Easy Like Sunday Mourning

by Jennie Marts

  Allegra gave them some bags to put all their clothes in, and Piper and Cassie headed out the back curtains. Batman, Batgirl, Lara Croft, and a wrinkly Hermione moved to the front of the booth to enter the main convention floor.

  The noise hit them first and Maggie’s senses were overloaded with the sound of excited voices, splashes of colored costumes, rock music playing in the background, and a subtle hint of body odor. The room was crowded and warm. Apparently not everyone washed their costumes in between conventions.

  Maggie was overwhelmed with the sheer number of people packed into one room. Vendor booths lined the walls, with rows of booths running down the center creating a maze of comic-book-character-filled rows. Signs directed participants to the various entertainment areas of the conference, citing where to find lectures, autograph signings, and star appearances. The stars were toward the back, and long lines of costumed characters snaked down the rows, making passage through those areas even more clogged and congested. “Where do we start?”

  Jake stood on a chair and scanned the crowded room. “Look for a guy wearing a Jedi Knight costume with the hood up.”

  Edna stood on her tip-toes, but the crowd engulfed her small frame. “I can’t see a durn thing. Except a bunch of cleavage walking by. Cover those things up! They’re called privates for a reason!”

  Maggie surveyed the room, ignoring Edna, who frequently dispensed advice to innocent bystanders. Once, in the mall, she told the gal at the cosmetics counter that she was wearing too much makeup. Catching sight of a brown hood, Maggie pointed. “I see one.”

  Sunny had climbed onto the chair next to Jake and pointed in the opposite direction of Maggie. “I see one too. He’s headed to the lectures.”

  Jake groaned. “I see one, too. In fact, now that I’m looking, I see about fifty of them. This is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

  “Or a light saber in a nerd field.” Edna jabbed Maggie in the ribs. “Come on, that was kind of funny.”

  Maggie continued to ignore her friend and looked up Jake. “What should we do? Split up?”

  Jake stepped off the chair and held out his hand to help Sunny down. “I guess we’re gonna have to. Sunny and I will head to the lectures. You and Edna check the gaming area. Sunny can text Cass, and when she and Piper come back in, they can go over to the autograph signings. We know Jeremy is tall, so that should help eliminate some of the Jedis. Whoever spots him first, text or call, then we’ll each head that way.”

  Before Maggie could ask to trade tracking partners, Edna pulled on her arm.

  “I think I see one,” Edna said, then disappeared into the throng of people, leaving Maggie no choice but to follow her.

  Up ahead, Maggie could see a tall guy wearing a brown hood. Edna was in hot pursuit, pushing people aside to get to the Jedi Knight. Maggie followed in her wake, and she couldn’t help but smile as she watched Edna’s maneuvers for clearing a crowd. The little old lady poked, prodded, and pinched at whoever stood in her way. By the look of surprise on a Star Trek captain’s face, Maggie was pretty sure Edna had goosed him as she squeezed by.

  The Jedi Knight had stopped at a cardboard box of comic books in front of a booth. Maggie could see Edna creeping up on him. Before Maggie could stop her, she watched Edna stick a foot out and stand on the tail of the Jedi’s cape. The knight took a step forward and his head jerked back and the hood fell off, revealing a very surprised freckled teenager with bright orange hair. So not Jeremy.

  Before the red-haired Jedi could spot his cape-treader, Edna disappeared into the crowd, popping up at Maggie’s elbow. “That wasn’t him. Can you spot another one?”

  Maggie had to hand it to her. Her geriatric pal had skills. “I can see that. Maybe try for a little more distance with the next one. What if he’d spotted you?”

  Edna huffed. “Then all he would have seen was a teenage girl in a Hogwarts cape.”

  “You wish.” Maggie scanned the heads of the crowd. “Oh, I see another one. Head left to the gaming area.”

  With the determination of a terrier, Edna plunged back into the crowd. Maggie tailed her, trying to keep an eye on the brown-hooded Jedi they were tracking. They stepped into the row of gaming booths then Maggie lost sight of him.

  She did notice a booth for SkyVision though. Jeremy had told her that company was his main competitor. Maggie pulled on Edna’s sleeve. “This booth is Jeremy’s company’s main competition. Let’s go check it out.”

  Edna nodded, and they moved into the vendor area. The booth for SkyVision was large, taking up two booth rental spots. It was decorated to look like a high-end living room with a sofa set in the middle, facing a wall of flat-screen televisions. Each screen showed a different game being played, the table in front of the sofa scattered with an array of game controllers.

  A young blond guy, somewhere in his mid-twenties, approached them. He was wearing a Captain America suit, complete with bright blue tights and the Captain America symbol emblazoned on his well-muscled chest. He wore the outfit with the confidence of a well-built guy and Maggie could feel the conceit wafting off of him as he strode toward them.

  “Can I help you, ladies? Are you looking for the autograph stations?”

  Maggie gestured to the controllers. “Can anyone use these?”

  Barely hiding his sneer, Captain America dipped his head at Maggie. “Have you ever played a video game before?”

  Maggie wanted to smack the snide look right off of his stupid twenty-something face. She had no use for this arrogant little snob of a kid who had probably just crawled out of college. “Not much. I’ve just been playing World of Warcraft for the past two years, and I’m a level ninety Draenei with Tier 13 PVP Gladiator Gear.”

  Captain America’s sneer of conceit changed to one of astonishment. “I stand corrected. Respectfully so.” He gestured to Edna, who still had the Hogwarts robe pulled over her face. “And does your daughter play as well?”

  Edna pushed back her hood, displaying her springy gray curls. “I’m not her daughter, and I don’t know what the hell she just said. She could have just told you she’s the Queen of England, for all I know. I don’t waste my time with this mind-numbing baloney. I prefer to feed my brain with actual knowledge. Through these little known things called books. Ever heard of them?”

  Maggie pushed Edna behind her, rolling her eyes. “She’s my grandmother. You know, kinda kooky. Why don’t you tell me something new and exciting that SkyVision is doing?”

  His face lit up, and he launched into a lengthy speech about a new gaming system that his company was working on. Maggie had worked with enough men to know that all you had to do to get them talking was ask about something they were interested in and had a vague knowledge about and they could talk for hours. She was glad this was the case with Captain America and didn’t have to resort to false compliments like “Wow, what a big controller you have.” Gag.

  He introduced himself as Skyler Humphries and explained that SkyVision was his company. He went on to tell her how this new system was a design that he had been working on for years.

  What? Since you were twelve? How could he own his own company already? And every detail he was telling her about this system sounded exactly like the program that Jeremy’s company had been working on. And the only way he could have known about it was if this punk had been the one to pay off Jim to get the information.

  She waited for him to take a breath so she could nonchalantly throw out a question. “That sounds really interesting. But isn’t Rogers’ Realms working on something similar?”

  “What? What do know about Rogers’ Realms?” The question obviously flustered Skyler. “This is nothing like what they have. And if they do, then they must have stolen it from us.”

  Maggie held in her scoff. Yeah, right. She couldn’t see Jeremy stealing anything from this guy. Besides, Jeremy had too much integrity to steal from someone else.

  Hmmm. That thought hit her right in the chest. She didn’t th
ink Jeremy would steal company secrets, but she believed him capable of cheating on her and possibly committing murder?

  Maybe this was all stupid. She should just sit down with Jeremy and talk this out. Find out his explanation for lying about being with Charlotte in a motel room. Wait, oh yeah. She couldn’t talk to him because he wasn’t answering his phone. He was running around a giant Nerd-a-thon dressed as a fictitious crime fighter.

  Maggie stared directly at Skyler, giving him her best lawyer’s glare. “How do we know that you didn’t steal it from them?”

  “What? Why would I?” He took a step back. Maggie could smell the guilt on him, as strong as the odor of tuna fish to a cat.

  Before he could say more, the back curtain of the booth opened, and a woman dressed as Poison Ivy emerged from between the curtain folds. “Skyler, I can’t find that box with the—oh sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.” She looked at Maggie, as if she were trying to place how she knew her.

  The woman wore a very short, glittery, bright green dress adorned with leaves, and had a grapevine wreath wrapped around her arms and upper thighs. She wore shiny four-inch green heels and a bright red wig. The red hair cascaded in thick waves around her shoulders, and Maggie knew it was a wig, because no one’s hair was naturally that color.

  And because she knew the color of that woman’s hair was actually blond. No amount of glittery makeup or fake hair could disguise the milky white globes of cleavage popping out of the slutty green dress and the sway of the hips that walked toward them. How fitting that Charlotte Foster would dress as Poison Ivy, a villain instead of a hero.

  Edna must have recognized her as well because Maggie felt her pulling her hood back on and tugging her into the crowd.

  Maggie ducked her head, pulling the ball cap lower over her mirrored sunglasses. “I’ll be back later to hear more about this.” Then she turned and disappeared into the crowd behind Hermione Granger in orthopedic shoes.

  Chapter Twelve

  Two hours and twelve incorrect Jedi Knights later, Maggie and Edna stood in the front of the concession booth, guzzling down Diet Coke like it was water.

  Maggie had used Edna’s phone to text the rest of the group to meet in the food area, thinking they could all benefit from a cold drink and some nourishment. The drink was easy, but finding actual nourishment was going to be a little harder. The food vendors were limited and served cafeteria-style fare. They could get a hamburger or chicken fingers, but a salad would be a stretch.

  Cassie and Piper were the first to arrive. Piper bounced along with excitement, but Cassie looked ready to drop. She plucked the cup right from Maggie’s hand and took a big swallow.

  “Thanks. I needed that.” She said the words like Maggie had just given her a shot of whiskey instead of a sip of soda, but everyone had their own vice.

  “Any luck?” Maggie asked.

  Piper shook her head. “Nah—we followed seven Jedis, but none of them turned out to be Jeremy.”

  “But we did see one extremely hairy, heavy guy wearing the same Wonder Woman outfit that I have on. So there was that to be excited about.” Cassie dug in her pocket and pulled out some wadded bills. “Piper, honey, run over there and get us some pop and some French fries. And some chicken fingers.”

  “And some nachos,” Edna called out to Piper’s retreating back. She shrugged at her friends. “Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.”

  Cassie nodded. “Yeah, all this surveillance is making me hungry.”

  Batman and Batgirl came around the corner. Maggie hoped they had better news. “Any luck?” she asked again.

  Jake sighed. “No luck. I was pretty sure we had him a couple times, but one guy turned out to be a really tall woman, and we lost the other one in the crowd.”

  Sunny took Maggie’s cup and took a drink. “Did you see that line of people waiting to get autographs? The one time we were sure it was him, we tried to catch up with him and got stuck in that throng of people. Every time we tried to squeeze through, people thought we were trying to cut in line and pushed us back.”

  Maggie took her cup back. Evidently she should have bought a bigger drink. “We never found him either. But we did see Charlotte.”

  “You did?” Sunny said. “Did she see you?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think she recognized me. She looked at me like she thought she should know me, but I never saw a light of recognition go off in her slutty/cheater eyes.”

  “You talking about Charlotte?” Piper returned with enough food to feed an army, or at least a small battalion, of weary super heroes. She set the snacks on an empty table and they all pulled out chairs and sat down. “Edna texted me what she was wearing, and I’m pretty sure we saw her. One of our Jedis was talking to a busty redhead in a sparkly green dress, but we couldn’t get close enough to see if it was Jeremy, then we lost them. Geez, did anyone try to get through that line of people waiting for autographs?”

  “I know, right? I was just saying that.” Sunny laughed and pulled a nacho from Edna’s tray. She hesitated before putting the chip in her mouth and a funny look crossed her face.

  Maggie was sure she was thinking back to earlier this summer when she dumped a tray of nachos down the back of a couple of unsuspecting baseball fans on a date that ended horribly wrong. She reached out and took her friend’s hand. “You okay, Sunny?”

  Sunny squeezed her hand and gave her that smile that you give your closest friends who can almost always guess what you’re thinking about. “Of course. It just brought back the memories for a second of all those crazy dates earlier this summer.”

  Maggie motioned to the man in gray tights wearing a Batman hood. “It all worked out in the end.”

  Sunny smiled, a huge grin crossing her face and lighting up her eyes. “Yes, it did.” She looked Maggie in the eye. “And it’s going to work out for you too. You’ll see.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes. Why couldn’t she bottle some of her friend’s optimism and guzzle down a few cups? She wished she could just simply believe in Jeremy and his innocence. In both the false alibi and the accusation of murder. Because she had believed before, believed in true love, and that if you married someone, you would stay with them forever, and not run off with a waitress from Hooters. She knew how that turned out.

  The group of friends finished off the snacks, and Cassie threw the trays into the garbage.

  Maggie looked expectantly at Jake. “What’s our next move?”

  Jake used a black-gloved hand to rub his chin in thought. “Maybe we should just flush him out. We could find someone here who could send him an anonymous text and tell him to meet them at the food vendor area.”

  Edna bobbed her head up and down. “Yeah. Then we could hide and follow him after he shows up. I like it.”

  Piper turned to a table of three teenage boys wearing Star Wars bounty hunter outfits. “Hey, can I borrow one of your phones for a sec? My friend is ignoring me, and I want to see if I send her a text from a different phone if she’ll answer.”

  One of the boys reached into the folds of his bounty hunter robes and extracted a cell phone. “Is your friend hot? Maybe I can keep her number in my phone, and I can text her later.”

  Piper took the phone and copied Jeremy’s number onto the keypad from Edna’s contacts. She typed a quick message, pushed send, then passed the phone back to the boys. “You can try. But she’s kind of a B. She probably won’t answer.”

  Piper turned back to the table and lowered her voice. “Okay, I wrote ‘for info about Jim’s death, meet me by the food court, in front of the light saber display’. How’s that?”

  Jake smiled at her. “Perfect. Now we better get out of here in case he’s close.”

  The group scattered in all directions, taking up hiding places around the crowded food court. Maggie laughed at Edna, who was nonchalantly holding a conversation with a Princess Leia in a gold bikini holding a Jabba the Hutt on a chain.

  Her laughter died on her lips as she saw a tall Jedi Knight
come around the corner and stride to the little vendor cart full of light sabers. Everything in her wanted to call off this stupid charade and just go to him and talk it out.

  Before she could take a step forward, a flash of glittery green caught her eye. She stepped back into the folds of a curtained booth, watching as Charlotte strode forward, calling out Jeremy’s name. Maggie’s heart broke just a little as she saw Charlotte approach him and throw her arms around his neck.

  To Jeremy’s credit, he reached back and pulled her arms free. He moved back slightly, as if to put some distance between them. But evidently Charlotte was new to the term personal space and pushed her giant breasts forward.

  Jeremy had his head tipped down, and they were deep in conversation. Maggie moved along the curtained booth, trying to get closer. She smiled as she saw Piper fall in line with a group of teenagers, then stop to look at a box of comic books in a booth about six feet from Jeremy. With her blue-haired pigtails, she looked like any other teenaged girl at the convention.

  Maggie moved a little closer, stepping in front of a booth filled with Star Trek paraphernalia. She saw Charlotte nod at Jeremy and smiled a little when she saw Jeremy take a step back as Charlotte moved to hug him again.

  Maybe he really wasn’t messing around with her. Maybe Charlotte lied about being with him. But the motel clerk had backed up her story. Maggie felt so confused. Maybe they were having an affair, and Jeremy just didn’t want her hugging him in public so no one would suspect them.

  Maggie turned to a display of telecommunicators and wished Scotty could just beam her up right now. She heard the click of Charlotte’s heels pass behind her and move down the hall. What now? Should she confront Jeremy? Did they go through this entire charade just to witness that miniscule exchange with Charlotte? That none of them could even hear. Except maybe Piper. Hopefully she picked up some snippets of their conversation.