Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

out the window….”
    “Yeah?”
    “Captain Woods.”
    “Big Billy. Double B. The boss,” Reggie said. “Why am I not surprised?”
    “Why aren’t you surprised?”
    “Big Billy really enjoys closing a case, especially a hot one.”
    “So I’ve heard. And he’s not above helping the evidence along a little bit, is he?”
    “I don’t know anything for sure. It’s not good for him if a case goes cold.” Reggie seemed like he wasn’t going to budge from that. I decided to send up a flare and see if I could light him up.
    “And this is how he urges it along? Puts the frame on someone if he can’t find the real deal?” I was surprised to hear the outrage in my voice. I thought I was a little more jaded than that.
    “Maybe he wants to make a run at the Sheriff’s job. You know how it works, the more cases you close, the better it looks. He likes to keep his percentages low,” Reggie said.
    “You think Captain Woods put it there to set Jazz up?”
    “Got you wondering when I told you I gave it to Jazz, didn’t it?”
    “Maybe you put it there for revenge.”
    Reggie glared at me, and I wondered if I’d taken things too far.
    “Don’t push your luck, Randall. Friendship only stretches so far.” Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    143

    I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe someday I’d learn how to handle an interrogation with a little more tact, but when I got on the trail, sometimes I forgot to look to the right and left. “So why would Big Billy have it in for Jazz?”
    “He doesn’t care about Negroes. Maybe he heard Marguerite had a thing for Jazz.” Reggie shrugged and settled back to watch Jazz some more.
    “Where would he hear that?”
    “I don’t sit in his pocket, Grey.”
    “White girl, black boy. That would sell in most places.” I swung the pendant absently, watching the glitter as it caught the light. “So Big Billy is dirty.”
    “Didn’t say that.”
    “Come on, a law-and-order type who goes to plant evidence in the girl’s apartment? It’s a little late to backpedal, Reggie. I have it on good authority that he’s in bed with Mr. X—”
    Reggie’s hand clamped over my mouth to shut me up. “Not here, you idiot!”
    I pulled his hand away. “What? Why not?”
    “Because Mr. Martin works for Mr. X, and his walls have ears.” Reggie nodded at the sarcastic number, who glared at us but kept his distance, even though Reggie’s glass was empty and mine nonexistent.
    “Who searched the place after she was first found?” I asked.
    “Captain Woods took a few men over. Guthrie was there, I think.”
    “You think Guthrie knew the girl before?”
    “Guthrie?” Reggie laughed. “You think he was a crossing guard on her first day of school and she kicked him in the shin, so he waited till she was an adult and killed her? It’s not like you to be whimsical.”
    “All right, what was so important to send you guys tearing over there to rip the place apart today?”
    “You’ll have to get that someplace else. Try Lieutenant Steele.” Reggie sniggered at the thought. “I’ve already told you too much.” 144

    CATT FORD

    “And if I ask if you’d swear that Captain Woods sent you to search Saint-Ville’s apartment?”
    “Just doing my job,” Reggie said. There was an unpleasant hint of triumph in his eyes. “Like any good cop. Just following orders.”
    “Where have I heard that song before?” I snarled.
    He went white with rage. “Look, you’ve done enough damage for one night. Scram!”
    “Sure,” I said. “Thanks for nothing. I’ll tell your boyfriend you sent me when I go to ask him about this.” I flipped the pendant like tossing a coin, and Reggie made a snatch for it, but I was too quick for him. “Tails. You lose.”

    IT WAS simple enough to slip behind the curtain unnoticed and find my way to Miss Tina’s dressing room. Jazz was still onstage with the rest of the band, but she was busy touching up her makeup when I found her room.
    Her hair was down and hanging in waves around her face. I noticed three wig stands. Two of them had wigs styled in an updo, one black, one blonde. Quick way of making a costume change.
    She caught my entrance in the mirror and gave me an automatic, seductive smile, fluttering her false eyelashes. “The men’s room is back towards the bar.” She spun on her stool and looked me over coolly.
    “Unless you came to see me, honey.”
    Her voice was like honey too, slow and dripping