Alibi in High Heels by Gemma Halliday Page B

just turn her over to the police? Or Jean Luc? It still didn't make sense. And I still wasn't 100% convinced that Gisella hadn't just shoved it into her pocket after one too any glasses of champagne and forgotten all about it.
    "Bonjour."
    I opened my eyes. And did a little yelp. Miss Tube Top was sitting so close to me she was practically in my lap.
    "Uh, hi." I scooted to the left.
    " Ca va ? "
    "Uh, sorry, I don't speak French."
    She just looked at me.
    "I. Don't. Speak. French," I said again, louder and more slowly.
    The woman grinned, showing off a row of slightly yellow teeth. Most of which were all still there. "I heard you the first time, my girl," she said in perfect English.
    "Oh."
    She leaned in and I could smell her breakfast vodka on her breath. "Tell me, what's a darling little thing like you doing in here?"
    I heard myself gulp loudly as Tube Top gave me an up-and-down. Then licked her lips.
    "Uh, a slight misunderstanding."
    She did a short bark of laughter. "Ha! Me, too, doll." She reached over and laid a hand on my knee. "Wanna tell me about it?"
    Suddenly peeing in public just got replaced as the worst thing about being in a holding cell by being groped by a prostitute of ambiguous gender.
    "Springer?" A tall, thin officer with a crooked nose opened the cell door.
    I popped up from the bench like a Jack in the Box, shoving my crutches under my armpits. "That's me!"
    Tube Top looked disappointed, but gave me a little one finger wave as the officer took me by the arm and escorted me down the hallway.
    I breathed a sigh of relief. I had a feeling I'd been one knee grab away from being someone's be-atch.
    My relief was short lived, however, as the officer steered me around the corner and I spotted the man who had sprung me from the pokey. Arms crossed over his broad chest. Eyes dark and unreadable. Lips pursed into a fine white line. Jaw set into those hard granite angles of Bad Cop.
    Ramirez.
    "Uh... hi." I gave him a little wave. No reaction. "I see you made your flight." Still nothing. "Nice to see you, honey?" I tried. Though it sounded more like a question.
    Ramirez ignored me, addressing the officer. "I'll take it from here." He put his signature down on the officer's clipboard, then grabbed my upper arm in a vice grip and steered me down the length of the hallway.
    "See, the proper response here would be, 'Hi, nice to see you, too, Maddie,'" I said as I hopped to catch up to him. "Or maybe, 'Are you okay? Wow, how traumatic this must have been for you.'"
    Ramirez paused just long enough to shoot me a death look, then propelled me past booking, the front desk, and the glass doors of the police station, outside onto a street that was busy with afternoon shoppers and sightseers. He walked me a full block in silence before backing me into an alleyway that smelled like urine and rotting fish and spinning me around to face him.
    "What the hell were you thinking?" he growled, his voice doing a tightly restrained thing I knew could easily snap at any moment.
    "Look, it was all a misunderstanding. We just wanted to look around. Angelica said they'd been fighting."
    "Who?"
    "Angelica. The friend who's not a friend."
    Ramirez just stared at me.
    "Look, we were just looking for evidence that someone else did this. We were gonging to put everything back where we found it. Well, except maybe the necklace."
    Ramirez's Bad Cop face did give away any emotion. Though I could tell from the long, blue vein in his neck starting to bulge just a little that I wasn't making any headway with him.
    "Didn't I distinctly tell you," he ground out between clenched teeth, "not to do anything stupid until I got here? I think this qualifies."
    I put a hand on my hip. "Yeah, about that-"
    But he cut me off, shaking his head. "God, do you know how guilty this makes you look, Maddie? Being found pawing through the victim's belongings?"
    "I didn't do anything wrong. You and I both know I'm innocent."
    He stared at me. Silently.
    For one