A Dose of Murder by Lori Avocato Read Free Book Online Page B

always smelled freshly lemon polished. The drapes were a deep brown, matching the carpet. Beige doilies that my mother had crocheted sat under the lamp on his dresser. He walked near, turned to look at the door and again held his finger to his lips.
    I smiled to myself and remained quiet.
    He pushed in the small piece of molding above the top drawer. I was about to tell him that he might break it by doing that, but before I could, a little button appeared. He pushed it, releasing some mechanism that made the thing pop out like a drawer. On closer inspection, it
was
a drawer.
    â€œWow,” I whispered.
    Uncle Walt turned around. I would have given every penny I had to get a snapshot of the pleased expression on his face. His watery blue eyes sparkled. The thin, cracked lips beneath the wrinkles of his face curled up on each end. Uncle Walt, the crafty senior. “How much you need, Pauline?”
    He reached in and pulled out a wad, and I mean a wad, of money.
    â€œShit. Where did you get all that?”
    Walt’s gaze flew to the door. “Shush. Don’t worry. It’s all legal. Years of hard work.”
    And poker games with highly pensioned widows, no doubt. “You should put that in the bank—”
    â€œBank shmank. How much?”
    â€œI can’t let you—”
    â€œHumor an old man. I’ve never been able to do much for you kids, Pauline. Especially you, since you don’t have any kids yourself. I get to buy for the little ones, but you . . . you’re still single.”
    Thank you very much for the reminder.
    â€œYou’re the only reason your mother lets me eat an occasional cookie or piece of cake.”
    I smiled, told him how much I needed and made him take my written IOU. I said I’d pay him back. He said he wouldn’t take the money. We agreed I’d give it to Saint Stanislaus Church once I’d earned it back.
    I left my parents’ house with my stash, hurried back to my apartment and called Goldie at home to tell him about the money.
    â€œShit. Nice uncle. Wish I had one of those.” I could hear the sadness in his voice and found out he’d grown up shifted from one foster home to another. Didn’t know any uncles, let alone parents. He sucked in a breath and told me where to order my spy equipment.
    When I hung up, I booted up Miles’s computer and searched the Web for detective equipment. Amazing what someone could buy online with a credit card. After spending all the money from Uncle Walt, I was set.
    As soon as the UPS man arrived in a few days, I’d be out the door on the tail of Tina Macaluso once again.
    Back injury—yeah, right.
    Another Saturday night sitting home alone eating a delivered pizza with mushrooms, eggplant and sausage was beginning to look better and better as I shoved on my black patent-leather heels.
    Spanky sat on the bed, watching. Smiling. I’m sure he smiled when I slid the shoe over my foot. Men.
    The shoes went perfect with the slinky black dress Miles had insisted I buy on our last shopping trip to Lord and Taylor before I quit my job. Seemed like years ago.
    Even though the shoes made my “Maciejko” legs look damn good, I couldn’t bring myself to get excited. Seemed a waste of good sex-appeal equipment to be waiting for Doc Taylor to arrive.
    Because, I had to admit, my thoughts were for the occupant of a black Suburban with a tiny silver cross hanging from the rearview mirror. Oh, yes, I noticed the small things.
    As if my life wasn’t complicated enough.
    Now I lusted after a stranger. Albeit a gorgeous one.

Four
    â€œYou look . . . sexy tonight,” Doc Taylor said when I opened the door and he walked in. I think a tiny bit of spittle seeped out of his lips.
    It wasn’t that Vance wasn’t appealing. He, too, was sexy as hell in a professional sort of way. Not professional like a gigolo, but more a doctor or lawyer sort of way. The