Twisted Game, Nora Kane [the giving tree read aloud .TXT] 📗

not going to let her go down on my account. My wife isn’t stupid, so this won’t be that big of news to her. But, as I said, if she doesn’t have another alibi, the last thing I need is cops trying to bring me into this.”

“Alright, I suppose that’s fair. You seem to think she did it, why?”

“She’s fucking crazy, that’s why.”

“You were still seeing her.”

“Yeah, crazy is good for a mistress. After this, though, I figured I was going to break it off. There’s fun crazy then there’s dangerous crazy.”

“How do you tell the difference?”

“You can’t. That’s part of what makes it fun. You seem a little crazy yourself; don’t be afraid to use that number for personal reasons, if the desire strikes you.”

“It won’t. Thanks, Harry.”

“You’re welcome.”

“One more thing, do you remember what she was wearing?”

“Phoebe?”

“Yeah.”

Harry seemed to think about it for a second before he said, “Red lingerie.”

“How about before that?”

“Honestly, I don’t remember. Phoebe in red lingerie is memorable. What she took off to get to that point? Not so much.”

“How about what she put on afterward?”

“She wasn’t wearing anything when I left.”

Margot nodded. Even if he could testify she was wearing something different than the black cocktail dress covered in her husband's blood, he probably wouldn’t. Plus, there had been plenty of time for her to change and then change back if the timeline he gave was correct.

Margot kept the gun in her hand as she put two twenties on the bar. “Get my friends a drink.”

“You don’t have to do that, Margot,” Harry said.

“It’ll give you something to do because if I see you walking out before I leave the parking lot, someone is getting shot.”

“You know, I’m really starting to like you.”

Margot ignored him and walked to the front desk.

“You owe me twenty dollars, Theo.”

“It’s Theodore.”

“My twenty dollars or I break your thumb.”

Theodore reached in his pocket and came up with the twenty she had given him earlier.

Margot took it and asked, “How about you? Do you remember what Phoebe was wearing?”

Theo shrugged. “I don’t know, a short dress of some sort. That’s what she usually wore.”

“Color?”

“I don’t know, black?”

“I wasn’t there, Theo. Was it black or not?”

“I don’t know, it was usually black, but it might not have been.”

“Thanks for nothing, Theo.”

“It’s Theodore.”

“You say that like I care,” Margot told him. She threw one more glance at Harry and his thug, who were both sitting at the bar having a drink, before she went out the door.

Margot kept the twenty in one hand and her gun in the other as she walked out.

An almost impossibly skinny guy who had to look up to meet Margot’s eyes was leaning against a big black Cadillac SUV parked by the door in a spot normally reserved for people checking in. He saw Margot and a confused look came over his face.

He stepped in her path. “Hey, where are you going?”

“None of your business.”

He stayed where he was and looked past her into the hotel. Again, he looked confused. Margot realized this must be Harry Lee’s driver.

“What if I want to make it my business?” he asked her.

“Well, one, you don’t fight in my weight class.”

“Don’t let my size fool you; I can handle my business.”

“And two,” Margot said as she raised the gun enough that he could see it.

The diminutive driver got out of the way.

“Next time we’ll see how well I fight moving up in weight,” he muttered at Margot’s back.

“Careful what you wish for,” Margot said without turning around.

“Keep talking, bitch. The last woman who disrespected wished she hadn’t.”

She kept her pistol in her hand until she reached her car. She drove away with the pistol sitting on the seat and didn’t put it away until she got to Radcliff’s condo.

Chapter 4

Margot waited until they were both naked, satisfied, and exhausted before telling Radcliff about her encounter with Harry Lee and what she learned about Phoebe at the Palms Hotel.

“If you want, I can have somebody pick up Harry and his henchman. Seems like a crime was committed,” Radcliff told her.

“Yeah, by me. I was the one macing people and waving my pistol around. They were up to no good, even though I’m guessing they were just trying to scare me, but it’d be tough to prove.”

“I wasn’t thinking of the kind of arrest that gets to court. I was thinking you decided to try to stay out of the way of organized crime for a while.”

“I was thinking the same thing, which is why you shouldn’t arrest anybody. I don’t think Harry is mad at me, anyway.”

“Why is that?”

“He asked me out.”

“Like a date?”

“More like a rendezvous. I don’t think he’s much for wining and dining his mistresses.”

“Unlike me.”

“I’d like to think I’m just a bit past the mistress phase.”

“You most definitely are.”

“It kind of bugs me though that the guys who like me also have or had a thing for Phoebe.”

‘Why is that?”

“It makes me think I might be more like her than I want to be.”

“You’re not like her. Trust me.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that. The next question is why did Phoebe lie to me? Do you think it’s possible she actually did it?”

“Anything’s possible, but I wouldn't have picked her for that kind of violence. Screw him over in the divorce? Yeah. Maybe even shooting somebody, but that was a brutal scene.”

“Harry Lee thinks she could have.”

“From what I hear, he knows brutal, and he knows the current version of Phoebe better than I do. Maybe I’m the one letting my feelings get the best of me.”

“You