Life is Better Brunette

by Diane Bator

  He nodded. "Just make sure to let me know if you have any problems with that tat or with any of the other shopkeepers. You can let the cops know I plan to cooperate fully. If you ever decide you want another tattoo, I'm really good at butterflies. The ones I create look almost real."

  "I'll have to think about that." She left the tattoo parlor and strolled past the Healing Spirit Gift Shop. Inside, Aislin wandered around dusting the shelves and merchandise. She seemed to be alone.

  Gilda glanced across the street at the smoke shop, then changed her mind and popped into Kane's store. She wanted to ask how Aislin knew about Miss Claudia, especially since she was new in town. Maybe she'd seen someone else in the fabric shop on her way to the Phoenix school. Maybe she'd even been in the fabric shop during the murder.

  Aislin glanced up when Gilda opened the door. "Gilda. What a nice surprise. Kane just left, and I'm already so bored."

  "I thought you were a psychic." Gilda shut the door behind her. "Doesn't that mean you already knew I was coming?"

  Aislin smiled. "I did, actually, but mostly because I saw you wandering around outside. I'll bet you've never set foot into that tattoo place before today, have you?"

  She didn't bother to answer. "I wanted to know how you knew about Miss Claudia's death before anyone else did. You seemed so sure she was dead when you came to watch class."

  "Did I?" Aislin's eyes widened. "Honestly, I don't remember saying anything about her. I don't even think I know any Miss Claudia, do I?"

  Gilda frowned. "When you gave Marion back the keys she'd dropped, you said Miss Claudia might not be very talkative later that afternoon because she might be dead by then."

  "I said that? Oh wow. No wonder you hate me." She leaned against the front counter and hesitated. "So do you think I killed her on my way to the Phoenix earlier?"

  Aislin stood smaller than Gilda and didn't appear to work out much. There was no way she could have crammed Miss Claudia into the closet any more than Gilda could have.

  Gilda joined Aislin in leaning on the front counter and sighed. "Actually, I thought you might have seen something in the fabric store window on your way to watch class. Sometimes people see things with no real idea of what they've seen or whether what they saw meant anything at the time."

  "No, that's impossible." She averted her gaze in thought. "I changed clothes, grabbed my purse, locked up, and headed to the Phoenix. But I wasn't here at the store, I was at my apartment a few blocks away. There was absolutely no chance I could have seen anything going on at the fabric store from there."

  "Fair enough." Gilda's phone vibrated in her purse. "I guess I'd better go. The store looks great, by the way. Did you rearrange a few things?"

  Aislin beamed. "Yeah, do you like it? I just moved things so they'd be easier to find. I don't know who set up this place, but items people normally buy most weren't conveniently placed." She paused. "Kane said he likes it."

  "Yeah, I'm sure he does." Gilda checked her phone.

  Mick's text read I'm at the doctor today. I'll touch base later. Everything okay?

  She glanced at Aislin as she walked away. "Thanks for the tour. I have to run."

  Aislin huffed. "I really am psychic, you know."

  "Excuse me?" Gilda stopped near the door and turned back to stare.

  Aislin bit her lower lip and shuffled her feet. "I know some people think I'm just some freak show, that I read palms and tell people what they want to hear. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes…" She folded her arms across her stomach. "Sometimes I see things that I don't want to see, and I know things I don't want to know."

  Texting Mick could wait. "What do you know about me?"

  She blew out a breath. "I know you're worried people will think you or Kane killed Miss Claudia, which is why you're trying to find her killer. I also know you're going to learn things you can't unlearn. Things I see, but I don't understand."

  Gilda walked back toward Aislin. "Things like what?"

  "It's just images really. A truck. A fire. A man who is not a man." The more she spoke, the more agitated Aislin seemed to become, until her hands began to shake. "I need to get some water and sit down. Every time these images come, I can't breathe. It's like I'm suffocating, and I don't understand."

  "You sit." Gilda took her arm and led her to the stool behind the counter. "I'll get you some water."

  "There's a case of water bottles just behind the curtain. Kane picked them up this morning," she said. "I've never had things like this happen before. Usually, I know what I'm seeing and why. This is so weird."

  Gilda pushed aside the purple curtain and pulled two green bottles out of the plastic package with shaking hands. She needed to calm them both down. "Is Kane still planning to redecorate the store, or has he gotten used to the purple?"

  "What?" Aislin glanced up, startled, then smiled. "Oh. I think he's still trying to decide what to do with everything. He keeps waffling between keeping this place the way it is and turning it into a martial arts store."

  "Sounds like Kane." She nodded as her phone chimed again. This time, she ignored it. "I'd better go. My boyfriend wants to chat. Besides, I still have some work to finish before he gets back."

  "It's okay." Aislin set her cell phone on the counter and opened her water bottle. She seemed much paler than before. "I'm only here until five, and then I'm going home. I need to figure out what all these strange things mean. In the meantime, I need to memorize Kane's price list."

  Gilda hesitated. "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah." She flashed a brief smile then frowned. "Just agitated."

  "Let me know when you figure out more."

  "I could do that." Aislin sipped her water.

  Gilda gazed at the phone on the counter, wondering who Aislin had texted when she'd left the room briefly. "Let me know if you have any more of these images. I'm sure it probably drives you crazy just to keep them all locked in your head."

  Aislin flinched. "How would you know that?"

  "Wild guess." The same thing happened to her when she dove into solving crimes. "It's not good to keep things bottled up inside. They'll drive you crazy."

  "Thanks." Aislin released a slow breath. "It's hard being here alone all day with no one to talk to. I appreciate that you stopped by."

  Gilda smiled, the guilt that she'd come in with an ulterior motive gnawing at her belly. "Anytime. Here, let me give you my cell number. Just in case you need someone to talk to."

  Once they'd exchanged numbers, Gilda left the gift shop and stood outside in the sunshine. A bit rattled by the whole notion of Aislin's images, she headed to the martial arts school in hopes of finding a distraction.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Marion didn't show up for any of their regular classes that day. By seven that evening, Gilda was starting to worry. She sent Marion a few texts and tried to call her twice. No answer. That wasn't like Marion at all. The sight of Miss Claudia's body must have really rattled her too.

  "Hey, Gilda." Kane stood across the counter.

  Gilda jumped and gasped.

  "Whoa." He took a step back. "Are you okay, love?"

  She nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. I was a bit distracted."

  Kane came around the desk and sat beside her, taking her hand in his. "Yeah, I heard about Miss Claudia. Are you sure you're okay? You could go home early, you know. Razi and I have things under control here."

  After a busy evening of tying belts for small children, taking membership payments, and seeing visions of Miss Claudia's body every time she closed her eyes, Gilda was reluctant to head home, especially alone.

  "That's fine." She pulled her hand away from him and took a sip from the bottle of water on her desk. "Hey, when did we get green bottles?"

  He shrugged. "Dunno. They were in the back room the other day."

  Gilda frowned. "Does Mick know you took a case to your store?"

  Kane raised his eyebrows. "How did you know that? Never mind. You're Sherlock Wright, receptionist detective."


  "Ha-ha. I only know because I stopped by to see Aislin earlier." She didn't bother to mention Aislin's panic attack.

  "Ah." He placed a hand on her thigh. "I suppose I should get into class. Do yourself a favor and go home. You look like you could use some rest."

  Gilda nodded. "Yeah. I guess. I'll tidy up my desk before I go."

  As Kane stood, he leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Call me if you need anything, love. And I do mean anything."

  Her hands shook as she shuffled papers, trying to put them in some semblance of order. Finally, she just shoved them all into a file folder for tomorrow and grabbed her purse. She gave Kane and Razi a quick wave and walked out before they could ask any questions.

  She was about to walk across the street away from the karate school when her phone chimed. Two texts in a row from Fabio, who wanted to meet with her at the police station the next morning. She supposed he wanted to discuss more about Miss Claudia and the fabric shop.

  Gilda swallowed hard. She'd never actually been summoned to the police station, not officially anyway. Just driven there in the back of a squad car. She was a bit rattled by the whole notion of Aislin's images and more so of being interrogated by Fabio and Thayer yet again.

  Happy Harvey's Hangover Hut was on her way home. A glorified, tiki-decorated liquor and convenience store, Happy’s wasn’t the place to go if you had a hangover, more like if you were in desperate search of one.

  Behind the front counter, Happy (no one had ever called him Harvey) sat counting a handful of coins. A seventy-year-old man who became disillusioned with retirement, he’d been friends with Gilda's parents for forever and was still one of her good friends. Still, she hesitated before she opened the front door.

  "Gilda!" Happy was off his stool and around the counter before she could even set foot inside the store. For a large man, he moved faster than she did and caught her up in a bone-crushing hug. "Olá! Como vai?"

  "I'm good. I'm good." She sucked in a shallow breath. "How are you?"

  "Sou perfeito. I'm fine." He held her at arm's length and studied her. "You look…how you say? Triste." He frowned and pretended to rub tears from his eyes.

  "I am sad." Gilda sighed. The mere word brought tears to her eyes. "Yeah. I take it you heard about Miss Claudia."

  Happy snorted. "O diabo. No loss."

  "Diabo. Is that like devil?" she asked.

  "Yah." He nodded. "That one, she come in and harass me all the time. She does not like what I sell. Tells me she wants better store here."

  Gilda frowned. "I know she had big plans for Armadillo Street, but you've been here forever. She could never close down the Hangover Hut. There'd be a rebellion."

  "Armadillo Street?" Happy narrowed his eyes then went around the counter. He handed Gilda a sheet of paper—an invitation to the town hall meeting Thursday night which laid out at least a part of Miss Claudia's plan.

  "It seems Miss Claudia wanted to get rid of a lot of local businesses." She leaned against the counter. "According to this, Armadillo Street was just the beginning. It says she also wanted to clean up Main Street and make it more of a tourist town."

  Happy shook his head. "I asked Gary if she could really do that. He says she can try, but no one will like changes. People will get angry."

  A local bookie, Gary del Garda, had been her fairy godfather, so to speak, for the past few months. His ties to her family ran deep. Her father had arrested him years earlier before he was shot and killed by one of Gary's cohorts. "I think someone already did." Gilda debated taking the flyer, then returned it to Happy. "You need to give this to Fabio. I don't know if it's the motive for her murder, but it can't hurt to help him gather evidence. Maybe that'll get him off my back for a while."

  He patted her arm. "I hear you find another body. You're not a very lucky girl. Come work for me, and get away from those lunáticos."

  Gilda smiled. "Mick and the guys aren't lunatics. They're good guys."

  "Who hang out with bad guys," Happy pointed out. "You're a good girl. You need to be treated better."

  "They treat me well enough. I just have a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Gilda said as the door opened.

  Marion stopped in the doorway and scowled. "I need a bottle of wine."

  "Are you okay?" Gilda rushed toward her and caught her in a hug. "I've been trying to get ahold of you all day."

  "Yeah." Her chin quivered. "Fabio sent me to a shrink this morning. He said I didn't look like I was coping very well. I spent two hours telling some short, bald guy my life story, and do you know what he told me?"

  "What he tell you?" Happy looked every bit like a concerned father.

  Marion's nostrils flared. "He told me I needed to come back next week and we could talk about my anger issues. I don't have any stupid anger issues. If I'm mad, I let people know it."

  Gilda smiled. "Yes, you do."

  "Then that little tree-hugger asked me point blank if I killed Miss Claudia."

  Happy's eyebrows rose. "What you do?"

  "I punched him." Marion folded her arms across her chest. "Then I ran out to the beach and Fabio found me floating on my back in the lake."

  Gilda closed her eyes. "Why didn't you call me?"

  "My phone drowned." Marion winced. "Then Fabio had an officer escort me home and told me to stay there for the rest of the day. He also strongly suggested I stay away from you for a while until things calm down."

  "Away from Gilda?" Happy huffed. "I talk to him. I straighten him out."

  Gilda grabbed each of them by the arm. "No one is going to straighten out anyone. Both of you need to cool off before Fabio locks you both up."

  Happy nodded. "This does not make me…feliz."

  Gilda tilted her head and stared. "Happy?"

  "Sim. Yes. Happy." He patted Marion's shoulder then gave Gilda a hug. "Take Marion home. You both stay away from polícia and karate people. Get sleep. I give you wine."

  Marion grimaced. "That's what I came for."

  He carefully tucked two bottles of wine into paper bags and handed them each one. "One glass, then go sleep. Tomorrow, we talk."

  "Tomorrow, I'll be hung over and have to sit down with the shrink again." Marion handed Happy a ten-dollar bill. "Thanks anyway."

  Gilda paid for her bottle as well and followed Marion to the door. "Do you want to come over for a while? We could order pizza or something."

  Marion shook her head. "No offence. I just need to be alone for a while. I don't know how you deal with the sight of a dead body, but that's not an experience I'd like to repeat."

  "Me neither."

  Once at home, Gilda locked all the doors and windows, drank two glasses of wine, then microwaved dinner. She only managed to eat half before she fell into bed without responding to the six texts Mick sent or the four new ones from Thayer. All she wanted was to wake Thursday morning refreshed and to find out Tuesday had all been a bad dream.

  Instead, she had nightmares about the walls of Kane's gift shop closing in on her during another odd conversation with Aislin. Those so-called images that had obviously disturbed Aislin came back to haunt Gilda in her dreams. A truck. A fire. A man who is not a man. Aislin's words were intriguing, but there was no way they had anything to do with Miss Claudia.

  Or did they?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Gilda rolled out of bed Thursday morning even more tired than when she'd gone to sleep. She shook off the nagging ache in the back of her head and checked her text messages. The good news was Fabio had already asked to delay their meeting until ten. That gave her time to take a run, shower, and grab coffee and breakfast.

  She had enough time to strip off her pajamas and pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank top before her phone rang.

  "Gilda, I haven't slept all night," Marion moaned. "I drank the whole bottle of wine. I even drank a gallon of milk and ate a bag of cookies so I could relax. All I kept thinking about was us finding Miss Claudia in that little closet."
/>
  "Yeah." Gilda tugged on fresh underwear and shorts. "I had the same kind of night. I'm going out for a run, and then I have to meet with Fabio again."

  Marion gasped. "What does he want now?"

  Gilda frowned and wiggled into her sports bra. "I'm not sure. He probably wants me to go over my statement one more time now that I got to sleep on it."

  "Or he wants to arrest you."

  Gilda huffed. "I didn't do anything. Since you were with me the whole time, you already know that."

  "But he doesn't."

  "I don't need this today. I'm going for a run. You want to come?" She pulled on her tank top before heading toward the kitchen.

  Marion sighed. "I'd love to, but I think I'm going to try to sleep a little before I have to go to work later. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do about my date with Razi. I never did get purple thread." She hesitated. "Do you think he'll notice if I use blue instead?"

  Probably. The man noticed a lot of things, but there was no way he'd say a word.

  "No," Gilda said. "I think blue thread will be fine. You guys will have fun."

  "When does Mick get back from Detroit again?"

  "Friday." Gilda glanced at the calendar. Two more days. "At least we'll have a lot to talk about."

  "If you talk at all," Marion teased.

  She laughed. "True. Go get some sleep. I'll talk to you later."

  "Yeah, yeah. Hey, I was thinking we should all go for dinner and a movie one night. That might be fun."

  "Yeah, it would be. We can talk about it later." Gilda smiled more out of nerves than humor. "Unless Fabio arrests me this morning."

  She laced up her running shoes and headed out her front door. Several cars sat parked across the street. Two cars held lone occupants. One was Gilda's fairy godfather, Gary del Garda, his head back and mouth open as he slept. While Gary called himself a bookie, Gilda knew his true occupation was a whole lot more illegal and all-encompassing than that.

  Gilda smiled and walked away from the house, not wanting to wake him. She guessed Fabio told him about her finding Miss Claudia's body, and he'd probably sat there all night watching her house to make sure she was safe. Sometimes it was good to have a friend like the local bookie. She never wanted to cross his path in a bad way.