Can't Keep a Brunette Down by Diane Bator Read Free Book Online

Café Beanz. I know that for a fact they made amaretto coffee this morning since I got one for Anna at the front desk."
    "That's astounding police work, Detective Thayer. Wouldn't that be the perfect way to disguise cyanide?"
    "It would if he'd made it at home, added the poison, then brought it straight to your house in a generic paper cup," he said. "What are the odds he stopped at Café Beanz with cyanide in his pocket, and they just happened to have amaretto coffee brewing?"
    Slim to none. She didn't need him to tell her that. Apparently, she needed sleep a lot worse than she needed to go for a run. She touched the tissue-wrapped ring in her pocket but refused to hand it over to Thayer. She'd wait for Fabio.
    "Go home, Gilda." Thayer returned the plastic bag to her. "Even you know you need proof of a crime to get a search warrant. Unless you get violently ill or fall down dead soon, I don't have probable cause. Only your wild accusations and insanity."
    "It's only borderline insanity, and you have no proof." She snatched the bag with the coffee cup from his hand. The argument sounded better inside her head. Said out loud, her words made her sound even more like a lunatic. She wouldn't blame him for physically throwing her out the door.
    "Neither, my dear, do you," Thayer said.
    Fabio flashed a smug smile in her direction and hung up.
    Gilda let her shoulders sag. "So you won't do anything."
    Thayer snorted. "I am doing something. I'm investigating a murder and stopped for this amusing little intermission of yours. I wish I had as much time to fool around as you do."
    Deflated, her face heated, and she knew was growing redder by the second. She bowed her head, gaze on the industrial gray carpet. Was that a bloodstain or jelly from a donut, near the chair beside her? Part of why she'd taken the job at Yoshida's a few months after breaking up with Thayer was to learn self-defense and feel empowered. Even after nearly two years of training, that confidence escaped her now.
    Thayer sighed. "Go home, Gilda."
    "What are you going to tell Walter's widow?" She stared at the spot on the carpet she hoped was a jelly donut stain.
    "The same thing I'm going to tell you," he said. "Don't leave town. I'll also tell her to stay at least five hundred yards away from you if she values her sanity."
    "How dare you?" She stepped toward him.
    Fabio pulled on his suit jacket and took her by one arm. "Come on, Gilda—I'll walk you out. Thayer, I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't arrest anyone without me."
    Unimpressed, Gilda folded her arms across her stomach and walked out of the police station next to Fabio. "He's a twit. I'd hoped him becoming a detective would change that."
    "Nope, he's still a twit." Fabio laughed as they stepped out into the sunshine and paused at the top of the stairs. "You need to relax and leave the detective work to Thayer and me. Worry about keeping that boss of yours happy, and make sure your students don't desert him. It won't be easy to train where a murder occurred."
    "My boss keeps happy enough all on his own," she said. "You aren't following me to ask a thousand more questions, are you?"
    He shook his shaggy head. "Nah, I've got bigger fish to fry than you, honey. Go grab a fresh coffee and worry about something less scary. It was a random, crazy incident. That's all. This is a tourist town. Whoever killed Walter could be long gone by now."
    Or hidden in their midst. Her chin quivered.
    "Wait." She grasped his arm and dropped the tissue-wrapped ring in his palm. "I found this yesterday after you guys left the school. It was taped to the underside of a bench and fell off when Mick kicked the bench."
    Fabio opened the tissue and frowned. "I've seen that symbol before. That's the goju karate symbol, isn't it? Who's ring is this?"
    Gilda bit her lower lip. "I thought it might be Walter's, but now I'm not so sure. Why would anyone hide it?"
    "I'll drop it by the lab and see if we can get some prints," he said.