Strangled Prose Page 17

  “Poor old Douglas,” I sighed. “I’m glad that he chickened out at the last moment.”

  We sat and sighed for a long time. Jorgeson came through at one point, gave us a curious look, and left the room. Hendrix even appeared briefly, looking much more palatable in a trim uniform and clean-shaven face.

  I stuck out my hand. “You owe me five dollars.”

  Hendrix rummaged through his pocket and returned the bill. “I’m sorry about that, ma’am, but the lieutenant told me to watch out for a woman with red hair. He said she’d—” He halted, glanced in terror at Lieutenant Rosen, and backed out of the room, his mouth still open.

  “Humph!” I snorted in the ensuing silence.

  At last the lieutenant cleared his throat. “I seem to detect a certain emotional barrier between us, Mrs. Malloy.”

  “I just assumed we didn’t much like each other, Lieutenant Rosen.”

  “Oh, really?” Insufferably egotistical.

  “Ask your wife to explain it to you.”

  “I can’t. My ex-wife lives in Montana and we communicate through lawyers. They’d never understand.”

  “Then it will remain a mystery, won’t it?” I murmured, pleased with my nefarious ploy. “You may never understand why women don’t fall into your arms whenever you crook your little finger.”

  “Why don’t you let me run the investigation, for a change?”

  It was time for a second drink. At the bar, I raised my eyebrows in response to the broad, pearly grin that shone across the room like the rising sun. I flashed all my teeth back at him.

  “Have at it, Sherlock.” He could think whatever he preferred. Who was I to meddle in a CID investigation?

  ALSO BY JOAN HESS

  A Really Cute Corpse

  A Diet to Die For

  A Conventional Corpse

  Dear Miss Demeanor

  The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn

  Out on a Limb

  Roll Over and Play Dead

  Death by the Light of the Moon

  AVAILABLE FROM ST. MARTIN’S/MINOTAUR PAPERBACKS

  Other titles from St. Martin’s MINOTAUR Mysteries

  FORTUNE LIKE THE MOON by Alys Clare

  AGATHA RAISIN AND THE FAIRIES OF FRYFAM by M. C. Beaton

  QUAKER WITNESS by Irene Allen

  MIDNIGHT COME AGAIN by Dana Stabenow

  COUP DE GRCE by J. S. Borthwick

  THE INDIAN SIGN by Les Roberts

  DEAD TIME by Eleanor Taylor Bland

  MURDER WITH PUFFINS by Donna Andrews

  THE BIRD YARD by Julia Wallis Martin

  A DANGEROUS ROAD by Kris Nelscott

  LARGE TARGET by Lynne Murray

  BLUE DEER THAW by Jamie Harrison

  LIE LIKE A RUG by Donna Huston Murray

  A CONVENTIONAL CORPSE by Joan Hess

  THE GREEN-EYED HURRICANE by Martin Hegwood

  THE IRISH MANOR HOUSE MURDER by Dicey Deere

  LAST SEEN IN MASSILIA by Steven Saylor

  AMNESIA by G. H. Ephron

  PISCES RISING by Martha C. Lawrence

  THE HEAT OF LIES by Jonathan Stone

  LEAVIN’ TRUNK BLUES by Ace Atkins

  FILM STRIP by Nancy Bartholomew

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks is also proud to present these mystery classics by AGATHA CHRISTIE

  AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

  THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY

  THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS

  THREE BLIND MICE

  and other stories

  STRANGLED PROSE

  Copyright © 1986 by Joan Hess.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-25146

  ISBN: 0-312-96864-7

  EAN: 80312-96864-9

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / November 1998

  St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

  eISBN 9781466815728

  First eBook edition: September 2013