The Monet Murders

I shook my head. “Sorry. Just thinking out loud. My name’s Deva Dunne. I opened a design shop on Fern Alley a few weeks ago.”

“We’re neighbors, then.” He held out his huge hand, pumping mine up and down with a surprising gentleness. “You’re a friend of Lee’s?”

“Yes,” I replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Lee rewarded me with a tremulous smile.

“We’re not busy right now,” he said to her. “Why don’t you take an hour off? Have a burger or something. Talk to your friend…ah…Deva. I’ll have Nancy cover for you.”

“What a nice man,” Lee said as Brad strode off.

“Absolutely,” I agreed, stopping short of adding, “One out of two ain’t bad.”

With a grateful sigh, Lee sank onto the steel mesh chair across from me. Her lips quivered, but she didn’t cry. “Daddy means well, but I had to leave home all the same. He wouldn’t let me do anything. Except go to work at Kmart. He didn’t want me to have friends, either. Not even girlfriends. And I’ve never had me a boyfriend. Not one. Not ever.”

“He wanted to keep you for himself?”

“I guess so. Since Momma passed, he’s been lonely but…”

“You have your own life to lead.”

She nodded, her eyes misty. “I stayed, though, till he told me to quit school. That’s when I left.”

“School?”

“FGCU. Florida Gulf Coast University,” she added, sitting up straight. “I’m an art major. Got me a scholarship, too. I plan to be a decorator just like you.”

Just like me. I wanted to cry. I’d seldom had a finer compliment.

“I’m renting a room two blocks over on Third Avenue, so I can walk to work, and I get a ride to class with a girl I know. Everything’s going just fine, except for-”

“Daddy.”

“Yes.”

Working nights and going to school days couldn’t be easy. She looked so frail and burdened I reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “Let’s order burgers and Cokes. You’ll feel better after you eat something.” She had a long way to go until the pub closed at midnight.

We had nearly finished eating when she surprised me with a question. “Deva, would you like some help in your new shop? When I peeked in the window the other day, I told myself I’d surely love to work there.”

I rested what was left of the burger on my plate. “I’m barely getting started, Lee. I can’t afford to hire anyone.”

Her eyes flared wide. “Oh, I don’t mean for pay. I mean kind of like a-what’s the word?-internship. Yes, that’s it. Internship. For the experience, like.”

I shook my head. “That would be taking unfair advantage of you. Besides, you have enough to do as is.”

“I worked at Kmart all through high school and after. I got to know the Martha Stewart line real good. Martha’s another decorating lady,” she added, “just like you.”

Just like me. I sighed and gave in on the spot. “What did you have in mind?”

The last bites of her burger abandoned, Lee leaned forward, eyes aglow. “Well, I’m free Wednesday and Friday afternoons from two to five. I kind of thought if you’re working all alone, you might need to leave, you know, to go to customers’ homes and stuff. I could keep the shop open. At least two afternoons a week.”

“Lee, has anyone ever told you that you’re a steel magnolia?”

Her brow furrowed. “No. What do y’all mean?”

“You’re strong.”

“I wish my daddy thought so,” she said, looking as wistful as an abandoned child.

“If he didn’t before, chances are he does now. Though you’d better be careful walking home at night. He might follow you.”

“It’s okay, Deva. He won’t hurt me.”

Hoping she was right, I glanced out onto Sugden Square. Couples strolling arm in arm had replaced the tourist families. As night deepened, the lights on the tree trunks transformed the palms into glimmering sculptures. A lovely sight, but I couldn’t keep staring at it without answering Lee’s question. Yet how to answer her? The last thing I wanted was to hurt her feelings, but with my entire future at stake, the truth was my only option. I pulled my gaze from the square and looked across the table.

She was a beautiful girl, anyone could see that, but I suspected her wardrobe consisted of jeans, Reeboks and T-shirts. Loose T-shirts. Daddy wouldn’t have allowed anything else.

“Well, for openers, interior designers sell the sizzle. The steak comes later.”

“Y’all confusing me, Deva.”

“What I mean is it’s an image business.”

She nodded, her brow creasing as she waited for me to make my point.

Oh boy, this wasn’t going to be easy, but I had no choice except to plunge ahead. “To put it in as few words as possible, you need a signature look.”

“A what?”

I blew out a breath. “Clothes.”

“Oh. I don’t have any,” she said, sagging back onto the metal chair. “Nothing but jeans and tops.”

She looked so upset, I quickly added, “I can help you with that. So say we agree…you work in the shop Wednesday and Friday afternoons.” I held up a warning hand. “On three conditions.”

She nodded before I could count them off.

Index finger: “You bring your homework. When the shop’s quiet, you get in some studying.”

Third finger: “As soon as I’m out of the red, you go on the payroll.”

Ring finger: “Before you start, I buy you a black dress and high-heeled sandals. Black is fabulous on blondes. Wait and see. And a string of chunky faux pearls.”

“I’ve never had no black dress before.”

We’d have to work on those double negatives, too, but not tonight.

“Tomorrow’s Wednesday, why don’t you stop by at two, and we’ll shop for a dress?”

The smile on her face drove away any misgivings I might have had-except for one. “If you’re going to work with me, there’s something I should warn you about.” I hesitated. What I had to tell her might kill our association before it began. I gave a mental shrug. No way to avoid that. She deserved to know. “I’m involved with the police.”

Before I could say another thing, she raised her right hand then dropped it, palm down. “Don’t you go worrying yourself one little bit, Deva. I read the newspaper this morning. I know all about that dead body you found.”

Chapter Four

So, apparently, did everybody else in town. On Thursday, for the second day in a row, the Naples Daily News headlined the double crimes. By Friday, local TV channels were focused on little else. Even CNN gave the story a mention, but except for questioning me at the scene, the police hadn’t contacted me.

I’d hung the bells back on the shop door, and each time they jangled I expected to see a cop in the doorway. So maybe it was a good thing for my nervous system that walk-in business was practically nonexistent.

Anyway, Friday was Rossi Day, and I was curious to see his place. How he lived, the colors on his walls, the furniture-the pictures of his old girlfriends-would all have a tale to tell, and I couldn’t wait to hear it. Anyway, considering his execrable taste in clothes, whatever his motive for hiring me, I probably had my work cut out, which was fine. A healthy person didn’t need a doctor, right?

At eleven I changed the arrow on the Open sign in the shop window to two o’clock and locked up.

It was good to know that if I didn’t make it back by two, Lee would reopen for me. As expected, she looked breathtakingly beautiful in her new black dress, her blond hair shimmering over her shoulders, her long, slim legs showcased in the new high-heeled sandals. What were a few double negatives in light of all that? She’d be a wonderful, reliable asset to the business, I was certain of it. Now I just had to drum up enough business to keep