“Derron Mullins,” he said, coming forward to extend his hand. “You must be filling in for Natalie, poor old girl. Tough break, pun intended.”
“Madison Reynolds,” she smiled, returning his firm handshake. Unlike his mother, there was something about the young man she immediately liked.
He eyed the bright pink mug in her hand and pretended a deep scowl. “You’re using my mug,” he informed her with a whine.
Derron took great pleasure in watching the surprise on Madison’s face. With a broad smile, he wagged his blond eyebrows again and answered her un-asked question. “Yep, gayer than a rainbow flag on a windy day.” He dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “But don’t tell the neighbors. I don’t think they know.”
Madison laughed aloud as he prissy-walked his way to the desk. He fell into the chair, crossed his leg at the knee with excess motion, then dangled his foot as he batted his eyes and drawled, “Any questions?”
“Yes. Would you like some coffee in your pretty pink mug?”
“I’ll let it pass this once, dollface, but don’t let it happen again.” He winked as he uncrossed his legs and rolled his chair up to the desk. “Besides, we’re all perfectly capable of getting our own coffee around here, Dragon Lady included. Don’t let my mom bully you.”
Madison made a meek admission. “It’s rather hard not to.”
“The only way she’ll ever respect you is if you stand up to her. Deep down, buried far, far beneath the rough layers, is another rough layer. Twenty layers beneath that, she’s a bit of a softy. But don’t tell her I said so.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Madison said, eyes twinkling.
Derron Mullins voiced the thought running through her own mind. “I think we’re going to get along fine, you and me.”
“I think so, too. So tell me. What am I supposed to do around here? Is that my desk?” She pointed to the one where he sat. If she were guessing, she would say Natalie was the receptionist, while Derron worked one-on-one with his mother.
The telephone rang and Derron held up a ‘hold that thought’ finger in her direction. With a surprisingly professional air, he answered the phone. “Boundaries Surveying. This is Derron. How may I help you today?”
By the time he finished the call, Madison knew she had guessed wrong. Derron Mullins was a knowledgeable and efficient receptionist. Given his mother’s disposition, he was, she decided, the personality behind the business, the PR man. Derron drew the clients in, Darla performed the surveys, and Natalie did something in between. But what?
“Sorry, where were we? Oh, yes, you were hoping you were the receptionist.” The blond man flashed her a sunny smile. “Sorry, sweetie, this job belongs to yours truly. You, my dear, get the pleasure of working directly with Dragon Lady.”
Madison bit her lip, unsure if it was a grimace or a smile she suppressed. “Do you always call your mother that?”
“Only on her good days. Sometimes she can be outright nasty.” Derron’s slim shoulders shivered in mock terror. “Let me show you to your office.”
As luck would have it, Natalie’s office was down the dark hallway, almost to the very end. Even with the lights on—the switch was on the other side of the door, in the front room—the passage was dimly lit and downright spooky. It was an old building with wooden floors that creaked and groaned, and fourteen-foot ceilings that allowed the wind to chase itself through the empty space, whistling and moaning, taunting and teasing as it rattled anything within its reach.
“Sure you don’t want to trade spots?” Madison was only half-teasing as she followed him down the lonely path.
“Sorry, I’m afraid of ghosts. But I hear they’re remotely friendly back here, as long as you play Springsteen.”
“Will Bryan Adams do?”
He shrugged, reaching around the doorway to flip a switch. “Worth a try.” With a flourishing hand, he motioned for Madison to precede him into the small office.
As she squeezed past the desk, she realized why he stayed in the hall; there was only room for one person inside the crammed office. A large table stood in the middle of the room, leaving only enough clearance for the row of custom-made lateral filing cabinets that lined the far wall. The table, she presumed, was to unfurl over-sized plats and renderings. The heavy oak chair shoved beneath it was one of those handy creations that unfolded into a stepladder, presumably to reach the top drawers. Weak light filtered in from horizontal casement windows slung high on the walls. Judging from the chill in the room, cold air seeped in around the windows.
Dual stacks of cardboard boxes climbed high behind the door, threatening to topple over at any moment. Wedged into the front left corner of the room were a green metal desk and a rolling chair.
“This will be your domain while Natalie is out,” Derron explained. “Bathrooms are across the hall.”
“What do I need to do?”
“I’m sure Dragon Lady will be back here soon, breathing fire down your neck. Till then, make yourself comfy, get acquainted with our ghosts, holler if you need me. I’m extension three.” He grinned and ducked out of the doorway, leaving Madison alone in the gloomy office.
She heard the ‘ghosts’ within minutes of his departure. They howled their way through the cracks of the windows and sang a low, sad melody against the dropped tin ceiling of the old building. The lonesome sounds were more irritating than they were intimidating. It did not take Madison long to locate the small stereo system behind Natalie’s desk and to drown the noisy ghosts with her own choice of music.
As predicted, Madison soon heard Darla’s brisk movements in the hall. Polyester swished between her full thighs, loud enough to be heard over the music and the ghosts. Her feet tapped out the sound of impatience as she neared.
“File these,” she said without preamble, holding a stack of folders in one hand. She waved a sheet of paper in the other. “And pull these. I have to be at the funeral home in an hour, so be quick about it.” She dropped the files onto the table and was gone before Madison could untangle her feet from the chair’s rollers quickly enough to stand up.
It took several minutes to understand the filing system. Once the new files were nestled among the others, she began the arduous task of finding the two files Darla requested. She found one, then resorted to calling Derron to locate the other.
“There’s another file room across the hall. You should be able to find it in there.”
If she thought Natalie’s office was cramped and gloomy, it was nothing compared to the file room. It took her almost as long to reach the file cabinets as it did to locate the needed file within them. She waded through more boxes and stacks of old newspapers, skirted around a dusty exercise bike and a broken chair that never quite made it to the dumpster, side-stepped a trash can sitting in the middle of the room to catch a leak when it rained, and cringed when she saw the rat trap, baited and waiting. The quicker she was in and out of the room, the better.
She rushed up to Darla Mullin’s front office and rapped on the closed door, entering after she heard the terse, “Come in.”
“Here are the files you needed. What would you like me to do while you’re gone?”
“Familiarize yourself with our standard forms. Derron will bring you the appropriate paperwork.”
“Anything else?”
“The forms are rather lengthy.”
“Okay. Well, if you think of something I can do, you know where to find me.”
“There is one other thing….”
“Yes?”
Madison was surprised by the look of venom upon Darla’s pinched face. “I’ll not have you spreading vicious rumors about Caress. Her death, I’m sure, was an accident. As far as we know, the other person stumbled and accidentally stabbed her.”
A dozen times? Madison’s mind screamed in protest.
That fact, however, might not be for public consumption. And she was not so heartless as to point out the gory details of the actress’s death.
“I�
�ll not have my dear friend’s name sullied with rumors of elicit affairs and some alleged brawl. She is not here to defend herself.”
Tamping down her anger, reminding herself that Darla Mullins was hurting, Madison managed to keep her voice relatively calm. “First of all, I have not been spreading rumors about your friend, vicious or otherwise. Second of all, there was no ‘alleged’ brawl. I witnessed a fight between Caress and her attacker. I have no idea what instigated it or why they were fighting, but I do know Caress was holding her own, right up until the end.”
Darla’s answer was a disdainful sniff.
“What? You don’t believe me?”
“It was hardly Caress’s style to engage in common fist-fights.”
“I don’t think there was anything ‘common’ about this fight, Mrs. Mullins. It resulted in your friend’s death.”
Fury appeared in Darla’s fleshy cheeks, the dull red color of river bottom dirt. “I don’t need the likes of you reminding me that my friend has died!” she spat.
Madison drew in a sharp breath and quickly counted to five; ten was too long to hold her tongue. “Perhaps this arrangement was a bad idea. I think it would be best if I tore up our agreement and called it a day.”
Darla Mullins was obviously torn. She clearly did not like her temporary employee. For whatever reason, she treated Madison with open antagonism. Yet she noticeably stalled, reluctant to dissolve their contract.
“No,” she finally decided, her voice tart.
“Why on earth not? I can’t see this being a pleasant experience, for either one of us.”
“Since when did work become a pleasant experience? I need someone to fill in for Natalie this week and for myself while I am busy with funeral details. You need a job. This has nothing to do with bonding or nominating the other for ‘Best Boss/Best Worker’ of the month. This is strictly business.” Again, a contemptuous sniff. “I thought you were at least professional enough to distinguish the two.”
Out of sheer stubbornness, Madison raised her chin. “Oh, I am. And as such, I insist you treat me with professional courtesy. We don’t have to like one another, but we do have to treat one another with a certain amount of respect.”
Fire flashed in Darla Mullin’s bugged eyes. Her nostrils flared. After engaging in a heated staring match that neither woman was willing to look away from, the surveyor finally dropped her gaze. “That will be all,” she said in dismissal.
Just as Madison reached the door, Darla issued a final warning. “No playing on the computer. None of that Spacebook foolishness.”
With a demur smile, Madison murmured, “No, of course not.”
Madison stopped by Derron’s desk and found him openly cruising through his own social network account.
“You have some paperwork for me?” she asked, still seething from the ordeal with his mother.
“Not that I am aware of. Have you seen this video of the cat on a skateboard? Hilarious.”
“Your mother wanted me to look over some of the standard forms, whatever those are. She said you had them.”
“She’ll be coming out of the office in about two minutes. I’ll pretend to be looking them up for you.”
Derron busied himself rifling through desk draws, chattering about how to fill out a form in general. He paused long enough to tell his mother goodbye, kept up the banter until she had time to make it down the back hallway and out the door, then slammed the desk drawer shut and sat back with an exaggerated, “Whew! Thought she would never leave!”
“But where are the files?” Madison asked in confusion.
“There’s no hurry. Have a seat and take a load off.” Derron waved a hand casually through the air. “She’ll be gone through lunch. You’ve got plenty of time to study a few forms. Most of it just plugs into a standardized form on the computer anyway. It’s not like it’s rocket science.”
With the raw edge of her anger beginning to fade, Madison felt the first few pangs of guilt eating away at her conscious. She could have been more sympathetic; Darla Mullins had just lost her best friend, after all. She had every right to be cantankerous.
“How is your mother handling Caress’s death? I understand they were best friends.”
“They practically lived in the other one’s pocket. She’s devastated, even if she pretends it’s business as usual.”
“Have they been friends long?”
Derron thought about her question for a moment. “For about four years, I guess. We all moved here about the same time, so they had that in common.”
“At the risk of sounding rude, that appears to be about the only thing they had in common,” Madison ventured to say.
Derron flashed a disarming smile. “I know, right? Caress and I had more in common than she and my mother did. But somehow, they just clicked. Opposites, and all that.” He waved his hands in a fluttering motion. “They were practically inseparable, until it came to shopping. Whenever it was time to head to the mall, Caress would call me before she called my mom. The Dragon Lady has no sense of style, after all.”
“So you knew Caress well, too, I suppose?” It should not have come as a surprise, but somehow it did. Of course he would know his mother’s best friend.
Tears welled in his bright blue eyes. “I still can’t believe she’s gone. She taught me so much about fashion and the ins and outs of dressing for society. She was like a second mother to me, filling in all the gaps my own mother so sadly lacks.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” She purred the appropriate words, even as her mind raced ahead. She knew very little about Claudette ‘Caress’ Ellingsworth, but obviously Derron had known her quite well. The man might be an invaluable source of information.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” he was saying. “Everyone loved Caress. She was an absolute angel. Why would anyone want to k-kill her?” His chin quivered as he stumbled over the word.
“I don’t know. Sometimes these things don’t make sense.”
“I know she doesn’t show it, but my mother is crushed. I heard her crying last night, late into the night.”
“You live with her?” Madison asked in surprise.
He bobbed his head in affirmation. “It’s always been just the two of us.”
“Your father….?”
“Divorced my mother when I was like six. For almost twenty years, it’s just been us. I’ve thought about moving out a time or two, but she always begs me to stay. She’s really rather clingy.”
“Your mother?” Madison failed to control the astonishment in her voice.
“I know she puts on a tough front, but like I said, she’s a softy at heart.”
Madison remained dubious. “I’ll take your word on it.”
“People just don’t understand my mother. Caress had a way of seeing through all the bullshit and understanding there was a real person beneath the bluff. I’m afraid to know what she’ll be like now, without Caress’s steadying hand.”
“I heard rumors that Caress had a boyfriend.”
“She and John-Paul Noble were over years ago, but the tabloids couldn’t let it go. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still great friends, but the romance died long ago.” Derron’s eyes glazed over as he breathed dreamily, “But what a dream-boat. Six feet, one inches of absolute divine manhood. Uhm, uhm, uhm. That. Man. Is. Fine!”
“You’ll get no argument from me.” Madison chuckled, even though she was not accustomed to having such a conversation with a member of the opposite sex. She hesitated before pressing on. “But I heard Caress was seeing someone local. More than one man, in fact.” It wasn’t true, but she needed to know if there was anyone else with a possible grudge against the former actress. If she was going to prove George Gail’s innocence, she needed to find another suspect. “I heard she was a bit of a … flirt.”
“Of course she was. She was a gorgeous woman and was used to all that fame and attention. Flirting just came naturally to her, but it never meant anything.”
“Reall
y? I heard there was a long list of lovers in her past.” Again, a total lie.
Derron darted an involuntary glance toward his mother’s empty office. He knew something, Madison was certain of it.
But he was shaking his head in disagreement. “No, I’m pretty sure you heard wrong.”
“It was probably something she wouldn’t want to talk about,” Madison pushed. “Are you sure she never talked about old boyfriends?”
“Like I said, she and my mother were practically inseparable, and I never heard a word about a boyfriend, past tense or otherwise.”
“Surely she had other men over the years, other than John-Paul.”
Derron lifted a delicate shoulder. “None that I ever heard about.”
“You’re sure?”
Derron pursed his lips, obviously debating on how best to answer. “There weren’t many people in The Sisters that met her… requirements,” he finally said in diplomatic fashion. “Caress wasn’t like most people around here, if you know what I mean.”
Madison thought about the dainty and elegant woman she had followed from the Bumble Bee that day. Her wardrobe, alone, set her apart from most residents of the sister cities; her star status rocketed her light years ahead. There probably were few men, indeed, that measured up to her standards.
So how did Curtis Burton make the cut?
The thought haunted her, even as she droned a noncommittal, “Hmm.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Madison made a point to arrive early the next morning. As instructed the day before, she parked along the side of the building and used the back entrance. The side entrance was every bit as dark and dismal as the hallway; more so, in fact, for the doorway was tucked into a nook that was poorly lit and slightly damp. The air itself was musty and stale.
Madison hurried inside, forgoing the coat rack waiting to take her jacket. She found the light switch on that end of the hall and waited for the dim light to guide her way toward her office. Her footsteps echoed in the quietness of the old building. Even the ghosts were silent this morning.
When the Stars Fall (The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series Book 2) Page 15
