Chapter One

 

Leslie ran her hand along Rosalie's thigh, moving it between her legs to where she was soft and very wet, causing the sweet Latino woman to grovel back against the subtle invasion, her body rising and falling to the crescendo of her inner sexual beat.

"More chica, fuck me hard," Rosalie gasped in her husky voice. Leslie's hand slapped each pulsing thigh to part them wide. She wanted the interior, right in the middle where Rosalie's purple pink cunt throbbed. One finger after another slipped inside the juicy portal; while Leslie's mouth came down to cover the hard bud of her lover's clit.

"Ooo, that's right little bitch," Leslie egged her on, slapping Rosalie's thighs between laps of the growing pool of liquid in her hand. She watched the broad rear buck and the tawny breasts bounce again her chest. Leslie's squeezed a nipple and listened for the sound of feigned protest to follow, then she let the nipple go to see it remain a tight bud, a fine little knot she'd soon bite one more time, until it really hurt. She wanted to hear Rosalie's gasp of pain.

"Si! Si, si! Harder!!" Rosalie screamed. The sweating girl squeezed her inner muscles against Leslie's hand. Then she released her grip and her whole torso relaxed, only to clench one more time. She did a strange orgasmic shimmy while spouting Spanish Leslie didn't understand, then collapsed into the bed's soft cotton sheets, panting. A hot afternoon sun bathed them both, making their sweaty bodies cling to each other in a sticky pool of sexual sensation.

"Ah si, I'm in love," Rosalie, murmured.

"And I'm in love with your body," Leslie replied, as she drifted into her own world, lying back in the pile of rumpled sheets. She was thinking of Rosalie, but also thinking of other lovers, the ones that weren't available to her now.

"And why not be in love with my body?" Rosalie answered, smiling broadly. She moved around to recline on her side and stroke Leslie's naked belly, running a long red nail down the surface of her skin and leaving a tiny red line.

With a bright sunshine face, Rosalie had claimed nearly three months of Leslie's time. It was much more than Leslie thought she'd give the sweet, brown-skinned girl. Then again, Rosalie was hardly a girl, being somewhere between twenty-five and thirty; although her Latina form, the long black hair and wide dark eyes, made her look so innocent-as if she were still a child. Truth was, Rosalie wasn't sweet at all. She was a fucking hellion in bed, and she did what she damned well pleased-which was okay with Leslie, since she had no plans for a permanent relationship with this woman.

Rosalie was convenient, however, giving Leslie a good excuse to stay home at night, avoid bars and those awkward intimate moments with women she really didn't want to go to bed with. She could enjoy Rosalie's voracious appetite for sex, and her delicious body. Even the Spanish she sprinkled into their lovemaking had an exotic quality that Leslie relished. They were two grown, free thinking women who had come together because it was easy and fun-no strings, no regrets.

The phone jangled noisily, and Leslie reached out to answer it, knocking the whole thing to the floor.

"Leslie, Leslie!" She heard a man's anxious voice on the other end.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm here," she answered, sitting up while pulling the phone from the floor by the cord.

"I tried to find you at the office, but you weren't there. What are you doing in bed at this hour?" he asked.

Leslie recognized John Longcore's voice, with its unmistakable soft low pitch he must have developed as a teacher. She feared it was likely monotonous to listen to for any length of time, poor students.

"What do you usually do in bed at three in the afternoon?" Leslie replied curtly. "I'm certainly not sick."

"Good, then you'll be able to help me right way."

"Is it better than making love?"

"Of course not, but this is an emergency."

"What's up?" Leslie asked, trying to sound interested, although at the moment, the idea of going to work wasn't greeted favorably by either body or mind.

"It's Betsy," John said, as if that should explain it all. He sounded worried.

"Yeah?" Leslie recalled John's brunette sister with a good deal of regret. She was about the only woman she knew who hadn't slept with Betsy Longcore. The luscious little thing looked as innocent as a child - like Rosalie she supposed, without the Latino. However, she had a reputation for sucking pussy that reached all around the city.

"She's been arrested," John said, voice cracking.

"What!"
"Felicia Roman was murdered yesterday, or this morning or something."

"Betsy killed Felicia?" Leslie gasped in horror. She always thought it would be the other way around; the rude Felicia Roman was a holy terror.

"No, damn it no!" John started to shout.

"Hey, calm down," Leslie said, realizing that her good friend was about to come unglued.

"The police think they have enough circumstantial evidence to charge her. She's been in custody since early this morning."

"And you'd like me to investigate?"

"Yes." She could sense the tears she couldn't see in John's soft blue eyes. He had a perpetual sadness about him, which was likely all the worse now. "I don't know what to do, but I know she didn't do it," John assured her.

"Have you seen her?"

"She called from the jail, they took her in right away. I got her a lawyer. But I think this calls for more than just a good defense. There's a bunch of women living up on the Hill, any one could have killed Felicia. Betsy says she's innocent, and I believe her."

Lots of people are innocent, Leslie thought to herself. "Okay, I'll look into it. See what I can do. You just stay calm."

"Calm! There's no way I'm going to calm down about this until someone else is behind bars for that murder." His voice cracked painfully, making Leslie wince.

"Yeah, I know. Maybe have a stiff drink," she said sympathetically, "you take care of yourself..." She hung up the phone.

Leslie knew John Longcore from the marches a few years back. He was a sweet gay man with lots of charm, but not much backbone in a crisis. And dammit what a crisis. Felicia Roman murdered! That wasn't as hard to believe as the idea that the woman was actually gone, dead. She hadn't even bothered to ask how it happened. Likely it was very messy; Felicia could fight like a tiger. Who would have the guts, the audacity to do it? My god, she figured anyone who murdered her would likely be haunted into eternity by Felicia's ghost.

And Betsy Longcore, she mused to herself. Sweet generous little hussy that she was, did she have it in her?

"What's wrong?" Rosalie asked, dropping her arm around Leslie's shoulder. She felt so seductively warm, Leslie would have liked to have fallen back into bed with her.

"Gotta go," she said. "Murder in the wind."

"Oh, not again?" Rosalie said despondently. Leslie had just finished a murder case that took six months to solve.

"It's the job hon," Leslie answered.

"You be careful, I don't need my lover murdered," Rosalie said, concerned. She wasn't used to Leslie's P.I. job, although for that matter Leslie had never gotten used to murder.

"Don't worry, Rosa, the murdering is done and the body's cold in the morgue."

"Maybe so, but what's to prevent the murderer from striking again?" She was hot already and ready to argue.

"You're letting TV drama get to you, Rosalie," Leslie replied dryly. "Besides I won't die, that's not in my plans, at least not at a murder scene."

Leslie pulled herself off the bed and searched the floor for her clothes that had been quickly ripped from her by her pawing lover. There were just jeans and a denim shirt left, her underwear had been ripped in the foray-a nice touch that always excited her when Rosalie was so smitten that she couldn't help herself. Buttoning her shirt, Leslie stopped half way so her cleavage showed. "You approve?" Leslie asked. Rosalie liked the show of flesh, being a flagrant exhibitionist herself.

"Yeah, you push them at me much more, I'll ruin your shirt, too," she replied, with a seductive grin.

Leslie smiled. "Maybe you should worry that I'll attract another woman?" she teased.

"Then let her join us," Rosalie said, her eyes lit up like a Spanish dancer's.

"By the way, where are you going?" Leslie asked her lover. "Didn't you have some meeting scheduled?"

"New York. I have to nurse this client through the next few days. Then I've got some commercials lined up, should be a breeze, but old Helen needs to have me there." She looked sweet, pouty and downcast, just to make Leslie feel better.

Leslie nodded, thinking that it was probably not a bad idea that her lover was leaving for a few days. She could spare Rosalie all the gory details, and spare herself Rosalie's unnecessary concern. "You gonna be screwing around?" Leslie asked her. "I want to know how much latitude I have while you're gone. Isn't Helen a special friend?"

"Ah, I don't know what she'll want to do. But you know me. Have fun, I always say." That meant Rosalie would be having the time of her life with someone, if not Helen, in New York. Leslie breathed deeply, thinking it was satisfactory enough. No strings, no obligations. She turned, watching Rosalie's nicely rounded backside disappear into the bathroom. Then picking up the phone, she dialed her partner Robin Penny.

"Hey, where you been?" Robin blurted out, when she heard Leslie's voice. "I can't run this damned business by myself, or have you decided being a Private Eye just isn't exciting enough for you, you have to find your little tramps to fuck with . . ."

"What are you so pissed about?" Leslie charged back.

"I've been sitting here in the hot stuffy office all day, while you're taking the day off. You know how monotonous it is going over books while this ceiling fan drones on all day. God! Have I got a headache. If I weren't on the first floor, I'd just jump out the window and end it all."

"Hey that could look kinda cute, you offing yourself that way, and screwing it up?" Leslie suggested trying to lighten up her former lover.

"Sorta typical for me, screwing up? Is that what you're saying?"

"I never said that, I can't do this work without you, you know that."

"Just don't go leaving me on a day like this, and with the books in such a mess. You should be whipped for leaving the accounts like this."

"Listen, don't you go complaining about all your hard labor, you weren't in the office all day," Leslie charged. "I got a call, said no one answered the office number."

"I have to eat sometime," Robin replied, still irritated.

It was clear that there was very little Leslie could say to appease her. "Well, not to change the subject and disturb your snit, but we've got a new case."

"Well, that's refreshing," Robin said. "What's up?"

Leslie waited a moment, unsure exactly how to break the news, but she then finally just blurted out: "Felicia Roman is dead."

Leslie listened to Robin gasp. "What?"

"Felicia was murdered, Robin." The harder edge in her voice quickly softened.

"My god, when?"

"Last night, yesterday, I guess." Leslie could imagine the blood draining from Robin's already pale face. She suspected tears were forming in her blue eyes. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to say this over the phone.

"How?"

"Don't know all the details, John Longcore called. They've arrested Betsy, and he's a basket case. He's convinced she's innocent and he needs us to snoop around and see what really happened. You want to meet me at police headquarters in say a half hour?"

"Yeah sure," Robin replied without an ounce of enthusiasm. Murder was never her favorite kind of work, and this one was likely to affect her more than usual.

"You going to be okay?" Leslie asked.

"Felicia's dead, that's pretty strange, huh?" Robin said softly.

"That's what I thought. Say, why don't I do the preliminaries at police headquarters and we'll get together later and discuss it?"

"No, I'll go. I have to," Robin replied.

Leslie knew the first hot-fired emotions in Robin would be subsiding now, as the sensuous blonde stuffed another loss into her heart and became the model detective. Robin had been Felicia's lover ten years before, and it shouldn't affect her now, but Robin would still feel the loss even if it didn't show on the surface.

Robin was efficient, responsible and steady, even though she had the temperament to break down at the drop of the hat. Leslie feared that she just might lose it this time. She often thought that the detective business was too rough for her partner. Yet, Robin had always loved the puzzle of investigations, putting disparate pieces together in her own curious way. She had the knack for coming up with the right answers, using some mysterious intuitive process that Leslie didn't understand. This case would shake her more than normal and Leslie almost wished she hadn't called her; but then Robin would have been very upset when she found out.