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

. . . 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. Come 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