Death on Heels (34 page)

“That part’s true.” Muldoon had quoted Lacey correctly in his otherwise embarrassing story about her.

“You think the guy who killed them is still out there? Somewhere?”

“Yes.”
Or here in Sagebrush
.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Vonda looked around the room warily. “I mean, I don’t believe it was that Tucker guy either. He never bothered anyone.”

“Effie said you’re worried about a friend?”

“Yeah. I haven’t heard from her in a couple of days.” Vonda’s eyes filled with tears. “Maybe she’s dead too.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions. There was a missing girl in Wyoming a couple days ago, but she turned up. Why do you think she’s missing? What’s her name?”

“Emily. Emily Ogden. She isn’t answering my texts or my calls. And we’re
best
friends.
”

Best friends. Lacey’s best friends had led her on many little misadventures, but they would always be there for her. It was understood. Lacey touched Vonda’s arm. “Where does she live? Could she just be sick, or visiting family, or a boyfriend?”

“She’s got an apartment, but she’s not there. I pounded on the door. No boyfriends right now. And she wouldn’t leave town without letting me know.” Vonda began to weep. “I know she wouldn’t.”

“What does Emily look like?”

Vonda sniffed and wiped the black liner running under her eyes. “She’s the pretty one. Guys always talk to her first, you know? I kind of hate that, but then they’ll talk to me too, so it’s kind of nice. When I’m here with Emily, guys always send over free drinks. You know?”

Lacey remembered nights in Sagebrush when she couldn’t pay for a drink, when the town was full of men who would try anything to meet a pretty single girl. The ones who stormed the Red Rose every Ladies’ Night.

“Some things never change,” she said. Vonda nodded, dabbing at her eyes.

Across the room, Rose was growing impatient. She picked up her wineglass and crossed the dance floor to Lacey, with Cherise trailing behind. They sat down without asking.

“Hello, I’m Lacey’s mother.”

“Hi, I’m Cherise. Lacey’s sister.”

“This is Vonda McKay.” Lacey’s expression said,
Don’t interfere with this!

“You seemed to need company,” Rose said. “You can tell us anything you can tell Lacey. We helped her take down a killer one time.”

“I used my cheerleader kick,” Cherise added, suddenly proud of that curious lethal ability.

Lacey issued The Look. Again. “We’re doing just fine by ourselves, Mom.”

“What is it, dear? What’s the matter?” Rose produced a fresh tissue and handed it to the weeping woman. Vonda wiped her eyes and blinked at the table full of Smithsonian women staring at her.

“Um, yeah. Thanks. Um. My best friend. Her name is Emily and she’s missing and—and I know something terrible has happened.”

“Go ahead, sweetie,” Rose encouraged her. “You can trust us. What’s she like, your friend?”

Thanks, Mom. Please go away.
But instead of clamming up as Lacey had feared, Vonda seemed to take comfort in Rose’s mothering.

“Emily is, like, about my size.”

“Petite, then,” Lacey said.

“Yeah. We’re the same age. Twenty-two. She’s got blue eyes and long blond hair, really light. That white-blond thing? That’s the first thing people notice about her. Only it’s natural—she doesn’t dye it. She doesn’t have to.” Vonda pulled self-consciously at her own spiky locks. “My hair’s hopeless. Anyway, Em’s genuinely nice too, so you can’t hate her for being so pretty.” Vonda looked miserable. “She’s gone and the killer’s got her. I just know it. Right here.” She thumped her chest.

“Who do you think has her?” Rose asked. “Do you think it was Cole Tucker?”

Vonda looked at Lacey. “No, no, no, it can’t be him. ’Cause he, like, sent you back, right? I’m thinking she’s been snatched by some weird guy who’s been hanging around, bothering her. Us.”

“Why would he take Emily and not you?” Lacey asked.

“Because Emily’s too nice for her own good. If I don’t want to be with someone, I let ’em know. Like, I go, Chill, dude! Back off! Not happening! You know?”

“That’s very straightforward of you,” Rose said. “I admire that, but some men don’t take no for an answer, do they?”

“To hell with them.” Vonda clenched her fists. “But Emily, she’s different.”

Cherise jumped in. “She never wants to hurt anyone’s feelings, right?”

“Right. She’ll be nice just to be nice and then these creepoids think they have a chance with her.” Vonda stared at her beer. “Sometimes you just gotta be a bitch, like me.”

“I wouldn’t have put it that way, Vonda, but you have a point,” Rose said. “For example—”

“And then there’s this old jerk who always comes sniffing around her.”

“Does this old jerk have a name?” Lacey cut in.
Dodd Muldoon? Zeke Yancey? Virgil Avery?
Just for starters.

“I don’t know. To be honest, there’s more than one. But this one, Emily doesn’t like him, but she lets him buy her drinks. He’s been after her, asking her out, a
lot
. And he’s bad enough, but he’s got these creepy friends he hangs with.”

“Do you know their names?”

“Made a point of not knowing them. Now I wish I had. When I see ’em come in here, I go the other way. These guys weird me out.”

“Can you describe them?”

Vonda rolled her eyes. “Older guys. I mean, like,
old
. Thirty-five or forty. Or even older.”

Rose nearly choked on her wine. “That’s old, all right.”

“Can you describe the one who bought her drinks?” Lacey asked.

“Big guy, dumb.” Vonda screwed up her face. “He reminded me of, I don’t know. Like an old cartoon character? He’s got all these teeth, crooked, and a really wide mouth, and, like, squinty eyes?”

“Yosemite Sam?” Cherise asked.

“No mustache.”

“Snidely Whiplash?” Rose suggested.

“No whip.”

“Elmer Fudd?” Cherise offered.
That might fit Homer Avery
, Lacey thought.

“No, like— I know. Daffy Duck. And all squinty-eyed? It’s worse when he smiles. Makes him look demented.”

Grady Rush. How many faces like that could there be in this town?
“A demented duck?”

“Yeah. And then there was this super sleazy guy, ugh, who used to hang around, but Effie threw him out.”

“What did he look like?”

Vonda cringed. “Dirty, black hair, bad skin, thought he was all that. Gross.”

Yancey?
“Have you called the police?” Lacey asked, already knowing the answer.

An expression of utter disbelief crossed Vonda’s face. “No freakin’ way! You don’t know the cops in this town now. Freakin’ bullies. And this guy, he works at the jail.”

“So he’s a sheriff’s deputy.”
Grady for sure.

“That’s it, a deputy! And those guys are just like cops, right? You think they’ll listen to me if I tell ’em my number one choice for the bad guy is one of them?”

Their waitress returned and the conversation stopped. Vonda wanted the burger sliders, and Rose and Cherise ordered salads. Lacey had already dined with Vic, and the thought of one more missing woman made her sick to her stomach.

“When did you notice Emily was missing?” Lacey asked.

“Monday night,” Vonda said.

“When I was with Tucker.”

“I guess. We met for lunch Monday and then we were supposed to meet up at Wal-Mart after work. Just to see if there was anything new, you know? Something to do.”

“Of course.” There were days when Lacey used to wander for hours through the Kmart store in Sagebrush just to feel like she was in a real town, with real stores. Before there even
was
a Wal-Mart.

“Emily never showed up.” Vonda caught her breath. “I called her. I texted her. I e-mailed like crazy. She hasn’t even checked in on Facebook. I called her work yesterday and today. They said she hadn’t come in. And she would never miss Ladies’ Night. It’s a big tradition. That’s why I’m here. I thought maybe she’d show up. We call Ladies’ Night at the Red Rose the Weirdo-Free Zone, long as you leave before nine.” Vonda started to pick at the blue polish on her nails. “She’s a secretary at the power plant. Talk about weirdos over there.”

“What do you do, Vonda?” Cherise asked.

“I work at Wild Bunch Taxidermy over on Sundance. The place with all the elk and mountain lions in the windows? I just do phones and the paperwork. But they say they’ll teach me taxidermy if I want.”

“Dead animals? Gross.” The former cheerleader opened her eyes wide. Lacey would have kicked Cherise under the table, but she was too far away. But Vonda didn’t mind.

“You sort of get used to it. The guys I work for are, like, artists. They do amazing stuff. I mean, yeah, the animals are
dead,
but they look alive. Hunters bring them there for trophies, but they kind of live forever this way, you know?”

Vonda “kind of sort of” liked her job. Lacey suspected there was no dress code, the taxidermy guys were probably cute in that outdoorsy kind of way, and Vonda was free to express herself with her spiky yellow hair.
There are worse jobs.
I’ve had them.

“What about Emily’s job at the power plant? Did she like it?”

“No way. It’s totally boring, and she gets hit on a lot. Jerks.”

“What about a boyfriend?” asked Cherise, the eternal romantic.

“She dated a guy from the power plant for a while. But he moved to Wyoming. It’s not like he broke her heart or anything. He just went away. Hey, I Googled you the other day,” Vonda confided to Lacey. “You’ve got, like, thousands of hits, you know that? Is it all true?”

“Is what true?” Lacey asked.

“That you figure out crimes by, like, looking at people’s clothes?”

“That’s an exaggeration—”

“No, it’s not,” Cherise said. “It’s completely true! Lacey’s like a fashion
dowser
. Some people find hidden water? She finds fashion crimes.”

“We’re talking about real crimes, Vonda,” Rose clarified. “Not silly things like how high your heels are. Unless you use them as a weapon.”

“Okay, I get that, but what about Emily?” Vonda asked. “What am I going to do?”

“This is going to sound crazy,” Lacey began. “Does Emily wear cowboy boots?”

“Oh, yeah. We love our boots!” Vonda nodded. “We bought our boots together. Cost a fortune practically, but we wanted something different. Really special. For our, like, kick-ass punky cowgirl look.”

Vonda swung her legs around to show her boots, buff-colored leather with inlaid turquoise and coral ornaments.

“Wow! So cute!” Cherise said, showing off her own pair of kick-ass cowboy boots. “Lacey has a cute pair too. Hey, sis, why aren’t you wearing your boots tonight?”

Déjà vu.
“What do Emily’s boots look like?”

“They’re white leather with a sunset design stitched across the top in different colors, blue and purple and green, orange and red and yellow. Like a blazing sunset. I thought they were maybe too much of a good thing. But Emily loves them.”

“What’s the matter, Lacey?” her mother asked. “And don’t tell me nothing. I can see it on your face.”

“What? What is it?” Vonda said. “If Emily’s dead—” She started to cry again.

Lacey looked at the other faces at the table. They were excited, curious, worried.

“What I say here does not go beyond this table. I’m dead serious.”

“How can you even ask?” Rose said, speaking for all of them. “It’s between us, until you say different.”

“The boots are a common thread among the victims. The killer has a favorite type.”

“Of boots?” Vonda looked puzzled. “I don’t get it.”

Cherise was getting it. “You’re saying those dead women all wore cowboy boots? But everyone wears cowboy boots up here! I thought I wouldn’t be allowed inside the city limits without mine.”

“Not just any boots,” Lacey said. “Extraordinary boots, eye-catching boots, expensive boots.”

“The murderer is attracted to their boots?” Rose asked. “That’s depraved.”

“Maybe. Maybe not just the boots, but the kind of women who wear the boots. Young, sassy, attractive. Kick-ass. Like Emily.”

“It’s disgusting,” Cherise said.

“Like I said. It’s a theory,” Lacey said. “I have no proof.”

“Oh, my God,” Vonda said. “The creepy guy wanted to party with me and Em together. Said he’d meet us tonight. He kept talking about our boots. After Ladies’ Night. Of course we weren’t going to do it, but what if he—” She couldn’t go on. Her voice was choked with sobs.

“Are you all right?” Lacey said.

Vonda put her hands on the table and staggered to her feet. “I’m going to be sick.” She ran for the ladies’ room.

Lacey ran after her. Inside the bubblegum pink and heavily mirrored C
OWGIRLS
restroom, she found Vonda rinsing her mouth with water.

“What am I gonna do?” Vonda asked, her eyes filling up with tears.

Cherise stormed through the door, followed by Rose. “We’ve got to go to the police,” Rose said.

“Absolutely,” Lacey agreed. “After we make sure Emily is really missing.”

Vonda wiped the runaway mascara from her eyes. “I just can’t face the cops alone. Lacey, will you help me?”

Oh, this will be swell. Another cross-jurisdictional rumble,
Lacey thought. Turning the Sagebrush cops, Vic’s old crew, loose on the sheriff’s department? The two overlapping law enforcement agencies had been rivals since long before Lacey and Vic ever set foot in town. The police department was no doubt still yukking it up over Tucker’s escape, the sheriff’s latest fiasco. Vic’s cops used to tattle to Lacey on the sheriff’s deputies, and the deputies told tales on the cops.
More déjà vu.

“Yes. We’ll do this together,” Lacey told her. Rose handed Vonda a fresh paper towel for her eyes.

“Of course we will, dear,” Rose said. “All of us.”

“That’s Emily’s Beetle,” Vonda said. “Right where she always parks it. So she must have got home from work Monday. But then after that— That’s her apartment, on the second floor. The one that’s dark.”

Cherise was at the wheel of the turquoise Oldsmobile station wagon. Lacey rode shotgun, and Vonda and Rose sat in the backseat. All eyes looked toward a slightly battered red Volkswagen Beetle parked at the curb.