Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

squirting metal if any random lady came in to powder her nose,” she said.
    I could tell she was strung up and tense by the starriness of her eyes. For the first time, it occurred to me that as beautiful as she seemed to me, she must be a real stunner when she wasn’t in mourning.
    I drew out my hand to show her it was empty. “I have better reflexes than that.”
    “I’m counting on it,” Lily replied.
    “Don’t let him corner you over there,” I said, pointing to the dead end at the apex of the circular counter. “Stay right here. When he comes in, the angle will be wrong for him to see your face in the mirror. Play him as long as you can.”
    “I know,” she said. “Time for you to take a hike, shamus.”
    “We got the bulge on him, babe.”
    She gave me a wink, and I winked back. Then Celestine winked at me with a completely solemn face. I gave her a wink too before I went and hid in one of the stalls. Luckily, in a swell joint like this, the doors went down to the floor and I didn’t have to teeter on the john to Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
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    hide my feet. I left the door ajar so I could watch through the crack. I’d never forgive myself if I gave him a chance to hurt Lily.
    Now the waiting, the hardest part of the private dick biz. Waiting to see if my hunch was going to grow wings and fly. If George had done his part, Barry Jazz Morgan knew where we were, and the other three suspects were lined up out in the party room somewhere. I’d proved to myself that any one of them could have done it, which meant I was wrong on three of them, or possibly two if one of them had an accomplice, but I knew who I was putting my money on.
    He was hidden from my view behind the door, but I saw Celestine stiffen a tiny bit when the door opened. Lily was sitting in front of a mirror, apparently absorbed in taking an inventory of her face.
    “You. Out.”
    His voice wasn’t loud, but Celestine’s head swiveled to face him.
    She was staring right at the killer of her darling, but her face gave away nothing. I saw a bill wave at the door. She arose decorously and took it from him, slipping past the man hidden by the door.
    He came into the room and let the door close behind him, standing against it to prevent anyone from entering. “Rose,” he said.
    His voice was completely different when he pleaded with her.
    Lily didn’t move. From where he stood, he couldn’t see her face in the mirror, but that meant she couldn’t see him, either. She sat completely still, her powder puff in her hand, leaning forward slightly, waiting.
    “My Rose, you’ve come back to me.” He took a step forward into my view, and I would have congratulated myself on winning my bet if I didn’t need to keep on my toes. Time for that later.
    Captain Billy Woods came up behind Lily and put his hands gently around her throat as if that were a familiar and comfortable hold for him.
    Lily didn’t let him get set. She slipped out of his grasp and up onto her feet in one fluid movement, turning to face him. She glared at him as he fell back, beginning to stalk him, almost like a slow dance step moving to a beat that only she could hear, dragging the toe of her 182

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    shoe on the floor behind her with every step. She looked as menacing as it was possible for a beautiful woman to look while driving back a man taller and bigger than her.
    “You’re not Rose, but you look… just like….” Woods’s voice petered out as he gave ground.
    “But I couldn’t be Rose, could I?” Lily’s voice was throaty, almost seductive as she accused him. “Because you killed her. Did you think I was her ghost?”
    Woods seemed mesmerized, staring at her as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “I didn’t… I never could… I thought she was… she was… I wanted her to be okay….”
    “You thought she was okay even though you felt the life slip out of her body when she went limp in your hands?” From her voice, you would have thought she was a nun urging him to confess. She sounded almost compassionate.
    His face was tortured as he studied her. “You don’t know….” He reached for her.
    “Don’t touch me!” she spat at him. “No!”
    The word seemed to do something to him. I saw his face change; something ugly and inhuman moved behind his eyes and told me it was time to stop the play. He must have been beyond all rational thought if he figured he could get away with murdering another