A Deal to Die For (27 page)

“Don’t tell me; let me guess,” Roger said. “You scored a better bargain than she did,
and she’s put out with you.”

“I did score some Joe’s Jeans for eighty percent off,” Maggie said. Although that
had been last week, she figured it still qualified.

“I figured it was something like that. Don’t you worry; she’ll come around,” he said.
“She’s your best friend.”

“I suppose,” Maggie said, feeling relieved that Ginger had obviously not told Roger
about her and Sam. “Where are you off to?”

“A late business meeting in Richmond,” he said. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

He paused beside Maggie and gave her a quick hug. “Have fun on your date tomorrow
night, but not too much.”

Maggie felt her face grow warm, and Roger laughed. He climbed into his car and shut
the door. Maggie waved as he disappeared down the drive.

Maggie headed up the walk to Ginger’s front door. She could hear the vacuum roaring,
so she didn’t bother to knock. Instead, she opened the door and walked in.

Ginger had her Hoover in motion and was giving the carpet below it a workout. As if
she sensed Maggie’s arrival, Ginger glanced up. She took one look at Maggie and turned
her back on her, continuing her work. Maggie knew this was Ginger’s way of letting
her know that she wasn’t done being mad. Yet.

Maggie sat down on the couch, determined to wait Ginger out. Ginger came at her with
the vacuum and Maggie dutifully lifted her feet so Ginger could vacuum under them.
This went on for fifteen minutes; clearly this was going to be the cleanest carpet
in all of St. Stanley. Maggie was about to give in when Claire and Joanne peeked around
the doorframe at her. As one, they came in and sat down on each side of Maggie. Ginger
saw them, but she didn’t acknowledge them either.

“What brings you here?” Maggie shouted over the vacuum.

“Roger called us,” Joanne shouted back. “He thought you might need backup.”

Maggie nodded.
Smart man.

“We have to get this going,” Claire yelled. “I’m on my lunch hour. I only have twenty
minutes left.”

“Ginger!” Maggie yelled. She was ignored.

With a huff, Maggie got up from the couch, crossed the room and yanked the vacuum’s
plug from the outlet.

The vacuum groaned and then was silent. Ginger clicked it into its upright position
and turned to look at Maggie.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want something?” she asked. “Or is there something else you
wanted to tell me that happened twenty-plus years ago?”

Maggie refused to get irritated. She tried to think how she would feel if the situation
was reversed and her best friend of almost forty years had never told her about a
short love affair with the heartthrob of their high school. Yeah, she’d be miffed,
too.

“Bianca is Doc Franklin’s daughter. Courtney is a drug addict and the most likely
suspect to have killed Vera. Pete kissed me last night, and Sam kissed me this morning.
There. Now you’re caught up.”

Both Joanne and Claire stared at her with wide eyes, their mouths slightly agape,
as if they had a million questions but were too surprised to form the words.

“Well, you have been busy,” Ginger said.

“Oh, come off it, Ginger,” Maggie said. “You’re my best friend. I never meant to keep
anything from you, but I was young and heartbroken, and I didn’t know what to say.
Can’t you forgive me?”

Joanne and Claire looked from Ginger to Maggie with hopeful eyes.

“I just don’t understand,” Ginger said. Her brown eyes were sad. “Why did you keep
it a secret for so long?”

“Shame,” Claire said. They all turned to look at her. Of all the GBGs, Claire had
the most colorful past and had kept her own share of secrets up until a few months
ago, when her secrets caught up to her in the form of a dead ex-boyfriend. “Shame
will keep you quiet.”

Maggie nodded. She had felt so stupid when she believed that Sam had cheated on her
with Summer Phillips. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know that she’d been rejected for
her nemesis.

Ginger heaved a sigh. Then she looked at the rest of them with her most ferocious
mama face.

“All right, I forgive you,” she said to Maggie. “But if anyone else has a secret,
could we please share it now so that we don’t have to go through this again?”

They all glanced at each other, and just when Maggie thought they were in the clear,
Joanne cleared her throat.

“I have a secret,” she said.

“Oh no, is it a crazy ex-boyfriend?” Maggie asked.

“A secret affair?” Ginger asked.

“What?” Claire asked, clearly exasperated.

“I’m pregnant,” Joanne said. Then she laughed and promptly burst into tears.

The afternoon was spent in a giddy blur of hugs and laughter and baby plans for Joanne.
She had waited until she was past the first trimester to say anything, and by all
accounts she was doing great. Ginger had baked a pound cake earlier that morning,
and they toasted the mama-to-be with sweet tea and cake.

Maggie was so happy for Joanne, she couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. What a lucky
baby to have Michael and Joanne for parents.

The news had reestablished the connection that was the GBGs, sharing the good times
and helping in the bad. It was nice to have something so wonderful to celebrate. Maggie
started thinking that she definitely needed a section of the store to be devoted to
baby clothes.

As she drove home, she wondered how Bianca was doing. She knew that Bianca had Molly,
but Molly had a home of her own and a son to care for. She couldn’t look after Bianca
twenty-four seven. Maggie decided she’d do a quick pop-in
and make sure Bianca was all right. If she seemed lonely, Maggie would invite her
home to dinner. It was the least she could do, given that Bianca had lost her mother,
and at the hand of her own half sister, no less.

Maggie knocked on the front door of the Madisons’ house and waited. It took a while
before the door was pulled open, but when it was, Bianca stood there, looking flushed
and with an unmistakable sparkle in her eyes. Maggie was caught by surprise. The Bianca
she knew was never flushed or sparkly.

“Maggie!” Bianca cried. She looked over her shoulder as if to check that the house
was clean enough for a visit. “Come in.”

“Sorry to bother you,” Maggie said. She stepped into the house, and Bianca closed
the door behind her. “I should have called first.”

“No, it’s fine,” Bianca said. She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I was just…um…reading.”

“That sounds relaxing,” Maggie said.

Bianca nodded. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to relax since
she
arrived.”

“Courtney’s not back here is she?” Maggie asked.

“No, Sheriff Collins said she wasn’t coming back here,” Bianca said. She looked thoughtful.
“He was here earlier today, and they searched her rooms. He wouldn’t tell me what
they found, but I think it has something to do with my mother’s death. I think I’m
officially afraid of her.”

Bianca became serious, and the sparkle left her eyes like a candle being snuffed in
the dark. She grew pale and sad, and Maggie instantly missed the brighter Bianca.

“I don’t think that’s an unusual reaction, given that she tried to rip the hair out
of your head,” Maggie said.

“Would you like to come and sit by the fire?” Bianca asked.

She led the way into the house, and Maggie could hear music floating on the air from
the study. It sounded classical, and she remembered that Bianca had studied to be
a concert pianist when she was younger.

Bianca caught her listening to the music, and her mouth turned up on one side, but
it was more of a grimace than a smile.

“That’s the opening prelude from
Das Wohltemperierte Clavier
by Bach,” she said. “One of my favorite pieces when I used to play.”

They sat in opposite chairs by the fire. Maggie couldn’t help but think that the house
seemed too large for one person, and she wondered if Bianca would stay here by herself
once Courtney was routed for good.

“Why did you quit playing?” she asked.

“My mother thought my time would be better served taking care of her,” Bianca said.
“We had a pretty full schedule of doctor’s appointments to keep.”

“Do you miss it?” Maggie asked.

Bianca gave her a small smile. “You’re the only person besides Molly who has ever
asked me that. I did miss it at first, but I had to let it go. You know, sometimes
you have to give up your dreams for the ones you love.”

“I do,” Maggie said. “My husband was killed when our daughter was just two. I had
to give up everything that I thought my life was going to be and just survive.”

Bianca nodded. “So you understand, then.”

“I do,” Maggie said.

“Maggie, I…” Bianca began but then hesitated.

She looked equal parts embarrassed and…Maggie
couldn’t place the emotion exactly, but the sparkle she had seen in Bianca before
was slowly returning. If Maggie didn’t know better, she would have thought that Bianca
was…in
love
?

“Bianca,” she said, “are you seeing someone?”

Bianca’s fair skin flushed a deep shade of red, and Maggie felt her jaw gape.

“Bianca, your mother hasn’t been gone even a week,” she said. “You’re an emotional
wreck. You can’t fall for someone in this state. Why, he could just be trying to get
your inheritance right out from under you.”

“He’s not,” Bianca protested. “He’s the nicest, smartest, most interesting person
I’ve ever met.”

“Oh my god,” Maggie groaned, and fell back in her seat. This was a disaster. “You’ve
already been taken in by a gold-digging lothario.”

“Really, Maggie, you don’t have to worry,” Bianca said. “He’s not like that.”

The sound of the front door banging open made them both jump. Bianca half rose out
of her seat, and Maggie followed.

“The wind must have—” Maggie started to say, but was interrupted by the sound of the
same door slamming shut.

Courtney appeared in the doorway. She was pulling black leather gloves off her hands,
one finger at a time.

“What’s the matter, sister dear?” she asked Bianca. “You look as if you’ve seen a
ghost.”

“What are you doing here?” Bianca asked. “You’re supposed to be—”

“What?” Courtney asked. “Dead?”

“No!” Bianca looked to Maggie, as if she could back Bianca up that she hadn’t meant
that
.

“Right,” Courtney said. “I want you out of my house tonight. Because, make no mistake,
this is my house now, and you’re not welcome here.”

“Courtney, you can’t throw her out of her own home,” Maggie said. “And, the last I
heard, you weren’t allowed to come anywhere near Bianca or the property.”

Maggie reached into her purse to dig out her cell phone, but Courtney stepped forward
and smacked it out of hand. It landed on the floor with a thud, and Courtney kicked
it across the room.

“Can’t I?” Courtney asked. “I disagree, especially as I’m about to have her arrested
for attempted murder.”

Bianca gasped. Maggie looked at her and then back at Courtney. “But that’s ridiculous.”

“Tell it to the sheriff,” Courtney said. “He should be here momentarily.”

As if on cue, they heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, and Maggie
felt her body sag in relief. Obviously, Courtney was delusional on top of being a
murdering drug addict, so it was awfully nice of her to call the police on herself.

Unfortunately, it was not Sam who entered the room. Instead, with the sharp tap of
her stilettos on the marble floor, Summer Phillips arrived in all of her leopard-print-micromini,
bleach-blonde glory.

“Courtney, darling,” she said as the two women air kissed. “I just went to the hospital
to see you, but they said you’d been released. Are you all right?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Courtney said. “It would take a whole lot more to kill me than the
stupid narcotic you used on your mother.”

She blasted a look of triumph at Bianca, who blinked at her in confusion.