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“What do you think that sissy is doing right now?”
“You shouldn’t call him that. You used to be friends,” Rita said as she slipped out of her clothes and stepped into Tim’s hot tub.
“We were partners. It’s not the same thing,” Tim told her as he watched her lower her naked body into the water.
“Well, I could ask you where your wife is.”
“She won’t be my wife for long, but I’m guessing she’s doing something similar to what you're doing,” Tim said as Rita straddled his naked body.
“Good for her then,” Rita replied as she leaned in and kissed him.
After she pulled back, Tim said, “I’m glad you're not mad at me anymore.”
“I can’t stay mad at you,” she whispered as they kissed again.
They both moved apart as they heard the back door shut.
Tim looked over and saw the silhouette move toward his backyard hot tub.
“Who’s there?” he called.
The figure stepped into the light.
“What are you doing here?” Tim asked, and then he saw the knife.
He tried to climb out of the tub, but the blade was jabbing into his neck and shoulders before he could get close.
Rita screamed as he stumbled back, trying to stop the bleeding with his hands, and slipped so he fell under the water. He didn’t come back up.
Rita tried to climb out, but like Tim, a series of stab wounds had her sliding back into the hot water.
Chapter 1
“Hey Phoebe, this is Margot.”
“Huh, I was expecting an upgrade.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Margot replied as she sat down across from Phoebe at the table the county saw fit to weld to the floor.
Phoebe Masterson ignored her and looked at Detective Rick Radcliff. “So, I see you’ve been slumming since I left. I’m disappointed.”
“Be nice. She’s here to help.”
“I figured you’d like them with a little more meat on their bones,” Phoebe said, adding, “I’m not sure that pant suit is showing off your best attributes, honey.”
“The name’s Margot and I don’t know if the person wearing the orange jumpsuit should be lecturing me about fashion.”
“Only one of us picked our outfit this morning,” Phoebe said with a smile.
It was a good smile. Margot could see why Radcliff would find her attractive. Even in jailhouse clothes, she was a nice-looking woman. Margot had no reason to be jealous; Detective Radcliff made no secret about how much he liked her. The woman sitting at the other end of the table had moved on, finding a new husband who made more in a month than Radcliff would in a year. At least until someone killed him. The main suspect was the pretty brunette in jailhouse orange.
Radcliff believed her cries of innocence, or at least he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. The most damning evidence was a dress Phoebe owned that was covered in the victim's blood and had been hastily stuffed in their trash can. There was also the matter of the missing butcher’s knife, which the maid swore was there when she cleaned the kitchen earlier in the day. It was all very circumstantial, but since Tim Masterson had died in the nude with an equally nude woman who was not Phoebe, they had motive as well.
She’d get a bail hearing on Monday, but that meant she was stuck in jail at least two more days. Despite all this, Margot couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy for the woman whose job description could be summed up nicely as ‘trophy wife.’
Before Phoebe could say anything more, Radcliff said, “What part of ‘She’s here to help,’ did you miss?”
“I thought you were helping me.”
Radcliff sighed, “This is me helping.”
“By passing me off to your little girlfriend?”
“I’m a homicide detective; I play for the other team on this one.”
“What does that even mean? Isn’t it your job to find the truth? In this case, the truth being I had nothing to do with that horror show that took place in my backyard.”
“If it was my case then it would be my job. Since it’s not, then my job requires I stay out of the way.”
“Even when you had a relationship…”
‘Especially when I had a relationship with the suspect.”
“I’m not under any requirements,” Margot told her.
“But you’re not a cop.”
“I used to be though. I know the job, but if you don’t want to hire me, that’s your business.”
“Hire you? I thought maybe you’d do this as a favor to Rick, who was doing this as a favor to me.”
“You want a favor? This is a favor,” Radcliff said to her. “I talked to your lawyer, he’s thinking about making a plea agreement, but I twisted his arm into hiring Margot. If you’re telling the truth, she’s your best chance.”
“You know my lawyer will just pass the expense on to me.”
