Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

run as well, where he didn’t have to hide behind the curtain. Topaz was the most popular nightclub in town in a prime location on Fremont. But this was Wednesday, and I’d heard he would be here.
    I spotted Reggie. He gave me a nod when I went to his table and sat down uninvited and unwelcomed, and then he ignored me. I watched him watch Jazz while turning it over in my mind.
    The color that matters most in Vegas is green, so the blue uniform didn’t usually get in the way when a man is out to get some of what he 140

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    thinks he’s got coming to him. It was no big surprise to find out the cops were on the take too. It’s easy to say the cops are dirty, but I wondered how the negotiations were conducted to the satisfaction of both parties?
    I pried open the back of Artie’s watch and took out the pendant.
    “Where did you get that?”
    I looked up at Reggie in surprise. He sounded angry, and he looked like he was about to snatch it out of my hand. “I found it. In Marguerite Saint-Ville’s apartment.”
    His face changed, showing a flash of anguish, and then it was gone. He looked a little green around the gills and stood up as if he was about to leave. “That’s it, then.”
    I grabbed his wrist and held on, and he went down in his seat to get me to turn him loose. “Hold on, Reg, I need to ask you some—”
    “Let go of me!”
    “Where have you seen this before?”
    He didn’t want to tell me, but it was his telltale glance at Jazz that explained his big reaction. “You gave this to your boyfriend?”
    “He’s not my boyfriend, but I did give it to him,” Reggie said dully, all the fire going out of him. “He wore it—for a while. Then he said he lost it.”
    “Well, maybe he did.”
    “Where did you say you found it?”
    “Marguerite’s—you think he gave it to her?”
    “He stopped wearing it soon after she started working here.”
    “Maybe she nicked it from him.”
    Reggie laughed. “Yeah, right. A dame wearing diamonds and she couldn’t afford to buy a necklace of her own, so she snuck into his dressing room when he was onstage and copped it.”
    “It could have happened that way. Did you ask him about it?”
    “Would you?”
    “Yeah, I would have. I would have wanted to know.” Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
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    “But you don’t give a damn. You don’t care who you run over when you’re after the truth, do you?”
    It made me feel bad to realize that I hadn’t thought about how he might take it when I’d asked, and that made me angry. “You want me to believe you boys in blue handle witnesses like a delicate flower?”
    “Maybe a witness who’s supposed to be a friend!” I bit my lip. “Sorry.”
    “Okay.”
    “Can we talk now?”
    Awkwardly, Reggie said, “Sorry about earlier, at your office.”
    “I notice you didn’t flinch when Woods took a poke at me.”
    “That would have made it worse.”
    “Yeah, I know.” I watched his eyes stray from me over to Jazz again. “Listen, Reggie. It wasn’t in her apartment when I first got there.
    Maybe he didn’t give it to her.”
    “What’re you talking about?”
    The hope in his eyes just about slayed me, he wanted to believe in Jazz so bad. “When I got there, I tossed the joint, nice and careful, put everything back just like I found it. Well, while I was in there, I heard someone at the door—”
    “And you tiptoed out the fire escape?”
    “No, I went under the bed. I didn’t have time to monkey with the window. Anyway, when he left, I checked the jewelry box and this was in it.” I waved the necklace at him.
    “You probably just missed it before.”
    I shook my head stubbornly. “I knew something was different, so I closed my eyes and visualized what it looked like earlier….” I shrugged. “When I opened it up, this is what jumped out at me. So I took it along. Figured it had to mean something. And then you showed up, along with the other boys in blue.”

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    Reggie laughed without mirth. “It would have meant something if it had been there when we were sent to search the place. I wondered why he seemed so certain that something had been overlooked.”
    “Who are you talking about?”
    “Who planted it?”
    “I couldn’t see anything from under the bed. Just a pair of shoes.”
    “Yeah, and I bet you cowered under there until tomorrow. Don’t string me, Grey.”
    “I didn’t see him do it, you understand, but when I checked