by Rose Pressey
When we reached the door, I stepped in front of Derek. Instead of being afraid of what might happen, I decided to be strong. I wanted Derek to know that I wasn’t afraid to find out what was in this building. There were a few people in the lobby, but it wasn’t terribly crowded. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Steve or Tabitha. Now we’d lost them again.
“What’s going on in this place?” I asked as we stood in the lobby.
Derek gestured at the group of people with a tilt of his head. “It’s my guess that Steve and Tabitha are here for another bodybuilding competition.”
When I noticed the muscles on the people standing around I knew he was right. There were different rooms in the building though, so we had to figure out which door Steve and Tabitha had gone through.
“We’ll just have to start checking doors,” Derek said.
I sighed. “Fine. You check the left side and I’ll check the right.”
After checking several doors, I finally found the right room.
“Over here,” I said, motioning for Derek.
We stepped into the crowded room. I looked around for Steve and Tabitha. Luckily, I spotted them in the crowd.
“Do you have tickets?” the male voice said from over my shoulder.
I turned around. “What?”
He flashed a torn ticket stub at us. “You need a ticket for the show.”
I exchanged a look with Derek. “We don’t have tickets. Can we buy them at the door?”
“Sorry, it’s all sold out. I’m afraid you can’t be in here.”
Great, now we wouldn’t be able to talk with Steve and see what they were up to.
That was when I spotted an Elvis.
Chapter 19
I tried to remain calm and not panic, but it was hard not to freak out. Why was there an Elvis impersonator here? I poked Derek and motioned toward the man who was exiting the door. The employee with the competition was still staring at us.
“Let’s go after him,” Derek said.
I knew we had to, but I was also a little concerned with the fact that he could be the person who’d shot at us.
“Thanks,” I said, tossing up my hand at the man who’d helped us.
We raced out the door following Elvis. I still could only see the back of him with the cape and all its embellishments. I wasn’t even sure what we would do if we caught up with him. I supposed confront him. I didn’t even know if it was the same person, but what were the odds that the impersonator would be here for no reason? Maybe he was following us. That sent a chill down my spine.
The man turned to the right and down the hallway. Derek and I rushed after him. I spotted the door closing and assumed that was where he had just disappeared.
I pointed. “He went in there.”
Derek and I rushed down the hallway and opened the door. I really hadn’t expected what I saw. The room was full of Elvises and Marilyn Monroes. Why hadn’t I heard about this? I’d thought I knew all the events involving Marilyn. At the front of the room was a banner that announced the lookalike contest.
Derek and I watched the action. At least I felt a little better now knowing that the shooter hadn’t followed us. He was just part of the contest.
“I have an idea to get us backstage at the competition,” Derek said.
“Uh-oh. What is it?” I figured by the look on his face I wasn’t going to like the idea, but I’d give it a shot and listen.
“We should dress as Elvis and Marilyn and then we can sneak backstage.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but that’s not a bad idea,” I said.
Derek smiled. He seemed pleased with my compliment. I couldn’t believe we were going to really try this, but after all, I had plenty of experience. Now if Derek could just pull off his best Elvis impression…
“There’s only one problem,” Derek said. “Where do we get costumes?”
I hated that I was going to have to announce that I had a Marilyn Monroe costume in the trunk of my car. But if it meant solving the case, I’d do it. I sighed and then said, “It just so happens I know where to get the costumes.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “I knew I could count on you, Cece Cash.”
I wasn’t quite sure if that was a compliment.
“Follow me,” I said and motioned over my shoulder.
“Should I ask how you have access to costumes?” Derek asked as we headed to the car.
“Get in and I’ll tell you on the way.”
Derek kept glancing over at me as we drove. I knew he wanted to make a witty comment about my side gig, but when I glared at him he remained silent.
“There’s the shop.” I pointed.
Derek pulled into a spot by the door and we got out. We slipped into the costume rental store. The blast of cool air was like a refreshing dive into a swimming pool. The space was small and felt even smaller with the racks of costumes crammed in. Derek touched the sleeve of a gorilla suit.
Victor waved when he saw me. “Cece, I have that new dress you asked about.”
Victor liked to wear the costumes that he rented. He said it was like free advertisement. Today he’d decided to wear a clown costume. Underneath the wig he had dark hair, but right now it was bright red.
I didn’t even look at Derek because I knew he wanted to say something. “Victor, this is my friend Derek.” I motioned at him.
Had I just called him a ‘friend?’ That was something new. Even after all these years I’d only described Derek as an annoying family friend.
Victor shook Derek’s hand. “What can I do for you?”
“We need an Elvis costume.” I motioned at Derek with a tilt of my head.
Victor frowned. “I don’t know if I have any left right now. Let me go check.”
Derek looked around the shop. “So you’ve been doing this for a while? Are there any other celebrities you dress up as?”
I sighed. “No, just the one.”
He looked me up and down. “I’m not surprised you make a good Marilyn. With your sexiness.”
Now I was probably blushing. “Thank you, Derek.”
Victor came from the back room. “You’re in luck.” He held up the gold suit.
“That’s not a white jumpsuit,” Derek said with a frown.
“No, it’s the famous gold suit Elvis wore. You’ll love it,” I said, taking the suit from Victor.
***
A few minutes later I found myself in the gas station restroom.
We’d each gone toward the restrooms. Derek had stepped into the men’s and I’d reluctantly gone to the ladies’ room to transform myself into Marilyn. What would Derek say? The dress was the easy part, but getting the wig on just right was a lot harder. I covered my lips in the bright red lipstick and then put on the heels. I released a deep breath as I took one last look in the mirror. I supposed it was time for me to face Derek. I was curious to see how he looked as Elvis. After all, Derek was a handsome man. That hadn’t escaped me.
I pushed on the door and stepped out into the gas station. Derek was standing with his back to me. Just then he turned around. For some reason my first reaction was laughter.
“Thanks for the compliment,” he said.
I tried to stop my laughing. “No, it’s not that. It’s just that… you actually make a really good Elvis. With the dark wig you kind of look like him.”
Derek attempted to curl up the side of his lip. Of course that set off my laughter again.
He eyed me up and down. “Of course I knew you’d made a good Marilyn.”
I started across the gas station store. Derek followed me. People were watching us, but I had to ignore the stares.
“We could take our act on the road,” Derek said as he got into the car.
“We don’t have an act,” I said as I buckled my seatbelt.
On the ride back to the competition Derek entertained me by singing Elvis songs. We finally pulled up to the building and parked.
“I think we should stick to
the private investigating,” I said as I got out of the car.
“Well, keep it in mind,” Derek said with a wink.
I should call his bluff and act like I really wanted to do it.
We’d barely made it into the building when a man grabbed us. “The competition will be starting soon.” He ushered us into the room filled with the other lookalikes.
“I do not want to compete,” I whispered.
Derek winked. “You’re right. It wouldn’t be fair for the other Elvises.”
I rolled my eyes. “Be serious.”
The man shoved the paper numbers at us. “Put these on and get backstage.”
I attempted to protest, but he turned on his heel and walked away.
“We have to find a way to get out of this,” I said as we walked into the back room.
“I’ll think of something,” Derek said.
The other competitors stared when we entered.
“Don’t engage with anyone. We have to get over to Steve and Tabitha,” I said.
Derek motioned with a tilt of his head. “There’s an exit door. I bet it leads to that hallway. We can sneak out and into the other room.”
“What if it doesn’t go into the hallway?” I asked.
“Then we’ll find another way to get into the other room.” Derek grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the exit.
It was just in time too because I heard someone call my name. When I glanced back, I saw another woman I’d worked with in the past. I didn’t need her to share embarrassing stories with Derek.
Luckily, Derek was right. We were back in the hallway. Now we had to get back to the room. A few people walked by, but they didn’t seem to notice that we were acting a bit panicked. Most everyone was in the rooms for the competitions, leaving the hallway almost empty.
“I hope that all of this was worth it. I mean, we could have just waited for Steve and Tabitha to come back out and talked with them then,” I said.
“True, but they won’t be honest with us. Now we can listen in to their conversation. We’ll see how they act around each other.”
I shrugged. “If you say so.”
Derek and I eased into the room. No one looked at us at first. Then the guy who had stopped us earlier spotted us. Now we were in trouble. We moved further into the room, but that didn’t stop the guy.
He came over to us. “How’s it going? You guys want to stay for the competition?”
Wow, he didn’t recognize us.
“We have to get back over,” Derek said. “We just thought we’d stop in for a quick look.”
“No, problem. Have fun.” He waved at someone and then walked away.
“We’re really convincing,” Derek said.
“That’s one word for it,” I said.
“There’s the door for backstage. Let’s look for them.”
I followed Derek over to the door. As soon as we stepped in, I realized this looked just like the other competition. We’d barely stepped into the room when I spotted Tabitha and Steve at the back of the room.
“There they are,” I said.
“Where?” Derek asked.
I grabbed his hand and led him across the room. I knew that we stood out in this crowd. We neared Steve and Tabitha and that was when I saw them kissing. Not just a friendly peck on the cheek either. Was this the secret? They were in a relationship? Did Morgan know her boyfriend was seeing Tabitha? Had they done something to Morgan? What did Amber have to do with all this?
I poked Derek.
“What did I do?” he asked with a frown.
I gestured. “I think we just figured out the status of their relationship.”
Derek finally spotted the couple embracing in a kiss. “They do seem friendly.”
I chuckled. “A little more than friendly.”
Just then Steve looked in our direction. He must have felt us staring. He frowned and my heart sped up. Did he recognize us? The longer he stared the more convinced I became that he did. Had our disguises not worked? His eyes narrowed and his frown deepened. He made a move toward us.
“Time to go,” Derek said, grabbing my hand.
We rushed through the people standing around and burst out into the hallway.
“I bet we can run faster than him,” Derek said.
“I certainly hope so or we’re in big trouble.”
A group of Elvis lookalikes slowed us down, but we managed to navigate around them. When I glanced back, Steve and Tabitha burst out the door.
“Here they come,” I said.
Derek and I ran faster. Finally, we reached the parking lot and jumped in the car. We pulled away from the building, but when I looked back Steve and Tabitha were watching us. I was ready to get out of this place and the wig.
“Do you think he recognized us?” I asked as we raced down the road.
“There’s no way he did with this stuff on.”
I looked out the window. “I hope you’re right.” I’d seen Steve staring at me. I’d seen the look of recognition on his face. I was worried that it would eventually hit him that we were the ones watching them backstage. Plus, Tabitha would probably tell him we’d been at the last competition too.
Chapter 20
Tonight was the weekly coven meeting. Derek had wanted to go over the case, but I’d made up an excuse about why I couldn’t meet up with him. We all took turns with the meetings. This time the coven get-together was being held at Melanie Mills’ place. All the coven members lived in the retirement village. I wasn’t sure if they’d been coven members first or if my Aunt Barb had gotten them to join after she moved to town. She had been secretive about this stuff. Either way, the women were entertaining. The next youngest member after me was Melanie—she was seventy-two.
Melanie lived a couple streets over. Since most of the houses all looked alike, I usually pulled into the wrong driveway. Her place was beige stucco with a terracotta roof. I counted down to the fourth house so this time I wouldn’t miss it. Cars filled the driveway, so I parked along the street in front of the house.
I’d offered to drive Agatha over, but she’d insisted that she could drive herself. All the coven members insisted on driving. Probably just so they could prove that they still were capable. I would have walked over, but I’d had an errand to run beforehand. I was happy to see Agatha’s Buick safely parked in the driveway. After locking my car, I weaved around the ones in the driveway and made it to the front door.
With my finger almost ready to push the doorbell, the door opened.
“Cece, I’m glad you’re finally here. Please come in.” Melanie pulled on my arm and yanked me through the door.
The women sat in the tiny living room. Three of them on the small baby-blue sofa and the others on the matching chairs next to it. It looked as if I was late again. They all had gray hair styled in a helmet shape. For some reason they all thought during the coven meetings black was the required color of clothing.
I tossed my hand up. “Sorry I’m late. I ran into traffic.”
Actually, I’d stopped at In-N-Out Burger, but there had been traffic after that. Melanie only served vegetables and dip at her meetings. Unfortunately, after the day I’d had, rabbit food wouldn’t stop the rumbling in my stomach.
Sue, Ellen, Anna, and Agatha were perched on the sofa, waiting to start.
“Did I miss anything?” I asked as I sat down in the chair across from the sofa.
“No, dear. We were just chatting while waiting for you,” Sue said.
Melanie stood at the entrance to the room and read the minutes from the last meeting. While she talked I tried to keep my mind off the events that had taken place recently. I hoped that I hadn’t been followed here. I didn’t want to put the rest of the coven members in jeopardy if someone crazy had decided to come after me.
“Cece?” Agatha waved her hand in my direction.
I snapped out of my daydream and had no idea what she’d just said. Now I had to act as if I’d been paying attention.
&nb
sp; “Are you still on board to host next week’s meeting?” she repeated.
Thank goodness she’d clued me in. “Yes, of course.”
A vision of Derek showing up when we were in the middle of casting a spell ran through my mind. It was as if he sensed when I didn’t want him to know something and that was exactly when he came around.
“Great, so that just about does it for all the issues,” Agatha said.
Melanie cleared her throat. “There was one other thing we wanted to ask about.”
Everyone stared at me.
I quirked an eyebrow. “Let me guess, this has something to do with me?”
“It’s about your spells,” Melanie said. “We just don’t want you to miss out on casting a spell you need…”
I held up my hand to stop her words. “Because you think my spells are unorthodox?”
Melanie looked down at her shoes. “We were just concerned for you.”
I pushed to my feet. “No reason to be concerned.”
“Where are you going?” Agatha asked.
I paused with my hand on the knob. I had forgotten that we still had to do the spell. My exit would have been spectacular if I could have left on that note.
I marched back into the room. “Sorry, I forgot.”
The women gathered in a circle and we held hands. This was one spell that they wouldn’t let me make up my own. The spell was a bond for us. I might not agree with everything the women did, but we were coven sisters now. The spell also offered us protection for the week ahead.
I started or the door when Agatha stopped me again. “Cece, aren’t you forgetting something?”
My mind really wasn’t on the meeting tonight. I’d forgotten a lot of stuff. It was our tradition that we had dessert to celebrate a successful meeting. However, Melanie always had something healthy, so it wasn’t exactly a treat.
Melanie motioned toward the dining room table. “I thought I’d surprise you all tonight. I have cookies.”
My eyes lit up. Maybe she’d proven me wrong.