Hot Money by Sherryl Woods

secretary returned to her desk with a sniff, then turned her back on them and began pounding on the keyboard of her computer with a touch that threatened to bounce it off her desk. The last pieces of equipment requiring a touch that firm were the old standard manual typewriters.
    “I hope we never need to get past security around here again,” Molly observed in a whisper. “She’ll have us shot on sight.”
    “Not if his high holiness in there tells her otherwise. She is the sort of loyal minion who would never dream of going against her boss’s wishes. She’ll roll out the red carpet, even fetch us coffee, if he tells her to.”
    Unfortunately, the next time the door to Jason Jeffries’s office opened, the two men who exited with him were all too familiar—Miami’s Detective Abrams and Metro’s Detective Michael O’Hara. Molly’s mouth dropped open in astonishment.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    Detective Abrams apparently didn’t see the need to explain his presence. He glanced at Michael, his lips quirking with amusement, nodded politely, and kept right on going. To Molly’s regret, Michael showed no such inclination.
    “I might ask you the same question,” he said, studying her intently, then sparing a glance for Liza.
    “The fund-raiser,” Molly blurted. “We wanted to see Jason about the fund-raiser.”
    Michael glanced at the philanthropist. “You didn’t mention another appointment. I’m sorry if we held you up.”
    Jason Jeffries smiled benignly. “These gals took me by surprise, but I never turn down the chance to chat with a couple of pretty women.”
    Clearly offended by the patronizing tone, Liza glared at him. He winked at her. Molly envisioned the entire fund-raiser falling apart without Jason Jeffries’s backing, but before she could decide how to mediate, she heard Liza’s unexpected chuckle.
    “You old fraud,” she accused. “You just do that to irritate me, don’t you?”
    He grinned back at her. “Works every time, too.”
    Michael took Molly’s arm. “Why don’t you and I let them have their meeting,” he said in a tone that indicated it was an order, not a suggestion.
    “Liza needs me there,” she protested, then realized that for the moment her friend was perfectly capable of handling Jason Jeffries. That left her free to discover what the devil Michael O’Hara had been doing in Jason Jeffries’s office. Unless he and Abrams had been there collecting for the Police Athletic League, which she seriously doubted, then her favorite Metro-Dade homicide cop had been involved in interrogating a witness in a Miami murder case.
    “Oh, never mind,” she said resignedly. “I’ll come with you. Liza, you don’t mind, do you?”
    “No. You two go on ahead. I’ll see you at home later.”
    “Stealing one of my girls,” Jason Jeffries grumbled at Michael, but he winked when he said it. He turned back to Liza. “Okay, young lady, let’s get cracking. I’ve got things to do. You need a check or something?”
    Molly didn’t hear Liza’s response because Michael was propelling her through the door at a clip that could have earned her first place in the Miami Grand Prix. He didn’t say a word as they waited for the elevator. Nor did he open his mouth as the elevator doors slid shut. The silence was beginning to get on Molly’s nerves.
    “Okay,” she snapped finally. “Just say it.”
    “Say what?”
    “Whatever you’re going to say.”
    “I’m much more interested in what you have to say. You don’t for a minute think I believe that hogwash about stopping by to do some planning for a fund-raiser that’s not even on the calendar yet.”
    Molly seized the opening like a lifeline. “That’s just the point. We needed to set a date. All the best dates at the hotels in town are taken early.”
    “Nice try, but no dice. Care to take another shot at it?”
    “I’d rather hear what you were doing in Jason Jeffries’s