Elaine Viets & Victoria Laurie, Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson - Drop-Dead Blonde (v5.0) (pdf) by Unknown (best classic books .TXT) 📗

``Oh, come on, Abby! We can do this! We can solve this crime! We have everything we need between the three of us--especially given our considerable resources,'' my sis- ter persisted.

``And what exactly are our `considerable resources'?'' I asked caustically, folding my arms stubbornly across my chest.

``Well, there's your sixth sense,'' Cat said, ticking off her index finger and directing it toward me, ``and Millicent's trusting appearance--I'll bet you know everything about every one of your neighbors, don't you, Millicent?''

``Absolutely.'' Millicent nodded, ``People will tell a little old lady just about anything,'' she added smugly. 296 Victoria Laurie

``And then, of course, there's my money--which has opened many a door, let me tell you,'' Cat said triumphantly.

``Cat,'' I said sternly, wanting her to see reason, ``this is crazy! There is no way I'm going to be party to this. I'm tired,'' I insisted, ticking off on my hand, ``I haven't slept in, like, days, the sun is coming up, I'm still pale, and I want my vacation!''

``Fine,'' Cat said, giving me her ``I'm sooooo disap- pointed in you'' look and turning to wrap an arm around Millicent. ``If you won't help us then Millicent and I will just have to work this case without you. Come on, Millicent; let's go see what we can dig up.'' And with that the pair actually turned and began to walk away from me.

I slapped the top of my forehead and snarled in frustra- tion. My sister lived to play dirty. ``Fine!'' I said when they'd taken several steps away.

``Pardon me?'' Cat called over her shoulder. ``Did you say something?''

I took a very deep breath and hissed it out through clenched teeth. ``I said, `Fine,' as in I will help you, but only after I take a nice long nap, and only if you promise that the moment this gets hairy we will turn over what we know to the police,'' I added, my voice all business.

Millicent and Cat nodded their heads vigorously, their eyes large with innocence, which I wasn't buying for a second.

``That's very fair,'' Cat said happily. ``Now why don't you go on to bed and we'll come for you in a few hours, okay?''

I nodded dully and was about to turn away when I re- membered that Millicent hadn't slept all night either. Tiredly I turned back to the two of them and asked, ``Milli- cent, aren't you exhausted too? Shouldn't you get a couple hours' sleep before we start snooping around?''

``Oh, no,'' Millicent replied, a huge smile spreading across her face. ``I'm fine. I rarely sleep more than a few hours a night anyway. Been an insomniac all my life, and it's never been as exciting as it was last night. I could go all day without any trouble at all. Well . . .'' she added, looking down, ``perhaps I should just change into some new clothes first. All the blood might scare people.''

Cat nodded and took Millicent by the arm, walking her BLIND SIGHTED 297 in the direction of the gift shop. ``Come on, Millicent; I know the perfect little ensemble for snooping. I saw it in the hotel store here yesterday. . . .'' And the two disap- peared around the corner.

Watching them go, I sighed heavily and shuffled over to the elevator, waiting impatiently for the double doors to open. When they finally did I nearly ran smack dab into one of the Peace Twins who smirked at me as I mumbled my apologies. As she and her sister brushed by me my intuition began to buzz. Sleep-deprived and lethargic, I turned in the elevator slowly and cocked my head, listening for the message. The feeling that I had was that there was something not quite right about the two girls, and they deserved a second look. I was about to trudge out of the elevator after them when a family of four barreled in, blocking my exit, and just then the double doors closed. As the elevator moved up, my whole body ached with fa- tigue, and I figured that before I did any sleuthing I might as well get a little rest. I had a strong suspicion the twins weren't going anywhere with so many police personnel around. They'd still be there in a couple of hours, and I could follow up later. Looking back, I can't help but think that if I'd only followed them when I'd had the chance we could have saved ourselves a whole lot of extra time and effort. Chapter 4

Around one o'clock that afternoon I'd pretty much gotten all the sleep I was going to get for the day and sluggishly rolled out of bed. My eyes felt itchy, my brain was foggy and my limbs dragged along behind me as I propelled my- self in the general direction of the shower. Sleep and I are great friends; in fact, I visit with the old guy regularly right around eleven every night, and leave him only when I've had my fill about eight hours later, so having to go through a twenty-four-hour period when I hadn't gotten a chance to linger with my dear friend for longer than a catnap was making me feel very neglected.

Under the spray of the shower I managed to revive a little and clear some of the cobwebs from my sluggish thoughts. The idea of joining up with Cat and Millicent for some supersleuthing was never far from my mind, and I'd had some weird dream about the three of us walking around trying to find someone's lost cat and coming across Deirdre, who said that she'd seen the cat bouncing a bas- ketball and to look over by the pool. The dream ended with an image of Celeste lying dead and facedown in a pool of milk while a calico cat licked at the liquid and