Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

can still do a high kick over your head.” She peered at me deviously, just hoping I would ask. Well, I’m a gentleman, and I can never refuse a beautiful dame.
    “I may need to see that, just as part of the case, ma’am,” I murmured.

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    CATT FORD

    “Call me Lily,” she said. She rose languidly to her feet, letting the stole slip behind her to the floor, and came around my desk like a panther on the prowl, sleek and dangerous.
    She approached my chair, and my nostrils were filled with the feminine scent of her. I sniffed, trying to identify it. Lily of the valley. I can always tell.
    She swung her leg up and over my head with no apparent effort, remaining perfectly balanced. Obviously she had a cleverly concealed slit in her skirt that I’d missed, cut up to the thigh. I applauded. Hey, even a hard-nosed, booze-swilling, seen-it-all dick like me can appreciate talent when I see it. That and she had on some really glam lace-topped stockings.
    “Very nice,” I said, keeping my breathing steady. After all, I was a dick, a private dick, and I know complications when I see them.
    “What does that have to do with your case, Miss Lily?” She remained standing in front of me, crowding me. Not that I minded. But it was odd how she didn’t back away from me. Almost as if….
    I gasped when she suddenly planted her right foot on my chest, my hands gripping the arms of my chair, ready to take her down if she proved dangerous. She leaned forward slightly, increasing the pressure on my chest, applying enough pressure that I knew I would see the mark that the heel of her expensive shoe left there tomorrow.
    She leaned closer, saying, “Mr. Randall, dancers are very flexible.”
    “So am I, ma’am, and if you don’t take your foot off my chest, I may have to show you, and I don’t think you’ll like it very much.” She smiled and increased the pressure of her heel. “If I really put my weight into it, this heel would cut right through you like butter.” I grabbed her ankle, the hose silky to the touch, and pushed her slowly away from me. “I think I get the picture. You could have just told me.”
    She shifted her balance instantly, swinging her leg up and out of my grasp with a little flash of smooth white skin above the black garter, Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
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    spinning away from me before walking back to her chair with a provocative roll of her hips. Even at her age, she was… flexible. She bent to retrieve her stole and pick up her bag.
    “Miss Saint-Ville knew how to take care of herself.” She wasn’t even breathless when she sat down. “Sometimes a girl has to know how to get out of a sticky situation.”
    I brushed off my tie, trying to pretend that it hadn’t hurt. “Nice move.”
    “I was holding back. If I really put my weight into it, this heel would have made you think twice.”
    “I believe you.” I did. She had dancer’s legs, slim but strong. I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley at night if she were mad at me. “So she could have taken a man by surprise with that move.”
    “I know a lot of other moves as well.”
    “And you taught her everything you know.”
    For the first time, I saw a flicker of emotion cross her face. “Not enough, apparently. I taught her all I knew, except how to stay alive.” She looked sad for a moment, but then it was back to business. “You never gave me your rates.”
    “A hundred a day, plus expenses.”
    “You can open your mouth all right.” Miss McIntyre smiled at me as she looked over the office. I knew that she knew I was lying, but she must have wanted someone on the case right away and was willing to pay for it. “I can do better than that.” She opened up her bag and pulled out a five-G stack.
    “Look, you want someone killed, get yourself another dick,” I said.
    “I’ll take care of that part after you find the man,” she said. “I know a lawyer or two.”
    “I don’t carry out revenge,” I told her. “I’ll find him for you, but I’m not going to kill him. I may not even be able to produce enough evidence to bring him to trial, but I’ll find him.”
    “You’re very sure of yourself,” she purred flirtatiously as she 12

    CATT FORD

    settled back in her chair.
    “I should be. I’ve never failed to get my man yet,” I said casually, although I didn’t let on exactly what I meant by that. It was the keeping them that was the tricky part.
    “Oh, I have complete