Page 40 of Dead Man's List

“Not the way to make friends and influence people,” Kit said quietly.

Connor laughed. “Ashton was one of my instructors in the academy. It’s my job to push his buttons now.”

“Just don’t make him so mad that he complains to Navarro, or we could be doing the paperwork ourselves next.”

That knocked the grin off Connor’s face. “Good point.”

Chapter Five

Chula Vista, San Diego, California

Sunday, January 8, 7:00 p.m.

Ace Diamond, a.k.a. Calvin Livingstone, was drunk off his ass.

He staggered back into his living room after opening his front door to Kit and Connor, and Kit had to clear her throat to keep from coughing at the smell of booze oozing from the man’s pores.

“Maybe we should come back,” Connor muttered. “This place reeks.”

“Maybe he’ll be more talkative,” Kit muttered back.

“I can hear you,” Ace said, grunting as he walked into a wall. “I’m drunk, not deaf.”

“Why are you drunk, Mr.Livingstone?” Kit asked, venturing farther into the apartment that wasn’t as trashy as she’d thought it would be. In fact, other than the empty bourbon bottle on the coffee table—and the six-pack of empty beer cans stacked in a pyramid beside it—the place was downright tidy.

Ace glared at her blearily. “Don’t call me Livingstone. Name’s Diamond. Ace Diamond.”

“Okay, Mr.Diamond. Why are you drunk?”

He huffed. “Same reason you’re here. Shelley. I saw it on the news.”

Kit made a sympathetic noise. “We’re sorry for your loss.”

“Fuck off,” he said with another grunt, managing to make it to the sofa, where he collapsed. “I don’t know who killed her. I only know that I didn’t.”

Kit walked around the sofa so that she stared down at Ace. “She tried to get you to leave town with her.”

Ace’s head came up. “How do you know that?”

“We were able to access her cloud account,” Kit said truthfully.

“How?” Then Ace blew out a breath that Kit could smell from where she stood. So much booze. “Julie,” he muttered.

“Would you have told us?”

“Probably not. Shelley shouldn’t have taken the money from that guy. I told her it was fishy.” He opened one eye. “You didn’t find any cash on her, did you?”

“Why do you want to know?” Connor asked from across the room. He was wandering around, seeing what Ace had left out in plain sight.

“Don’t touch my stuff,” Ace slurred. “I know my rights.”

“Just staying upwind from your booze-a-thon,” Connor said. “Why do you want to know about the cash? Did you have plans for it?”

“No! It’s because I figure you didn’t find any. That the bastard who killed her didn’t plan to pay her at all. She died for nothing.” The final words rushed out of his mouth on a ragged sob.

“What was she using?” Kit asked gently, playing good cop to Connor’s bad cop.

“H.”

---