Read Online Copp On Fire, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp, Private Eye Series) by Don Pendleton - Free Book Online

lady of the house.
    I did a double-take when that one arrived, heart pounding between takes, because Justine Wiseman was a tall, tanned California-vintage blonde who could double in long shots for Melissa Franklin. Up close the difference was more obvious. This one seemed a couple of years older and didn't have the same thing in the eyes, but she had it all everywhere else. I would not have evicted her from my hot-tub club. She wore workout tights and legwarmers, a towel draped across the shoulders, much irritation in the face.
           "How many times do I have to go through this?" she said.
           "How many so far?"
           "Two policemen were here yesterday and another two today. Can't you people ever get it right?"
           "It's a big case."
           "Well, what is it this time?"
           I produced the photographs and handed them to her.
           "I've already looked at these."
           "Please look again. For me. And look closer this time. Tell me who you see."
           She bestowed a sudden smile. "Oh, I see. The kids couldn't handle the job, so the boss had to come back to handle this difficult lady."
           "Something like that. Look, cops don't work in a vacuum and we're not magicians. We need help. We're asking for yours. And ... you do have a vested interest in all this."
           "Cut the crap, cop. I have no interest whatever. If the son of a bitch is dead, that's too bad for some but it's okay with me. Don't look for tears in my eyes. He used me and left me. I'm supposed to wear black and weep over his grave? Not me. Screw him. And you too. Now get out of here and leave me alone."
           She handed the pictures over and flounced away.
           I called after her, "Screw you too, lady."
           She halted and turned around with a smile; said, in a friendlier tone, "Well I've got a live one here."
           "Too damned close to a dead one, pal. I just left two who died in my place. That brings the body count to thirteen. For what? Who's next? You?"
           "You think . . . ?"
           "Haven't you? Does your mind work as fast as your jaw?"
           She was wearing a small smile now. "You're not supposed to talk to me like that."
           "Works both ways."
           "What do you want to know?"
           "Status of your marriage, for starters."
           "Dead. He was what they call a man of the world, he'd already screwed up three previous marriages. I was a nineteen-year-old kid—trusting, dumb as hell. He signed me to a marriage contract so he could dump me cheap when something better came along. My lawyers have been working on that. We figured we were ready to face his lawyers in court. So now he's dead and we won't have to do that, will we? Does that make me a suspect? Well forget it, because now we have to sue his estate, all the previous wives and God knows how many kids who might crawl out of the woodwork. Am I sad he's dead? Hell, no. I'm madder'n hell, though, and I could kill the son of a bitch that did it to him and complicated my life."
           "Let the state do it for you," I suggested. "Help us do it for you."
           "What else do you want?"
           "Tell me about Albert Moore."
           "Albert is a geek."
           I waited.
           "A geek is a sideshow freak who eats live chickens. Albert would eat live chickens if he thought it would please Bernard. If I hadn't known better for sure, I'd have suspected, like they say, an unnatural attraction between the two."
           "I see. But you know better for sure."
           "Unless they're both bi, yes."
           "Okay. Let's try another. Melissa Moore Franklin."
    Mrs. Wiseman laughed and retreated a couple of paces.     "Melissa Moore rhymes with whore, and that is what she is for sure."
           I wondered what I was getting here. "A whore for sure?"
           "Melissa