“Like I said, I get it. But this particular situation really has Coop down in the dumps. I was hoping I could at least help bring some closure. But Tansy shut me down real fast.”
“Well, how about we talk about your dilemma instead?”
“My dilemma?”
He cleared his throat and looked me in the eye. “Artur. He’s a pretty big dilemma.”
My stomach sank. He was definitely a dilemma. One I put off facing every day. “Okay… What’s there to talk about?”
I’m not sure I’m ready to find out what Artur means in my life, or even the how and why of his entry to my body. I only know, it’d had been very quiet for a little while and, with the exception of one incident last month where he’d made me draw a picture of St. Aloysius By The Sea—a drawing I hadn’t shown anyone—nothing significant had happened.
Maybe I was burying my head in the sand, but my life is going pretty great. I think I’m afraid to upset the applecart.
Though, I suppose if I told Higgs about the drawing, he’d call that significant.
“I might have an idea,” he said, interrupting my thoughts.
“Oh, I love ideas. They’re all the rage, I hear.”
His eyes narrowed with that warning I’d become so accustomed to. “Stop making jokes and hear me out.”
I squirmed in my seat. The subject made me so uncomfortable. “All right. All ears. Go.”
“Let’s road trip.”
“To? Rome? The Vatican? The demon store, so we can see if they take returns on my kind of demon?”
He chucked me under the chin with a devastatingly handsome grin. “Still funny.” Then he shook his head. “No. Rome’s more of a commitment than even I have in me. I was thinking more along the lines of the convent.”
I blinked and gave him a blank stare, my stomach somersaulting at the very thought. “My convent? My former convent?”
“Yep. What better way to find out what happened to you than to return to the scene of the crime?”
Coop burst through the door then, her chest heaving, her face, while still impassive, beet red, saving me having to answer Higgs.
“Trixie Lavender!” she called as she skidded to a stop in front of me, her hair wet from the rain.
I know when Coop’s upset, which isn’t often, but this was her frantic, anxious tone, and I’d only experienced that once or twice. Something was really bugging her.
Leaning forward, I set my laptop aside. “Coop? Are you okay?”
“No,” she offered, rapidly shaking her head. “I have some information and we need to investigate it. Now. Right now,” she basically demanded, stomping her foot on the floor. “I mean, please. Please put your shoes on and come with me.”
“Wait, Coop, what’s going on?”
“I just realized that I videotaped some of the event.”
My ears perked up. “Okay, and?”
“And listen. Listen and watch closely.” She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and hovered over the play button.
I took the phone from her and saw the wide expanse of Cobbler Hall, full of people wandering about. Coop must have stopped with the friend she’d made at our table right by the big throne and archway, where everyone had been taking pictures. They were chatting lip primer when someone stepped in front of them, a woman with long blonde hair hanging all the way down her back, and sporting a beautiful white, glimmering pantsuit with flared legs and a matching blazer.
When she turned around, I instantly recognized her as one of the makeup gurus listed in the sidebar on YouTube. Her videos had come up often as suggested viewing.
I hit pause. “Who is that, Coop?”
“That’s Susie-Susie and her assistant. She’s another makeup guru. Listen to what she says, Trixie,” she insisted.
I pressed play again and watched carefully as Susie-Susie muttered to her assistant, “Just you watch and see what ends up happening to the darling of the YT. Miss Fakey-Fake Mitzy’s in for a real surprise when this is event of hers is all over.”
Chapter 7
My mouth fell open while Higgs asked, “Susie-Susie, huh? Is this a pseudonym or is it standard practice that all the makeup ladies have two first names?”
Coop rolled her eyes as she yanked my arm. “It’s just her stage name, Higgs. Don’t be obtuse. Her full name is Susan Masters, and she’s been on YouTube for a long time. She’s quite respected.”
I made a face at Higgs and giggled. “Yeah. Don’t be so obtuse.” Then I turned to Coop as I handed her the phone and gave what I’d just seen a bit of rational thought. “This could mean anything, Coop. She could be talking about a million things. Not necessarily murder.”
“Want to know why I think she might have murdered Mitzy?” Coop asked, her tone of the “I have a secret” variety. That in itself intrigued me. She was really learning inflection.
“Of course I want to know, Coop. What makes you think she might have murdered Mitzy?”
She widened her eyes and rolled her head on her neck. “Mitzy stole her boyfriend, Luca Stoker,” she answered with a definite hint of recognizable sass.
Higgs let out a very girlish gasp, his eyes going wide. “No! She stole Susie-Susie’s boyfriend? How…how ratchet!”
Coop reached down and gave him a playful punch. “Stop making fun and using words that sound ridiculous coming from a man your age. It’s a valid motive, Higgs, and you know it. Why do people kill? Jealousy, passion, revenge, money. Those are all motivators. If she was jealous of Mitzy because she took her boyfriend, why wouldn’t she kill her?”
I narrowed my gaze at Higgs and gave him the “knock it off” signal with my eyes. “She’s right, Higgs, but what I question is if that’s what she meant. I mean, why would she say that out loud in a public place, Coop? It
