Nina had Sophie and Nimrod on tiny leashes, and they ran wildly around each other until they were hopelessly tangled. Gretchen secured Tutu and went to work untangling the puppies.
'There you go,' Gretchen said, handing them back to Nina.
'I ran into Bonnie on the way in,' Nina said. 'She said to remind you that cocktails start at five at her house. We'll finish up here at four o'clock, pack up, and head right over.'
Nina hung the empty traveling purses on each side of Gretchen's chair and scooped the puppies onto her table.
'I've signed up enough clients to keep me busy for two months,' she announced. 'This show has been great for my business.'
April leaned against Gretchen's table. The entire table shifted. 'It's wrecked my business,' she grumbled. 'I've never had so many customers, yet so little business, at the same time.' April lowered her voice while Nina fussed with the dogs. 'Next show I'm going back to a solo enterprise. Either that or…' she glanced at the dogs, 'I'm changing careers.'
'Nina, can you watch my table for a few minutes?'
Gretchen asked, already making her way down the aisle.
'Sure,' she heard Nina say.
She found Matt on the far side of the hall near the main door, leaning against Shelley Mack's doll table and writing in a notebook. He was dressed in shorts and T-shirt, sunglasses on top of his dark hair, the faint smell of Chrome cologne hanging in the air.
Gretchen took a deep breath of the scent. 'You're asking people about me?' she said, trying but failing to keep the concern out of her voice.
'Routine,' he replied, looking at her with those deep, piercing eyes. 'Didn't your mother teach you any manners? It's polite to greet me warmly to throw me off guard before any type of verbal assault. It's a rule. Care to start over?'
'Keep my mother out of this.' Gretchen crossed her arms defiantly, then thought better of the defensive poseand swung her hands to her hips. Being around Matt always threw her timing off. 'You're going about the entire investigation all wrong,' she said.
'Ah, so you came over to tell me how to do my job.' He tucked the notebook in a back pocket and pushed off from the table.
Shelley Mack leaned across her doll table, squeezing her arms together to expose as much cleavage as possible.
'Anything else I can do to help, Detective Albright?' She was obviously even more affected by the cologne than Gretchen. Shelley batted goo-enhanced eyelashes.
'Thanks, Shelley. That pretty much wraps it up. You've been a big help.'
'I'll be right here if you need me.'
Matt stepped away from the doll table, and Gretchen followed.
'Let's go outside,' he said. 'I can't breathe in here.'
'Don't you want to hear my alibi?' she said when they found a slice of shade under a palm tree.
'Do you feel you need one?'
'I think I do, since you've been asking everyone else about it.'
'Shoot.'
'Shoot?'
'Tell me where you were when Ronny Beam was
killed.'
Gretchen told him about Bonnie's offer to watch her table and about the Boston group discussing Blunderboos.
'Milt remembered that I was there, and your mother can tell you that she wanted me to see the club's Kewpies.'
'I still see a gap in time where you aren't accounted for,' Matt said. 'But I don't think it matters. I think we have our man.'
'Steve? You don't still think he did it?'
'He argued with the deceased shortly before the murder. His fingerprints are on the knife, and several witnesses saw him out in the parking lot before Ronny was killed. How much more evidence would you like?'
'But what about the real murder weapon?'
'The tire iron didn't have any prints on it.'
'Steve isn't capable of murder.'
'Everyone has the potential.'
Brett, Percy O'Connor, and Ronny Beam were connected through a trail of Kewpie dolls. So was she, for that matter. The messages inside the Kewpies made her fear she was involved more deeply than she wanted to be. Should she tell him everything she knew?
If she told him about the deliveries, he might think she was making a clumsy effort to shift suspicion away from Steve. Would he look more closely at her?
Matt Albright was too full of himself to see the truth. Arrogant, selfabsorbed, stubborn… She searched for more adjectives to describe him. Why did she even think for one moment that she could confide in him?
The detective standing in front of her with the ridiculous smirk would probably scoff at her concerns and dismiss them out of hand as sheer fantasy.
'Has Steve requested legal representation yet?' Gretchen asked instead.
'I offered, he refuses. Says he's waiting for you. That's one of the reasons I circled your name in big bold red pen. Any idea what he's talking about?'
'None,' Gretchen said. Was Steve trying to protect her?
How chivalrous of him to come through for her. Finally. But too late. 'Can I see him?'
'No. He's still in a holding cell. Until he's charged, he can't have any visitors.'
'How long can you hold him without charging him?'
'Not much longer.'
His eyes locked onto hers. Gretchen squirmed under his gaze. What was it about this man? He induced too many conflicting emotions.
'I wouldn't have pegged him as your type,' Matt said.
'I thought you'd go for someone… I don't know… more sensitive, more artistic.'
'Really?'
'Anyway, I'm sorry it happened to you. Your boyfriend's in a heap of trouble.'
'I don't know how many times I have to say this…'
Gretchen didn't finish the sentence. Why bother?
She stomped back to her table, plopped into her chair, and selected a five-piece toddler doll from the repair pile. Before Gretchen could immerse herself in repair work and temporarily forget all the peripheral intrigue going on, Nina, canines in tow, walked the few steps from April's table. 'I kept an eye on your table, but nobody wanted to buy anything. The place is starting to clear out. What's wrong? You're so pale.'
'Steve's still in jail. I guess witnesses saw him in the parking lot.' She leaned back in the chair. 'Matt must think I know what happened or that I'm an accomplice of some sort.'
'Your knife and Steve's fingerprints? It doesn't look good.' Nina bent down to stroke the three dogs on the floor around her feet. Tutu put her jealous little muzzle under Nina's hand every time Nina gave Nimrod or Sophie attention. 'I bet that's exactly what he thinks.'
Nina straightened, and her face turned the color of Elmer's glue. At first Gretchen thought it was because of what she'd just said, but Nina was staring at Gretchen's arm. 'Don't move,' Nina said, jerking her hand out in front of her like a cop stopping traffic. 'I don't want to panic you, but sit very, very still.'
April, coming up behind her, looked at Gretchen and screamed.
'Quiet,' Nina commanded.
Gretchen did what Nina asked. 'What?' she said, barely breathing.
April had her hand at her mouth.
Nina grabbed a Barbie doll. 'An insect crawled out of Nimrod's purse. It's on your arm. Maybe I can flick it
