He hung up. “And you’ll take care of Injustice League.”
Capri pretended she was still annoyed, even though the book was the only good thing to come out of the situation. She held out her hand. “Give it to me.”
He looked surprised. “I don’t have it. I thought Dennis gave it to you.”
When Tony and BT entered Socrates Musings the next day, the first person Tony saw was Capri. He wasn’t sorry. The cold front had started to move on and she was wearing less. He didn’t miss the extra clothes at all.
BT made a charm run, but either she missed it or she ignored it.
Had to admire the woman’s taste and good sense.
“I was hoping you’d come in today,” she said, “we need to get a manuscript out of Dennis’s office but we weren’t sure we could go in there.”
He hesitated. He’d like to be there with her, but he needed to talk to Ducumb. He debated handing Ducumb off to BT, but he couldn’t justify it, no matter how he looked at it. “I’d like BT to be there, but sure. Is it important?”
“It could be.” She explained about Injustice League and her almost promotion as they made their way upstairs. “At least I made him give me a temporary raise, though without the book, I wouldn’t have had the leverage.”
They separated at the top, and Tony made his way to Ducumb’s office. No big surprise when Merleen wasn’t at the reception desk. It was kind of a surprise to find her straddling her supposedly gay boss, neither of them fully clothed.
He wasn’t gay and if his mama found out, she’d frog march him up the aisle. The woman hated her son, but she wanted a grandchild to carry on the name. Was this what Duckla had on Ducumb?
And his motive for murder?
A pity they had mutual alibis.
“We spent the night together and came in to work together and stayed together until after Capri found the body,” Merleen said, her heavy Texas accent less omnipresent when she wasn’t fully dressed.
Not that mutual was a good alibi when they were doing the horizontal tango.
Then BT and Capri appeared at the door. Capri’s eyes widened a bit when she saw Merleen, but she had good focus.
“It’s not there, Mose Milton. I found the envelope, but Injustice League wasn’t in it. Another manuscript was in there. Something about flowers. Happy flowers.”
Ducumb paled. “He was going to have you edit it…”
“…and take credit. I know.” Capri looked more annoyed than anything. “But he didn’t have it with him when he came to talk to me about it. He didn’t have anything with him. Dennis must have accidentally switched the envelopes. If he did, Mari Beth might have already returned it to the wrong author. ”
Ducumb looked like he might panic. Capri heaved a sigh.
“On the bright side, he didn’t reject the right author. We’ll have to contact the League author .”
“The author?” Ducumb said it like he’d never heard of such a thing.
“You have talked to him, haven’t you? Made him an offer? Got him to sign a contract?”
Ducumb looked at Merleen. “Honey, fetch Mari Beth for me.”
Merleen’s perfectly plucked brows arched. “We agreed I wouldn’t ever fetch.”
“Oh, right.” He looked at the desk like it was alien territory.
Another sigh and then Capri grabbed his phone and dialed. “Mari Beth, could you bring in the file for Injustice League?” A pause. “Mose Milton needs the author contact info. We’re contracting the book, Mari Beth. Yes, I’m calling from his office.”
She hung the phone up, an odd expression on her face. Her gaze migrated back to Ducumb. Tony was glad she wasn’t looking at him like that.
“Apparently she doesn’t fetch either. Um, you didn’t tell Mari Beth we were contracting the book.”
He swallowed loudly. “I…didn’t?” He licked his lips. “But she has the author’s information?”
Capri nodded as her gaze turned toward Tony.
“The author’s name is,” she paused, “T. S. Elliot.”
“But…” Tony stopped.
“So?” Ducumb said.
“What does his name have to do with anything?” BT asked.
Capri closed her eyes and put her head against the wall. Tony was pretty sure she wanted to bang it. That she didn’t showed great strength of character.
“Do you think this missing book could have anything to do with the murder?” Tony asked Capri when she’d quit not banging her head against the wall and retreated to her office.
Capri liked the cop, even if he thought she was a murderer. He had nice eyes. And freckles. It was kind of sweet. He wasn’t smooth like his partner, BT. Capri had never trusted smooth. Plus the kid was a kid. Capri didn’t believe in May-December romances no matter who was May and who was December. She might have been flattered by the flirting, but she had a feeling BT was set on auto-flirt, with estrogen as a trigger.
“If his name is Ray Ray, why do you call him BT?” She’d wanted to ask the question since the first time she heard BT called that.
Tony grinned. It was a great grin.
“It’s short for Boy Toy.”
Capri grinned back at him, the first time since she found Dennis’s body. “Okay. I can see that.”
“He flirts with anything female.”
Tony sounded disgruntled, deepening Capri’s amusement.
“I had noticed.”
He looked at her. She looked at him. Someone needed to stop. Neither did. Capri felt something warm trickle through her body. She studied the shape of his mouth as it curved up again. It was a nice mouth.
He cleared his throat. “Um, about the missing book…”
Capri managed to look away. “Right. The missing book.” She forced her thoughts off his mouth and onto the book. “I can’t see why. I mean, if we’d rejected it, maybe, but we were going to publish it. Usually that makes our authors happy, not homicidal.” Except for the ones who start out homicidal.
“But you have had trouble with an author in the past, isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, Mose Milton doesn’t let Dennis send out rejection letters anymore. Mari Beth does it for
