He’s complimenting me and I trust it is genuine coming from Myles.
“Thank you for noticing,” I say pushing an empty chair in at his table. The others haven’t arrived yet. “I like it too. I try to treat myself sometimes, but I don’t want to send everyone into a frenzy. I can throw on the razzle-dazzle if I wanted to stand out. For now, I’ll take blending in with the crowd.”
Myles flashes a gleaming smile at me but removes it from his face as soon as his crew gathers at their table.
“Look at you,” says Lowell taking his seat at the table and gawking at me from head to toe. “This is how I like my hostess to look. You can host me anytime, Goddess.”
They all laugh except the Goodies Goodies. They look like they tasted something sour in their yogurts.
“Don’t you have trash to clean up?” asked Janyce Conway seating herself next to Lowell. “We don’t fraternize with the help, be gone, bitch.”
They all laugh out loud, except Myles, who appears to be ignoring them by looking at his phone.
“Damn, Jan, I thought Low was mean, but you’re just as low as he is. You two make the perfect pair,” says Alec patting Lowell on the back.
“Yes, we do,” says Janyce with a devilish grin on her face aimed at me. “He’s my demon twin”
It takes everything in me not to slap the shit out of this bitch’s plastic face with my water pitcher. Katelyn to the rescue, she forces me back toward the kitchen.
“Forget those bastards,” she says. “Have you learned any new information?”
“About the dead guy in the pool?” I ask setting down the water pitcher on the kitchen counter.
“Yes, girlie.”
“My grandmother told me last night the detectives think he was not a rich man and didn’t care about getting haircuts or trimming his beard often. You know, a working man, may have been between jobs or may have lost his job some time a short while ago. There is a person out there who wanted to kill him, but they undressed him, creamed him up, put on somebody else’s sunglasses on him, and threw him in our backyard pool to send us a message I guess. I’m thinking the suspect is a big guy since it did not take too much to kill him, just a couple of whacks to his head. He is also a man of wealth since he had some Ray-Ban sunglasses handy to squeeze on his face. This also shows he has a twisted sense of humor by sliding these sunglasses on his face and leaving him to face up floating around in our pool.”
“He is a character,” says Katelyn.
“Great, let’s add that to this bizarre case.”
“Should we assume the suspect felt the sunglasses would be a big clue to solving the question of who did it?”
“You know I don’t assume shit. What he forgot is that some of us have a wicked sense of humor too.”
“Some of us more than others, I’m afraid.”
“You’ve got that right. We all know several people who think they are humorous, but in reality, horrific, evil beings. I want to know what he did to this dead guy after he killed him to bring him to the pool. There are so many questions to answer to this puzzle. How was he transported to this pool? Why my grandparent’s pool in particular? Was it already planned and brought through the house as Wagner has already proposed by arresting Mrs. Villery’s niece? Or did the body come through the side gate of the backyard fence? We may think so by the spot on the side patio leading away from the grass. Was the suspect alone? Did the Villery’s or their niece help this person commit this act?”
“Lots of serious questions to be answered,” says Katelyn. “Maybe, we should stop playing detective and let the real ones handle it. It’s dangerous to get involved.”
“I’m already involved,” I state grabbing both of her arms. “They put the body in my grandparent’s pool. I don’t trust the police to do their job and solve this case. They may close this up as a cold case because it makes the area look bad.”
“I don’t know,” Katelyn says giving me an uneasy look. “My parents think some important people are involved.”
“Maybe, or could this be a silly joke played on the Clark household or my grandfather’s caregiver and it ended up badly for the guy in the pool? Does he have an enemy out there? Who are our neighbors on that street? Have they been questioned yet? Is Mrs. Villery having wild gardening parties at night or playing loud music for her flowers to grow faster and bigger? Are there other gardeners on the street competing with her to have the yard of the month? Are you listening to me, Katelyn? Help me find a motive in this mess. My grandmother is worried.”
“I understand. We have a crazed lunatic running around town stripping folks nude, throwing them in neighborhood pools and giving them a pair of expensive sunglasses as a parting gift,” suggests Katelyn.
“Rather a crazed genius. We don’t have a motive knocking down our door either. We don’t have any clothes or fingerprints to tie anyone to this body. They didn’t care about indecent exposure.”
“Aleta, you’re watching too many forensic episodes,” says Katelyn shaking her head from side to side.
A bell rings and I’m instructed by the kitchen lead to go back out on the floor.
“Come eat with me when you’re done,” Katelyn says walking out with me. “You need to have lunch too.”
“No, I pop a piece of fruit in my mouth here and there, so not hungry.”
“You’re making me eat alone a lot these days,” she says smirking. “I’ll have to reconsider this friendship.”
“Stop girl, we’ll catch up later,” I tell her with a large grin.
She is starting to sound like
