Jennifer Crusie Bundle by Jennifer Crusie Read Free Book Online

joke.”
    â€œYes. You feed him the setup, and then he does the punch line. Like a knock-knock joke.”
    â€œYou taught this dog a joke?”
    â€œNo.” She looked down at the mop with pride. “He thought it up on his own.”
    Zack looked around the spotless vestibule and through the open door. The next room was spacious, with high ceilings and hardwood floors covered with worn Oriental rugs. It was full of sunlight and comfortable, threadbare, overstuffed furniture, and he could hear a fire crackling cheerfully somewhere close. He looked at the woebegone brunette gazing down at her three dogs, and at the two dogs gazing back adoringly. And finally he looked at the third dog, Heisenburg, waiting patiently on his back for his setup line.
    If this woman was a crook, he was Queen of the May. He grinned at her so suddenly that she blinked. “You’re not a criminal, are you?” he asked, and she shook her head.
    â€œNot unless you arrest me for mugging you. I deserve it. I know I deserve it. But you scared me.” She frowned. “Why did you drag me into that alley?”
    â€œWe need to talk.” Zack held out his hand. “I’m Detective Zachery Warren.”
    She took his hand and shook it. “I’m Lucy Savage, and I’m really sorry I beat you up. Your lip looks awful.”
    â€œYou didn’t beat me up. Would you feed this dog his line so we can go sit down?”
    â€œOh, no!” Lucy said, with so much enthusiasm that Zack looked to see what was wrong. “Dead dog?”
    Heisenburg rolled over and jumped to his feet and barked.
    Zack looked at Lucy. “That’s a dog joke?”
    â€œWhat did you expect? ‘That was no lady, that was my wife’?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Zack said, confused. “Can we go sit down? My foot is killing me.”

    â€œI F YOU DON’T MIND , I’d like to ask you a few questions before I explain about the alley,” Zack began when he was finally sitting on the rose-colored love seat across from the blazing fireplace in the living room. So far, he’d turned down coffee, tea, soft drinks, aspirin, and ice for his foot from Lucy, and affectionate approaches from Heisenberg, who wanted to sit in his lap. Now he was anxious to cut to the chase and get some answers before one of the other dogs began a soft shoe or tried to sell him magazines.
    â€œSure,” Lucy said. “Whatever.”
    She was sitting next to him in a big, ugly olive-green chair that didn’t seem to go with the rest of the house, and she looked swallowed up by it somehow, her knees higher than her waist, her shoulders bowing in a little like folded angel wings.
    â€œAre you all right?” Zack said. “You seem…depressed.”
    â€œI went to court to get divorced today, and my ex-husband stood me up. Then my sister decided to change my life. Then a drug dealer tried to mug me, so I beat him up, and I thought, at last, I’m doing something right, and then he turned out to be a cop. You.” She blinked. “I’m having a bad day. I’ll get over it.”
    â€œYou didn’t beat me up. I wasn’t even trying to defend myself.”
    â€œSure. Whatever.”
    Zack gave up. “Tell me about Bradley. Everything you know.”
    â€œBradley?” Lucy sat back, confused. “That’s what you said on the street. Why do you want to know about my ex-husband?”
    â€œIf he’s the man we’re looking for, he embezzled a million and a half in government bonds from the bank where he worked.”
    Lucy’s mouth dropped open and she sat up straight. “He embezzled from his bank?”
    â€œBanks are the best places to embezzle from,” Zack said. “They usually have the most money. Now, when and where did you meet him?”
    â€œHe picked me up at the library,” Lucy said, still dazed from his announcement. “I was working on