Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (30 page)

I
signaled
furiously to Lily. On seeing me, she broke away from her gaggle of admirers and trotted over,
arms pulled up to her chest and fingers tipped forwards,
clearly taking the pony
role
very
seriously
.

"This is so much fun," she said, pretending to rear
,
then shaking her hair.

"
Great.
Look over my shoulder. You see Sylvia? I need to find out what she's saying."

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"Every time I move towards her, she gets a frightened look in her eye
,
and moves away." I grabbed Lily by the arm and led her backstage,
away from prying ears
. S
liding
between
the gaps in the side displays and through a door,
we found
ourselves in what looked like a small dressing room. It was empty.

"She's one of your suspects?
Or is it the redhead?
"

"
The redhead is Amanda, the sous chef. Sylvia’s
my top suspect
,
a
nd I think she's planning something. I need to know what
,
and if Amanda is
also
involved
,
"
I added as an afterthought. I hoped she hadn’t sabotaged the cookies. They were so tasty.

"We need a disguise," said Lily, looking past me.
“Then we can get closer.”

For a moment
,
I didn't know what Lily was talking about
. T
hen she took a step past me and picked up something voluminous and pink
,
draped across a clothes rail
. I
t took another long stare for me to grasp what Lily picked up.

"No way," I said.

"It's fabulous," said Lily
, her eyes gleaming. "It's every girl's dream!
"

"It's a nightmare!"

Lily and I both looked at the costume
she
now
held in
her arms. My hand reached forward of its own accord and stroked it. It was made of soft pink
,
faux fur. One part had
the
fur cleverly constructed around a stiff cage formed into a horse's head
,
with a brilliant multi-colored mane
. It was
beautifully combed and finished with colorful beads,
while
the body morph
ed
into two
hooved
legs
,
and a long
flap at the back, trimmed with V
elc
r
o. The other half was clearly the
rear end. There were
another pair of legs with black patent
leather
hooves and a
sweeping
tail
that
protrud
ed
proudly
.

"Toss you for the head," said Lily
, pulling
a coin out of her pocket. "Heads for heads."

"Tails." The decision
-
making proc
ess was far too literal for me
,
b
ut I won
,
so who cares? "I'm taking the head. You're the butt."

"Yay!" she said, clapping her hands and bouncing.
"I feel my whole life has been leading up to this
very
moment. Oh, look, headsets. Do you think these work?"

Lily handed me one of the two headsets clipped to the costume. There was a small earpiece and a microphone. It was pretty hi-tech for a fancy dress costume
,
but at least
,
it would make
our
communication easier.

We slid the headsets on
;
then,
trying to cover my mounting discomfort, I pulled the pony costume over my suit and fastened the thick band
around
my waist. The hooves barely covered my heels, and I had to hope no one would wonder why this
Super Pony
shopped at Nine West. I pulled the head on
,
and played about with my arms for a moment. It made sense to reach up
through the neck
and grip the cage of the head, giving the heavy
prop
a little more stability
over my own normal-
sized head.

"This is surprisingly comfortable," said Lily, her voice crackling through the headset. "I might have to get some furry pants."

"Just stop shaving your legs," I sug
gested. I heard the crackle of V
elcro fastening the suit together
,
then Lily's hands went about the harness on my waist.

"I can't see a thing," she said. "You?"

"
I think
I'm l
ooking through the nose
. Just hang on and follow me. We'll sidle up to Sylvia
, listen in and then we’ll go
."
I crossed my fingers
inside
the frame
and hoped
that Sylvia was still out there.

"Okay," said Lily. "Giddy
-
up."

By the time we got out of the backstage area, slinking not so unobtrusively into the open, we had just about sorted out our walking. I had no doubt that our gait didn't resemble an actual horse's
in any way,
but I was fairly certain no one gave a horse's poop. As we plodded through the main area, past the stalls, lots of the guests paused to stroke us and take pictures.

"Someone just squeezed my butt," said Lily, her voice a whisper in my ear through the headset. "I don't think you're supposed to do that to horses."

"Horses kick
,
you know."

"
Good thinking."

I heard an “O
w
!”
somewhere behind us and
had to fight hard not to laugh.

"Trot on," said Lily. "I don't want to get mounted."

An image of Lily and
me,
splayed on the floor,
with
a fat man squashed between us flashed into my mind
. Or, even worse, Brian.
"Me neither," I said
, pointing
the head towards where I last saw Sylvia. We plodded aroun
d for a bit until I spotted her, still talking with Amanda.

"Straight ahead. Follow me!"

"Good idea," said Lily, dryly.
“Why didn’t I think of that?”

I got as close to Sylvia as I could, and stood there
,
trying to look winsome and not like I was a eavesdropping
.
C
ome to think of it
now
,
we
probably
didn’t make
the
Super Ponies
’
get
-
up
look like
the most unobtrusive thing in the world. I held my breath as Sylvia looked over us,
shaking
her head
in disbelief before turning
back to Amanda.

I edged closer, Lily shuffling behind me.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Shh! I'm listening." I watched as Amanda took something from her pocket and handed it to Sylvia. I couldn't see what it was
;
though
judging
from the way Sylvia's arms moved
, I think
she opened it, took a look
at whatever it was
,
then stuffed it in
to
her pocket. She sighed, gave her hair a quick shake
and said something. "I can't hear anything," I whispered.

"Let's get closer."

I edged another couple of footsteps closer
,
until I was only a foot or two away and held
perfectly
still
, hoping that the six
-
foot
-
tall
,
pink
,
plush pony staring at them wasn’t
too
off-putting
. Sylvia turned and looked at us again
;
and I tried playing nonchalant
,
which was harder than it
sounds
when you’re a freaking pony
.

"You need to tell him,"
I heard
Amanda
say
.

"I will," said Sylvia.

"He's worried all the time. All he thinks about is everything that's
happened
. He can't concentrate."

"If I tell him, it'll make things worse," Sylvia replied.

"What c
ould
be worse than...”
Amanda didn't finish her sentence because at that moment I felt a bump behind us. Lily squealed and someone giggled
, the sound muffled by the head frame
.

"Something is attacking me!" Lily shrieked
,
and I winced as the feedback reverberated
around my head
.

"What?" I wheeled around, almost knocking us off balance
as I lost
my
grip on the head. I righted it
just in time to see Lily's hoof strike out and catch a purple pony in
the
region
on a horse that
would be
the testicles. I suspected by the hollow scream, that it was roughly the same place for the man in the
back
end of the
suit. The front end did a little dance and crossed his legs
,
while the back end sank to his knees, the faux fur material pulling taut between them. I swung my head and butted the other pony
,
and we had to jump back as it charged us, dragging the back end behind it
, the legs scrambling for purchase
.

"Shit. We lost Sylvia," I said to Lily
, swinging the head to where the two women had just
been standing
.

"What is going on out there?" she screeched back.
“I can’t see anything. I
don’t like this? OhmyGod
!
W
hat was that?”

A small crowd had gathered at the commotion, winding into a ring around us, waiting to see what would happen next.

"We have a situation," I said as th
e other pony stepped closer, it
s head swingin
g from side
-
to
-
side menacingly as
its patent leather
hooves pawed the floor.
Smoke blew out its nose.
How did it do that?

Before it could charge us,
the lights suddenly went out, plunging the exhibition
center
into darkness and I froze. Someone screamed.

"What just happened?"
asked
Lily.

"The lights all went out. I can't see anything."

She paused. "Are they back on yet?"

"Nope. Let's wait a moment." Except at that moment
,
there was a blood
-
curdling scream
,
and then another.

"What's that?" a man shouted.

Then, another voice screamed. "I've been stabbed!" and pandemonium broke out.

"We've got to get out of here," I said
hurriedly
. "Someone's been stabbed. I see the exit.
The sign is all lit up but the rest of the lights are still out.
"

“Gee
-
up!”
I got a bump from behind and
took
the hint. It was pitch black, the room half
-
full, and someone had just been stabbed. We had to get out of here. We raced
to
escape
, jostl
ing
this way and that as we competed
with average
-
sized humans
for t
he double
-
door
ed
exit. Lily grabbed onto my waist and hung on.

Someone yelled, "Follow the pony!"