Ник Сайнт - Purrfect Advice. Purrfect Passion. A Purrfect Gnomeful

Relief, too, though, if she had to be honest. At least it wasn’t some Jack the Ripper wannabe come to carve her up, or the taxman to announce that the IRS had had another look at her file and decided she owed a couple of thousand dollars in back taxes.

So she opened the door and said in merry voice, “Don’t tell me you found a clue and couldn’t wait to tell me!”

But Vesta’s face spelled storm, and Scarlett’s own face sagged, in spite of the fancy treatments she paid to keep it scaffolded in place. “I want a word with you,” said Vesta, and stomped in without waiting for an invitation.

Scarlett rolled her eyes, and muttered, “Here we go again.” She closed the door and followed her surprise guest into the living room. “What is it this time?” she asked. “Let me guess. Dan decided to give me a raise and not you and now you’re upset.”

“You’ve been sabotaging me,” said Vesta, wagging a pointy finger in her face. “And you thought I wouldn’t notice. Huh!”

“Sabotaging you? I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I can already tell you I don’t like to be accused of stuff I didn’t do.”

“You’ve been answering my family’s letters, pretending that these answers came from me, and giving them asinine advice.”

Scarlett shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Here. Listen to this,” said Vesta, and took out her phone. “My daughter wrote asking about a trip to Europe she’d like to take with her husband. Your response? ‘Screw your trip to Europe. Why are you being so selfish? Your brother wants to run for mayor and your job should be to help him since he’s not doing a damn thing about it himself.’”

Scarlett smiled. She couldn’t help it. It had the effect of a red flag on a bull, though.

“You did it on purpose! You tried to push me out! Admit it!”

Scarlett held up her hands. “Okay, all right! Dan told me he was hiring a second Gabi and when I discovered it was you I figured I needed to get rid of you as fast as I could!”

“But you told me two days ago you didn’t know he’d hired a second Gabi!”

“I lied, all right. He told me so I got nervous. And then I happened to look at his computer one day and saw your name and got even more nervous.”

“But why? There’s plenty of work for the two of us.”

“I panicked, okay! I just figured that if you came on board and Dan saw the quality of your responses, he’d soon realize you were the better Gabi and can my ass. So I decided to get rid of you before you got rid of me. Call it self-defense, but yeah, basically I tried to screw you over.”

She was standing, arms across her chest, nostrils flaring and eyes blazing. For some reason Vesta always managed to get a rise out of her.

“You tried to get me canned because you thought I was better than you? That’s just crazy!”

“Yeah, well, I read some of your stuff and it was pretty darn good.”

“I thought the same thing when I saw your stuff. I thought I could never beat you, so I did my best to live up to the standard you set.”

Scarlett looked up at this. “You thought my stuff was good?”

“Of course I did! The things you told Mrs. Baumgartner about her hypochondria was brilliant. And it worked! She hasn’t been in for days now. Used to be she was there every single day.”

“Yeah, I was kinda proud of that one,” said Scarlett.

“You’re good, Scarlett, so there really was no need to go after me.”

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t gone after you since we started working together on the Kirk Weaver case. Those answers were all written when I still hated your guts.”

“And when I still hated your guts,” said Vesta.

They stared at each other for a moment, then both burst out laughing. “We’re two crazy old bitches, aren’t we?” said Scarlett.

“Speak for yourself, you crazy old bitch,” said Vesta, and added, “You know I’ve enjoyed these last two days, working this case together. I’d forgotten how much fun we used to have, before Jack came between us.”

“Yeah, I should never have gotten involved with that loser,” said Scarlett. “He was a no-good jerk for cheating on you. Did you know he actually told me you were on a break?”

“Yeah, you told me about a million times. Only I never believed you.”

“But you do now, don’t you?”

Vesta hesitated. “The thing is, even if we were on a break, that still didn’t give you the right to bone my husband.”

“I know. That wasn’t my finest hour. He was crying, you know, and telling him how much he missed you, and how sad he was, and so I decided to comfort him and then one thing led to another and then you came in.”

“I know. I was there, remember?”

“Vividly.”

Vesta smiled. “Jack was an asshole.”

“He was an asshole.”

“Come here,” said Vesta, and then they hugged. It felt good.

“I missed you,” said Scarlett, in a choky voice.

“Me, too. Though I enjoyed our tussles.”

“Does this mean we’re not going to fight anymore?”

“I don’t know. We could, for old times’ sakes. But right now I feel like I need a friend more than I need an enemy.”

They let go and took a seat at the table.

“We’re both of us not getting any younger, Scarlett,” said Vesta. “So maybe it’s time to bury the hatchet and be friends again?”

“I would like that,” said Scarlett, wiping away a tear.

Vesta studied her for a moment. “Also, I don’t think I’ve seen you without the face paint these last couple of decades.”

“And? I probably look as if I walked out a tomb, right?”

“Nah, actually you look a lot better without makeup. More natural.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, really.”

“Do you want something? Tea, coffee… bourbon?”

“All of the above,” said Vesta with a grin.

Chapter 31

Odelia woke up feeling a little groggy. Somehow she’d dreamt of mice, and when she opened her eyes she found Max lying next to her, staring straight into her eyes, sphinx-style.

“Max,” she said, rubbing her eyes, then stretching. “What’s going on?”

“I just had an idea,” he announced.

“Uh-huh. That’s great. Can you tell me when I’m fully awake, or do you want to tell me now?”

“Now.”

“Yeah, okay. So what is it?”

“So Kirk was a womanizer, right?”

“Right,” she said, dragging her mind back to the case with some difficulty. She never was at her best or sharpest before she’d had her first coffee of the day.

“So of course he got with every single woman at Allison Gray’s place, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“But what if he didn’t stop there? I mean, he was in town for a couple of weeks, and so at some point he must have run out of candidates. So what if he went into town and met a few more women and bedded them, too. And what if one of them had a husband who wasn’t too keen on Kirk seducing his lady love and decided to get some of his own back? Or maybe even the husband of one of the women at the house?”

“Brilliant,” Odelia muttered, and tried to sit up. Unfortunately Max was heavy, and pinning down the comforter, so she was effectively trapped. “Absolutely brilliant.”

“So what I suggest is that we start canvassing in town, and look at places where Kirk was seen. I’m thinking restaurants, bars, shops… the gym. And maybe look at security footage, too. We need to figure out what other women he was involved with.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Odelia, and started crawling over Chase, who now stirred.

“Nice,” he muttered. “Jumping my bones while I’m asleep. Have you no shame, woman?”

“Sorry, babe. The other exit is blocked.”