Elaine Viets & Victoria Laurie, Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson - Drop-Dead Blonde (v5.0) (pdf)

by Drop-Dead Blonde (epub)

  Cat laughed politely and waved her hand as if she were shooing a fly. ``Of course not! No, you see, we're actually members of Deirdre Pendleton's fan club, and we're trying to get the monthly newsletter out to our members. We just wanted to do a small blurb about Deirdre's manager . . . you know . . . for the newsletter.''

  Mark blinked furiously a few more times, trying to focus on us. As he looked at me I could tell his memory was working to place my face, so I discreetly moved a little farther out of view to the side of the door. ``Where you from again?'' he asked Cat, scratching his head and sighing with the effort it took to concentrate.

  ``From the Deirdre Pendelton Fan Club, which, as her manager, I'm sure you know all about. We have a lot of members, and the fan base is always growing. So anyway, as I was saying, we'd like to do a story on you, if you could spare us just a few minutes of your time.''

  Suddenly what Cat was saying must have sunk in, be- 304 Victoria Laurie cause Mark seemed to take an interest. ``Newsletter? How many members did you say you had?''

  ``Oh, close to a couple thousand, I think,'' Cat said, pumping her head up and down in an honest Abe, Scouts honor, cross my heart and hope to die'' kinda way.

  ``You going to mention anything about this murder business?''

  ``Of course not,'' Cat said dramatically. ``We know Deir- dre didn't do it, and I'm sure she'll be exonerated before the day is through--''

  ``Good,'' Mark said cutting her off. ``How about men- tioning her retreat to Hawaii?''

  Cat smiled demurely and caught my eye with a hidden wink. Now we had him. ``That's actually our cover story. We're devoting the whole front page to it, in fact. We're hoping that most of our members sign up for it.''

  ``Really?'' Mark asked, a trace of clarity returning to his squinty eyes. ``Well, then, count me in. What did you want to know?''

  Cat smiled broadly, so happy that it had been this easy. ``Well,'' she began, looking at the notes she'd taken from our little psychic session downstairs, ``I'd like to know a little about your personal life, like . . . oh, I don't know . . . do you have any pets?''

  ``No. No pets. I'm allergic to most animals.''

  ``Not even as a kid?'' I tried. ``Like, did you ever have a favorite cat or something?''

  ``Nope. Had asthma instead.''

  ``I see . . .'' Cat said, checking off the calico-cat connec- tion. ``How about sports--what kinds of sports do you like?''

  ``Well,'' Mark said, thinking, ``I'm not really into sports, but I do like to play a round of golf every once in a while.''

  ``Ever play basketball?'' I tried again.

  ``No,'' Mark answered, looking at me quizzically, ``Re- member me? The kid who had asthma?'' he asked with a sarcastic sneer.

  ``Right,'' I said, pointing a finger gun at him and looking at Cat with a slight shrug of my shoulders.

  ``I see . . .'' Cat said again, ticking off another clue. ``How about gambling? You like to play poker at all?''

  ``Uh . . .'' Mark thought. ``No. I like money way too BLIND SIGHTED 305 much to risk losing it in some dumb game. Say, you guys aren't very good interviewers, you know?''

  ``Oh, don't mind them,'' Millicent jumped in. ``The ques- tions were my idea. Most of our club are elderly, and they love little tidbits like this.''

  ``Really?'' Mark asked, suddenly believing our legitimacy because it was now coming from a sweet little old lady. ``Well, okay, what else do you have?''

  Millicent peeked over Cat's shoulder at the list of clues and tried one last time. ``How about apples, Mr. Hamilton? Do you like apples?''

  ``You mean like apple pie?''

  ``Yes,'' Millicent said gamely.

  ``Hate it,'' Mark said flatly. ``I'm a blueberry man.''

  By this time I'd had enough of beating around the bush and impatiently asked, ``So where were you last night be- tween midnight and two fifteen A.M.?''

  Cat and Millicent both took in sharp breaths, but I was going to get some straight answers if it killed me. Mark blinked a few times, rather shocked himself at the dramatic shift in questioning. ``I-I-I . . .'' he stammered.

  ``Yes?'' I said, tapping my foot impatiently and staring him down.

  ``I was at the bar!'' he said at last.

  ``All night?'' I pushed.

  ``Yeah! I left the bar right around two and came straight up here to my room. The police already asked me this anyway, and they checked it out with the bartender.''

  I listened intently for my inboard lie detector to sound off, but it remained silent, so with a shrug I accepted that he was probably telling the truth.

  Looking him over, I didn't think he had it in him anyway, and this only spurred my foul mood for having wasted so much time. ``All right,'' I said sullenly, ``then what's your theory on who killed Celeste Ballentine?'' It was worth a shot.

  ``Say, who are you anyway?'' Mark asked, finally getting uppity at my interrogation.

  ``I'm investigating Celeste's murder, and I'd like my question answered,'' I said in my best tough-as-nails voice, playing the bad cop for all I was worth.

  Just then Millicent stepped in and explained, ``You see, 306 Victoria Laurie we're trying to clear Deirdre's name, Mr. Hamilton. We really want to go to Hawaii with her, and if she's in jail, well, then there goes my vacation. Won't you please help us?''

  Good old Millicent got the job done. ``Well, I don't know for sure,'' Mark said, softening to her, ``But you might want to check out two of the Rainbow Sisters, Willow and Waverly.''

  ``The Rainbow Sisters?'' Cat asked.

  ``Yeah, there are these twins who recently joined Deir- dre's little entourage--Deirdre likes taking a couple of psy- chic wannabes to each seminar; she calls them her `Rainbow Sisters'--and these two joined the group a few weeks ago. At first Deirdre thought they were great; I mean, they stick to her like glue and practically worship the ground she walks on. But recently even Deirdre began to get creeped out.''

  ``Why?'' I asked.

  ``Well, for one thing, they insist on standing right next to her when she does her audience readings. Normally all of the Sisters rotate positions from seminar to seminar, but these two kept butting out all of the other women. The other Sisters are a little intimidated by them. The twins also follow Deirdre constantly. It's like they're obsessed with her or something. Anyway, I remember how pissed off they got when Celeste showed up at the seminar, and when I heard the news this morning . . . I just figured they might have had something to do with it. They think of Deirdre as a . . . I don't know, like a goddess or something, and there's just something not right about the two of them, you know?''

  The three of us stood there nodding our heads as Mark rambled on about Willow and Waverly. Something felt dead-on about what he was saying, and, at the same time, something didn't.

  ``Okay,'' I said wanting to wrap this up. The smell com- ing off Mark was making me nauseous. ``We'll check this out. Thanks for your help, Mr. Hamilton.''

  ``By the way,'' Mark called after us as we left him in the doorway, ``The deadline for the Hawaiian retreat is in three weeks, you know . . . so your readers know to book their BLIND SIGHTED 307 reservations right away,'' Mark called after us as we turned to leave.

  ``Okay,'' Cat sang, and gave him a ``tootles'' hand wave.

  Once we had safely rounded the corner we all stopped to catch up. ``So what'd you think?'' Millicent asked me.

  ``Well, I hate to say this, but I believe him. Just to be on the safe side, though, I think we should double-check with the bartender this afternoon. But the guy can barely stand up, and he's had more than eight hours to shake off his little binge from last night. I really doubt he'd be able to overpower Celeste and stab her umpteen times, as drunk as he must have been.''

  Cat and Millicent nodded regretfully. ``I really wanted it to be him,'' Cat said. ``It would have made things really easy.''

  ``Well, there's still the Rainbow Sisters,'' I offered.

  ``Willow and Waverly?'' Cat asked. ``Yes, I think that's a good logical next step. Com
e on, girls, let's go purchase us a room number,'' she added, already hurrying to the elevator.

  Fifteen minutes and a hundred dollars later we were standing in front of room 266, with Millicent taking the knocking honors while Cat and I stood off to one side. Millicent knuckled the door several times, but no one an- swered. Finally we all turned and headed back down the hallway, weary about coming to yet another roadblock. As we got around the corner I heard a door open behind us, and something told me to quietly halt the other two women and step back against the wall.

  Cat and Millicent both looked at me curiously, but I only supplied a finger to my lips in a ``shhh'' motion, and nodded my head in the direction of the twins' room. Sure enough, we could hear someone around the corner saying quietly, ``Are you sure they're gone?''

  ``Yeah, about time too. I thought they were gonna knock forever.''

  ``Got your luggage?''

  ``Yep, let's go.'' And with that we all heard footsteps growing louder and heading in our direction.

  Just as the twins were about to round the corner I stepped away from the wall, Millicent and Cat following my 308 Victoria Laurie cue as we blocked the sisters' path. ``Going somewhere?'' I asked boldly as the twins rounded the corner and came up short in front of us.

  ``Excuse me,'' the twin on the right said politely. ``We need to get by.''

  ``Oh? Do you now?'' Cat said, taking a threatening step forward.

  ``Yes,'' the other twin said firmly. ``We're checking out, and we need to get by.''

  ``Why didn't you answer our knock?'' Millicent demanded.

  ``What knock?'' Left twin asked innocently.

  I scowled menacingly at her. Did she think we were stupid?

  ``Oh!'' right twin said in fake recollection. ``I thought I heard someone knocking, but it sounded like it was coming from next door.'' Liar, liar, pants on fire . . .

  ``No,'' I said. ``We were knocking on your door and you had no intention of answering. But now that we have your full and undivided attention, we need to ask you a few questions.''

  ``We don't have time,'' left twin insisted. ``We need to catch a plane and we're in a hurry.'' Liar, liar, pants on fire . . .

  ``Nope,'' I said.

  ``Excuse me?'' right twin asked.

  ``No, you don't have a plane to catch, and no, we are not going to let you by until you answer a few questions.''

  ``Who do you think you are?'' left twin demanded, begin- ning to grow angry.

  ``We are the people blocking your path, honey, and until you answer our questions you're not going anywhere.''

  ``Listen here--'' left twin began.

  ``Where were you last night around two A.M.?'' I spat out, cutting her off.

  ``What?'' Right twin.

  ``You heard me,'' I said, ``I want to know where you were last night between one thirty and two A.M.?''

  Both twins scowled at me and replied in unison, ``In bed, sleeping.''

  Liar, liar, pants on fire . . .

  ``Bullshit,'' I said smugly, crossing my arms and looking BLIND SIGHTED 309 at them with intense dislike. My intuition was buzzing rap- idly, and I knew I needed to press these two. ``Did you kill Celeste Ballentine?'' I asked boldly.

  ``No!'' right twin said quickly.

  I waited but my lie detector remained silent. ``How about you?'' I asked left twin.

  Left twin rolled her eyes and said, ``Of course, not you idiot! We had nothing to do with that!''

  Again my lie detector stayed silent, and it puzzled me, because I knew these girls were up to something.

  ``Now I think we have answered all we're going to, so if you don't mind!'' right twin said, and shoved violently against Cat, knocking her out of the way.

  ``Hey!'' Cat shouted, and shoved back, but it was too late. Right twin had made it through the blockade, and just as quickly her sister took advantage of the distraction and pushed through the opening too, joining her sister on the other side of us. Quickly the two trotted down the corridor in the direction of the elevators, leaving Cat, Millicent, and one burning holes in the back of their heads.

  ``That was rude!'' Cat said, rubbing her arm where she'd been shoved.

  ``Should we go after them?'' Millicent asked.

  ``No,'' I said as we watched them stop in front of the elevator and stab at the button. ``They didn't do it.''

  ``You're sure?'' Cat asked me.

  ``Yeah,'' I said moodily. ``My lie detector didn't go off when they said they had nothing to do with it.''

  Millicent sighed tiredly and asked, ``So what do we do now?''

  ``I don't know,'' I said, rubbing my temples at the start of a nasty headache. ``Maybe go down to the bar and check with the bartender to corroborate Mark's story? He proba- bly gets in around three, Cat, what time do you have?''

  ``Uh, it's about . . .'' Cat began lifting her right wrist to look at her watch. ``Ohmigod!'' she said suddenly, lifting her wrist high and widening her eyes in shock.

  ``What?!'' Millicent and I said together.

  ``My watch! My Rolex watch! It's gone!''

  As one, we looked at each other in startled amazement; then, just as quickly, we each turned our heads in the direc- tion of the twins just as they were getting into the elevator. 310 Victoria Laurie

  ``Hey!'' I shouted, and began sprinting in their direction. ``Stop!'' I was nearing the doors, which were beginning to close. ``Thief!'' I hollered at the top of my lungs. ``Thief! Thief!''

  Five yards from the elevator I watched with mounting fury as the doors closed and one of the twins waved snidely at me as she disappeared behind the steel doors. Propelled by anger I swung a hard left and bolted to the door leading to the stairs, swinging it open furiously and charging down the stairs. Behind me I could hear Cat yelling at me to hurry as she clattered down the stairs herself, hampered by her expensive Manolo Blahnik high heels.

  At the bottom of the stairs I yanked at the door and ran out into the lobby, swinging my head in the direction of the elevator, which had already opened, and with a flood of adrenaline I spotted the twins already rushing toward the revolving front door.

  Infuriated, I sprinted in their direction and watched as they both picked up their luggage and began running to the exit, which was all that stood in their way to freedom. We reached the enclosure at the same time, and, thinking quickly, I let them jump into the glass revolving door just ahead of me. As the gate turned and both girls moved one step closer to freedom, I jumped in between the frame of the door and the next opening, wedging my back against the outer frame while propping my feet against the window, effectively jamming the door from moving forward. As the girls pushed forward I merely locked my knees, straining hard with all my might, and refused to allow the door to progress.

  Just then Cat reached my side and wedged herself into the frame of the door, with me lending her support as both twins strained against our resistance to move the door for- ward, without avail.

  As Cat and I strained to keep the door locked a hotel clerk approached us and asked crossly, ``What is going on here?''

  ``Call the police,'' I said, my voice tightening under the pressure of keeping the door from moving. ``Those two women are thieves,'' I added, ``They just stole my sister's Rolex, and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts their luggage is full of stolen merchandise.'' BLIND SIGHTED 311

  The clerk stood gapping at us without moving as a crowd began to gather and the twins pounded on the glass and screamed to be let out.

  ``Go!'' my sister shouted at the stunned clerk, impatient for him to hurry.

  Just then Millicent came across the lobby and took the clerk by the arm, saying, ``Come, dear, I'll explain every- thing on our way to the telephone . . .''

  An hour later we had finished giving our statements to the sheriff, and Cat had retrieved her diamond tennis bracelet and her Rolex watch, while Millicent was happily toting her mother's pocketbook again as we watched Wil- low and Waverly being led away in handcuffs. The police found all sorts of valuable objects taken from the ho
tel, and a stack of credit cards belonging to some hotel patrons and other victims stuffed away in the twins' luggage. We now understood why Willow and Waverly insisted on stick- ing so close to Deirdre during her readings; while the audi- ence member was distracted and focused on Deirdre, one of the twins could pick them clean.

  Soon after they were taken away, Cat, Millicent, and I gathered in the dining room for much-needed sustenance, and to discuss our next steps.

  ``So,'' Cat said, stirring her potato soup to cool it off, ``any ideas on where we go from here?''