Alibi In High Heels

with me.'

I raised an eyebrow. 'Oh? Did she say why?'

He did a little humorless laugh. 'She'd met someone new. Someone higher up in the food chain. She brought him to the party. Can you believe that? First she invites me to Fashion Week, then she shoves this guy in my face. What kind of woman does that?'

Ryan's volume climbed as he talked, his earlier grief quickly being replaced with anger. I wondered just how angry he'd been at the party. Angry enough to kill Gisella the following night?

'Gisella was wearing a necklace at the party,' Dana piped up. 'Did you see it?'

I leaned in, squinting through the dim light to gauge his reaction.

'Yes,' he said without hesitation.

If he'd known Gisella had taken the necklace, he didn't let on.

'She said it was from Lord Ackerman's private collection,' he said.

'It was stolen,' I said.

His only reaction was to raise an eyebrow. 'Really? Who took it?'

I hesitated to share our model-turned-jewel thief theory with him. But on the other hand, if he'd been working with her, it wouldn't be news to him. And if he was an innocent bystander in all this, what did we have to lose?

'We think Gisella did. We think she may have even been stealing jewelry from other designers' shows as well.'

He shook his head, eyes on that faraway point again. 'Wow. I had no idea. I'm not surprised, though. Like I said, she wasn't the most scrupulous person I've ever met.'

'We think she may have had a partner. Someone who sold the stolen items for her,' Dana said. 'Any idea who that could be?'

He shrugged. 'Sorry, I don't know. She didn't have any real close friends. Her agent and me were the only people she really spent much time with.'

'What about the new guy?' I asked. 'Is it possible he was helping her?'

Again he shrugged.

'You said you met him?'

He nodded. 'Yeah. At the party.'

'Did you happen to catch his name?'

He did a wry grin that held little humor. 'Oh yeah. She made sure everyone at the party knew who she was there with. That wanker was a real feather in her cap, if you know what I mean.'

'Who was it?' I asked.

He snorted again. 'Lord Ackerman.'

Chapter Ten

Felix? I think my heart stopped beating, the dark, tinted room swirling before my vision. Felix and Gisella?!

It had to be a mistake. She had to have been lying. Felix wouldn't go for a girl like that. Felix's type was… well it wasn't her.

I thought back. We'd been in her room together, we'd been searching for evidence of a boyfriend. And he hadn't told me he was it! I tried to remember our conversation, but all my brain could focus on was the fact that Felix has been sleeping with a supermodel.

For some odd reason, that stomach flu hit me full force again.

'Excuse me,' I said, bolting up from the sofa. I made for the front doors as quickly as I could. Air. I needed air. I'm pretty sure I knocked into at least three people, spilling one woman's drink all over her corset in my mad rush to get outside.

Once there, I doubled over, leaning on my crutches as I took in big lungfuls of night air that smelled like car exhaust and rotting vegetables.

In a moment, Dana was at my side.

'Hey, you okay?' she asked, putting a hand on my back.

'Yeah. Sure. Fine.'

'You're a terrible liar.'

Unlike some people.

Okay, so I guess I hadn't ever asked Felix point blank if he'd been sleeping with the victim, but that was a hell of an omission. What else had he failed to mention?

Then one terrible thought occurred to me. He'd been the one to find the diamond necklace in Gisella's room. Had he known where it was all along? Had he been in on it with her? He had said it was insured. Collect once from the insurance company, a second time when he sold them on the black market? Would Felix stoop that low?

Problem was, I didn't really know Felix's stooping limit. Granted, his paper was single handedly to blame for ruining more than one celebrity marriage with their rumor mill, but that was a far cry from sticking a shoe in someone's neck.

My shoe.

My stomach lurched again and I leaned over, fully expecting a repeat appearance by my ham and cheese.

'Do you really think this could have been Felix?' Dana asked, voicing my thoughts.

I shook my head. 'I don't know.' I paused. 'Maybe.' Another pause. 'No, definitely not.' I bit my lip. 'Probably not?'

He'd been in Paris the night of her murder, in the same hotel. The victim was his girlfriend, presumably stealing his jewels.

'I've got to talk to Felix.' I pulled my cell out of my purse, dialing his number, my hands shaking harder than the Northridge quake. Unfortunately, it went straight to voicemail. Shit. I flipped it shut and threw it in my purse, taking my anxiety out on my Motorola.

'Hey,' I said, addressing Mathew, who was fully engrossed in an article in the World News section.

He waited a beat before looking up. When he did he blinked at me as if seeing me for the first time. He looked back to his paper. Then to me again.

'It's you!'

I looked down at the Times in his lap. Sure enough, there was my mug smiling back at me. Okay, so I wasn't totally smiling. It was a candid shot taken outside the Plaza Athenee as I'd tried to muscle my way through the paparazzi. From the look on my face, it was probably when one of the cameramen had knocked into Wonder Boot. I looked either constipated, pissed off, or in pain.

Or, as Mathew had interpreted it, dangerous.

'It's not me.'

He looked from the paper to me and back again. 'It sure looks like you.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Okay, yes, the picture is me. But I'm not the killer. I didn't do it. I'm innocent. Which is why I'm here trying to clear my name.'

Mathew looked wary. 'You sure?'

'Yes, of course I'm sure! Do I look like I could hurt someone?'

Mathew looked me up and down. Then behind me at the S &M club he'd just taken me to.

'I didn't do it,' I said again.

Finally he shrugged. 'All right, if you say so. But if I hear of any dead bodies showin' up at that there club tomorrow, I'm turning' you in to the police, Missy.' He wagged a knobby finger at me.

'Fair enough. Listen, do you happen to know where a Lord Ackerman lives?'

He hunched his bushy eyebrows down. 'Can't say's I do. He have a place around here?'

My turn to shrug. The problem was I had no idea where Felix stayed when he was in England. I knew he had an impressive home up in the Hollywood Hills, but as it was becoming clearly apparent, beyond the basics I didn't know much about Felix's life at all.

'Any idea where we could find an address for him?'