Swingin' in the Rain Read Online Free PDF Page B

when we were together. He said they were crass.”
      “Well, I guess he changed his mind.” He took the photos and put them back in his folder. “Thanks, again Miss Peterson.”
      I nodded, and walked back to Jakes’ desk.
      “All done?” he asked.
      “You tell me,” I said. I threw a sour look back at Rockland, who didn’t notice. “He says I’m not a suspect. Is he telling me the truth?”
      “Let’s go get some lunch,” he said, “and we’ll talk about it.”

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
       Lunch was one of those chi chi food trucks that are all the rage. It was a gourmet restaurant on wheels parked just outside the new headquarters. Jakes nodded to the people he knew from the building. We waited in line and didn’t start talking until we had our chicken crepes and café au laits. We claimed a couple of steps in front of the building to sit on.
      “Sorry for the quick lunch, but I have to get back inside,” he looked at me closely. “Are you okay?”
      “Not really. On top of everything else going on I just found out that two more soaps were cancelled. That only leaves four on the air. Can’t help thinking soaps are an endangered species.” I looked around. The rain had actually stopped; for a change and it was nice to be outside.
      “Sorry to hear that. Will ‘The Bare and the Brazen’ be safe?”
      “For a while, I guess. We have good ratings. But it’s  relative now. Our good ratings would have been considered very bad five years ago. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.”
      “How was the interview?” he asked.
      “Is that what it was?” I asked. “It seemed more like an interrogation.”
      “He would have taken you into another room for that,” he said.
      “Then what was all that ‘where were you’ and ‘how mad were you’ stuff?”
      “Just routine.”
      “That’s what he said,” I replied. “That’s what you all say.”
      “Look, babe,” he said, in a soothing tone, “you’re not a suspect, okay? Not this time. It really is just routine to question the ex-spouse.”
      As I ate I was looking past Jakes at some of the people on the steps, and that was when I saw her. She had come out of the building, then walked quickly down the stairs. My first urge was to chase after her, but what would I say?
      When she hit the street she practically ran away from the building.
      “Look,” I said.
      “Where?”
      “That woman holding the red umbrella.”
      He turned his head, looked, but I could see he wasn’t spotting her.
      “Who is it?” he asked.
      “Patti.”
      “Who?”
      “Patti, she does my make-up on the show.”
      He looked around again, then at me.
      “She’s gone,” I said, “but she came out of your building.”
      “What was she doing in there?” he wondered.
      “That’s what I want you to find out,” I said. I told him about her phone call, and what George had found on the caller I.D.
      “Maybe she was here reporting a burglary, or a stolen car?”
      “And you call yourself a detective?” I teased. “It’s too much of a coincidence that two people from the same show needed to come down here and talk to the police today.” And then it hit me. “Oh my God! Oh my God! That’s too weird!”
      “What’s too weird?”
      I took a few moments to process it before answering.
      “You’re not going to believe this. Okay. So, when I was working the other night, I noticed a stamp on Patti’s wrist. You know, like the ones you get at a club? It was a fleur-de-lis. Like ummm, that royal emblem thing? Right? You with me so far?”
      “Yeah, I’m following. What about it?”
      “Just now, at Rockland’s desk, I happened to see a photo of Randy at the crime scene. That same emblem was tattooed on his arm!” I was very excited by the implications. Unfortunately, Jakes wasn’t feeling it.
      “Sooo, you’re saying Patti had a stamp of a very common design and Randy had a