A Corpse in a Teacup by Cassie Page Read Free Book Online

was the handsome Darling Valley detective that had worked on Olivia’s case. Just Tuesday’s luck to get his overweight, badly dressed, ill-humored sidekick, Detective Johnson. Two of them.
    The police officers resembled each other so thoroughly that if they had switched seats, she would not have been able to tell . Both well under six feet, well over 250 pounds, not a handful of hair between them and each slightly bowlegged, perhaps from all the hardware around their substantial mid sections.
    Any proximity to police raised the blood pressure of any intelligent human being. Or should, in Tuesday’s opinion, if they were thinking clearly. Her policy had always been to keep her distance from law enforcement. She even refused to date a neighbor one time who worked for the city pound, just on general principals. Yet no matter how hard she had tried to keep an open mind about law enforcement, there was her experience with Olivia and the DV police department to keep it shut tight as a clamshell. To say nothing of the times she’d had to bail her mother out of jail. She would have made an exception for a Detective Delicious, though.
     
    The uniformed officers introduced themselves and flashed badges. Holley invited them in. They fell over themselves calling Holley and Tuesday ma’am.
    “ Hello ma’am,” one of them said, “Officers Brown and Fugate, ma’am, from the LAPD, ma’am. We understand you received some suspicious calls, ma’am.”
    Tuesday said, “This ma’am didn’t. ” She pointed to Holley. “That ma’am did.”
    The uniformed duo had even less humor than the Darling Valley guys, but that didn’t seem to matter to Holley. She came alive. Tuesday had never seen Holley except at the Cafe for her readings. Nobody else was there at that hour. Her performance in front of the two men revealed a different side of the girl. Holley had turned on a switch. With Tuesday, discussing the threats, she had been terminally glum. Now she batted her eyes, took deep breaths that made her ribcage rise to display her luscious breasts and did something with her pelvis that looked like a pole dancer’s move. All just to say hello.
    Tuesday’s time in conservative Darling Valley reinforced her belief in her man-catching skills. Of course, she hadn’t actually caught a man in Billionaire Hollow. Most of the men she met there were murder suspects and didn’t deserve her attention. But she saw how people looked at her in her stripes, leopard prints, faux monkey fur and pink hair. All worn together. She made a statement no matter what she wore. But not like Holley just did, especially when she stuck out her hand coyly and purred, “I’m Miss Holley Wood.”
    The bald officer returned the handshake. “Congratulations , ma’am. Going for Miss California?”
    Holley gave him a blank look .
    He said, “I need your name, not your title. Ma’am.”
    Tuesday got it. “That is her name. I’ve seen her driver’s license. Holley Ernestine Wood.”
    He said, “ Ernestine?”
    Tuesday said, “ After a great aunt.”
    The cop nodded while his partner scanned the living room, the hallway that led to the bedrooms and for good measure, leaned forward for a surreptitious peek behind the couch. Since they didn’t know why they’d been called, Tuesday wasn’t sure what they were looking for.
    “ Well, um, Miss Wood. Ma’am. Can you tell me why you called for assistance?”
    Tuesday whispered, “Tell them about the phone calls.”
    Holley did another stretch, a full backbend this time, missing the detectives mouth-dropping looks at one another as she displayed her ripe, bare midsection in front of them, then snapped back up like a rubber band. She fluffed her ponytail, smiled modestly and descended slowly onto the couch, a snake charmer’s cobra winding back down into its basket.
    Both officers coughed away the looks of raw lust on their faces and got down to business. The bald officer noticed Tuesday as if for the first time.