Jeopardy in High Heels (High Heels #12) - Gemma Halliday Page 0,41
your day."
"Plot my day?" I echoed. "What would I be plotting?"
"Remember, I know you." He gave me a wink before he went into the bathroom.
I heard his electric shaver turn on as I sipped my coffee. I was just contemplating adding a frozen waffle to go with it, when my phone buzzed with an incoming call on the nightstand. A number I didn't recognize came up. "Hello?" I answered.
"Good morning, Maddie. How are you, love?"
Felix.
My eyes cut guiltily to the bathroom door. "What do you want?" I asked quietly.
"Wow. I've had worse greetings, but I'm not sure when."
"Sorry," I mumbled. "Good morning. How are you? Now, what do you want?"
Felix chuckled. "Always to the point. One of the things I love about you."
I wished he wouldn't say words like love while my husband was standing just steps away. Clearly Ramirez's jealously from the previous night had been misplaced. Clearly I had no feelings in the present for Felix. Clearly Ramirez was not altogether wrong in thinking Felix was a wild card.
I looked up to find Ramirez watching me in the bathroom mirror. "This isn't a good time," I said in a low voice.
"Sorry, love, but this really couldn't wait."
"No, I mean it really isn't a good time."
Felix's tone changed. "Oh, you mean the detective is there? Shouldn't he have left for work by now?"
The way that he referred to Ramirez as "the detective" irritated me. I got out of bed and took the phone into the living room. "His name is Jack. And he's my husband."
"I'm well aware," he said pointedly.
"What is it that can't wait?"
He paused. "Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"Have the police confirmed that Doggy Z died of ethylene glycol poisoning?"
I felt myself freeze. "Police confirmed?" Those were dangerous words. "Is that what Tina told you?"
Felix chuckled again. "Darling, she didn't just tell me. It's all over the internet."
I closed my eyes and thought a bad word.
"Wow, you okay?" Ramirez said, coming into the room.
Okay, maybe I thought the bad word out loud a little.
"Fine," I told him. I quickly stabbed my phone off, even as I heard Felix protesting faintly on the other end.
Ramirez raised an eyebrow at me. "Who was that?"
"No one."
The other eyebrow went up. "You were swearing at no one?"
"Telemarketer," I said. "They always call at the most inconvenient times."
I cringed. Tina must have been wearing off on me. The lies just tumbled from my lips before I even thought about them.
"Telemarketer." He didn't buy it for a second. I saw his eyes go to my phone, as if he had X-ray vision and could read the number off it.
"Uh, anyway, have a great day, honey." I stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss on his now smooth cheek.
"Thanks," he mumbled. Eyes still on the phone. "And what do you have planned for today?"
"Nothing," I assured him, this time being totally honest. "After I take the twins to school, I'll be spending the day at home. I need to work on my latest shoe design. You know, the two-toned pumps I showed you the other night."
"Right," he said, obviously having no idea what I was talking about. "I'll try not to be home too late," he said, giving me one more suspicious side-eye before leaving.
I watched him pull out of the driveway, waving as he drove away.
Then I grabbed my phone and quickly pulled up the L.A. Informer's website. I didn't have to scroll far to find the story Felix had alluded to. It was the leading headline on their site, as well as their social media pages.
DOGGY Z WAS MURDERED??UT WHODUNIT?
Okay, that much I expected. I took a deep breath before reading forward.
While early reports of the iconic rapper's death mentioned a "drug overdose," an unnamed source inside the LAPD's homicide division has confirmed that he died of ethylene glycol poisoning.
I frowned. Tina had promised to leave me out of it, but this was calling it too close. If Ramirez read this, I knew he'd recognize himself for sure as the unnamed source. Or at least said source's husband. I just hoped he was the only one who saw himself in it and no one else at the station realized they had a leak until an official cause of death could be released.
I read the rest of the article, relieved that Angela Gold was mentioned several times as someone "close to Dog" who might have had a "checkered past" with the rapper.