Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (28 page)

"
Fine.
I'm coming with you," he said. "I'll wait in the hall. Don't approach her
. Just make sure she's in there
,
then come out as soon as she leaves. I'll catch her outside."

"Okay."
W
e walked hand-in-hand to the narrow hallway that veered off, away from the dance floor, towards the bathrooms.

Just as we entered the hallway
,
I caught a flash of red hair by the door to the ladies
’
. I hurried forward, teetering in the stripper heels. A groping
couple
peeled away from the wall
, blocking our view momentarily,
and we stepped past them, avoiding eye contact
when they turned to assess us
. Behind them
,
the hallway was empty. A thought occurred to me. I really, really hoped I wasn't about to walk in on the red head and her new man doing the nasty in a public restroom
,
but
my
nosiness won out
. Plastering on my game face, I ducked inside the bathroom and walked forward
, hips about three inches
ahead of
my icked-out face and pulled-back shoulders,
poised
to leave the moment I heard any humping.

"Hello?" I called.

I pushed the first stall door and it opened, clanking against the stall divider
before
sw
i
ng
ing
shut again. Empty. I tried the second, then third. At the fourth, I got something. No woman in a red bob, but the lid of the
toilet tank
was slightly askew. I stepped inside and looked closer. I could see small scrape marks around the edges. The lid hadn't been moved by accident
,
but worked off. I peeked inside
,
but couldn't see anything
except
water and the flush mechanism
.

Stepping out of the stall, I looked around. No one was in the bathroom and there weren't any s
ecurity cameras.

My reflection i
n the
mirrors
frowned back at me. There was only one reason someone would have fiddled with the
toilet
ta
nk
on a club night, other than to fix it. It was the perfect place to hide something small.

I left the bathroom and rested my back against the wall
,
next to Maddox, leaning in to talk to him. "No one's in there," I said. "Bu
t I think something was hidden in one of the
toilet tanks
—the lid was off—and
whatever it was, the red head's got it."

Maddox scanned the hallway towards the dance
floor
and didn’t say anything about how farfetched my idea seemed, which gave him extra points
. "She didn't come back out this way," he said, turning
to look the other way, past me. He jerked forward, st
epp
ing
past me,
and
jogg
ed
along the hallway. I followed him through an
“
Employees O
nly
”
door at the end
,
and saw a dark blur then a flash of red.
Someone squealed.
A bang, barely audible over the pumping music, rang out and Maddox broke into a run as a rush of light suddenly lit up the room as the exterior door opened and banged shut.

I
barreled
as fast as I could on high heels
out of the emergency exit moments after Maddox
.
T
he cold night air blast
ed
over me as I found myself on a small iron platform, one story up. I just had time to look down, see Maddox jump the last few steps off the fire escap
e and
race
into the alley
,
swallowed up in the darkness
.

I turned, my arm knocking the door
,
and it banged shut. An alarm sounded inside, probably alerting someone that a door h
ad unexpectedly
opened. I sighed and looked down. Maddox was off chasing someone
,
and I had no hope of keeping up in the heels. I gave the door a hopeful tug, but it
was
shut tight.

Shiver
ing
against the cold, I wrapped my arms around myself and tutted. The only way forward was down
, unless I wanted to wait for whomever
to come and
investigate the door opening
. Clinging onto the railings, I made my way down the rickety fire escape,
my spiked heels catching in the
steps’
iron
mesh
surfaces
. As I hit ground zero, I
pull
ed
a face
and groaned
.
I landed in something soft on putting my foot down.
Typical. Maddox got to run after the bad guy. I got to stand in garbage
,
wearing
a hooker dress.

Looking
around me at
the litter-strewn
dark alley,
the
overflowing dumpster probably the
source
of the disgusting
ly ripe
smell,
I knew I was stuck. Running into the dark would be as stupid as standing still. M
y best hope was to make my way to the front of the club and find Lily, or wait for Maddox to
pick
me
up
there.

I took a couple of steps forward, stumbled, and with
both
arms flailing to steady myself, I tripped
and
land
ed
palms down. "Oh, gre
at," I mumbled in annoyance as I
peeled my hands off something dark and sticky. I hoped I hadn't cut myself in the fall because God knows what was breeding in this alley
,
seeking
a human host
.

I rocked backwards, crouched on my haunches and took a deep breath, preparing to wobble back to my feet. I brushed my hands against my hotpants,
my dress somewhere around my hips
. I
looked for something to
grab onto and
help me up
.

M
y breath caught.

A
pale
leg protruded across the alley. Not a mannequin, not a fake limb, but something fleshy and undeniably human. Worst of all, it wasn't moving. I followed the line of the leg
, past a limp knee to a scrap of fabric and
higher
up
until I saw her
face
.

There was no way the red head was ever going to talk. She sat like a ragdoll propped against the wall, her fists clenched to her side
s
, her
red
wig slightly askew
. Blood trickled from h
er mouth and dri
pped onto her top. Her chest bore an unmistakable bullet wound,
leaving
the flesh puckered around the hole. I froze, unabl
e to move,
but
unable to look away. She was dead.

"Deep breaths," I whispered,
trying to focus
on breathing in and out
as my stomach heaved and I turned away
.

Maddox would not be a wimp. Maddox would look for a clue. I steeled myself as I turned back to her. Yep. Still dead. I edged closer and
looked over her
,
when I noticed something
jutting
out of her ha
nds. I reached forward gingerly
and gr
as
ped the object
, giving it a little tug
. It slipped through her still warm fingers. In my hand
,
I had a small
silver
key
ring
, no fob
.
Flicking through them,
feeling awful,
I guessed the keys were
to her
house,
her
car
,
and
two
smaller ones,
probably
locker keys. I forced myself to check her other palm
,
and
this
time
,
I found
a
single small key. I snatched my hand back
and stared at her
.

God. I’d just robbed a body. Sort of.

Something rustled behind me and I glanced over my shoulder
in alarm, expecting
to find t
he shadow of her murderer
looming
over me
. Nothing. No Maddox. No mystery man. No Solomon. Now would be the perfect time for Solomon. What was the safe word again? I scrabbled through my memory, gulping.

"Scarlet," I whispered, hoping the receiver picked up my voice. "Scarlet!
Very, very scarlet,
"
I squeaked.

The shivering took on a life of its own
,
and feeling sick to my stomach
,
I straightened up
, subconsciously yanking the dress hem to a more appropriate
length
.

My hunch about the red head was right. Whatev
er happened
to
Martin Dean
, she knew something. Maybe she knew who killed him, or what he was involved in.
I looked at the single, solitary key in my hand.
Perhaps he had trusted her
to look after something for him?
We were just too late.