Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle, Pauline Jones [top 100 novels of all time .txt] 📗

into the whole situation—which gave her an insider’s edge that he, unfortunately, needed right now, even if it did make his head ache.

She watched him, her arms crossed, looking at him in a way that told him he’d have to ask nicely. There would be no free flow of information. He didn’t mind climbing up, but down—

Luci watched him trying to choke down his pride. Poor guy. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know how to navigate the Seymour Zone, but until he was willing to listen, there wasn’t much she could tell him that would help.

He gagged a few more times, then managed to choke out, “Anything in particular strike you about all this?”

It was only a small step for her, but a big step for Mickey, so she decided to meet him part way. “I did notice that wedding theme popping up again.”

He tried, but failed to control a flinch that also put the twitch back in his right eye. If he didn’t do something about all that bottled-up stress he was going to look like Clouseau’s Chief Inspector from the Pink Panther movies.

“Wedding…themes?”

“Did you notice her,” Luci nodded in the direction of the body, “wedding ring is new? The edges are barely worn.”

The twitch got a little worse, but he did go look at the ring. “So it is.” He swallowed a few times, then squeezed out, “Anything else?”

The trouble was, so much of what she noticed were feelings, not things that could be seen. Still, she owed it to him to try. “Reggie and Frosty were naked, but Max and this woman are clothed.”

“I guess our killer didn’t have time to strip these two—what with the party going on around.”

Luci gave him an approving smile. “Exactly. He’s starting to make mistakes.” Playing his sidekick was kind of fun when he didn’t whine. It would be interesting to see how long he could take it. She tapped a finger on her chin. “You found the money in the attic, but Dante’s guy was in the chimney in your room—”

“Yes.” A certain grimness to Mickey’s voice alerted her before he got his question out. “How did you know where the money was found?”

Luci gave him her “oops” smile. “I may have run across it when I was in the . . . attic, but I just thought my aunts had developed an aversion to banks. It was a reasonable assumption.”

“Uh huh.”

She thought he would say more, but he didn’t. Instead he opened a file and pulled out a creased picture. “We found this tucked in his pocket. Recognize him?”

Luci took the picture. It was a mug shot, though not a good one, complete with numbers across the bottom. Front and side view.

Luci felt the first tremor of...something. “Who is he?”

Mickey picked up the file. “His name is Arthur Maxwell and he was Reggie’s cellmate last time he was in prison.”

“Really?” She frowned slightly. “He looks...kind of like my neighbor’s new husband. The one she hit with her Volkswagen.” The pieces of all her impressions, the faces of the players both dead and alive, spun in her head like snow in one of those globes, with the truth buried somewhere in the middle. If she could just get alone to think…

Mickey ground his teeth and snatched the photo back. “This isn’t a joke—”

Luci sighed. “I am trying.” She lifted the lid on one of the shoeboxes and fingered the bills. “Do you suppose he’s given up on trying to get this? He must know you’ve found it.”

“We’re keeping it quiet. He might be hoping we wouldn’t search the attic.” He rubbed his head. “Under normal circumstances, we might not have.”

Mickey had the photos of the victims in a stack on the table. She sat down and looked through them, arranging them in order of discovery as her thoughts spun slower and slower.

“Not exactly a rogue’s gallery, is it?” Luci murmured. She tapped the photo of the guy found in the freezer. “I wonder how he fits in?”

Mickey sat down next to her. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure,” Luci admitted. “It’s just that, well, this one—”

“Dante’s sidekick, Max,” Mickey supplied for her.

“Just Max?” When Mickey nodded she continued. “Interesting. He must have been looking for the money, but this woman, Reggie, the hit couple, my aunts and their friends, the—they’re all, well, older.”

Mickey noticed the stop, the hesitation and the slight emphasis and frowned. What had she meant to say? He stared at her, the innocent widening of her eyes only increasing his suspicion that there was something, possibly several things, she wasn’t telling him. He made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

“You don’t really fit either,” he pointed out.

“No,” she said. “I don’t seem to, do I?”

She leaned back with an air of decision. “You should have the aunts look at your lady over there.”

“Why?”

Her eyes warned him to brace himself.

“I have a feeling she was Reggie’s date today.”

His whole body twitched. “Reggie is dead.”

Luci arched her brows. “Not the faux Reggie.”

Mickey sighed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Luci looked apologetic. “Yes, but I feel conflicted about it.”

“Exactly what is it we’re doing out here?”

Luci looked at Gracie in surprise. Surely it was obvious.

“We’re looking for the missing body, the one Boudreaux saw in the freezer the first time.”

She let the beam of the flashlight dance around the darkened garden, then directed it back on the sketch she held. “Boudreaux has marked every area he can remember replanting in the last few months.”

“What if he forgot something?”

“I have considered that possibility, but prefer to deal with it only if we strike out. The largest area is over there by the fence. Some kind of bush. Couldn’t understand what he called them, but I think that’s the best possibility. It’s more person- length than the others. Though Miss Hermi managed to stir things up quite a bit this spring. She was in a new broom sort of mood.”

“Yes, I noticed that myself. Reggie got her all