Read Online Shot Through Velvet by Ellen Byerrum - Free Book Online Page A

something.”
    It’s the margaritas talking, Lacey thought. At least, she thought it was the margaritas. Margaritas calling Damon Newhouse, in the Galaxy of Grand Illusions!
    “Come on,” Lacey said. “Let’s get real here. Who could really do this?” But the workers didn’t want real, they wanted a no-fault, mythical avenger to take the credit and the heat. That way no one would have to pay for Rod Gibbs’s murder.
    “See,” Blythe lectured Lacey, “this is why Damon gets the good stories. He has the imagination to see how all these conspiracies work together. He’ll get to the bottom of this case, I betcha.” She sipped her margarita happily.
    Vic tried to steer the conversation back to the dead man. “Tell me about Rod Gibbs then. Why would this altruistic avenger go after him?”
    “A million reasons,” Sykes said. “Gibbs just had a genius for gnawing on your last nerve. Like the day he cut our benefits, and the next day he showed up driving that new fancy-ass car of his.”
    “What kind of car?” Vic, Lacey knew, had theories about cars and their owners. Like Lacey had with clothes and their wearers.
    “Blue Corvette.”
    Vic whistled. Lacey knew what he was thinking. The Corvette was what Vic called “an asshole car,” but that didn’t stop people like Rod Gibbs from loving it.
    “It sure was a thing of beauty,” Sykes said.
    “Until someone keyed it in the parking lot. Damn shame,” Hank said, a hint of a smile on his face. “He didn’t drive it to work much after that.”
    “Hell, any one of us might want to kill him,” Sykes said. “Even our little sparrow, Kira, here.” He lifted his margarita glass to her.
    Kira hesitated before speaking. She seemed startled by being the center of attention. “I can’t say I’m sorry Rod is dead. He was slime. Everyone knows how I feel.” She started to play with a tortilla chip, breaking it into little pieces but not eating it.
    “Rod was a pig,” Inez said, “always saying dirty things, letting his hands brush against you.” She waved her margarita for emphasis. “This one time, I had to knee him in the balls to get him to stop.” She laughed loudly. “I swore it was an accident, but Rod tried to have me suspended.”
    “Were you suspended?” Vic asked.
    “No, but he put a letter of complaint in my file, said he’d see me fired if it was the last thing he did. Guess he didn’t have time. Damn shame.” Inez howled with laughter.
    Lacey turned toward Kira. “Why did you hate him?”
    “All the same reasons. Like Inez, but I’m not that brave.” Kira’s large brown eyes started to moisten. “I filed a sexual harassment complaint against him last year.”
    “That’s old news,” said Hank. “Rod got a lot of those. Pass the chips, please.”
    “Did the complaint stop him?” Lacey asked Kira.
    “Made him worse. Rod would come by and put his arms on my shoulders and his hands all over me. He only did it when no one else was around. He’d whisper things like how he owned me and that he could fire me in an instant. Or I could make it easier on myself, and I know exactly what he meant. He’d walk away and laugh and say someday I’d give in.” Kira slumped back in her chair and lowered her eyes. “I was living in fear. Still am.”
    “It’ll just take a while,” Inez said. “But you’re safe with us.”
    “We tried to make sure Kira was never alone much with Rod,” Sykes said as he grabbed the pitcher and topped off their glasses.
    “Why didn’t you quit?” Lacey tried to put herself in Kira’s place. She knew it took a lot of courage to leave a bad situation.
    “Jobs don’t exactly grow on trees down here, if you hadn’t noticed. I got a kid to support.” Kira sipped her wine spritzer. She’d declined the margaritas. “And I figured Dominion was going to close soon. We’d been hearing that on the grapevine for some time.” She shared a look with Hank. “Anyway, yes, I hated Rod, more than anybody I ever