Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

McIntyre has no ideas about anything, like what the girl was doing there, who she was meeting, or if she even had a boyfriend, except that she had a few that nobody knows the name of. The end.”
    Reggie snickered. “She didn’t tell you much.”
    “Suppose you do. Did you work on it?”
    “Took the crime scene pictures.” He was a good photographer, and once the lieutenant found out that tidbit of information, Reggie was often rousted to do it even when he was off duty. For overtime pay, of course.
    “And? Can I see them?”
    “The lieutenant wouldn’t like that.” He shook his head doubtfully.
    I sighed. “Paint a picture for me. What was in that alley when you got there?”
    He gave me a sharp glance to see if I was pulling his leg. “The girl’s body. Her purse was next to her, as if someone went through it and then tossed it down near her.”
    “Signs of a struggle?”
    “That whole area looks like a permanent struggle. Broken bottles, rubbish, discarded furniture….” He shrugged, but he was still tense, still holding something back.
    “Describe the body.”
    “It was a dead body. Not pretty. Strangling isn’t a nice way to go.”
    “Start at the top and tell me about her clothes. Any sign of sexual assault?”
    Reggie shook his head. “None of that. She might have put up a fight, but she was fully clothed. No sign that someone took ’em off and dressed her afterwards. She had on kind of a sequined number like a dame might wear onstage. Brassiere, panties, garter belt, stockings, shoes, earrings—”

    18

    CATT FORD

    “What kind of earrings?”
    “Diamond. Nice ones.”
    That little tingle had a hold of me now, that feeling I get when I’m finally on the trail of some facts. “So this thief who went through her purse after her money didn’t like these diamond earrings and left them for the next taker?”
    Reggie gave me a smug grin, and I knew he’d led me up the path on purpose to see if I was following along. “Maybe they didn’t look good on him. He left a diamond bracelet too. Or possibly he thought they were rhinestones.”
    I nodded. I knew that someone on the force must have had them vetted, or he would have left out the bit about the jewels. “What about her hat?”
    He looked startled. “She wasn’t wearing one.”
    “So maybe she wasn’t expecting to go outside.”
    “Maybe she was meeting someone she knew and just slipped out….”
    “Slipped out of where? Was she shacked up in an empty warehouse?”
    “Maybe someone brought her there by car.”
    I considered that. “Could be. Any tire tracks?”
    “Yeah, go figure. On asphalt where a hundred trucks drive through everyday.”
    “What about a coat? It’s winter. It gets cold at night, even in the desert.”
    “She had one of those flimsy evening wrap things women tote around, but she’d dropped it before she was killed.” Reggie was looking at me like I was missing something that he’d expected me to hone in on.
    “Why don’t you just spill it?” I said.
    “You didn’t get this from me, right?” He peered around anxiously, but the snitches were off duty for the night. Nancy had been Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    19

    reading a newspaper and eating a piece of pie behind the counter when she saw I wasn’t planning to wreck her joint.
    “Come on, Reggie!”
    “Keep your shirt on.” He glanced around again and leaned forward to whisper, “There’s a clue in that alley, something our boys didn’t pick up. You go back there after dark when the newshawks have gone to roost and you’ll find it.”
    I sank my voice low as well. His paranoia was catching. “What the fuck? Why didn’t you scoop it when you had the chance? You could have made sergeant.”
    “Shut up!” he hissed. “Look, it won’t mean anything to anyone but you. Everyone saw it, they just didn’t get the significance of it, get my drift?”
    “No,” I said. “Seems like you got it, so why didn’t you just—”
    “Let me explain it to you in words of one syllable. Go down there and take a look, snoop.” He stood up and wiped his mouth with his napkin, even though he hadn’t made much of a dent in his bowl of chili.
    “Why after dark?”
    “That’s all you’re getting from me. Do your own legwork.” He left without a backward glance, and I didn’t try to stop him. I knew from the tone of his voice that he meant it. Also that he was going out on a limb for me. If the lieutenant found