The car came to a stop and Margot could tell they were coming back to finish the job. She stayed down and plucked her own pistol out of her purse. As the car started backing up, Margot aimed and fired. The short barrel on her gun meant it wasn’t very accurate, so she picked big targets like the back windshield. The glass fell and the gunman disappeared into the car.
Margot emptied her magazine into the car as it drove by. With her shooting, the gunmen didn’t raise his head. Margot reloaded using her only spare magazine as the driver sped into the night.
“You make anybody mad, Trevor?” Margot asked as she stood up and brushed the glass off of her.
“Me? I figured they were here for you.”
Margot wished she could argue with him. The car was too much like something Mal would drive. As she brushed the glass from her hair, she couldn’t help but wonder if her former lover just tried to kill her.
Chapter 5
“Did you get the license plate?” Ames asked. He’d subbed in to do an overnight shift when a couple of detectives were out sick.
Margot thought it was weird seeing him without Radcliff. If Radcliff was around, he’d play nice, but without him, Ames didn’t even attempt to hide his disdain for her.
“I was kind of busy,” Margot told him.
“Maybe you should have been doing that instead of shooting up the city.”
“I don’t know about you, but I like to save my reading for after the gunfight is over. Are you going to arrest me?”
Ames shrugged. “I’d like to, but honestly, I can’t think of a time since you and Mal left the department when I didn’t want to arrest you. Just like every other day, though, it looks like I’m going to have to wait. With the clerk telling everybody you saved his life, dragging you away in handcuffs would look bad. Plus, I’m homicide, it doesn’t become my problem until one of those bullets hits someone.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I heard you were here and thought I might come by and see if you got shot.”
“Thanks for the concern.”
“Maybe next time.”
Margot didn’t have anything to say to that.
“That’s the problem with you, Margot. There will be a next time and a next time after that. One of these times, a bullet is going to have your name on it.”
“You think I want this?”
“You say you don’t, but here we are again. Why were you talking to the clerk anyway? Looking to step out on my partner?”
“Work. He was harassing my client.”
“Any chance they were shooting at him?”
“I don’t know him well enough to say no, but I doubt he has my history.”
“You want to venture a guess who it was this time?”
“I thought this wasn’t your kind of case.”
Ames shrugged. “Professional curiosity.”
“The name Dennis Thorn ring any bells with you?”
“That who shot at you?”
“No, not exactly anyway.”
“Don’t be cryptic with me, Margot. If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
Margot thought about it for a long second before she said, “It’s not your case, Ames, and I’m going to say this once, I don’t want to say it twice.”
“You want me to get the detective in charge?”
“Not yet, I need to talk to someone first,” Margot said as she checked the time.
There was a chance Harry Lee would be up, but even bars were getting ready to close, so she figured she’d talk to him tomorrow. Margot sent a text anyway. If he was up and wanted to talk, she’d be good with it. It was going to take a while and more than one glass of whiskey to get to sleep after the adrenaline rush that accompanied having someone try to murder you.
Chapter 6
After the night she had, Margot would have loved to take the day off, sleep until noon and then spend the rest of the day drinking the bullets that went by her head off her mind, but she had work to do. Shaw would have probably let her, but Browers and Associates might not be as understanding, especially since it happened while she was working for someone other than them. She never promised exclusivity when working for them, but she had a feeling they expected it anyway.
She’d told Thad she’d check on Phoebe, so she decided to make that the first business of the day. Talking to Phoebe, who once dated Radcliff, wasn’t always easy, but they seemed to have come to an understanding. Plus, with Margot getting her out of jail, Phoebe wasn’t nearly as nasty as she had been when they first met.
Margot tried to call to let Phoebe know she was coming by, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a message and headed over.
She was surprised Phoebe was still staying in the house where her husband and his lover were murdered. It was even more surprising to find her in the back yard where the crime took place. The hot tub where they’d died and were found floating in red water had been drained and covered up, but the tub itself was still there as a reminder.
Phoebe was sunning herself in a skimpy bikini that wouldn’t leave many tan lines and drinking something clear with a lime in it when Margot let herself into the back yard.
Margot didn’t know either victim. but seeing the hottub where they met such a violent end was disturbing to her. Phoebe, who was sitting in a chaise lounge facing the tub, didn’t seem bothered.
Phoebe didn’t move as she said, “Margot, what a surprise.”
“I called, you didn’t answer.”
“So, you rushed over to check on me?”
“Something like that.”
Phoebe held up her glass. “Would you like a drink? I know
