When I walked into the outer office the next morning, Marcia was whispering with my my research assistant, Patricia. They stopped whispering guiltily and both were blushing furiously. Sometimes I wondered about those two.

"Hey, morning, boss!" Pat was a tomboy through and through. She was a contrast to Marcia in a lot of ways. Short blonde hair, where Marcia’s was a shoulder length mousy brown. Pat’s green eyes almost glowed with her energy, while Marcia’s flat brown eyes were hidden by large round glasses that looked like a family heirloom. Marcia always wore nice dresses, and I doubt Pat ever owned a dress, preferring jeans and t-shirts. They were so different. Probably why they got along so well.

"What’s up, Pat?"

She bounced in place as she handed me a manila envelope. I eyed her as I opened it and dropped the contents into my hand. Out dropped several incriminating photos. VERY incriminating photos of another client. I turned them sideways. I’m not sure what they were doing in that picture was humanly possible. "Damn."

"Oh yeah. I was telling Marcia what I saw BEFORE I got my camera up. Looked like that one sculpture downtown! YOU know the one!" She grinned and gave me a saucy wink.

I winced. I did know the one.

"Anyway, the little pervert’s been lying to us. You want I should call the wife?"

I thought about it. "You sure she’s not stepping out, too?"

"A hundred percent, boss!"

"Do it. I don’t deal with his type. If he wants his money back, tell him to consider it a liar’s fee."

She mock saluted. "On it, Boss!"

I rolled my eyes. "Marcia, follow me for a second?"

Marcia grinned at Pat as she followed me into my office. I glanced through the short stack of messages I accumulated over night and grimaced. Most were from Lieutenant Diane Jersey. Now what did she want? I know I owed her, but she could be pushy. I dropped them on my chair for later. Jersey could wait. "What time did Mister Robbins want to meet?"

"Noon, sir. Apparently he starts his day when reasonable people are having lunch."

I grunted. "Did he balk at the price?"

"Nope."

Good. I found that if someone complained about the fee, then something wasn’t right. The guy who paid for Patty’s pictures complained loudly about the fee. Should have known. "Okay. What do you think?"

Marcia thought for a moment. "I’m not sure, sir. I talked with Patricia this morning. Both of us thought it felt weird."

"Yeah, I’m not going to argue. Robbins was too nervous. Almost felt like he was putting on a show. I think there’s more going on here than simple theft."

"Probably, sir."

I chewed on my lower lip. "Okay, once Pat gets done with the wife, have her do some background checks. The usual stuff. See if there’s something funny going on." I grabbed my gun from my desk drawer and strapped it on. I tried to have it only while I was on the job. For other times, I kept a telescoping baton I liberated from the storeroom before I left the force.

"Be careful, sir."

"Will do, Marcia. Hold down the fort while I’m gone?"

"Always do, sir."

That’s what was nice about Marcia. Not only did she put up with my crap, but she reigned Pat in all the time. I’m pretty sure my business would fall apart if she ever left. She ran the place, I just sat there and looked smart.

Most people tell me not to bother.

I slid into the car and adjusted the rear-view mirror. Susie looked back at me with a thoughtful expression. "What’s up?"

She was silent for a moment. "Marcia is usually dead on, and though I question her sanity, so is Pat. I think you should be extra careful."

I nodded. "You’ve got a bad feeling, too?"

"Yeah. I told you last night, I think Robbins was holding something fairly substantial back." We had talked for a while the previous night. We did that often enough I had long ago invested in a comfortable bar stool for my bathroom.

"We’ll see in a few minutes." I readjusted the mirror and started the car. I tried not to look at the rear view mirror often while I drove. It freaked me out still to see her looking back at me while I drove. I told her that once, and she didn’t stop laughing for almost an hour.

I got to Robbins’ office in record time. I met Susie’s worried eyes one last time as I left the car. If she was worried, I wanted to be extra careful. After all, if I got hurt, so did she.

I went up the stairs two at a time until I got to the landing below his office. I slowed down and stopped at the top of the stairs. His office was at the end of the hall. I looked around the corner and groaned.

His door hung off the hinges, glass window smashed all to hell. I crept to the door, and pulled out my gun. I walked in a few steps and stopped. "Crap." Robbins was in his chair staring at nothing with all three eyes, one still crying red. I heard something behind me, and I whirled around. A dark shape moved at me faster than I could react and raised an arm at me. As he brought it down, I saw gleaming gold highlights before it hit me in the head.

The last thought I had before blacking out was, "Easy money. Yeah, right."