Blood Hunt by Lee Killough Read Free Book Online Page B

strapless, slit-skirted dress that wrapped around her and stayed on by the grace of God and two buttons. She made her way through the tables, smiling but shaking her head at various men, until she reached Garreth and Harry.
    She held out the card. “Is this official or an attention-getting device?”
    “ Official, I’m afraid,” Harry said.
    “ In that case, I’ll sit down.” Garreth felt her legs rub against his under the small table as she pulled up a chair. She smiled at Harry. “ Konnichi wa , Inspector Takananda. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to Japan. It’s a beautiful country.”
    “ So I hear. I’ve never been there.”
    “ That’s a pity.” She turned toward Garreth. “And you are — ?”
    “ Inspector Garreth Mikaelian.”
    She laughed. “A genuine Irish policeman. How delightful.”
    Irish through and through, true, despite his name, that she apparently heard as McSomething. Which it had once been — McAlan — until his grandfather’s apparent sudden move to Sacramento from Chicago in 1929. A fact he discovered accidentally as a boy, but asking his grandmother about turned her grim and earned him a tight-lipped order to never, ever mention it again. Some day he would really like to investigate his grandfather’s background.
    A thought jerking him back to investigation at hand...where studying Lane as well as possible in the club’s dimness, he realized with surprise she was not really a beautiful woman. Her voice and the way she moved, and something radiating from her, almost irresistible in its magnetism, made her seem beautiful. She looked barely twenty.
    “ Now, what is this unfortunately official visit about?” she asked. “It can’t be a traffic ticket; I haven’t driven anywhere in weeks.”
    “ Were you working last week?” Harry asked.
    She nodded. Oddly, her eyes reflected red in the flame of the candle. Garreth had never seen that in humans before. He watched her, fascinated.
    “ Do you remember speaking to a man on Monday who was in his thirties, maybe your height when you’re barefoot, wearing a red coat with black velvet lapels and collar? He was with four other men, and four young women.”
    She shook her head. “I must have talked to dozens of people that night. I’m afraid I can’t recall any particular one.”
    “ Maybe this will help.” Garreth showed her the picture of Mossman.
    She tilted it to the light of the candle and studied it gravely. “Now I remember him. We didn’t really talk, though. I flirted with him while I sang because he was nice-looking and the one member of the group who didn’t have a companion. As he left, he came over to say how much he liked my singing.” She paused. “You’re from Homicide. Is he a suspect or a victim?”
    The lady was cool and fast on the uptake, Garreth reflected. “A victim,” he said. “Did he come back here on Tuesday?”
    “ Yes, as a matter of fact. He asked me out, but I didn’t go. I don’t date married men.”
    Harry said, “We need to know exactly what he said and did Tuesday. What time did he come in?”
    She frowned in thought. “I don’t really know. He was here when I did my first set at eight. He stayed all evening and we talked off and on, but not too much. I didn’t want to encourage him. Finally I told him I wasn’t interested in going out with him. The bartender, Chris, can confirm that we sat there at the end of the bar. About twelve-thirty he left.”
    Garreth made notes by the light of the candle. “Was that the last you saw of him?”
    “ Yes. Lots of men don’t know how to take no for an answer, but he did.”
    “ I suppose you have a fair number of guys hitting on you. Do you ever take anyone up on the offer?”
    She smiled. “Of course, if the man interests me. I don’t pretend to be a nun. What business is it of yours?”
    “ Where do you usually go, your place or his?”
    Her eyes flared red in the candlelight, but she replied evenly, “Yes.”
    Garreth dropped the