The Saucy Lucy Murders by Cindy Keen Reynders Page A

just save her butt.
    Gasping for breath behind the meaty paw, Lexie brought her heel down hard on what she sensed was her attacker’s instep.
    Contact.
    The creep gave a surprised, guttural gasp and let Lexie go. She instantly peeled away. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and she could just barelymake out his bulk blocking the back entrance as he hopped around in pain.
    There was no escape in that direction.
    Heart slamming against her ribs and hiccoughs rising in her throat, she fumbled along the wall toward the ladies room. At last she located a handle, swung open a door and pushed inside. Darkness pervaded the lavatory stench, but faint blue neon light filtered through a small window inside one of the stalls.
    Escape!
    Hope flickered through Lexie and she headed for the light. Suddenly the ladies room door flew open, smacking against the cinderblock wall. Lexie squeaked in dismay and quickly locked herself inside the stall.
    The creep started slamming against the metal frame with such ferocity Lexie truly believed it would cave in any second. Swallowing her panic, she stood on top of the toilet lid and tried to shove the window open.
    It wouldn’t budge.
    Sobbing with frustration, she slammed her shoulder against the frame trying to loosen it, ignoring the pain.
Please, please, please,
she cried to herself hoping and praying she could get away before the creep out there tried to make her into a hood ornament. Again she tried to open the window and at last, to her shock and amazement, it wedged upward with a rusty squeak.
    A grunt came from under the stall door. Lexie looked down and saw a dark form, dressed in what appeared to be a black hooded sweatshirt, slide in her direction. Quickly she hoisted herself into the open window, squeezed through, and dropped into the alley below.
    She fell on the ground with a thud and felt an instant pain in her right ankle that crept its way up her leg like wildfire. After a swift look over her shoulder at the open bathroom window to make sure the creep wasn’t on her tail, she limped through the gravel to the front of the building.
    Lexie struggled to control her erratic breathing. She had to find Lucy. Find Lucy and get the hell out of here. She must have been nuts to ever think she could do her own detective work. Nuts or desperate. Now somebody was after her. They must not be happy she was asking questions of the locals.
    Could she be getting too close to the truth?
    Relief trickled through Lexie when she reached the entrance to MacGreggor’s Pub. Surely her attacker wouldn’t follow her here. After one more glance over her shoulder, she turned around and ran smack into a large body.
    Gasping in dismay, Lexie stumbled backward. She yanked the shoe from her throbbing right foot and held the spike heel out like a weapon. “Take a hike, bucko. I’ve had just about enough of your crap!”
    Suddenly the lights in the pub flashed on and yellow porch light illuminated the person standingin front of Lexie. Detective Stevenson. In all his lawman’s glory. And he did not look happy.
    Holy crap.
    Lexie stared in embarrassment at the high heel clutched in her fingers. She tucked the shoe behind her back, feeling like a complete dork. After a couple of gulps, she swallowed her hiccoughs. “Sorry.” She wet her dry lips with her equally dry tongue. “I thought you were someone else.”
    “Obviously.” Gabe folded his arms across his broad chest and inclined his head toward the pub. “What’s going on in there?”
    She shook her head. “Nothing.”
    He snorted. “Something’s up. Either Mac-Greggor forgot to pay his utility bill or somebody got hammered and flipped off the main power breaker.”
    “You’ll have to ask MacGreggor.” Lexie felt as trapped as a bug pinned on a science project board. She cleared her throat uneasily and glanced over her shoulder—still no creep. Looking back at Gabe she asked, “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be back in Westonville