Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (39 page)

"Was there anything with the number set at all? A name? A word?"

I thought about it. "I don't know."

"If you brought it over, I could go through it with you. Maybe I'll pick something up."

Serena probably would spot something, but I suspected I'd
already
put her in enough danger just telling her about the book
, if it w
ere even
a clue
.
Generally a
pain
-
in
-
the
-
butt,
her
pregnancy seemed to have mellowed her a little. Much as I knew her help would probab
ly speed things up, my conscience
told me to not to put her in harm's way. It was bad enough someone
had left
decapitated
roses on my car
, I couldn't risk
anything happening to
Serena, too.

"No, it's okay. You're already so busy."

"I think it's time for a drink. You want one?"

"I would love one." A real one. One with a shot of vodka.

"Get me a fruit punch while you're there." Serena waddled off and plunked herself down in the middle of the gaggle, her bump narrowly
miss
ing the nail technician
,
who lurched to the side just in time
.

I sighed. So much for mellowed sisterly bonding. I was back to my position of being Serena's go
f
er. I went to get my sister a fruit punch
,
seeing as I couldn't give her the fist variety with my mother watching.

~

"I hate to run," said Mom,
as the first guests left,
"but your father and I have a date at the community theater."

"Have a nice time," I said, trying to stomp the mental image of my parents
out
on a date night. On the other hand, dating in their late sixties was quite sweet. So long as they only dated each other. If they got into swinging, I was leaving town. I walked my mother to her car and she got in, rolling down the window to talk to me. "Be careful if you're out walking at night," she told me firmly.

"When do I ever go walking at night?"

"Well, be careful if you do. Someone ran over Mayor Mathis and left him to die in the road."

"I saw it in the newspaper."

"So sad, that poor family. They were really struggling and now to lose him like that."

"They weren't exactly poor." Mayor Mathis came from old money and everyone knew it. They owned a large house in Bedford Hills and the
ir
family
was traced back to
some of
Montgomery's founders.

"Anita Mathis is in my
crochet
circle. They've lost a lot of money over the years. Things haven't been good. I blame it on the economic crisis. Anyway, just be careful. I don't want to get a call saying you're road
kill
.
Make sure you wear clean, matching underwear anyway.
"

"Thanks, Mom. Drive safe." I waved her off
before joining
Serena at the door to
bid
her guests goodbye and hand out the party
favors—
little truffles shaped into baby bootees with piped lacing
—as
we
waved the last of them away.

"Fabulous shower," said Mindy
Laws
,
the
final
guest to leave, as she
air kiss
ed first me
,
then Serena before sweeping out to her white Range Rover. Subtle, it was not.

"It's fun to do something different, isn't it?" Serena air kissed her back. "I hate her," she said, after the door was shut.

"She was your best friend all the way through school!"

"I think I hated her then too. She always d
id
everything first."

"She never went to Harvard," I pointed out. "And she didn't marry Ted."

"I think she slept with him."

My mouth dropped open. I couldn't ima
gine Mindy as a harlot. Wait...
yes, I could.
She had been head cheerlead
er and a mean cow through my teen years
, though she and Serena graduated before I started high school
.
"When?"

"In my second year at Harvard. She came to visit."

"But you don't know for certain?"

"No. But we were at a house party
,
and when we left, she
had her panties in her pocket a
nd she
had
just c
o
me out of Ted's room."

"Classy."

"But I married him," said Serena
not
as smug
ly
as she normally would.

"And now you're having a baby,
"
I reminded her.

"And I'm going to lose my job. And I'm fat!" Tears pooled in Serena's eyes.

I put my arm around Serena and gave her a little squeeze. "You're pregnant, not fat. And when you have the baby, you'll be skinny again and we'll all hate you too."

"Thanks." Serena dabbed her eyes with a cotton handkerchief, and yawned. "I need to sleep. I nap constantly."

"Go sleep. Lily and I will let the clean
ing crew
in
,
and you’ll
wake up to a pristine house."

"Thanks, Lexi. You're the best."
That did it.
There was definitely something wrong with Serena
,
but I chose to
blame it on
hormones. I shooed Serena off to her bedroom and Lily and I set about putting the house to rights. The leftover food was cling
-
wrapped and placed in the refrigerator, along with the jugs of juice. The stacks of onesies were left to dry in the living room and all the leftover craft materials were bagged for the bin. On second thought
,
I taped a note
,
suggesting
M
om might want them for one of her classes or community projects.
The cleanup crew finished
the rest
,
and
someone from Alessandro's came by to retrieve the plates and glassware
along with
the table, tablecloth and
matching
napkin
s.

"I hate to run out on you," said Lily, "but I have a date."

"You didn't say!"

"It's just a guy I met a couple of weeks ago. He's nice."

"I thought you were holding out for my brother."
I didn’t mention Scott from Green Hand. Or the barman.

"Oh, honey. I've given up on Officer Tasty." Lily said th
at
approximately once a month. I never believed her.

"No! He likes you, I swear." I knew he did. Being several years older, Jord never looked Lily's way during school
;
but by the second year of college
,
that
definitely changed. Not anything outlandish,
although
there were plenty of subtle looks when he thought no one
saw him
. He never
lacked for
a date, but never once asked Lily out even though we
all
gradually came to expect it. Even my father, usually oblivious to the dating lives of his children, asked Jord when he was going to pull his finger out and,
“
screw dating, just marry the girl.
”
Jord said she was too young for him,
and
when she was older, he didn't want to ruin our friendship
;
then it was because he didn't want to settle down, not that Lily was asking. He looked at her like she was an ice cream on a hot day, so I didn't understand his reticence.

"Then he can do the chasing. I'm done," said Lily, spoiling her decisive tone when she added, "Maybe that
’
ll put a
spark under
Jord's ass."

"I'll make sure I mention your date to him." I smiled conspiratorially. "Give me five minutes. We're almost done here anyway." Lily waited impatiently while I supervised the last of the cleanup, ushering the crew out a few minutes later and ensuring they all had their
compensation
.

After distributing the
vases of
roses through the house
,
and checking everything was perfect, I went to
see
Serena. She was snuggled under a blanket, her shoes kicked off, fast asleep. I bent over, kissed her on the cheek, raided her
kitchen for left
overs, locked up and drove us home
. I
frown
ed
when
a car that had
been
follow
ing
us the last couple of blocks pulled over a few houses
away
from our building. It was probably just a coincidence. Paranoia was clearly getting to me.

Lily
said a quick goodbye and hurried to her apartment to change
,
so I went straight up to my
place
. I
let myself in
and grabbed a plate, taking it
to
the living room to unload my leftovers. After
all my
running around at the shower, making sure everyone had plenty to
eat and
drink,
not to mention got
in line for
their spa
treatments, I'd barely eaten anything
. My lunchtime sandwich was
ages
ago
and my stomach made ominous rumbling sounds. I changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, and switched on the TV, tuning in to watch the last half of a weepy Hallmark movie while
I stuffed
myself. During the
end credits
, I went over to the windows to close the drapes. Looking down, I noticed the car I'd seen earlier, parked a couple houses away,
was
still there. It stood out because it was pretty
thrashed
and the two occupants
remained in it
.
I frowned
again
and went back to the movie.