Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

“And they say men are the logical sex.”
    Okay, no argument from me there. Whatever intuitive leap had caused Lily to arrive at the same hypothetical solution as I had, if we were talking about the same person, I wasn’t going to dislodge her from her perch, and besides, that wasn’t what I was being paid for.
    “I have no evidence that would stand up in a court of law.” George spoke up. “It doesn’t have to go to court.” I nodded. It surprised me a little that he was so deep in Lily’s confidence, but I was guessing it was a lonely life. For all of them.
    “There’s something missing, though.”
    Lily tilted her head questioningly.
    “You like a lot of glitter,” I pointed out.
    She glanced down at her jewelry with an endearingly embarrassed look. Maybe she was a little overloaded, but she could carry it. “You must think I’m just a magpie,” she murmured. “But I do like a little sparkle.”
    Celestine’s black eyes were on fire as she snapped at me.
    “Madame has earned the right to wear these jewels!” Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    165

    “I’m sure she has,” I said courteously, as Lily giggled silently in the background at the indelicate implications of Celestine’s remark. I pointed at the fine platinum chain with the diamonds that disappeared down into her décolletage. “But for a woman with a predilection for the big rocks, you always wear that one modest chain, no matter what other necklace you have on. Why?”
    Lily stuck her hand into her cleavage, clutching something before slowly pulling it out. Compared to her other jewelry, the locket could be described as sweet and simple, not something I would expect to see an eye-stopper like Lily wearing. It was shaped like a four-leaf clover, with a field of red enamel sporting a graceful spray of white lily of the valley on it. She opened the locket to show me a photo of her daughter on one side and a lock of red-gold hair on the other.
    “Marguerite had a matching one,” I guessed.
    She nodded. “Hers was white with a red rose, and she had a photo of me inside. At least she did when I last saw it.”
    “He took it after he killed her,” I said, thinking aloud.
    “But why? Why would he take it?” Lily’s voice was as close to a wail as I guessed she would ever get, with her iron control.
    “Trophy. Some killers like to keep score,” I said. “You saw the marks on her neck where he yanked it off?” Her face went expressionless and hard as she nodded. “Find the locket and you find the killer.”
    Glancing from Celestine to George, I got the sense that this was Lily and Marguerite’s family. They had always been together, and now with this shared tragedy, they would do whatever it took to support Lily. I wondered just how long they’d been with her. Maybe they’d been around to watch Marguerite grow up from a baby into a young woman.
    “Who are your suspects? And why?” Lily asked.
    I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
    “We’ve got all night, Mr. Randall,” George said. I think he was over wanting to give me the bounce.

    166

    CATT FORD

    I started to talk, telling them about the anonymous stalker boyfriend who sent dead flowers and signed himself “B.” For Jazz, I glossed over the queer part but didn’t spare Lily the news that her daughter thought she had the hots for a black man. That didn’t seem to make any difference to her, although I thought she understood at least one possible motivation for killing Marguerite.
    “Marguerite dated a fair number of men,” I started tactfully, “but the way I see it, I’ve got four suspects. Unless there’s someone I don’t know about yet. They all had opportunity and at least two of them were on the spot, but the motives are a little foggy. One is Barry Jazz Morgan, piano player—”
    “He didn’t do it.” George shook his head vehemently.
    “You know him?” Lily turned to him.
    “Since he was a kid. Just can’t believe Barry would kill a woman,” George said.
    “And you, Grey?”
    “I don’t think he did it, either.”
    “But you’ve been fooled before.”
    “Yeah, but something doesn’t gel for me there.” I waited, but Lily didn’t want to flog it to death. “Captain Billy Woods of the police. So far I have no evidence that he even knew Marguerite, I’ve got nothing on him other than he tried to frame Mr. Morgan. I was in Marguerite’s place under the bed when he came in to plant a pendant that belongs