A Talent for Murder by R.T. Jordan

to his mother’s side. He looked at Officer Betty and offered his most seductive smile. “Thanks for your time, ma’am. We’ll be leaving.” Tim took his mother by the elbow and guided her toward the front door. “I’ll make sure that you’re invited to dinner soon. I promise,” he called back.
    As Polly protested, Tim whispered, “Just hush for a few minutes.”
    As the trio exited the building and made their way back to the car, Tim looked at his watch. “Betty goes to lunch in five minutes.”
    Placenta cackled. “That cute rookie, Garrett—yeah, I saw you two, and I looked at his badge, too—promised to get us in to see Lisa?”
    Tim smiled. “What good are blue eyes, dimples, and all those hours in the gym if I can’t use ‘em to get to home base? But we’ve only got twenty minutes!”
    “Not bad son-in-law material,” Polly said.
    “All we need is a cop for Placenta and we’ll have our very own Bel Air patrol unit.”
    Five minutes later, Polly, Tim, and Placenta were escorted down a long corridor toward the prison cells. When they reached Lisa Marrs’s concrete room behind a steel door, Officer Garrett knocked on the shatterproof glass. “Ma’am, Tim, er, Miss Polly Pepper, is here to see you.” He then looked at Tim. “The Abby? Seven o’clock?”
    Tim smiled, his killer dimples revving the rookie’s heart rate to NASCAR zoom-zoom. “Drinks are on me,” Tim said.
    Garrett then unlocked the cell door. “I’ll be back in twenty. You have to be ready to run, or we’ll all be inPoohville.” He relocked the cage door and left the prisoner and her guests to their privacy.
    Lisa Marrs looked unhealthily thin, and hadn’t had a smear of makeup since being incarcerated. Polly opened her purse and withdrew a tube of concealer. She applied a dollop to her index finger and approached Lisa.
    “What the hell?” Lisa backed up against her bed.
    “Just hold still for a teensy weensy moment, honey. Your pores are giving me the willies.” Polly cautiously applied the makeup onto Lisa’s face. “There!” Polly announced as if completing the final touches on a work of art. “Doesn’t that make you feel like a million?”
    “Oh yeah. I’m in hell, but I look good enough to date the homeless drunk in the next cell!” Lisa said. “Jeez, lady, you’re as loony as Thane said you were!”
    Polly was taken aback. “Then thank you for saving me from having to kill him myself!”
    “I did not kill Thane Cornwall!” Lisa cried. “Why doesn’t anybody believe me?”
    “Maybe because you were caught in the act of doing the deed,” Placenta said.
    “But I wasn’t! The maid came in
after
I found Thane. She doesn’t even speak good English!”
    “Confess, dear. She saw you holding the knife,” Polly declared. “You were the only wacko in sight.”
    “So what’s your version of the story?” Placenta said. “You’d better make it interesting ‘cause Polly Pepper’s got a severe case of ADD, and the evidence is piled sky-high against you, babe.”
    “I’ve told everyone the same thing over and over!” Lisa implored. She was quiet for a long minute, then spoke. “Okay. Again. For the bajillionth time. I went to Thane’s house because Richard Dartmouth sent me. Youwere there. You know that’s the truth. I rang the doorbell forever. Then I decided to let myself in.”
    “If no one was home, why would you bother going inside?” Polly asked.
    “Thane’s Lamborghini was parked in the driveway. I figured he was there but ignoring me.”
    “If a person doesn’t answer their door, it makes sense that they probably don’t want visitors,” Polly agreed.
    Lisa shrugged. “That’s what I thought. But Richard would have killed
me
if I didn’t drag Thane’s butt to the meeting. He’s not as tolerant of his assistants as he is of the stars he kisses up to,” she said. “He hasn’t even come to visit me, or sent me a note of support.”
    “Okay. So you’re outside the house,