AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why not?” Bree said, and she reached in her purse for her business cards, pushing aside the small Ruger nine-millimeter she always carried to find them.
Wells’s cell buzzed after they’d exchanged cards. She looked at the phone and grimaced. “Oh, dear, it’s my nanny. My kids must be on a rampage. We’ll talk again?”
“I look forward to it,” Bree said.
The editor walked away, finger in her left ear, cell phone pressed tight to her right.
Carrying two flutes of pink champagne, Bree found table four and Detective Salazar, who had her black sneakers up on the adjacent chair.
“Where’s Phillip?” Bree asked.
“Over there, blowing air kisses with the one-percenters,” Salazar said. “He’s not happy with the sneakers or me putting them up on the chair. But I can’t help it. My dogs are aching.”
“He’ll get over it,” Bree said. “He was miffed at me for wearing flats, but how tall can a girl be?”
The detective laughed and looked around. “Amazing place, huh?”
“One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in.”
Salazar looked longingly at the champagne. “Another time, another place, I could use four or five of those.”
Bree laughed. Salazar grinned. They liked each other. A lot.
“But nothing’s stoppingyou,” the detective went on. “Tell you what, I’ll live vicariously through you drinking four or five of … uh-oh, here comes the trouble we’ve been waiting for.”
Bree turned to look over her shoulder, noticing that the din in the room had dropped multiple decibels. She spotted Frances Duchaine moving through the throng by the bars, flanked by the same two bodyguards who’d thrown Bree out of the fashion designer’s estate.
CHAPTER 89
IT WAS FASCINATING TOwatch the crowd react as Duchaine swept deeper into the venue. Heads snapped around. Guests whispered about her presence to other guests and provoked more low murmuring and craned heads trying to spot her.
Even though the scandal had no doubt damaged her brand, the fashion designer seemed to revel in the moment. Frances was the center of attention and knew it.
Luster was suddenly standing there next to Salazar and Bree. “I can’t believe it. I didn’t think she’d come even after she said she would.”
Bree said, “Well, it looks like she’s coming right to us, Phillip.”
“I am the gala’s cochair,” Luster said. “She has to pay her respects.”
“Why?” Salazar said, taking her feet off the chair.
“Because Frances is the other cochair,” Luster said as Duchainecame closer, nodding to some in the crowd and ignoring others, while the buff white bodyguard and the buffer Black bodyguard kept their eyes sweeping the crowd.
Duchaine walked right up to Luster. “Phillip, how wonderful to see you.”
“Frances, dear, how are you holding up?” Luster said and blew a kiss past each cheek.
Duchaine kept up the charade, murmuring something to him, then caught sight of Bree and Salazar standing on the other side of the table. The detective had been in the news a lot with the killings at Paula Watkins’s home, and Duchaine clearly recognized Bree from Greenwich. She retreated from Luster, stared at him coldly. “I can see whose side you’re on now, Phillip. I wish you had told me.”
“What are friends for, dear?”
Enraged, she pivoted and strode off with bodyguards in tow. They took three seats at a table two rows away.
Duchaine ate barely two bites of her entrée before murmuring to both bodyguards; they set their utensils down and rose. Bree watched her make her excuses to the other guests and start toward the front door.
Salazar leaned across Luster and said to Bree, “Let’s trail her a little. Let her know she’s still a target.”
Luster said, “I love it. I really do. Tell me everything she does!”
