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“Oh, sorry.” She laughs. “Can you believe this craziness?”
“I can and I have a feeling it’s about to get even crazier.” I lick my lips for a moment. It’s now or never. “Do you know of anyone in your club who may have had a connection to an exotic reptile shop?”
Her mouth falls open. “You know what? I think I do!” She glances over her shoulder. “Jane’s ex-husband runs one out of Hollywood. He’s a character. You know the type—tatted, pierced, and loves to draw attention to himself by way of a snake draped over his shoulders? She cut him loose after he asked to have a vial of her blood drawn so he could hang it around his neck.” She taps her lips as she looks up at the sky. “Or maybe it was so he could sip it with his coffee? Anyway, I have no time to think about that. Can I have your bra?”
“Sorry, I gave at the office,” I tease. “My friend Bess took off with it.”
“Well then, I’d better get moving.” She’s about to take off, then backtracks. “Speak of the reptilian devil.” She points a glossy red fingernail to my right. “There she is now.”
Nadine takes off, but I don’t bother with goodbye. Instead, my feet take me straight to the suspect she pointed out—Jane Hunt.
“What a great night,” I say, prompting the brunette to spin on her heels until we’re face to face.
Jane has a wreath of gold flowers sitting on her head, along with feathered roach clips that used to be popular back in the day. I owned a few myself and loved them to pieces, Of course, I had no idea what they were truly intended for until I met up with my first mistake—the high school bad boy I thought I could tame to be my one and only true love.
I confess, I’ve had an irresponsible yearning in me for years to rehab a mess of a man. That’s probably what attracted me to Stanton to begin with.
Good Lord! That’s not why I’m attracted to Ransom, is it?
“Boo!” a deep voice strums in my ear and I turn to see Ransom standing there. His face glows a soft shade of blue, but then so is everyone else’s.
“Glad you could join us, Detective.” I frown at him because I was just about to take down a killer.
Jane squints to my right. “Who are you talking to?”
My lips part as I look at the man.
“Why would you think she could see me?” he asks, following her lead while squinting at me as well.
Good grief.
I poke a finger to his chest and my hand falls right through. Drats. Wrong Handsome Ransom.
My attention reverts to the suspect at hand and I clear my throat. “I was actually talking to you,” I tell her. “I heard you’ve been donning your own detective hat.”
Jane laughs, and the black beaded dress she’s wearing sounds as if it’s applauding.
There’s a hippy flair to her sense of style this evening, but I’d wear that dress on formal night at the drop of a hippy hat and not think twice, it’s that gorgeous.
“Actually, I have,” she says. “But it has nothing to do with Julia’s death and everything to do with the loans that were taken out.” She pulls up her phone and flashes a picture of what looks like a loan doc my way. “I’ve got eight of these downloaded.”
“Are those for Lemonade Lipstick?”
“They sure are,” she says, scrolling through them quickly.
“I bet the detective on board would love to see them. You know, I’m actually dating him. If you don’t mind shooting those to me, I’d be glad to pass them along.”
“No problem,” she says and I quickly give her my email, and she does just that.
“Smooth move,” Phineas says. “Now get her to confess that she’s the killer. I’ve got greener celestial pastures I’d rather explore. You forget how tedious the planet is until you’re forced to come back and tread through the nasty now. Time is so overrated.”
Tell me about it. I agree with all of the above, and I’ve yet to see a celestial pasture.
“Do the loans look fishy?” I ask and Jane laughs in response.
“I wouldn’t know a fishy loan if it reached out and bit me. That’s exactly why I didn’t want my name on any of the docs. I gave cash.” She sighs. “And as soon as we land back in L.A., I’m going to demand I get every penny back. If Julia’s not in it anymore, I don’t want any part of it either. I may not be good at math, but there’s no reason we needed that much money to get things started.” She sniffs in the direction of the crowd. “Personally, I think someone was dipping their hand into the cookie jar.”
“Were they?” Phineas lifts a brow my way. “Or is someone trying to divert attention from themselves?”
