Frosted Shadow - A Toni Diamond Mystery

by Nancy Warren

  “I thought –”

  “Well don’t. This is a police investigation. Let us handle it.”

  “Everybody knows I found the body. I don’t know how, but I’ve had reporters stalking me, sales reps giving me the evil eye, one of Nicole’s reps just accused me of ruining Nicole’s last day. Don’t you see? I am involved.”

  He paced up and down the room, his hand in his pocket jingling change. Finally he said, “I think you should go home.”

  She was shocked, scared even, but the idea of going home hadn’t crossed her mind. Suddenly her wobbly legs stiffened. “Go home? You think I should run away because somebody tells me to in an anonymous email?”

  She sat down in the chair at the desk, then noticed the email glaring right at her so she pushed her laptop around so she couldn’t see the screen.

  “Yes. I do.”

  “We’ve already got women running home scared. I’m a national sales director. I’m supposed to set an example. If I run home we might as well cancel the conference.”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  “Well, we’re not going to. Lady Bianca started this company from nothing. We’ve survived wars, economic downturn and ridicule. Lady Bianca reps do not give up when the going gets tough. Is this the 80th birthday present we want to give our founder? We quit?”

  She shook her head.

  “The hotel is crawling with extra security hired by the hotel. We’re staying in groups and trusting that you’ll catch this nutcase.”

  “Then let us do our job. The crackpot’s right, Toni. Stay out of it.”

  He jingled some more. If she weren’t an extremely patient woman, that could really get on her nerves. “We’ll put our tech guys onto it, but I’m guessing the email will be untraceable.”

  “I wish they had a punching bag in the workout room. I need to hit something.” Her hands were clenching so her newly polished nails dug into her palms.

  “You don’t go anywhere alone. You hear me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t say it like you’re pouting. I’m trying to keep you alive.”

  “I can’t go home. You need my deductive powers.”

  “Do I?”

  “I found out who Nicole’s boyfriend was.”

  “Yeah? Who?”

  “Orin Shellenbach.”

  “Pretty good.”

  Her jaw dropped open. “You already knew?”

  “I’m a detective. A paid professional. Amateurs should mind their own business.”

  She made a hurumphing sound and put her feet up on the desk. “Lestrade is a professional. You don’t see him solving much of anything.”

  His lips twitched. “You’re reading Arthur Conan Doyle now?”

  She shrugged. “I got curious. I went to the mystery readers’ book fair this morning and asked Helen Barnes to recommend something.”

  “Excellent. Keep your feet up. Read your book. Leave the rest to us. I’m taking your laptop with me, okay?”

  “Sure.” She didn’t think she’d be checking email anytime soon.

  Oddly enough, she took his advice. She was so freaked out that she thought a few hours hidden away wouldn’t hurt.

  Her mama called, as she’d been doing every few hours. “Are you okay, honey?”

  “Yeah, Mama. I’m fine.” She could hear Better Get to Livin’ playing in the background. She wanted, quite suddenly, to be curled up on her mama’s couch listening to Dolly and drinking coffee. But she put up a good front, and they chatted over all the extraordinary details of Nicole’s murder. “You be careful, Toni.”

  “I will Mama. How’s Tiff?”

  “She’s out with some girls she met here in the park. The granddaughters of a neighbor. Nice girls. I think they all went to the mall.”

  “Say hi from me. I’ll see you soon.”

  For the rest of the afternoon, she napped and read. She needed the peace and quiet. Besides, she was developing a crush on Sherlock Holmes.

  Feeling a whole lot better, she came down to the banquet dinner ready to make the most of her remaining time at the conference.

  She had the creepiest feeling; as though she were being watched. It was ridiculous. In a crowd of two thousand of course someone was watching her. Probably several someones. Idly or on purpose. She’d be in people’s line of vision. It happened, exactly as she was now looking at a black woman who looked stunning in the new cocoa berry lip gloss.

  Except that what she felt was stalked. The back of her neck kept prickling with unease and, even as she’d turn behind her to check, all she could see were Lady Bianca reps. No one who looked as though they didn’t belong.

  That was the trouble, of course. She had to face the fact that somehow Lady Bianca was involved in murder. And now, thanks to her nosy ways and extraordinary bad luck of being in the wrong bathroom at the wrong time, the killer’s attention seemed to have turned to her.

  She needed to figure out what she was going to do about that.

  She could take Luke’s advice and leave, as plenty of Lady Bianca reps were doing. Pack her bags and head home, hoping the madness would stop and the killer would be caught. But Toni had never been the kind of woman who ran from trouble, and the idea of slinking home in fear from someone who sent anonymous nasty notes was just wrong. She knew the person behind the notes was a vicious killer, but there was something so cowardly about the warning that she thought she might be better to stay and show she wasn’t scared than run away in terror. Besides, if she went home and the killer followed her, then she was bringing trouble on her daughter and her mother, and that she wouldn’t do.

  So, she had to figure out who was trying to scare her and possibly planning to kill her. Preferably long before they struck.

  According to Ruth, a dozen delegates went home that day. They didn’t know Toni had received a threatening email. It didn’t matter. They knew that two women had been murdered in the space of a week and one of them was a Lady Bianca rep. The words serial killer were whispered behind manicured hands.

  The whole situation made Toni’s blood boil. This was their big event of the year, when they celebrated beauty and sisterhood and sales excellence. Not when they cowered in fear or cut out early. It simply wasn’t right.

  She was sharing a round banquet table with her own girls and what was left of Nicole’s. She’d been surprised when Melody deliberately chose to sit with her group, but she was so gushingly friendly that Toni understood she was trying to apologize for snapping her head off earlier. She was more than happy to be just as friendly right back.

  Other than Melody in manic mode, the table was pretty lifeless. She glanced around the room and saw a similar lethargy.

  Orin Shellenbach wasn’t the MC tonight. In fact, she didn’t think he was present at all. Crying over his dead girlfriend? Or in police custody?

  The MC’s job had been taken over by another VP, an able administrator with as much personality as a pound of tripe.

  “This is just ridiculous,” Toni suddenly said. “We’ve got to stop this dark cloud from ruining our conference. I for one am staying to the end of this conference and I am going to get something out of it.”

  “Good for you,” gushed Melody. She blinked a few times. “In spite of my great loss, I’m planning to stay and get some good information also.”

  “Excellent. What say we share some beauty tips? That’s always fun. I’ll start.” She thought for a minute. “Okay, this isn’t mine, it’s my mother’s idea, but I thought it was a real good one. Mama found some invitations in the shape of lips and sent them out to all her local customers inviting them to a Love Your Lips event, focusing on all our lip products.”

  Smartphones and notebooks started coming out and already the energy at their table was rising.

  “Okay, I’ve got one,” Ruth said. “I sponsored a female body builder who was competing in my town. Think about it. It’s not only make-up, there’s the body lotions, the body make-up, as well as the full facial products that you
can showcase. I ended up getting a lot of publicity from that. I’m going to do it again next year.”

  And they were off.

  If their evening never hit the dizzy heights of perfect happiness, at least Toni knew they’d made something of their time together. And given the killer a symbolic swift kick in the backside.

  Her mother’s voice on her cell phone that night made her homesick. And she hadn’t lived with her mother for years. That’s when she realized how stressed she was.

  “Honey? I just wanted to hear your voice again. And say good night.” Trust a mother, no matter how long it had been since they’d lived together, to know when something was off.

  “Thanks Mama. How are you guys doing?”

  “Fine. Tiffany bought me a present at the mall today. A new CD.”

  Toni’s heart sank, thinking of Iron Maiden and Nirvana. “What was it?”

  “An album by a young woman named Feist. I’d never heard of her before, but you know she’s got a good voice. Maybe a little break from Dolly once in a while is all right, as Tiffany says.”

  Toni’s smile bloomed. “Mama, that’s fabulous. Hey, we shared some original marketing ideas and I told our table about your event. A lot of women took notes.”

  “That’s great. Our Love your Lips party was a big success. Tiffany’s a natural born saleswoman. It’s in the genes, I guess. We sold out of the new fall lip colors completely and in total I guess we did about fifteen hundred dollars worth of business.”

  “Fantastic!”

  “Well, my friends are mostly like me. We go through a lot of make up. Now if Lady Bianca would only start selling hair spray.”

  She laughed. “I’ll mention it again.” Normally, she’d drop a word in Orin’s ear, but not this time.

  “How’s Tiffany doing?” She talked to her daughter every day, but it was nice to get a grandma’s eye view.

  “She’s fine. A little bored, but I’m teaching her to knit. She needs to pick up a few things at the house, though, so we’re driving into town. Do you want me to bring you anything?”

  “Oh. It’s been so crazy around here. I meant to buy some new shoes to go with my dress but I haven’t had a chance.” Murder investigations could really cut into a girl’s mall time. “Could you bring me my silver heels? Not the ones with the diamond drops all over them, but the ones with the see-through heel? Tiffany will know.”

  “Sure thing, honey. We’ll drop them by tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, Mama.”

  And that was one less thing she had to worry about. Not that which shoes to wear to the awards banquet and ball was her biggest priority. Staying alive for it seemed to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before. —Jane Austen

  Her message light was blinking when she returned to her room after breakfast to brush her teeth before the morning sessions. There was a package at the front desk. Excellent. Her mom must have decided to bring the shoes by early.

  When she got to the front desk, a young woman who looked suspiciously like she was chewing on something and trying not to let it show, greeted her.

  “Hi. You’ve got a package for me. I’m Toni Diamond.”

  The woman swallowed hastily and checked the computer log, then disappeared through the doorway and returned with a corrugated cardboard shipping box about the size of a shoebox, which she handed to Toni.

  “Thanks.”

  Instinctively, Toni reached out and took the box. Then stood there, willing herself not to scream, throw it as far as she could, and duck.

  She knew as well as she knew her own Zodiac sign that this box was not from her mother.

  The printed shipping label contained her name and the hotel’s name on it, but no return address. And the box was wrapped in brown paper. Her mama would have put a heart sticker with a cheery note or something, never have bothered printing out a label, and why would she wrap a pair of Toni’s shoes up in brown paper? And not stop to have coffee with her daughter?

  Maybe Toni wasn’t always the smartest girl on the block, but she tried not to be the dumbest, either. The cardboard box wasn’t ticking, but a killer who sent threatening emails might well escalate the threat.

  Get rid of it, her brain screamed. And stop trembling,g she tried to tell her quaking hands.

  “You okay?” the girl behind the front desk asked her.

  “I’m going outside for some fresh air,” she said.

  Terrified she’d stumble and blow up half of the hotel, she walked slowly outside holding the box as carefully as though it contained, say, a bomb.

  Once outside, Toni crept a few steps away from the hotel entrance then, knowing she couldn’t go any further, knelt slowly and gingerly placed the box on the pavement. She watched it for a moment the way she’d watch a deadly snake, hoping that if she stood very, very still, it wouldn’t strike. After about ten seconds of non-explosive activity, Toni took a few more steps back and called Luke on her cell.

  Luckily he answered right away. “Marciano.”

  “It’s Toni.”

  “I can’t hear you. Why are you whispering?”

  “I got an anonymous package. A box.”

  “Don’t open it,” he shouted.

  Rolling her eyes used up a tad of the nervous energy coursing through her body. “I didn’t. I’m standing outside the hotel with it.”

  “Main entrance?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Step away from the box. I mean it Toni. Way back. Get behind a cement planter or something. I’ll be right there.”

  But of course she couldn’t go far without risking that somebody would pick up the box. They kept the grounds so neat at the hotel, there was always somebody coming around with a garbage bag or a broom. Instead, she stood several yards away from a possible bomb while the few people who walked into the hotel glanced at Toni as though she might perform some service that would require a tip.

  She smiled and stayed where she was. For the first time in her life, she wished she smoked so she could at least pretend she had a reason – other than the actual one – for standing out there motionless.

  Toni had no idea how fast Luke drove, but based on the way the tires squealed as the blue Taurus turned into the hotel entrance, he could make a respectable showing at Daytona. Not that she was complaining.

  He left enough room between his car and the box that he wouldn’t cause anything unfortunate to happen to it, and then got out and closed the door carefully.

  She didn’t think she’d ever been so happy to see anyone as she was when he came up to her and dragged her farther away. Her heart was pounding so hard she felt dizzy. “You take threats to my life seriously. I like that in a man.”

  “You okay?”

  “So far.”

  Henderson got out, looking leaner and hungrier than ever and stood there for a second squinting at the box.

  “Bomb squad’s on its way,” Luke said. “Why don’t you wait in your room? I’ll call you when it’s safe.”

  The look she sent him must have given him her opinion of that advice.

  “At least stand over there.” He pointed past the hotel entrance. She obliged, so he was between her and the bomb. Or box of thank you chocolates. Or extra cosmetics one of the reps had left Toni when they checked out. The more she thought about it the more innocent that box appeared. Just because it wasn’t from her mother did not mean it was lethal.

  Of course, there was no return address label, no indication at all of who had sent it, which was what had spooked her, the second she’d held it in her hands and looked at it. That, and a slight rattle.

  Frank Henderson went into the hotel and stood just inside, presumably to stop anyone who wanted to walk out the front door, though the lobby was thankfully pretty empty.

  The bomb squad arrived very impressively only a couple of minutes later, a regular fire truck right behind it. Two guys jumped out of the truck in sui
ts so protected they looked ready to do a moon walk.

  Luke took her arm and led her to the bomb squad truck. The back was already open and one of the guys was taking out a portable X-ray device. “Get inside,” Luke ordered.

  He walked out to the front of the hotel’s drive-through to stop traffic and Toni climbed into the back of the truck, which was mostly a narrow hallway with white metal cabinets on either side. There was a fire extinguisher hanging near the door and the sight of the bright red canister made Toni shudder at the possibilities.

  It didn’t take long for the bomb squad guys to return. They got into the truck too and using a laptop, were able to see into the box.

  Toni maneuvered herself so she could see over the computer operator’s shoulder and nobody stopped her. The image on the screen looked a bit like that of a bag going through airport security. It was all gray and black shapes until her vision adjusted and she could see an outline of what was in the box.

  Not that she knew what a bomb looked like, but this didn’t appear to be an explosive device.

  Still, she shuddered. The box didn’t contain extra cosmetics, chocolates or shoes. The contents of the package looked like a mini-coffin with a mini body inside.

  The guy manning the laptop hit a few buttons and then said, “There’s no explosive material in there, ma’am. Looks like someone sent you a doll.”

  “Okay,” she said, her voice uncomfortably high. “Thanks. Sorry for the false alarm.”

  “Don’t worry about it. A no boom day is a good day.”

  She smiled dutifully. She couldn’t even imagine the kind of stress a guy like that lived under, but he calmly got out of the truck and went and retrieved his X ray screen.

  He motioned Luke over and Henderson came out to join the party.

  “It’s safe. Go ahead and open it.”

  Henderson slipped on a pair of surgical gloves, jogged over and retrieved the box. Even though Toni knew it wasn’t going to blow up, she still suffered a moment’s suspended breath when he bent to pick up the box. But he brought it over without any problem. “You mind if we open it?” he asked her.