He shook my hand and began to walk away, but then he stopped. “Miss Lavender?”
“Yes?”
“There was one thing I do remember, and I told the police about it. They didn’t say I couldn’t say anything, so I guess it can’t hurt to tell you, too.”
Yep. Right on time. My spidey tingle alert raced along my arms. Forcing myself not to appear too eager, I said, “What’s that, Mickey?”
“The night before the event, in Mitzy’s hotel room—which was right next door to mine—I heard her arguing with someone.”
Ding-ding-ding! My grip on Higgs’s hand tightened. “Do you know who it was?”
Mickey shook his head. “Nope. I was so tired after a long flight and sitting through her rules speech and the NDA signing that I just wanted to go to bed. I was afraid to even leave my room because we weren’t supposed to talk to anyone. But I did hear one thing.”
I began to salivate. “And that was?”
“The name Kelly.”
That was when my mouth went dry.
“Okay, so this is what we know.”
Jeff cocked his head as he sat on my lap in my office at the shop, and I scratched his ears. “”Whadda we know, Trixie?” he asked, leaning into me with a moan.
“No one—and I do mean almost no one—liked Mitzy Cavanaugh.”
Not a single living soul, it would seem.
“Yeah,” he moaned. “She was some piece a work. Meaner ’n a one-eyed troll.”
My head bounced in agreement as I looked at my laptop and prayed Facebook would decide to right itself soon so I could look at Kelly’s profile. Every time I typed in her name, or the name of the high school Mitzy went to, or anything for that matter, the site crashed.
I’d like to have a word with Mr. Zuckerberg at this point. I really needed to see if I could find something out about Kelly and her family.
“And we know that she had an argument with some faceless person about Kelly. I’m going to assume it’s the Kelly she allegedly bullied in high school. That information according to Margot, who couldn’t get away from Mitzy fast enough.”
“Do you really think you can bully somebody into committin’ suicide, Trix? That’s pretty extreme action to take.”
I thought about that for a minute. “I think you can certainly pile on to someone who’s already feeling pretty low. We don’t always know what’s going on with someone. What their home life is like. What challenges they face. Sometimes it just takes one tiny straw to break the camel’s back. Which is why I preach kindness at all costs—because you don’t know.”
“Yeah. That’s for sure,” Jeff agreed, settling down in my lap with a yawn.
Smiling down at him, I stroked his back and said, “Then there’s Sally, who had an entire makeup palette launch go to you-know-where in a handbasket because Mitzy ruined her chances of selling anything with her allegedly fake eye infection. There’s Susie, who’s boyfriend Mitzy all but snatched right out from under her nose, and Ames, who lost a huge deal to her because she swooped in and stole the sponsorship. And finally, we have Alma Zon, who didn’t love how popular Mitzy had become after hosting her on her YT channel.”
“All very likely suspects. Seems everyone’s a suspect with Mitzy,” Jeff retorted.
I leaned forward and cupped my chin in my hands, noting Facebook was still down. “Seems you’re right. And you know what that leaves me with, Jeff? Bupkis. Nothing. Zero.”
“You’ve been here before, Trix. You’ll figure it out.”
I snorted a laugh. “I never truly figure it out, Jeff. It usually falls in my lap—and almost always when it’s too late. Sure, I get lots of leads and I talk to a lot of people and I talk a good game, but I never go all the way. No homerun, and quite frankly, it’s getting old.”
Jeff stretched and yawned again. “But I believe in ya anyways, Trix. You’re wicked awesome.”
I pressed a kiss to my fingertips and touched his cold nose. “I love you, Jeffie. You’re the best shared dog a group of misfits like us could ever have.”
I gave up on Facebook for the moment and hit Twitter, but it didn’t appear as though Kelly or her mother had a Twitter account.
I noted Mitzy was trending again, and as I scanned the hashtag #Glitzyditziesforever and #Squeeeallday, I read all the words of condolence, saw all the GIFs of people crying, and scoured them for any underhanded meaning, but I didn’t find any.
Certainly nothing that said, “Remember high school?”
While I waited to meet Susie, I rechecked Mitzy’s page on YouTube and looked at all the comments to see if anyone had posted anything untoward, but there was nothing. Nothing but a lot of condolences and disbelief.
And still Facebook was down. Argh!
Checking the time on my phone, I decided to head out to meet Susie for coffee a little early. Maybe the walk to the coffee shop beneath her building would help clear my head.
“Jeff? I have a date with Susie for coffee. I’m afraid we have to part ways, Snuggle Bunny.”
He sighed sleepily and stood back up. “Just when the nappin’ was good,” he joked, hopping down off my lap and heading toward his bed, hunkering down. “Have a good one.”
“Higgs’ll be here at four to collect you for dinner. See ya later, buddy,” I said, rubbing the spot under his chin one last time.
The shop was rather quiet this late in the day, there was no hum of the tattoo guns or the sound of chatter as people excitedly waited to get their tattoos. Waving to Knuckles, who was cleaning his station, I told him I’d catch him later for dinner and headed out.
It was still raining (surprise—when isn’t it raining in Portland?), so I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and began the walk to Susie’s. I probably could have taken an Uber, but the exercise would do
