by Marja McGraw
“I’m afraid not. I was busily trying not to fall off my shoes. It’s a wonderful costume, Felicity, but I won’t be obliged to wear it in the future. Am I correct in that assumption?” Stanley had reverted to his more formal speech patterns.
Felicity nodded but didn’t reply. She was too busy studying Chris.
“Chris? Where were you during the fire?” I was beginning to see how well the killer had planned things.
“I’d started to leave and was halfway down the street when I heard people yelling. That’s when I turned around and saw the flames, and you and your partner putting the fire out. I figured that was my chance to crash the party. No one would notice me during all the excitement.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, right. Like no one is going to notice Humphrey Bogart attending the party. I mean, Pete is dressed like him, but you actually look like his twin brother.” I couldn’t seem to wipe the grin off my face. It was fascinating to watch someone who looked so much like one of my favorite actors. I actually wished he’d start mimicking Bogey again.
“I’d planned on staying in the background. I only wanted to watch everyone.”
“Okay, let’s go with that.” Pete sat straighter in his chair. “You were in the john when Mavis screamed. Did you see anyone before you went in there? Did you hear anything?”
Good questions. It seemed that Chris might have been the only one anywhere near the scene when the murder occurred.
“I only walked into the can a few seconds before that woman screamed, so no, I didn’t see or hear anything.”
“How do we know you didn’t kill Purity Patton?” Stanley asked.
“Because I didn’t know her. I didn’t have a motive for killing her. And – ”
“Why should we believe you?” Stanley asked, placing a proprietary hand on Felicity’s shoulder. “How do we know you hadn’t actually made the woman’s acquaintance?”
“Remember the guy who kept taking photos? When I walked in the back door, he was in the kitchen. He snapped a picture and almost blinded me. We talked for a minute. I’m sure he’d remember me, and he’d know when I entered the house. In fact, he’s the one who directed me to the can. And the woman who was dressed like a witch screamed shortly after that.”
“How do you know what she was dressed like?” I’d never seen Stanley like this. He didn’t like Chris, and he was pushing him.
“Because I ran into the room with you guys. I saw the witch standing over the body.”
“Oh. That’s right.” Stanley sounded like his balloon had burst.
Pete rubbed his nose. “At least I can vouch for when you were in the bathroom.”
Chris reached across Pete and took hold of my hand. “Ms. Webster, Sandi, I really would like to work with you on this one. Is there anything I can do to – ”
Pete leaned forward, effectively breaking Chris’s hold on my hand. Was he jealous, too?
“We’re not on a case,” Pete said. “Can’t you understand that? The police will take care of the investigation. They don’t need us.”
“But I do.” Felicity stood and pushed her chair back. “I’d like to hire Webster Investigations to solve this murder. There’s more to my involvement than meets the eye, and it won’t take the police long to figure that out.”
Chapter Ten
“Felicity? What are you talking about?” Stanley was as surprised as the rest of us.
She sighed, and somehow it sounded so much more feminine than when I sigh. “Purity and I go way back. Purity Patton isn’t, wasn’t, her real name. When I knew her she went by the name Samantha Flock, and I’m not even sure that was her real name.
“She started out in the modeling business before moving on to acting. She not only changed her name, but she also changed her age when she made the career move. And trust me, she’s older than she looks. A little nip here, a little tuck there – well, you know how it goes. She was at least ten years older than Joshua, maybe more, but even he didn’t know that.”
“And you used to work with her?” I asked.
“No, we each had our specialties. I mostly model my hands and face, as you know. She modeled clothing for department store ads. She didn’t have the grace for live modeling. Besides, with her personality, no one wanted to work with her.
“And that’s where I come in. I’d taken a job modeling jewelry for a large department store. Samantha, I mean Purity, was there, too. She’d decided that she could model jewelry and wanted my job as well as her fashion jobs. Mr. Higgins, from the department store, told her she should stick with clothing and be happy with it. He told her she didn’t have the grace, there’s that word again, to model jewelry. He told her she had ugly hands and she looked old. She didn’t like that, to put it mildly, and blamed me. She told Mr. Higgins off and he fired her.
“That little snot – not to speak ill of the dead, but she was a snot – started rumors about me. She decided the whole thing was my fault. It wasn’t. We ended up having an argument on the set about two weeks later, and she slapped me. Not being one to accept a slap, I slapped her back. We came close to a knockdown fight. There were plenty of witnesses. I said some pretty unpleasant things to Purity. Of course, she said things to me, too. Anyway, we’ve been on bad terms ever since.”
I absorbed what she said before speaking. “That doesn’t sound like enough to make you a suspect in her murder.”
“There’s more. I ran into her at a restaurant a couple of days ago. She’d been drinking and told me she knew I wanted Joshua to come to the party without her because I wanted him for myself.” Felicity chuckled. “As if. Anyway, she told me she was coming to the party whether I wanted her there or not. I told her if she showed up I’d make sure she never attended another party in this town, and I told her to drop dead.”
“That’s still no big deal,” Pete said.
“Well, you wouldn’t think so, but in this town a simple comment like that can be misconstrued and turned around until I become a suspect. There were plenty of witnesses to our argument, and believe me, I’m toning down what was said. I’d had enough of Purity and I was, well, pretty nasty to her.”
“Our little Felicity?” Dolly asked. “Not you.”
“Don’t be sarcastic, Dolly. You know I can take care of myself.”
“I know, dear. I’m trying to lighten the mood.”
Felicity patted Dolly’s back. “I guess I’m a little testy right now, between everything that’s happened and the fact that I’m so tired. I have a feeling my words to Purity are going to come back to haunt me.”
I sighed and glanced at my watch. “Why don’t we all get some sleep and tomorrow, or I guess that’s later today, we can look at this with a fresh eye.”
“Am I invited back?” Chris asked.
“Believe it or not, yes. I want you where I can keep an eye on you.” I wanted him around because his antics were confusing the issue.
“Thanks, Angel. I won’t disappoint you.” His Bogey persona was back. It wasn’t quite so cute at four-thirty in the morning.
Turning to Dolly, Chris said, “Come on, Cupcake. I’ll walk you home.”
Dolly jumped out of her chair, eager to walk with the Bogey Man. She took his arm and giggled.
“And we’ll walk you out to your car,” Pete said, taking him by his other arm. “Come on, Stanley.”
Pete stopped to plant a kiss on my lips, making sure that Chris saw the intimacy.
I showed Felicity to the guestroom and she was hanging up blouses when I left her. I was ready to snuggle under my own blankets. Being so wound up, I didn’t think I’d sleep well, but the next thing I knew I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. Reaching for it, I glanced at the bedside clock. It was ten-thirty and the sun was shining through my window. The storm had passed.
“Hello?” I sounded moody and groggy, and cleared my throat.
“Sandi? Is that you? It’s your mother.”
Talk about a rude awakening. The phone ringing and hearing my mother
’s voice was more than I could handle at that moment.
“Hi, Mom. Sorry, but I just woke up.”
“You don’t usually sleep this late. What’s up?”
My mother, little angel that she is, loves my line of work. She can’t wait to hear the details of the juicier cases. But along with her enthusiasm, she worries that one of these days it’ll be my body turning up in a dark alley somewhere. Since she lives in Arizona, I don’t always tell her what’s going on, but her timing is impeccable.
I cleared my throat again. “I went to Felicity’s Halloween party last night and it ran pretty late.”
“How late?”
“Late enough.”
My mother was quiet for a moment. “There’s something in your tone of voice – ”
“Yes, Mother, there was another murder. I was there. I’m always there. I can’t seem to do anything without someone being bumped off.”
“And is anyone following you?”
Seems that I’ve developed a reputation. “As a matter of fact, Humphrey Bogart has been chasing me around town.”
“Sandra, there’s no need to get snippy with me. Now who was murdered?”
My mother, Livvie Brewster, always calls me by my given name when I irk her. She didn’t believe that Humphrey Bogart was following me. I chuckled. Why would she? He’d been dead and gone for years.
“And what’s so funny, young lady?”
“Uh, there really is a Bogey look-alike following me. I wasn’t being sarcastic.”
“Oh. Well. One thing at a time. Who was murdered?”
“That would be Purity Patton. You know, the actress who used to be a model.”
Mother sucked air. “No! Really? And you were there? I can hardly believe it.”
“Well, it’s true.”
“What happened?”
“All I can tell you is that she was stabbed, and there was a whole houseful of suspects. Including Joshua King.”
“I thought they were an item. Did they have an argument?”
“They’ve split up, Mother. And yes, they had an argument. As a matter of fact, Purity slugged Joshua and knocked him down. It was an ugly scene. However, as it turns out, there are a lot of people who don’t like Purity. And most of them were at the party. That’s about all I can tell you right now.”
“And what about this Bogey person you mentioned? What’s that all about?”
I didn’t want to go into great detail with my mother, but I gave her the basics, ending with, “…and he honestly looks exactly like Humphrey Bogart. Can you believe it? He thinks he can learn from me.”
“Oh, I can believe it,” my mother said. “You’ve had a few high profile cases that made the papers. So what are you going to do about him? You can’t have this man following you all the time.”
“Well, I’m going to let him work with me, but not on the murder. I’ll let him have a taste of detective work and send him on his way.”
“I have an idea.”
Oh, great. My mother had an idea. Mother is very, very menopausal. I can always tell when she’s forgotten to take her hormone pills because she’s like a crazy woman on those days. She’d obviously remembered her pills this morning. Of course, if I called it to her attention, either way she’d be insulted. I tried to remind myself that someday it could be me. However, after she shared her idea with me, I knew she was on the right track.
“Mother, sometimes you surprise me. I’ll try it.”
“I love you, Sandi. Better go though. I hear Frank rooting around in the kitchen, probably looking for lunch.”
“I love you, too, Mom. I’ll let you know how it goes. And tell Frank I said hi.”
We hung up and I dragged myself out of bed, heading for the bathroom. A long, hot shower might wake me up. I could hear light snoring coming from Felicity’s room. She was still sound asleep.
After showering and applying a little make-up to cover the dark spots under my tired eyes, I made my way downstairs and started a pot of coffee brewing. I let Bubba out the back door to take care of his doggy business.
“Good morning.”
I turned to find Felicity standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” I said apologetically.
“No, it was all that sunshine. I should have pulled the shades down last night.”
“Well, when you’re ready I’ll fix some breakfast. And the coffee will be done in a minute.”
“I’m going to take a quick shower. No breakfast though. I’ve put on a couple of pounds lately and I need to cut back.”
I examined her, wondering where those pounds were. She didn’t look any different to me, and she was so small that you’d think it would show.
Bubba scratched at the back door, reminding me that he needed to eat, too. After letting him in, I picked up his bowl and started preparing his doggy meal. He nudged the back of my knees, his way of asking me to hurry.
Felicity disappeared for a while and returned looking more alert and sharper than I was feeling.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, glancing in my bowl to see what I was eating, which happened to be cereal. “So what’s on the agenda for today?” she asked.
“The first thing I’m going to do is formulate a plan on how to deal with Chris. My mother called and came up with a good idea.”
“Your mother? I can’t wait to meet her after all the stories I’ve heard. So what did she have to say?”
I grinned an evil smile, narrowing my eyes and letting my teeth show. “I’m going to let Chris handle some of my cases with me.”
“Oh, Sandi. What are you going to do to him?”
“Just wait and see.”
“You’re not going to let him work on Purity’s murder, are you?”
“Absolutely not. I’m not going to let him get his hooks into that case.”
“Famous last words.” Felicity made a clicking noise out of the side of her mouth.
Chapter Eleven
Not surprisingly, Chris showed up within half an hour. After I opened the door he followed me into the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe in his best Bogey pose.
“Hey, toots! Let’s get to work. We’ve got thugs to catch and bad guys to put in the slammer.”
I poured him a cup of coffee and indicated the chair I wanted him to sit on. He sauntered over to the table and sat down.
“I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m not a cop. Most of my work is humdrum, and – ”
“Oh, come on. I’ve read about you in the newspaper. You manage to involve yourself in some interesting cases.” He took a sip of the hot coffee and leaned back in the chair.
“Those are the exceptions,” I said. This poor guy was in for a boring, tedious day with a few lessons included. And I didn’t think he was going to like it.
“Besides, aren’t we going to start the murder investigation?”
“Not likely.” I glanced at Felicity who had an I told you so look on her face. I gave her the old evil eye. She turned from me to study Chris.
“Well, I know the doll here,” he indicated Felicity, “said she wants to hire you. You are taking the case, right?”
“Maybe. But that’s one you won’t be involved in.”
“Oh.”
“You and I are going to work on one of my insurance cases this morning. A surveillance.”
“That’s aces with me. We’re going to shadow somebody.”
“No. We’re simply going to eyeball someone.” I shook my head. Had I actually said eyeball someone?
“Still, a stakeout works for me.”
I’d made his day, or at least that’s what he thought.
“You two go ahead and get out of here and I’ll clean up the kitchen.” Felicity was already clearing the table.
I turned to the Bogey Man. “First of all, Chris, lose the hat and trench coat. They make you conspicuous. We don’t want to call attention to ourselves.”
He didn’t appe
ar happy, but he took off the hat and coat and set them on a kitchen chair. Underneath his trench coat he wore an old-fashioned looking double-breasted brown suit with a white handkerchief tucked in the breast pocket.
I sighed. “And take off the suit jacket and tie. Loosen up a little. Fit in. Next time we get together, wear jeans and a casual shirt.”
He pulled a pencil and small notebook out of his pants pocket and began writing notes to himself.
Felicity watched him, smiling to herself. “He’s just so cute.”
He glanced up, not pleased with her comment. “I’m not cute, I’m a goon, a hard case. A hood. Got that, sugar?”
“Oh, I get it.” She continued to smile at him.
I sighed – again. “Let’s get moving.”
“Don’t worry about Bubba,” Felicity said. “I’ll make sure he has plenty of water, and if I go anywhere I’ll put him outside and close the gate to the backyard.”
Chris followed me out of the house, and we climbed into my older blue Ford Crown Victoria. He wanted to know why I drove such a plain car. I explained that it fit in with its surroundings. I didn’t want to call attention to myself.
“Remember this, Chris. You don’t want to stick out. You want to be as generic as possible. If you’re watching someone you don’t want him, or her, to realize you even exist. You want to blend in with the scenery. Understand?”
“I guess, but… Wait half a shake. I’ll be right back.”
He jumped out of the car and ran back into the house, returning with his coat and hat, and gently set them on the back seat.
I sighed and hoped there was a healthy side to sighing. Maybe it aerated the lungs. One could always hope.
“Okay, here’s how it goes. I have to keep an eye on a guy who says he was injured in an auto accident.”
“So what does that involve?” Chris asked.
“Exactly what I said. We’re going to park near his house and watch him. See if he does anything that someone with his alleged injuries shouldn’t be doing. And take pictures.”