by Laura Durham
“I’ve never been in a pool house before,” Leatrice said as I opened the door and ushered her inside. “Is this where the pool boy lives?”
“Pool boy?” Richard gave her the side-eye. “Have you been watching reruns of Desperate Housewives again?”
“It’s where people change into suits or shower after they’ve been swimming,” I explained, stepping aside for a man in a red page boy costume trimmed in gold braid to pass by.
Leatrice gaped at the main room of the pool house with its wet bar to one side, pair of sofas covered in pale-green twill and piled with striped cushions, and flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. “They have a separate house for that?”
“Yes, but it’s normally not this chaotic.”
A metal garment rack, holding costumes in a range of colors from burgundy to black to ivory, stood to one side of the wet bar. Plastic dry cleaning bags and duffels littered the couches and floor. People milled about the space, some of them in elaborate Venetian garb, and some barely wearing anything at all. The trays of food on the wet bar had been decimated, and small glass soda bottles filled the trash can next to one of the sofas.
I didn’t hear or see Sidney Allen, so I made a beeline for the costume rack, pawing through the options until I found one I thought would fit and wouldn’t be missed. I pulled out the green-and-purple outfit and handed it to Leatrice. “Try this on.”
“I like the colors,” she said. “And the bells.”
I pointed her to the bathroom down the short hallway so she could change in private.
“A jester?” Richard said, flicking through the costumes himself. “Appropriate.”
“It’s one of the only ones that won’t dwarf her,” I said. “Plus, it won’t kill us to have one less jester in the official wedding performances.”
“Tell that to Sidney Allen,” Richard muttered.
I jerked my head around. “Do you see him? Is he coming?”
“No, but you know he’ll have a fit when another of his costumes goes missing.”
Richard was right. Sidney Allen had never under reacted to anything in his life, nor would he have any interest in hearing why I’d borrowed the costume.
“I haven’t seen or heard him in a while,” I said, plucking one of the last bottles of Sprite from the counter. “I’ve never known him to keep a low profile during setup.”
“No one knows where he is,” a man in a gold-and-black mask and a black bodysuit said from where he sat on a couch.
“What do you mean?” I asked, taking a sip of Sprite and wishing it was cold.
The man slid the mask to the top of his head. “He’s supposed to come in and make final adjustments to our costumes and go over our places, but we’ve been waiting for close to an hour.”
I exchanged a glance with Richard, whose eyebrows had popped up.
“Has this ever happened before?” I asked the performer.
“Never,” he said. “I’ve worked with Sidney for a year, and he’s always on top of things. Sometimes too much, if you know what I mean.”
I did.
“I went to look for him.” A woman in a full satin skirt the color of champagne and tight lace-up bodice flopped down beside the man in black. “Couldn’t find the little guy anywhere.”
“So we have two people kidnapped, another attacked, missing costumes, and now a missing entertainment diva?” Richard said.
“That’s what he was doing the last time I saw him.” The woman loosened her laces and let out a breath. “Looking for his missing costumes.”
“Maybe he found them,” Richard said, “and stumbled onto something he shouldn’t have.”
The feeling of dread turned into a knot in my stomach. If Reese was right and all the mishaps were connected, Sidney Allen’s search for his costumes could be more dangerous than he knew. “And now he’s missing too.”
Chapter 25
“Well,” Leatrice said, stepping out of the bathroom, the bells on her jester costume jingling. “What do you think?”
I appraised my octogenarian neighbor. The shiny satin outfit consisted of puffy pantaloons that reached almost to her shins, even though I knew they were meant to hit above the knee. The ruff around her neck had layers of stiff fabric points in the same multicolored diamond pattern with bells at the tips.
Richard tapped his finger to his bottom lip. “With the hat, she’s almost the size of a normal person.”
The hat, which resembled a diamond-patterned pineapple bursting open on her head, did give her an extra six inches at least. Leatrice straightened the hat and looked to Richard and me with an eager expression on her wrinkled face.
“I think you look great, Leatrice,” I said and drained the last of my Sprite, desperately wishing the bottles caterers set out for vendors weren’t the short squat ones that were empty after a few gulps.
Leatrice jerked a thumb toward the bathroom door she’d exited. “Should I be concerned that there are two penguins splashing around in the bathtub?”
That answered one of my questions. I noticed the penguin handler leaning up against a wall, scrolling on her phone.
“Not in the least,” I said. “The heat outside must have gotten to them.”
Leatrice tapped a finger to the side of her face. “You don’t think our building would allow penguins as pets, do you?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a no,” I said. I did not want to imagine Leatrice walking a pair of penguins down the streets of Georgetown.
“Speaking of pets, what do we do with Hermes?” Richard asked, holding up the wriggling dog. “Sidney Allen has nothing for pint-sized performers.”
“Too bad we didn’t require children performers today,” I said.
Richard shifted Hermes from one arm to the other. “Children aren’t Lilliputians, Annabelle. Even a costume for a child would be too big for a tiny dog.”
“I can wear him in the baby carrier again,” Leatrice said.
“No,” Richard and I said at the same time.
“It wouldn’t go with your costume,” I said, my voice softer. “And we want you to blend in with the rest of the performers.”
“Good thinking.” Leatrice nodded at me. “Shall we join the search? I may not know this Tina woman we’re looking for, but how hard can it be to find a blonde with a boy-cut hairdo dressed up like a waiter?”
My eyes drifted to the rack of costumes and the two garishly outfitted performers reclined on the sofa. “Unless she’s no longer dressed like a waiter.”
Richard followed my gaze. “You aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“She could easily have found a costume and be sneaking around the property as a performer and not a waiter,” I said. “It would be a better disguise, especially since she’s been made.”
“To be clear,” Richard held up a finger, “you’re the only person who made her.”
“She doesn’t know that. She only knows we were both chasing her.” I gave my best friend a pointed look. “She has no idea my friends would doubt my word and judgment.”
Richard put both hands over his heart. “You wound me, darling.”
“I believe you,” Leatrice said, bouncing on the balls of her feet and her bells ringing. “Your instinct has been right on cases before. If you say your nemesis is here and is behind Kate’s disappearance, then I say we go after her.” She lowered her voice and leaned closer to me. “I’ve been reading up on advance interrogation techniques when we get to that point, dear.”
“Heaven preserve us,” Richard said under his breath.
“If you think Tina will be in her waiter uniform,” I told Richard, “why don’t you take the lead on checking with your wait staff? Ask them if they’ve seen someone who fits her description, and see if she’s hanging out in the catering kitchen or the tents. It will make more sense coming from you anyway.”
Richard tucked Hermes under his arm like a football. “You’re right, of course. If anyone should question my waiters, it should be me. A
nd being in the catering kitchen and tents will keep me and, most importantly, Hermes out of sight of the family.”
He left the pool house with Hermes’s tail poking out from under his arm and swishing back and forth like a furry windshield wiper.
“What about me?” Leatrice rubbed her hands together.
Not only was Leatrice unfamiliar with the house and grounds, she had a propensity for getting herself in trouble when left alone. I did not want her wandering around by herself since multiple people were now missing and one person had been attacked.
“You and I are going to look for Sidney Allen,” I said. “If he really is missing, he could be in danger.”
“Who is Sidney Allen?” Leatrice asked, following me outside the pool house.
I pulled the French door closed behind me and immediately missed the air conditioning. Even though it was now late afternoon, the heat was slow to dissipate, and I felt beads of sweat gather on my upper lip.
“He’s the man who provided all the costumed performers. He owns a specialty entertainment company and is the person to see if you want Cirque du Soleil-style acrobats or royal family impersonators at your event.”
Leatrice scratched the side of her head where her hat had slipped down. “And people want those types of things at weddings?”
“Not usually,” I admitted as I led the way across the pool deck toward the house, casting a glance down the hill at the empty ceremony tent. “It’s a niche market, but he does a good corporate business. Big companies love splashy entertainment at their galas. At weddings, most brides don’t want anything that will upstage them.”
“So you don’t work with him often?” Leatrice hurried along behind me and jingled as she ran, giving me the uncanny feeling I was being chased by Santa’s sleigh.
“No. He’s a bit of a handful himself, so he’s not one of my usual vendors.” I paused at the door leading into the house, peering into the kitchen and casual dining room for any family members. “But this wedding called for it.”
Leatrice glanced back at the reception tent with the hanging chandeliers and towering floral arrangements rising from the tables to meet them. “I can see that. Is the bride famous?”
I shook my head. “Her father is wealthy.”
“And that’s why she was kidnapped?” Leatrice asked as I opened the glass door and stepped into the house. “For the money?”
“Not exactly,” I said. I knew Leatrice was dying to know all the juicy details, but now that Tina Pink was in play, I wasn’t even sure Mr. Hamilton’s nerve gas had anything to do with it. “If I’m right about Tina Pink, everything will make sense soon enough. Right now we need to find Sidney Allen and make sure he’s okay.”
“Why do you think he wouldn’t be?” Leatrice said as we passed through the kitchen and into the expansive marble foyer.
“Sidney Allen isn’t someone who’s easy to miss,” I explained. “If he was here, we would know it. He would be squawking about us running late or complaining about his missing costumes or something. He’s extremely detail oriented and lets you know the second something isn’t perfect. The fact that no one has seen him and we can’t hear him means something is wrong.”
“Maybe we should try to retrace his steps.”
“Good idea,” I said, opening the heavy front door and poking my head outside to the empty driveway. No Sidney. “Except we have no idea of his steps.”
I closed the front door and wondered if I should bother searching upstairs. I doubted Sidney would have ventured to the client’s private bedrooms. Sidney might have been high-maintenance, but he worshipped at the Southern altar of propriety and good manners.
Leatrice tapped her foot and the ringing echoed off the floor. I noticed her matching shoe had an upturned toe topped with a bell. “If you wanted to stash something in this house, where would you do it?”
I thought for a moment. “There are a ton of closets. I’d probably throw it in one of them.”
Leatrice stuck one hand in the air. “Lead on to the closets.”
I made my way down the hallway leading to the garage, opening a coat closet and finding nothing but coats and a substantial collection of golf umbrellas. I passed the open door to Sherry’s office where Daniel sat next to the injured woman, along with Aunt Connie and the brunette bridesmaid I now knew was Sherry’s daughter. I rushed Leatrice by the doorway when she slowed to get a better look. “I’ll explain later,” I whispered.
I flattened Leatrice against the wall as a procession of half a dozen performers in burgundy cloaks and white masks passed us coming from the garage-turned-catering-kitchen. “Three more closets on this hall,” I said once they’d passed. “Then we can check the garage.”
Leatrice didn’t respond, and I could feel she was no longer behind me, so I turned to see that she’d fallen in step behind the row of masks and was following them toward the foyer. What on earth was she doing? I hissed her name, but she didn’t seem to hear me. If I spoke any louder, everyone from Sherry’s office would hear me, so I ran on tiptoes to catch up with Leatrice, hoping to reach her before any of the masked performers noticed a jingling jester behind them.
As I reached her and was about to grab her by the arm, Leatrice stepped down on the hem of the last masked performer’s cloak. The wearer jerked back, and I heard a distinctly female string of curses emerge from underneath the shiny white face mask.
I gasped as I recognized the voice, stepping past Leatrice and pulling the mask off to reveal Tina Pink. Her face was flushed, and her eyes burned with hatred. She caught me off guard with a hard slap to the cheek, and my eyes watered from the impact.
“Cheese and crackers!” I couldn’t see Mack, but I’d recognize his own version of expletives anywhere. “Annabelle was right. It’s Tina Pink.”
“And she’s making a run for it,” Leatrice said.
I blinked a few times until I could focus on the still-cloaked figure dashing through the doorway to the kitchen. “Oh, no you don’t.” I took off after her, holding my stinging cheek and wondering how many rings she’d been wearing when she hit me.
I heard Mack behind me, as well as Leatrice’s tinkling bells, as we ran through the kitchen, around the table, and out the French doors. Tina Pink had dropped her cloak in a pile on the pool deck and was only a few feet ahead of us, but her long legs were gaining ground as she tore around the pool. I pumped my legs harder as I tried to catch her, grateful my black dress did not have a straight skirt.
I saw a flash of black-and-white stripes as Fern opened the door to the pool house, and it smacked Tina square in the face, sending her flying backward with her hands clutching her nose. She stumbled back and fell onto a lounge chair, blood gushing from between her fingers as she let out a string of profanity. Hermes scampered up yipping wildly, and I turned to see Richard crossing the reception tent after him.
“What on earth?” Richard was breathing hard when he reached me. “Hermes heard something and jumped out of my arms.” He looked at the bloody blonde and his eyes widened. “Is that?”
“Tina Pink.” I put my hands on my knees and sucked in air. “Like I told you.”
Hermes circled the lounge chair where she sat moaning and holding her clearly broken nose. He growled at her when she made a move to get up, and Mack clamped a heavy hand onto her shoulder.
Reese appeared at my side, breathing like he’d been running as well. “I saw you all from an upstairs window. Is that who I think it is?”
“I caught her disguised as a masked something-or-other,” Leatrice said, beaming up at the detective.
“How did you know it was her?” I asked.
“She was taller than the other people in the line,” my neighbor said. “If your friend Sidney is as precise as you say he is, I didn’t think he’d have one person stick out so much from the rest.”
“Good eyes.” Reese patted her on the back. “You would have made a decent detective.”
Leatrice’s cheeks turned pink, and I thought t
here was a fair chance she might faint from the compliment.
Reese looked at me. “What happened to you?”
I put a hand to my cheek again and felt a trickle of blood. “She hit me, and I think this is courtesy of a big ring.”
Reese brushed his thumb against my cheek. “I don’t think you’ll scar.”
“You still came out ahead.” Richard looked at Tina and the blood dripping down her face.
“It’s too late, you know.” Tina looked up at us, her words coming out in angry bursts. “It’s already done.”
“What do mean ‘it’s already done’?” I asked, meeting her angry gaze. “Did you kill them?”
Her eyes flickered. “Kill them? What are you talking about?”
“Kate and the bride,” I said. “You kidnapped them. What have you done with them?”
“I didn’t kidnap your stupid assistant.” Tina struggled fruitlessly under Mack’s grasp.
“Kate is not stupid,” Richard said, reaching down to pat Hermes on the head and quiet him. “She’s unencumbered by intellectualism.”
I wasn’t sure that was the compliment Richard thought it was.
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “You want me to believe you just happen to be here when Kate is kidnapped?”
“Believe what you want, but my goal for today was to make this wedding one no guest would ever forget,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands. “Especially when they all got violently ill with food poisoning.”
“What?” Richard’s voice was almost inaudible.
Tina focused on Richard. “That’s right. I’ve been in your kitchen all day adding special ingredients to your food.”
Richard let out a high-pitched shriek. “My historically accurate canapés! My squid ink risotto!” He took off running for the garage, arms waving over his head and Hermes on his heels.