Death of an Escort Read Online Free Page A

hoped it wouldn't be.
    I pulled up in front of the triplex or
whatever-plex it was. I think it was only three units in the
building, but I wasn't sure. Anyway, I was here.
    I was struck at how similar the outside
condition of this building resembled the outside of the motel. It
had that same disrespectful lack of care look that I really
disliked.
    The address said it was apartment three.
Three was up some stairs that ran up the side of the building, and
I went up them.
    There was no doorbell, so I knocked. Probably
louder and harder than I needed to.
    A girl opened the door. She was maybe twelve
or thirteen.
    "Hi," she said and pushed some of the
boyishly cut blond hair out of her face.
    "Hello," I said. "Is Carlie home?"
    "Does she know you?"
    "Nope."
    "Is she expecting you?"
    "Go get her, okay?" I said.
    "Okay," she said. "Will you wait
outside?"
    I nodded and the door closed. There was a
good chance she wasn't going to come back, but there was an even
better chance that I was going to stand here and keep knocking if
that happened.
    However, the door opened a short time later.
A grown up version of the girl was standing there. She had the same
roundish face and longer, bowl-cut hairstyle. The same blond hair
and blue eyes, but it was darker or possibly dirty blue.
    She was wearing a shirt that had the CarTech
logo on it. They were the largest employer in the area and had a
huge factory in town.
    "What is it?" she asked and sighed.
    I held my hand out. "I'm Ray Crusafi. Do you
have a moment?"
    "For what?" She put her hands on her
hips.
    I took my hand back and got a business card
out and silently handed over to her.
    "You're a private investigator? Serious?" she
asked.
    "Yes, I am," I said. "Can I talk to you?"
    She looked suspicious. People do when I ask
them if we can talk and tell them that I'm a private investigator.
I'm used it, but I still notice it.
    "What do you want to talk about?"
    "Kelly Brandt."
    She looked down at the girl. "Adrienne, go
inside." Then she closed the door behind her.
    The little landing at the top of the steps
wasn't really big enough for the two of us. We could both stand
there, but it felt uncomfortably close.
    "I don't know what to say, except how the
hell do you know that name?" she asked. "Were you watching? Oh,
that is sick!"
    "Kelly is dead," I said and watched her. She
was good. I couldn't tell if I was telling her something she
already knew or not.
    I waited for a question or comment but didn't
get any. So I had to continue.
    "You do know who Kelly is?"
    More silence.
    "Did you know she died?"
    "I think you should leave," she said.
    "You were the last to see her alive," I said.
"I need more information. You could help with that."
    "Goodbye," she said.
    I dug in my pocket for the button and pulled
it out. "Does this belong to you?"
    That arrested her motion of going inside. She
looked down at it and squinted, but the squinting wasn't necessary.
It was plenty big enough to see plainly. It was a giant button.
    "No," she said. Then the door was open, and
she was inside. The door shut firmly, and I heard the deadbolt snap
into place.
    That was that.
    It would seem that I'm a lousy murder
detective. I really should be working on stuff that I'm good at,
like staking out a cheating husband, except I had no paying
customers for that right now.
    Back down the stars I went and I decided to
head home.
    I started my routine for going home. This was
always an exercise I did. I got out onto the main highway and
changed directions multiple times.
    No one was tailing me. For fifteen years, no
one had tailed me, but the day I don't check . . . that will be the
day.
    I sped out of town beyond my office building
and the traffic thinned out. It wasn't much past four in the
afternoon, and as it was also Monday, the rush hour traffic wasn't
bad. Plus, our little city of Muldove isn't much larger than fifty
thousand people, and it's hard to get much of a rush with that few
of people.
    I continued to check the