Today’s excerpt is from Whodunit
Did It, the first of three Elmer Bader books. Elmer makes a date with his third ex-wife,
then asks for a new case to go with the case he is working on. Enjoy and have a wonderful day.
m.j.
Just as Reggie
went to call Bert and to get copies of the picture of the murderer, Elmer’s
cell phone rang. He saw who it was and
answered, “Hello, Ruthie—how’s my favorite ex-wife?”
“I’m fine,
darling ex-husband, who I love and adore.
I know you’re fine because you’re always fine…so I won’t ask. What I’m calling about is how about we have a
bite to eat and some sex later—I’m buying.
Oh, would you please remind me why I was so stupid as to divorce you?”
“Sounds good,
but I better pass on the food. The sex
later sounds great, though. At your
place is better still. I’m working a hot
case…it could get late.”
“Oh, now I remember why I divorced you. How late?”
“Don’t know.”
“Well, in this
case, I think I understand. You working
on the jewelry store robbery and murders?”
“Yeah—why?”
“Because it’s
part of why I wanted to see you…the sex was a big part of it, too. But I knew Heather Crimmins very
well…considered her a good friend. If
you weren’t working it, I was going to ask you to at least nose around a
bit. You still have your key, I assume?”
“Oh, yeah. A good looking redhead who’s as hot in bed as
you gives me a key to her place, you can bet I keep it.”
Ruth Bader
laughed, “Just how many keys do you have?”
“One—other than
my own.”
“Good
answer…even if I don’t necessarily believe you.
But you never were a big one for lying—in fact never, I know of.”
“Ruth, since I
met you, you’re the only women I’ve had sex with.”
“You kidding
me? No, I don’t think you are, for some
reason. I hate to admit this, but I’ve
not been with anyone else since I met you either. Why, again, is it I divorced you? Okay, I’ll see you when you get here. I’m in bed—get me up so I can brush my teeth
first.”
“Thank you for
that. You’re gonna be so nice, I won’t
even ask for a raise in my alimony. See
ya later.”
“Bye, El.”
When Elmer got
off the call, Alan shook his head. “You
should ask your lovely lady to marry you again.”
“You might be
right…but we’ve had a much better relationship since the divorce.”
The two men were
still joking around about Elmer and his ex-wife when Reggie returned. “Okay—got Bert borrowed for as long as I need
him. He was already off-duty but only
too happy to ride along with me. Here’s
your copies of the picture—see you guys later.”
Alan reached for
the copies before both he and Elmer said goodbye to Reggie, as they started
gathering up their things. As often
happens in police work, luck and intuition can have a major effect on a
case. As they stood up to leave, the
night-shift Captain came into the squad room.
He said to two of the night detectives, “Got a funny one, thought you
might be interested. Body was
found. I just got word the M.E. is
already there—she says the guy’s mouth smells of bleach.”
Elmer
heard. For some reason something clicked
in his head, as he asked, “Captain, you mind if Alan and I handle this
one? It might tie into this deal with
the jewelry store robbery shootings?”
The Captain
shrugged, “Sure, have at it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment