Page 28 of Shenanigans

“What makes you think Maria’s sister might be involved in her death?”

“She’s a skank.” I watched the tiny tic in Dutch’s jaw intently. Was he grinding his teeth? I bet he was.

“Anything else?”

“What?”

“Do you have any cold, hard evidence that the skank is involved in Maria’s death?”

Did he want me to do his job for him? “Here’s a thought. Why don’t you interrogate her?”

“She’s missing,” Dutch shot back.

“Oh. Not good.”

His voice was taut with anger, Dutch snapped, “No, it’s not.”

“You think she’s dead too?”

Dutch’s tapped his computer keyboard and turned the screen toward me. An amputated finger with sparkly neon green polish was displayed in graphic color. “What do you think?”

“Are you sure that’s her finger?”

“We’re waiting for the DNA tests to come back.” Dutch ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “But that could take weeks.”

“The skank could still be alive,” I stated.

“The medical examiner says the finger was severed postmortem.”

That would explain the blood-soaked sand in the warehouse. “You think Tomas is responsible for killing them?”

Dutch assumed his stoic cop face. “He is a person of interest.”

“And am I? A person of interest?”

He laughed. “You could say that.”

Awesome. I gave him a bright smile. “Well, this has been fun, but I have a client to meet.” My cellphone buzzed loudly as I stood up. Jana was waiting for me in the morgue.

“Don’t leave town and stay away from Tomas,” Dutch warned.

I saluted him. “Yes, sir.”

“If I see the Ninja Nun again, Iwillarrest her.”

“If you can catch her,” I taunted.

“Is that a challenge?”

“What do you think?”

A predatory gleam filled Dutch’s eyes. “Challenge accepted.”

Chapter Ten

Stepping into the elevator, I hit the button for the sub-basement and I gave myself a mental head smack. What the hell had I been thinking? Daring the best homicide detective in the western United States to catch me was beyond stupid. My dad would have a cow. I had put our entire family at risk.

The problem was, I wanted to have hot monkey sex with Dutch. Which was bad on so many levels. Dutch had made it very clear he didn’t find me attractive. I wasn’t exactly a law-abiding citizen. With my dad’s history, I needed to stay far, far away from the very capable detective.

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