A Gambling Man (Archer #2)(94)

I’m a man, Archer. I’m not saying I’m any better than I am in that regard.

God help me, thought Archer.

She helped him undress and they slid into bed together.

After that it was a frantic twenty minutes of copulation that Archer wasn’t even sure he could understand, much less rationalize. He wasn’t one to jump into bed with a woman he barely knew, although this wasn’t the first time he had done it. But Darling took control from the very start and never relinquished it. He was no babe when it came to sex, but the lady was clearly a few levels above him in that department. Archer felt like he’d been hit by a Mack truck, in the best possible sense, even as her nails gouged his back and slid all the way down to his butt.

Later, they lay together on top of the sheet, soaked in each other’s sweat.

Her lungs heaving and her body still twitching she stroked his chest and panted, “Good God, Archer. How long since you’ve been with a woman anyway, mister?”

“Too long, apparently. And just for the record, you threw in a few moves that were new to me.”

“See, that’s what you get for going to bed with a ‘mature’ woman.”

“Yeah. A mature wildcat, more like.”

She sat up and played with his chest hairs while giving him a heavy-lidded once-over. “If I let you stay the night, you think you might be up for a repeat performance before breakfast? They say exercise helps the appetite. And I make a killer cup of joe.”

“I like coffee. A lot.”

She smacked him playfully on the cheek and then French kissed him. She pulled her lips away and breathed in his ear, “Mine’s good to the very last drop, sweetie.”

They slept heavily, and when they woke early the following morning Darling slid on top of him and they went for round two. After that they slept for another hour, and she made him a cup of coffee and two fried eggs with toast.

He showered, and when he got out he found her pressing his clothes while stark naked. He dressed and was giving her a kiss, his hand around her bare waist and thinking about maybe going back to bed for extra innings, when her phone rang.

And everything in the world changed.





ARCHER AND DASH WERE IN THE DELAHAYE on the way to Midnight Moods. He had called Dash from Darling’s bungalow and filled him in on the call Darling had gotten earlier that morning. Then he had driven over to the office.

Dash said, “Who found the body?”

“Douglas Kemper told Wilma Darling that a maid found Wilson Sheen dead in a room at Midnight Moods.”

“Which room?”

“If I had to guess, it would be the one next to Fraser’s.”

“If you had to guess?”

“Let me fill you in.”

Archer told Dash everything about the night before, including meeting with Kemper and learning about Beth’s apartment in town, and seeing Sheen and Darling together in bed.

“And in the crawlspace in the ceiling I found some bloodstains.”

“So that’s how they moved her body,” said Dash thoughtfully. “From that room, through the attic access, and into Fraser’s room. How the hell did the coppers not see that possibility? How did I not see it? I must be getting blind in my old age.”

“Well, I didn’t see it either the first time around. And who would think to move a dead body through the attic?”

“Well, the room where Fraser was killed probably has another body in it. Did Kemper say how Sheen was killed?”

“No.”

“And you were with Wilma Darling when Kemper called?”

“Yes.”

“Did she say how he sounded?”

“ ‘Frantic’ was the word she used. You think Pickett will be out for this one, too?”

“Carl can’t find his teeth before nine o’clock.”

They arrived at Midnight Moods to find prowlers everywhere along with the coroner’s wagon. Ernie Prettyman was standing outside of the room where Sheen had been found.

“How’d you hear so fast, Willie?” asked a surprised Prettyman. “I’ve only been here an hour myself.”

“Friend of a friend,” replied Dash. “Can we see the body?”

Prettyman led them into the room where Wilson Sheen lay on his stomach with a sheet partially covering him.

“How’d he die?” asked Dash.

Prettyman lifted the sheet, revealing a wide, bloody wound in the middle of the back. “Knife to the heart. Quick, silent, and efficient.”

“Was he here alone?” asked Dash.

“It was clear that he had been with . . . someone.”

“A woman, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Dash said, “Archer found the way that they shifted Fraser’s body from here to there.”

Archer led the way next door to Fraser’s room and showed Prettyman the ceiling access door.

“It runs over to the next room where Sheen was killed. I found bloodstains up there that might be Fraser’s. Her room is the last on the corridor, so that’s the only room that’s next to hers.”

Prettyman looked at the door and then at Dash and then at Archer. “You found this last night?”

“Yes.”

“What time?”