Bad Hair 8 - Day Perish By Pedicure by Nancy J. Cohen Read Free Book Online Page A

home.”
    Marla gritted her teeth. “I have a maid who comes twice a month for the heavy-duty work. I do the rest myself.”
    “You don’t say. Well, if you talk to Dalton about it, I’m sure he’d be amenable to increasing her hours. With your combined incomes, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
    “We’ll see. Did you want toast with your eggs?” she asked Larry, desperate to change the subject. Normally she would have eaten a breakfast bar on her way out the door, but she didn’t want to hear Justine’s snide remarks about her dietary habits. Without further comment, she tossed together a cooked breakfast and choked down her portion. She couldn’t wait to leave.
    Pam’s mother was insufferable, she thought during the drive to the hotel. Instead of being grateful for her hospitality, Justine had the chutzpah to criticize her housekeeping. At least Georgia would act as a buffer later on.
    Arriving in the hotel lobby, she hadn’t gone two feet toward the concourse to the convention center when Georgia rushed over to her.
    “Omigod, Marla, omigod. You won’t believe what’s happened.”
    Tear marks stained her friend’s cheeks, and her normally bouncy hair hung in limp waves about her shoulders.
    “What’s going on?” Marla asked with concern.
    “It’s Christine. She’s dead, and I may have been the last person to see her alive.”
    Marla’s jaw dropped in shock. “How can that be? She seemed fine last night, other than a headache. Not surprising, considering how much she drank.”
    Georgia drew her toward a quiet corner. “A room-service waiter found her this morning, collapsed on her bathroom floor. The police have been questioning everyone from Luxor, especially those of us in the lounge with her last night. Oh, God, what am I gonna do?” She covered her face with her hands.
    “Whoa, slow down and start at the beginning. “You said the room-service waiter found Chris?”
    Georgia nodded. “Apparently she’d ordered breakfast the night before. When the steward came to deliver her tray, no one answered his knock. The door was ajar, so he entered and discovered Chris dead on the bathroom floor.”
    Marla motioned toward a couple of armchairs. “Go on,” she told her friend, folding her hands in her lap. Georgia looked awful. And of course she hadn’t put on any makeup, since Marla had brought her cosmetic bag from her suitcase only this morning, along with a change of clothes as requested.
    “Christine had been soaking her feet in one of those portable foot baths. The cop said she might have had a seizure and toppled over. I guess that’s their theory because she’d bitten her tongue. She ended up facedown in the water.”
    Marla pictured Chris with her head in the murky foot-spa water. “How horrible,” she said, grimacing. “Was there enough water in there for her to drown?”
    “They won’t know the exact cause of death until the medical examiner does an autopsy.” Georgia drew in a shaky breath. ‘They asked me if I knew anything about her medical history. Chris didn’t confide in me. I wouldn’t know if she was taking pills or had any problems.”
    “Maybe she had epilepsy or some disease no one knew about. In that case, I don’t understand why you’re so worried.”
    Georgia gave her a bleary-eyed look. “After you went home last night, Tyler headed upstairs to apologize to Christine. I came along to give him moral support, but the boss lady was in a bad mood and kicked us out. I stayed to argue with her, which was like trying to budge a tree trunk. I gave up, figuring we’d have a better chance to talk after a good night’s rest.”
    “Can Liesl verify what time you entered her room?”
    “She was sleeping. I’d gotten the key from the front desk. I fell onto the other bed and slept until the police banged on our door.”
    Tapping her chin, Marla frowned. “How did they know to question you?”
    “Tyler must have told them. But he was there, too. Chris was just as