Read Online Red Roses in Las Vegas by A.R. Winters - Free Book Online

anything about Nanna knowing this guy.”
    “My lips are sealed!” Ian made the universal sign of zipping lips and throwing away the key.
    “Anyway,” I said, “We should split up to cover the rest of the office.”
    Ian grinned broadly. “Really? You trust me to interview people on my own? And this is our first case! And we’ve only been working together a few hours!”
    “Sure,” I said. “That’s why we’re splitting up, because I trust you. We’ll just talk to Sharon together.”
    We were really splitting up because there were at least forty people in the office, including the interns, and it would take forever to talk to them all if we did it together. I was pretty sure most of them knew nothing, just like the four people we’d talked to in the kitchenette – how much do you know about your co-workers’ lives anyway?
    So Ian and I talked about what questions we’d ask, and then we split up. It took a bit over an hour and a half for us to get through the whole office. We asked the same questions each time, and we got the same answers too.
    Adam seemed like a nice guy; no, he didn’t seem to have any enemies; no, he didn’t seem any different in the days before his death. Nobody knew much about his private life, nobody had ever seen his girlfriend, and nobody knew how red roses might have anything to do with Adam’s death. Everyone thought that Sharon was his closest friend here – she’d given him a lift a couple of times when his car wasn’t running, and the two were often seen chatting with each other.
    So, once we’d covered the rest of the office, Ian and I teamed up again to talk to Sharon.
    “I could get used to this,” I said, more to myself than Ian. “It’s not so bad having you help me out.”
    Ian beamed, and we knocked on Sharon’s door.
    “Come in,” called a voice, and we did.
    The office was tiny – barely enough room for a person to work in. There was a sliver of window behind the desk, a colorful print on one wall, and a desk with two cramped visitors’ chairs on one side, and Sharon’s swivel chair on the other.
    Sharon was a chubby brunette with short, curly hair and warm, chocolate eyes. Her freckled cheeks dimpled when she smiled and said, “You must be Tiffany and Ian. I saw you going around chatting with everyone. Except me, of course. Makes a girl feel a bit left out.”
    I smiled back and said, “We saved you till last.” Ian and I helped ourselves to the two visitors’ chairs. “We heard you were good friends with Adam.”
    She sighed, and the smile left her face. “Yes. I can’t believe what happened. Who would want to kill him? I can’t believe some little old lady went bonkers and shot him, but then again, it’s a crazy world.”
    “Adam didn’t have any enemies? Anyone with a reason to hurt him?”
    I saw tears well up in her eyes, and she blinked them back quickly. I was a little surprised – this was the first time I’d seen anyone show real emotion over the dead guy. So far, everyone had said Adam seemed pretty nice, but nobody had known him well enough to be truly saddened by his death. A thought struck me, and obviously struck Ian at the same time.
    “Do you have a boyfriend?” Ian said.
    “Ian!” I said sharply. “Be nice.” I turned to her again and smiled apologetically. “I’m so sorry about that.” It seemed like every time I took Ian to an interview with me, I wound up apologizing for him. I wondered how many people he’d offended on his own.
    Sharon sniffed and said, “No, it’s ok.”
    We were silent for a second, waiting for her to answer the question, and when she didn’t, Ian said, “No really, do you have a boyfriend?”
    We both looked at her seriously and she seemed to understand that we weren’t letting her off the hook.
    She sighed. “No, I don’t.” She looked at me and said, “Hard to find decent men in this town, isn’t it? You go somewhere, they’re all tourists, and even the locals’re having too