by Tegan Maher
Anna Mae popped out of the dressing room right then. Olivia couldn’t see her because her back was to her, but Anna Mae sure saw her. “Put my dress down right now, you vicious cow!”
“It’s not your—”
That’s all she managed to get out before Anna Mae had her by the hair. I stepped forward and snatched the dress out of her hands before she went over backwards. One of the things I loved most about Anna Mae was that when it was go time, she wasn’t a talker. Olivia should have known that, but then again, I’d put a beating on her regularly since we were in kindergarten, and she still came back for more.
Penelope must have heard the ruckus because she came rushing over. Her eyebrows about shot off the top of her forehead when she saw tiny little Anna Mae on top of Olivia, drawing back to swing.
“Oh my, ladies. What seems to be the problem?”
Olivia tried to cover her face, but Anna Mae was sitting on her forearms. “This old bat and the redheaded hag are trying to say—”
I slapped my hand over my mouth because I already knew what was coming. I swear, the girl never learned. Sure enough, Anna Mae’s fist slammed down into her mouth, and she gave Olivia’s hair another solid yank just for good measure. It was all I could do not to laugh at the scene. Anna Mae was straddling her in shorts and her tank top, a white satin hat rimmed with pearls and baby’s breath sitting atop her head with a veil streaming behind.
Olivia howled.
“Don’t ever call my friend a hag again,” Anna Mae said, grabbing Olivia by the hair on both sides of her head and bouncing her gourd off the plush, carpeted floor for good measure. “And the next time you wanna call me old, remember I beat your ass in a bridal shop.” She gave her a final shake, then climbed off of her, pressing her hands down her front to smooth her clothes.
I hazarded a glance at Penelope, afraid she’d already speed-dialed the cops, but she was smiling. “Olivia, I think you can leave. You’ve been in here a dozen times trying on dresses with your rude, entitled sidekicks. Now you’ve assaulted one of my best clients. Take your business elsewhere. And you, Anna Mae, get ten percent off the dress.”
“Thanks, Penny,” Anna Mae replied reaching up to unpin the hat that hadn’t so much as bobbled during the ruckus. “I’ll take this, too.”
And that, I decided, was how you went dress shopping.
Chapter 18
“You’d think she’d learn,” Anna Mae said as she climbed back into her car. “But that dress wasn’t goin’ nowhere unless it was with me. Shoot, I hate that we had to leave it for her to alter it. The thought of Olivia wearing it makes me see red.” She hit the start button on her car, then growled. “And I broke a nail. How about we go for mani-pedis?”
Considering my hands currently resembled a construction worker’s because of all the sanding and staining I’d been doing and my feet looked like a hobbit’s, I was down with that.
We lucked out when we got to the Clip N Curl. Alyse was just finishing up with a client, and she had the rest of the morning free. She filled up the tank on the pedicure chair and poured my favorite scent—night-blooming jasmine—into it, then motioned for Anna Mae to have a seat at her manicure table. I sank back into the chair and dipped my feet into the tank, not sure which felt better, the hot water or the massaging action of the chair.
“What have you ladies been into today?” Coralee asked.
“We went dress shopping,” Anna Mae said.
“Yeah, I think I found our dresses. One was green, and the other was purple.”
“What color green and what color purple?” she asked.
“Uh, emerald, I guess. I don’t know what color purple, though. Just purple.”
“Plum, eggplant, lilac, magenta, violet? It matters,” Belle said.
“Violet, I guess. Definitely not lilac or magenta.” I wasn’t girly enough to know the difference between plum and eggplant.
“Violet would be okay,” Coralee replied. “Though eggplant would be better with your hair.”
“How about you go with us next time?” I said. “We have to go back for another fitting for Anna Mae next week.”
Coralee’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “That works! I love dress shopping!”
“We haven’t even gotten to the best part,” I said, shooting Anna Mae a satisfied smile. “Olivia thought she was going to come in and take Anna Mae’s dress. Anna Mae convinced her different, though.”
I told the story, and when I was finished, Coralee gave a satisfied nod. “Good. I still owe her for what she said about Shelby when Anna Mae went into labor, so that makes me feel a little better. I’m just glad you didn’t hurt the dress.”
“So,” Belle said. “That man of yours got any more leads on the murder?”
I frowned. “No, not yet. He’s still waiting on Jim to get back to him with some evidence, and he had to wait until today to talk to Barbie Lee’s clients.”
“I miss everything,” Alyse said. “If I hadn’t gone to Atlanta with Mama, I’d have been there.”
“You didn’t miss anything,” I said. “There wasn’t anything to see other than a body.”
“No clues at all? Not even a murder weapon or a torn piece of fabric? Maybe a pack of matches?” she said.
“You watch way too much TV,” Coralee said, shaking her head, but Alyse was still staring at me, a hopeful gleam in her eye. The girl was born for drama. I’d indulge her.
“Well, there was a murder weapon, I guess. The rock. Other than that, there was just her, her purse, some receipts, a bottle of peach nail polish, and some makeup. Estee Lauder, I believe. And a few strands of dark hair.” I cringed because I hadn’t meant to let that last bit out.
“Peach nail polish?” Alyse asked. “That couldn’t have been hers. She refuses to wear anything other than shades of red.”
“What?” I asked, sitting up in the chair.
“Yeah, Noreen’s the peach girl, though she mixes it up sometimes.”
I thought about that for a minute. Why would she have had a bottle of nail polish in her purse that didn’t belong to her? Sure, they were friends, but I didn’t carry Raeann’s stuff in my purse.
“Noreen doesn’t fit though. The hairs in Barbie Lee’s hand were brunette and Noreen’s a blonde.”
Coralee snorted. “She’s whatever color her wig is, and she’s got a dozen of ’em. Her true color is dark brunette, though.”
It didn’t make sense to me. “But why would Noreen kill her? According to everybody we talked to, they were friends.” I said, still trying to fit the pieces together.
“I don’t know,” Alyse said, pulling Anna Mae’s hand from the water, “but I promise you, that peach nail polish wasn’t hers. She hated it and always tried to talk Noreen out of it. Said it looked like old lady polish.”
I pulled out my phone and called Hunter.
“Hey, I think I have something,” I said, then told him what I’d just learned.
“I’ll go pick her up. See what I can find out,” he said. “Because I’ve got nothin’ here. Jim got back to me with the DNA. It’s not Miranda’s, but he didn’t get a hit in their system, either.”
“Let me go with you,” I said. “Maybe we just didn’t ask the right questions last time.”
“I’ll pick you up in five,” he said. “Or no, make it ten.” I sighed and pulled my feet out of the tub. It looked like my poor feet were just going to have to look like they were fresh from the Shire for a while longer.
Chapter 19
Twenty minutes later, we were pulling up in front of Noreen's place. Hunter had called her to make sure she’d be home on the pretense of needing to ask her more questions.
“How much do you think she made as an assistant? I wouldn’t think much, right?” I asked, eyeballing the place from a fresh perspective. The last time we’d been here, I’d been distracted by the vision I’d had at Coralee’s. My head was much clearer now.
“According to the records I went through, she was makin’ fifte
en bucks an hour,” he replied, shutting off the truck.
“That’s an awful spendy car for somebody who only makes fifteen bucks an hour,” I said, motioning to the Lexis parked beside us.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess it is.”
“And she wasn’t wearing cheap clothes the other day, either. I’m not sure about brands, but I do know those shoes were Manolos.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, “but I’m going to assume it means they're expensive.”
“Very,” I said, growing irritated at myself for missing such big red flags. I was beginning to get clarity, and I was almost positive I knew what had happened. “I can’t afford them, and I make a lot more than fifteen bucks an hour. Did you look at Barbie Lee’s financials by any chance?”
“Sure,” he replied, looking at me, but not making a move to open the door. “It was one of the first things I did when we suspected her of dipping.”
“What did you come up with?”
“We don’t think she was, or if she was, it couldn’t have been much. She wasn’t living beyond her means, the only deposits made lined up with her paycheck, and she didn’t have much in savings.”
“That’s what I thought,” I replied, then opened the truck door. “Mind if I do the questioning?”
He shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”
She was ready for us when we got to the door. “Sheriff. Ms. Flynn,” she said as she stepped out onto the porch. She’d done the same last time. It wasn’t altogether unheard of, but folks in our parts were more likely to ask you to come in than join you on the porch, especially when it was hot out.
“Do you mind if we come in?” I asked, fanning my face. “This heat’s killin’ me.”
There was no mannerly way for her to say no, and since she was from there, I was counting on her raising to overcome any desire to keep us out of her house.
“I’d rather not,” she said with a sugary sweet smile. “The place is a disaster.”
Hunter pulled a paper folded in thirds out of his pocket. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to insist,” he said, handing her the paper. “That’s a search warrant.”
I had no idea how he’d managed that in the ten minutes it had taken him to pick me up, but I’d have to kiss him for it later.
Her face remained impassive as she read over the paper. She turned to go back inside and motioned for us to follow her. “Okay, then, it looks like I don’t have a choice.”
She hadn’t been lying; the place was a mess. Clothes were strewn over the back of the couch and empty takeout containers cluttered a coffee table situated in front of one of the biggest TVs I’d ever seen. What caught my eye, though, was the ticket book lying beside a pizza box. I recognized it because I kept a similar one to write out receipts at the shop. A rubber stamp sat beside it.
Rather than point it out, I decided to question her first.
“Let’s sit in the kitchen. There’s more room there,” she said, eyeing the coffee table.
“Sure,” I said, and we followed her through.
The kitchen wasn’t as bad as the living room, but there was a sink full of dishes and a dirty pot on the stove. She motioned toward the table and cleared away a stack of mail.
“I’m not sure why you felt a warrant was necessary just to ask me a few questions,” she said, crossing her legs.
“Routine,” I said. “I’d like to ask you about the business. You said she was about to make you partner, right?” This time, I wasn’t polite. I opened my radar up wide and was ready to jump right into her melon if I needed to.
“Yes, that’s right. She promised me if we met this quarter’s goals, she’d promote me.”
“But you seem to be doing just fine,” I said. “Nice car, spendy shoes, a TV that would make any mancave a castle. How do you afford all of that?”
She squirmed, and her façade slipped a bit. “I have family money.”
My lie detector went off like a five-alarm bell. “That’s a lie.”
“E-excuse me?” she said, her head tilted.
“You just lied to me. Were you stealing from the company? Padding receipts so it looked like you were paying out more than you were, then turning around and billing your clients and keeping the difference? You were her assistant, and I assume you were probably responsible for the clerical duties.”
“That’s ridiculous!” she exclaimed, though I felt more panic than outrage oozing from her. My radar went off again.
“That was another lie. Tell me, Noreen, why did you kill Barbie Lee? Did she find out what you were doing? Was she going to fire you? Was she going to press charges? What did it take to make you kill your best friend?”
“She wasn’t my friend!” she snapped, then slammed a hand over her mouth.
I sighed. “No need to stop now. We have a sample of your hair. She was grasping it in her hand, and unless I miss my guess, the bottle of peach fingernail polish that you dropped at the scene is going to have your fingerprints all over it. Tell us why you did it.”
She sagged in her chair, and I knew she was done.
“She payed me a pittance. I worked fifty hours a week for her without overtime because I was salaried. She made me deal with all the repairs and the whiners, and she took all the credit. One day, I messed up a bill when I was transferring the amount to the books, and I realized how easy it would be.”
“Did she figure out what you were doing?” Hunter asked, and she nodded.
Noreen nodded, not making eye contact. “It was that stupid window. I’d already billed for a new one, and the dimwitted girl called to complain, except Barbie took the call. She confronted me, then went through the records with Frank. I’d stolen his ticket book and made a rubber stamp with his logo so I could just tuck his back and replace them with mine when it was time to do the billing.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “She was going to fire me at Fancy’s that night, I just know she was. She was going to let me down easy.”
“So you canceled?” I asked. This was the part where I was still fuzzy.
She shook her head. “No. I called and asked her to meet me out back. I told her I had the money I owed her. I figured if I could get her out there away from the music and noise, I could convince her to keep me on. When she came out, she was mad. She started calling me a thief and a liar, and she pushed me. We scuffled and she had me in a chokehold. I managed to pick up the rock and hit her with it to let me loose.” She was now almost sobbing and had to stop to collect herself. I didn’t mean to kill her. I swear. All I wanted to do was get her off of me.”
Hunter put up a finger. “Maybe you should stop there. You have the right to remain silent ...” I tuned out the rest because it was just a jumble of formality and her pleading for us to believe her. Instead, I pulled out my phone and found Miranda in my contacts. It was about time she knew she wasn’t going to prison for a murder she didn’t commit.
Chapter 20
“So it wasn’t Barbie Lee that was stealing after all,” Raeann said the next morning as we had coffee on my back patio.
“Nope,” I said. “It was Noreen. She got greedy and then killed her instead of facing losing her job and going to jail. She probably would have only gotten probation, or at the very most a couple years in prison. Now she’s going away for life.”
“Crime doesn’t pay,” Max said from beside us.
“It does not, Officer McGruff,” Raeann said, smiling.
Max either missed the reference or chose to ignore her as he made his way down the ramp to his own private wading pool. It was already hot, and that was his favorite place to be. Matt had built it especially for him when he’d done the big pool, and Max used it every day.
“What’s gonna happen with the apartments?” Raeann asked. “I mean, poor Miranda still doesn’t have air conditioning, right? And I’m sure other people will have problems. That’s a lot of apartments, and all the buildings are getting old.”
“Frank’s going to handle it until they can get a n
ew property manager,” I replied, taking a sip of my latte. “He’s actually happier now that he can fix everything right instead of just cobbling it together with duct tape and baler’s twine.”
“That doesn’t make sense to me,” Raeann said. “If she wasn’t stealing the money, then why was she so cheap when it came to fixing things?”
“I asked the same thing. Apparently, she got a bonus for staying under budget. The incentive was designed to make her maintain the place before expenses got out of hand, but she was lazy in the beginning, I suppose. I’m not sure why she did it that way, but it’s just one more sign to me that the corporate way is not for me. When you keep business small and personal, this sort of thing doesn’t happen. Nobody should have to live without hot water or air conditioning so somebody else can get a bonus.”
“No they should not,” she replied, then kicked back in her chair. We sat in silence as we sipped our coffee and watched the horses play in the pasture on the other side of the pool.
“This right here is how it should be for everybody,” I said. “If I had my way, everybody would have their own little slice of paradise.” But I was a witch and not a god.
“So psychic powers, huh?” she asked. “How do you feel about it?”
“Not pleased,” I replied. “I don’t want to know what’s going to happen, especially when it’s just out of the blue.”
“No, I agree. Where’d you get that?” she asked, motioning to the charm bracelet on my wrist. I’d done as Levana had suggested and cleansed it in saltwater overnight, and now it was all shiny and new looking. It felt good, too.
“I found it in a drawer of an old desk I bought at a sale this weekend.”
“Found what in a drawer?” Addy asked, popping in between Rae and me.
I held up my wrist. “This. Pretty, isn’t it?”