Strangled Prose (22 page)

I stuck out my hand. “You owe me five dollars.”

Hendrix rummaged through his pocket and returned the bill. “I'm sorry about that, ma'am, but the lieutenant told me to watch out for a woman with red hair. He said she'd—” He halted, glanced in terror at Lieutenant Rosen, and backed out of the room, his mouth still open.

“Humph!” I snorted in the ensuing silence.

At last the lieutenant cleared his throat. “I seem to detect a certain emotional barrier between us, Mrs. Malloy.”

“I just assumed we didn't much like each other, Lieutenant Rosen.”

“Oh, really?” Insufferably egotistical.

“Ask your wife to explain it to you.”

“I can't. My ex-wife lives in Montana and we communicate through lawyers. They'd never understand.”

“Then it will remain a mystery, won't it?” I murmured, pleased with my nefarious ploy. “You may never understand why women don't fall into your arms whenever you crook your little finger.”

“Why don't you let me run the investigation, for a change?”

It was time for a second drink. At the bar, I raised my eyebrows in response to the broad, pearly grin that shone across the room like the rising sun. I flashed all my teeth back at him.

“Have at it, Sherlock.” He could think whatever he preferred. Who was I to meddle in a CID investigation?

A
LSO BY
J
OAN
H
ESS

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STRANGLED PROSE

Copyright © 1986 by Joan Hess.

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-25146

ISBN: 0-312-96864-7

EAN: 80312-96864-9

St. Martin's Paperbacks edition / November 1998

St. Martin's Paperbacks are published by St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

eISBN 9781466815728

First eBook edition: September 2013