. Guess it's not every day she admitted her stupidity to someone she hated.

  "So if you didn't, who did?"

  She lifted one shoulder. "If it was before your time, it must be Carl."

  I ignored the barely veiled slight on my honesty. "Carl? Why would he steal from Will?" I'd already considered him. If it wasn't Tanya, there was no one else. Still, it was too unbelievable. "But Carl's so…nice." I couldn't think of another adjective to describe him. Carl was nice. Boringly so.

  She crossed her arms, looking smug again. "He's not as squeaky clean as you think, Cat." She walked around the reception area with a jaunty catwalk step, looked out the window, then strolled back and hooked me with her amused gaze.

  "Okay, I'll bite. What's he done?"

  She licked her lips, curved in a cocky smile. "He slept with his boss's girlfriend."

  "Will's girlfriend?" Then it hit me. I gasped. "He slept with you. You slept with Carl! While you were seeing Will!" If I didn't think she was a bitch before, I sure did now.

  She looked offended, as if I'd missed the point. "Well, you would too if Will ignored you all the time. You think dating a workaholic is fun?" She snorted again. "He never had enough time for me. He worked most nights and weekends, and when he didn't, he was too tired to go anywhere. I had parties to go to, I was trying to make contacts with modeling agencies but did he attend anything with me? No. Did he go out to dinner with the agents? No."

  "He hates that sort of thing," I said before I even realized I knew that he hated that sort of thing. "He's an ex-cop. He likes eating pizza in front of the TV, not schmoozing with stuck-up snobs." She should have known that.

  "Did he even notice when I slept with Carl?” she went on as if I hadn't said a thing. "No. I flirted with Carl right in front of him, I even wore the same clothes to work two days in a row after I'd spent the night at Carl's, but stupid Will didn't even care." She threw up her hands, as if imploring me to take pity on her.

  Not likely. The whole conversation made me uncomfortable. I was talking to my lover's ex-girlfriend about her affair with his employee while she didn't know I was sleeping with him. Dr. Phil would love it.

  "Uh, Tanya, so how did you get in here?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.

  "None of your business."

  "But it is mine." The voice startled us both, partly because it was so commanding and partly because it belonged to the man we'd just been discussing.

  "Will!" we both said together.

  "I didn't hear the door open," I said pathetically. What else could I say? Did you hear your ex admit she slept with your employee?

  "How long have you been there?" Tanya asked with a nervous little eye flicker. She crossed the floor to him and placed a hand on his chest.

  He stepped aside and glanced at me, his initial gruffness having disappeared, probably because he realized he was living his worst nightmare.

  I raised my brows in a semi-amused question. It could be fun to watch him squirm.

  "Tanya, answer Cat," he said.

  She pouted. "I have a key. Remember? You gave it to me."

  "That was when you worked here." He held out his hand. "I forgot to collect it, but thanks for stopping by to return it."

  She hesitated before placing the key in his palm. Her fingers caressed his hand until he snatched it away, first closed around the key. "Actually, I didn't come to return it," she said, her voice barely audible to me on the other side of the room. "I came to see you. I thought we could go out to dinner again. It was lovely last time. I know a place—"

  "I don't think so."

  "But we connected so well! I really enjoyed myself and I know you did too." She stepped closer to him and wrapped her long, bare ar
ms around his neck. Her nose reached his chin. Mine reached only to his chest. "We could go back to my new apartment after…"

  He disentangled himself from her limbs. "Tanya, you do realize that Cat and I are—"

  "Will!" I shook my head. I don't know why. Call it a gut reaction, but I didn't think Tanya was ready to hear the truth. I knew what it was like to be dumped for another woman and it wasn't fun. I could only imagine how humiliating it would be to be dumped in front of that other woman. Maybe I'm soft, but I couldn't do it to her. Will had to do it somewhere else.

  "What about you and Cat?" she prompted, suspicion making her skin bloodless under her makeup.

  "We, uh, um…" He shrugged.

  "We're working together on the investigation I was telling you about," I said. "He doesn't have time for dinner."

  She didn't seem convinced. "Will? Is that it? You're working on a murder investigation? With your secretary?"

  "Cat is no longer just a secretary around here."

  "You make it sound like I clean sewers for a living," I said.

  Will sighed. "What I mean to say is—"

  "Oh, Will, Darling, be careful." Tanya flung herself into his arms. "It could be dangerous." She hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder.

  Puh-lease. Give me a break.

  He looked past her to me then patted her bare shoulder gingerly, as if her skin was spiky.

  "Um, Tanya, I think we should talk."

  "Yes," I said, moving past them and opening the front door. "In private."

  He raised a brow and I gave him the you-know wink and slit my throat with my finger. Later, I wondered if he realized I meant break it off with her and not kill her.

  Will followed Tanya out and locked the door. "Don't let in any strangers," he shouted through the glass. "And stay inside unless absolutely necessary."

  I rolled my eyes but didn't unlock the door. Maybe it was safer.

  A few minutes later, Carl arrived. He said he'd been in a meeting with one of his clients. I couldn't help studying him as he walked past me. It was bad enough that he'd slept with Tanya, but could he have stolen the money too?

  Was Tanya even telling the truth? I wouldn't put it past her to make it up. I mean, she'd invented the rekindling of her romance with Will, could she have invented the fling with Carl to throw the suspicion elsewhere?

  He didn't seem like the sort to sleep with his friend's girl, but then again, he and Will weren't exactly best buddies. They didn't see each other outside of work, I was sure of that.

  "Hey." He frowned. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

  "What do you think of Tanya?"

  "She's a low-class slut with a high-class attitude. I don't know what Knight ever saw in the bitch."

  All-righty then.

  "Why?"

  I shrugged. "No reason."

  "Cat, you've got nothing to worry about where Tanya's concerned. Will's not going back to her. He knows what she's like now." He turned and disappeared into his office, almost slamming the door behind him.

  What did he mean, Will knew what she was like? Had he told Will about their affair? Or had Will come to his senses on his own?

  Nah, Will worked too hard to have any senses left for romance.

  I passed the time by filing. Five minutes later, I was on the Net, looking up Bank Swiss. They had a branch Downtown but I found nothing else of use. I gave up and was jotting down all my suspects names and the evidence against them when Will returned.

  He wore jeans, which was unusual for Will at the office. They molded to his powerful thighs and hot ass like a comfortable, lived-in skin. But there was nothing casual about the smoldering look he gave me. Guess it wasn't so much fun telling Tanya she was history. "Cat, we need to talk," he said.

  "About Tanya?" It was none of my business, and I'd been determined not to butt in, but curiosity got the better of me. I had to know how she took the news.

  "I told her it was over but I didn't mention you and me. So why didn't you want me to tell her?" He stood by my desk, arms crossed.

  "She wasn't ready to hear that the man she still loved was sleeping with another woman. Trust me, I know."

  He stared at me for a long moment, not blinking, not giving away any thoughts. He didn't move for so long I almost got up and poked him just to make sure he hadn’t turned to stone.

  "Your choice of words are…enlightening," he finally said.

  "What?"

  He shook his head and moved off. "I've got work to do," he growled. "I don't want to be disturbed."

  "But I thought you wanted to talk to me."

  He stopped and turned round. I could tell by the troubled expression that his mind had already turned to work matters. "Oh yeah, right. Last night, you hung up on me."

  "You called me eleven times! I could barely hear you over the noise the first time."

  "Where were you?"

  "Out with Gina."

  "Where?"

  I dug my fingernails into the soft material of my swivel chair. "None of your business," I managed to say oh-so-sweetly.

  He nodded and gave a sort of strangled laugh. Or maybe it was a cough. "How did I know you were going to say that?"

  "Well, what do you expect me to say after you badger me like a possessive husband. We're not married, Will."

  "Not even close," he muttered.

  I didn’t like the ominous way he said it. In fact, I didn’t like what he said either. Why, I couldn’t say. "Right. So I can go wherever I want without reporting to the Gestapo."

  He took a step toward me and stabbed the air with a long finger. "Cat, you were nearly killed yesterday because of a case you're working on for me. Sorry if my concern for your safety cramps your style, but I can't help it."

  "But eleven times—"

  "I couldn't hear you!" he bellowed.

  Sheesh, I was sitting only a few feet away from him. "All right! I get the picture. But in future, if you hear lots of music and drunken voices in the background, I'm probably not being murdered."

  He shook his head, his brow deeply furrowed. With a frustrated grunt, he turned and stormed up to his office. "Don't disturb me unless it's important." He slammed his door.

  Asshole.

  I sat back in my chair and expelled a long breath. Christ, talking to Will was becoming a balancing act. There was a fine line between concern for my safety and possessiveness and he teetered high up on the wire without a protective net.

  I turned back to my computer and stared at the screen, unsure what to do next. I'd wanted to get advice from Will about our approach to the Scarletti case, but in light of that outburst, I’d have to go it alone.

  The website for Bank Swiss was still on the screen but it offered nothing helpful. I looked down at the names on my notepad. Mad Max's admission still played in my mind. Something hadn't been quite right about our interview. I couldn't put my finger on it but it still bugged me, even after I left the office and headed for Doors Galore.

  I sat out front in my Civic and watched. It was the middle of the day and a few customers went in, mostly grungy looking tradesmen. There was no sign of Roberta, Max or Stankovic. Not that I'd expected to see any of them but it would have been useful.

  Since talking to Mad Max, I'd cooled on the idea of Grimes killing Lou, or even having been his partner in crime on the bank robbery. If Max was telling the truth—and that was debatable—then Grimes and Roberta needed Lou alive so they could extort the money from him.

  Unless Lou's death had been unintentional. Then Grimes and Roberta weren't entirely in the clear. Maybe in their frustration they'd resorted to violence.

  Whether innocent or guilty of the murder and the original theft, one thing was for sure. Grimes was one suspicious character. And his relationship with Stankovic had me intrigued. It just didn't add up that the crusty old detective would talk to him alone.

  Boy, the case was beginning to bug me. I'd lost my clothes, my apartment and nearly my life and I'd learned almost zip. I
was tired of being in the dark, tired of being the loser. I wanted to find some answers, damn it.

  And Grimes still seemed like the way to get them. He knew Roberta intimately, he was an acquaintance of Lou's, he knew about the money through Max and he was one greedy man. Not to mention he looked guilty. Someone so slimy couldn't possibly be innocent.

  Before I'd left the office, I'd taken a couple of listening devices out of the storeroom. I waited until a customer walked into Doors Galore and drew Grimes' attention to the back of the large showroom, then I snuck into the office area and placed the device inside a fake potted plant. Easy.

  Well, it should have been easy. Before I could get out, Grimes's customer left and he headed toward the office.

  I broke into a cold sweat as I frantically scanned the room for a place to hide. A desk pushed against the wall, a stained swivel chair and one door. Not a lot of choice. Fuck!

  The door it had to be.

  It led to a bathroom. I slipped inside and silently closed the door as Grimes entered the office. The bathroom wasn't much bigger than a closet. A very small closet, with a toilet, sink and gray tiles that had probably once been white.

  It stank of stale urine and a more sinister, putrid odor that I really didn't want to analyze further. I breathed through my mouth but after a few shallow breaths I could taste it.

  I gently placed the lid on the toilet seat without looking inside and sat down. And waited.

  I could hear Grimes shuffling papers and answering the phone but he never left the office. So I waited some more, until I thought I'd have to lift the toilet seat to pee.

  Apparently Grimes got the same urge because when I was trying hard not to think about going, he walked in.

  "Fucking hell!" He jumped at the sight of me. But his surprise quickly turned to anger. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

  "I, um, had to use the bathroom and since I was driving past I didn't think you'd mind if I stopped in, but you were with a customer and I didn't want to disturb you so I thought I'd come right in and, well, then you came back and I got embarrassed—"

  "Shut up! For fuck's sake, stop talking. Jeez, you've got a mouth on you." He stepped toward me, his fists clenched, a vein bulging in his throat. He looked like a snarling, snapping bulldog, ready to bite my head off if I so much as opened my mouth.