Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red Read Online Free PDF

explain how he knew what it meant. It must have really gone against the grain with him to have to leave a potential clue to a murder in place because he couldn’t risk explaining how he knew what it meant. And now I had a pretty good idea as to who had sent Lily McIntyre my way.
    I put the gun away and crouched there, fingering the disc. I chuckled softly to myself.
    “What’s so funny, peeper?”

    Oh fuck! It was a set-up! I was terrified that Reggie had sold me so he could make sure the clue was found, and I was going to turn around to find a hundred cops standing behind me, guns drawn.
    My heart was racing as I drew my own gun again and rolled on my shoulder, aiming it upward at the shadow looming over me, before I recognized his ugly shoes and relaxed.
    “Artie, fuck off! You know better than to creep up on a man holding a gun!”
    He sniggered. “You weren’t holding it, Greyson . You put it away.”
    “Don’t call me that, it’s Grey,” I said automatically, stowing the piece in my holster and retrieving the disc. My hands were shaking but I didn’t let him see.

    Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    25

    “I hear you landed yourself a keeper.” He used both hands to trace the curves of an exaggerated female figure.
    “What don’t you hear?” I got to my feet and slapped the dust off my pants with my hat.
    Artie shrugged. “Thought you might need more man muscle, my son.”
    I glared at him. “Not yet. I’ll call you if I need you.”
    “No phone.”
    “I’ll send up a smoke signal.” It didn’t matter. If I needed help, Artie would show up. He had a nose for trouble.
    “What did you find? Is it worth anything?”
    “Who says I found anything?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, it’s not everyday I can walk up behind you, Grey. Ears like a bat.”
    “A bat?”
    “You know, sonar, or radar maybe. Whatever they have.” Sometimes Artie surprised me with the weird stuff he knew, what with being a boxer. You wouldn’t think that would leave him much time for reading, especially if another fighter had rung his chimes in a bout. The rest of the time he did odd jobs for the criminal element to get enough money for gym fees.
    I held out the disc so he could see it.
    “A bottle cap,” he said in a disgusted voice.
    “Turn it over.”
    He did, and I held the light so he could see it. He poked it with a finger and then looked up at me with a little grin. “Feeling horny?”
    “Brings back old times, doesn’t it?”
    He nodded, but his expression was quizzical. “You mean, you’re not a member?”

    26

    CATT FORD

    He knew I was queer, like I knew he was, but it wasn’t something we ever chatted about. In fact, I suspected that he swung both ways, but he was a meat-eater if there was any to be had. He liked beefier guys than me, and I didn’t much want him, but we’d drunk out of the same bottle once or twice, and he’d told me some stories.
    “A member of what?”
    Artie nodded at the cap. “This place. It’s the ritziest queer club in Vegas.”
    “Not like the dives you hang out at?”
    He shrugged. “The club is more high class. They call it Lambda, but there’s no name on the door. Doctors, lawyers, fancy nances getting their rocks off before going home to the missus.” Just goes to show how out of touch I was. I’d heard there were clubs, but experience had taught me to stay out of them. I had two hands, and I was equally good with both. One of the benefits of being ambidextrous in certain areas; if I got tired of my pal Lefty, there was always Righty.
    “Where is this place? And what makes it so tony?” Artie pointed at the cap. “That’s your ticket in. Members only.
    It’s over that way. I gotta show you. No street names in the train yard.”
    “In the train yard?”
    “Keeps the passing foot traffic down. You gotta know about it to find it.”
    “Okay, show me the way.”
    “I could show you something all right, soldier.” He chuckled and turned to