Still Life: The Randi Lassiter Series, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF

she and CJ sat at separate tables and looked on. After her embarrassing tirade, he’d greeted Sarah with a pleasant smile and a handshake, one professional to another. In fact, the man was still hanging on her every word. The head-turning lawyer was probably explaining what her flunkies were doing in the alleyway and apologizing for Randi’s foot-in-mouth disease.
    Good Lord, it was like she and CJ were in the principal’s office and Sarah was their mom come to explain their behavior. At one point, Sarah gestured toward Randi and the man cast her a smug look of what she could only assume was contempt. She found it offensive that he hadn’t wanted to talk to her first. She was the witness after all. But she had to concede that her behavior earlier might have been a bit off-putting.
    Before parting, Sarah shook the detective’s hand. Then at the front door she mouthed, “I’ll call you tomorrow” to Randi and with a wink left the café. Huh, maybe everything would be okay.
    CJ was escorted three tables over to interview with a female detective—lucky her. That unfortunately left Detective Bricksen all for Randi. Her face got warm and she inexplicably began to squirm under his attentive glare.
    Detective Bricksen slid into the booth across from her. Like Sarah, Randi held out her hand in a more formal greeting. He ignored the gesture and motioned to the waitress to bring coffee over. Randi let her empty hand fall into her lap and narrowed her eyes at him. She wondered what she’d done to be on the receiving end of such animosity. Other than the way she’d first greeted him…and screw up his murder scene. But it wasn’t like she’d done it on purpose .
    The sexy, off-kilter grin he’d given Sarah earlier he now offered to Claire as she filled his cup with steaming dark roast and placed a fresh mug of cocoa in front of Randi, nudging a small side dish of mini marshmallows in her direction. Claire nodded as the detective thanked her and stuck out her lower lip sympathetically when she caught Randi’s eye. Claire’s tip just got bigger.
    Randi’s skin became prickly under the man’s annoyed gaze. There was no trace of a smile on his face now. Cold blue eyes, but she sensed the inferno that simmered beneath the surface. Randi got the feeling that if she touched his arm it would burn her hand.
    “Look, I’m sorry about earlier, I….” She began,wanting to start fresh.
    He waved a hand dismissively without letting her finish. “Don’t worry about it. Your lawyer explained what you were doing and I’ll be asking more about that in a minute. But for now, how long have you been a PI, Ms. Lassiter?” His eyes fell on her prominent cleavage and lingered, eventually wandering over to her left breast’s name tag, again.
    “About two years.” She slapped a hand over “Gretchen” as she pulled at the already stressed material in an attempt to get another button closed. She realized she was holding her breath and let go of the uniform. The opening gaped further and she regretted her earlier apology.
    “Licensed?”
    “Of course.”
    His brows rose almost imperceptibly.
    “Does that surprise you, Detective?” She was annoyed that he would think otherwise.
    “Seems a bit extreme is all. I see that you hold a realtor’s license and yet you went to the trouble to get a PI license just so you can photograph people having sex. Is the housing market that bad?”
    Randi struggled to exercise patience. She was tired and sore, and at this point surviving on a thread of equanimity, so she pointedly kept her reaction in check. She took a moment to examine the insufferable beast with the clarity of a scientist probing an amoeba under a microscope.
    Detective Bricksen was ruggedly handsome, yet had a boyish grin that she’d seen deepen when he’d extended it to Sarah and Claire. A five o’clock shadow dirtied an otherwise chiseled complexion. There was the tiniest hooked scar on his lower lip that held too much of her