Read Online City of Secrets by Kelli Stanley - Free Book Online Page B

a painting of what was trying hard to be an ocean sunset.
    The woman threw her head back and laughed, coral lipstick, dark makeup, long, tapered nails to match the shade. Wearing one of those sarong-type evening dresses sold through the Montgomery Ward catalog to housewives who would never go near the South Seas and looked nothing like Dorothy Lamour, but who craved glamour and hoped their husbands would do more than roll over and grunt on a Saturday night.
    Pretty in a cheap way. She’d be out of a job in a year or two, once the tits started to sag and the thighs got a little thicker. Desperation oozed around the orchid-colored sarong like Hawaiian dew, and she laughed again, manicured hand draped on the broad shoulder of a younger man.
    He was tall, very well built underneath a too-loose and too-cheap suit, loud tie with yellow stripes, blue shirt stained with ketchup. About twenty-three, twenty-four. Nice-looking kid, red face crumpled, eyes sad. Cheeks a little hollow.
    Miranda pushed her way past two sailors, brushing off the incidental hand on her ass with a jab of the toothpick. Shoved the dwindling Life Savers in the side of her mouth with her tongue.
    â€œYou’re Lucinda? From Artists and Models?”
    The dark-eyed woman quit trying to smolder the kid with how languid she was and breathed out a Kool, smoke slightly mentholated. Poured on a Romance of Helen Trent voice.
    â€œAnd who is asking?”
    Miranda grabbed an empty chair from a table hidden behind a potted palm frond, sitting down before the kid could figure out he was supposed to stand up.
    â€œMiranda Corbie. I’m a private investigator.”
    The woman’s high penciled eyebrows rose. She flicked some ash in the small glass tray. The young man leaned forward, eager.
    â€œYou say you’re a private detective?”
    â€œYeah. I used to work security for Sally Rand.”
    The brunette pointed her cigarette at Miranda. “You’re the one who got canned.”
    â€œYesterday. After Pandora was killed. The brass wants everything kept quiet.”
    The young man opened his mouth to say something and the older woman held up a warning hand, looked at Miranda warily. “So why are you here?”
    Miranda opened her purse and took out two more Life Savers. She sucked on them for a few seconds, trying to keep her hands still. Looked up, met the eyes of the kid.
    â€œI want to find the sonofabitch that killed her.”
    The young man’s voice rushed out. “They targeted her. Because she was my girlfriend. I was just trying to tell Lucinda—”
    Lucinda grabbed his arm and said it through her teeth. “Shut up, Ozzie. We don’t know who this broad is yet.” Eyes like flint. “You got a license? You got ID?”
    Miranda pulled out her wallet. Showed them both the license. Fought the urge to take out a stick, felt the sweat beading up on her forehead.
    Lucinda stubbed out the Kool. The filter, stained with coral, still burned in the ashtray.
    â€œSo why do you care? It’s not your job. Never was. You didn’t know her.”
    â€œI don’t like murder. I don’t like what was done to her body. I don’t like Nazis. If those reasons aren’t good enough for you, I’ve also worked here since ’39. Call it professional interest.”
    Lucinda tapped the nails of her right hand on the table. “OK. So you’re Miranda Corbie, a broad and a P.I., and you slum down on the Gayway for two years, and you wanna solve a nudie model’s murder. What’s that got to do with me?”
    Miranda looked from one to the other, the young man lowering his eyes to the table when Lucinda squeezed his arm.
    â€œMaybe nothing. But I was told you were Pandora’s best friend. Maybe only friend. Not a lot of people knew her.”
    Lucinda glanced at Ozzie. “Go away, lady. I already talked to the johns. You can read the police report.”
    The noise and the heat