A Dose of Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

Goldie’s Fraud Investigation 101, I really did need that Scotch. I settled for a Coors while Goldie poured himself another Scotch.
    â€œI had no idea there was so much to the job. I might be in way over my head.”
    Goldie leaned back in his black leather chair with leopard armrests and said, “I have no doubt that you are, suga. But what the hell.” He lifted his glass in a toast. “Life is short. Go for it.”
    I looked around the room that obviously Goldie had furnished himself and said, “I’ll do just that.”
    But, truthfully, inside I screamed, “Help! I’m about to drown!”
    I poked my toe out from the bubbles. One thing about Miles: He knew how to live. I always teased him that he was born with an interior-decorating gene.
    Our tub was sunken into the floor of the bathroom, all salmon-colored marble. Gold water spigots shaped like dolphins sat at one end, and at the other were the controls for the stereo system, phone and the jets that were now massaging my sore muscles.
    I’d done that extra lap and two more.
    No man was going to look better than Pauline Sokol!
    Alongside the tub was the tan folder, on suspect Ms. Tina Macaluso, that Fabio had given me. My first case! What a rush! What was I doing?
    I’d read it over and over, until my bathwater cooled. Still I remained submerged in thought. Goldie had made this investigation stuff sound so easy—and obviously it
had
been, for
him
.Then again, he was ex-Army Intel.
    He probably did great with the investigating—it certainly didn’t look as if money was a problem for him. And he’d said Fabio gave decent bonuses for good work. Adele had said Goldie’s conviction rate of frauds was in the hundreds and the monies recovered in the millions.
    Damn.
    I could do this. I could get my first case solved. Goldie’s “Go for it” had said as much.
    Tina Macaluso was a dead woman.

Three
    Okay, Tina Macaluso wasn’t really a dead woman, but she’d soon be tucked neatly away in jail if I had anything to do with it, and I might get a Christmas bonus this year. Then again, I think in Goldie’s Fraud Investigation 101, he’d said the DA didn’t incarcerate most of the time. The money just had to be paid back.
    According to her file, Tina had conned the Global Carriers Insurance Company out of $33,892.77. Wow.
    And I planned to help them get every penny back. Sure, I’d like to see her butt in jail, but I’d settle with her getting caught and having to pay the money back. It rankled me that others got money so easily. From an insurance company, no less, and me without any coverage until after my probation. That alone made me feel driven to succeed with this case.
    Although being the honest person that I was, I had to admit that I had no idea how to do it. Still, I wasn’t going to let on to Fabio about my shortcomings. Goldie had offered to help, and I’d damn well take his offer.
    With my toe, I lifted the knob that opened the drain and as the water ran out, I stood, toweled myself off and stuck on my robe. I padded to my room and looked out the window. Snowflakes skittered across the lawn. Although not a major storm, the roads would be slick. Still, I had work to do.
    It was odd making my own hours. The urge to sit and watch the
Jerry Springer Show
with the morbid curiosity that draws one to rubberneck during a car accident had to be tamed by the stark reality of my bank account. Once dressed, I grabbed my purse. Time was of the essence, Fabio had said, and besides, he only paid “per job.” No salary. Ack.
    Also, being a newbie on probation, I wouldn’t get anything until the first assignment was completed. If I did a good job in a timely manner, I could get some interim pay from then on. It’d be only part of the payment for the full job, so I’d have something to live on until I made the big bucks.
    More cases—more money.
    Right now,