Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes (38 page)

“Yes. I knew he was dropping you off on Wednesday, and I thought he might have filed a flight plan.”

I clutched the receiver, shaking my head. Hy Ripinsky was fooling me again, just when I thought I had him figured out as much as was necessary.

“Look, Kate,” I said, “is there some reason you need to get hold of Hy right away?”

“. . . No, I'm just worried.”

“Well, don't be. We both know Hy can take care of himself. I'll let you know if I hear from him.”

I hung up. Leaned back in my chair. Contemplated the wilted rose.

In a way Hy's disappearance didn't surprise me. Maybe I was getting to the point where nothing Hy did would ever surprise me.

But how could I resist a challenge?

“Hy, you rascal,” I said, “you're not going to get away with this.”

I took a fresh folder and a strip of labels form my stack tray. Swiveled over to my old typewriter and rolled the strip into it. Typed.

Then I swiveled to the desk and opened a new case file labeled, “Ripinsky, Heino.'

We hope you've enjoyed this McCone mystery. Now check out the rest of Marcia Muller's SHARON MCCONE series – all available as ebooks and audiobooks from AudioGO!

Plus two short story collections: McCone and Friends, and The McCone Files.