Murder Take Two by Charlene Weir Read Free Book Online Page B

Bicycles. Did these California people know it rained here? One solid Kansas gullywasher and that’s it, Joe. No movin’ anything except the bicycles.
    Sheri Lloyd was in her own cubicle with her name on the door, but she didn’t care to come with him. After some convincing, she got up and followed along, high-heeled sandals tottering over taped cables on the uneven ground. She made her displeasure apparent when he then asked her to wait, standing right out there under the cottonwood, in the heat if not the sun. “It’s too damn hot,” she repeated many times. He had to admit she had a point there.
    â€œWhere’s Ms. Jones?” he asked.
    â€œI have no idea. You said they wanted to see me.” Sheri twitched her shoulders, raised a hand, and flicked long bronze hair over her shoulder.
    â€œYes, ma’am. It’ll be only a moment.” He wanted her all lined up to go as soon as they were finished with the director. With Lieutenant Parkhurst looking like a storm about to happen, Yancy didn’t want to give him any aggravation. You couldn’t tell so much with the chief. She just always looked poised and classy, kind of haughty with her blue eyes and dark hair, but he didn’t think she was any too cool either. She hadn’t wanted the movie here from the start, back when everybody else thought it was more exciting than Fourth of July fireworks.
    â€œWell—” Sheri smiled at him. She had the prettiest, whitest, straightest teeth he’d ever seen, dazzling bright in her tanned face. Everything about her dazzled. Well-toned muscles. Surfing probably. Wasn’t that what they did in southern California? When they weren’t in aerobics classes.
    She surely did not like to be kept waiting. She pointed that out to him over and over. Not that he blamed her. It was hot; little beads of sweat stood out on her smooth forehead. She constantly tugged at the ends of her skimpy white top thing. No bra. He admired the flexibility of the red shorts that were just a little bit too short—exposing small half-moons of her buttocks, also tanned, he noted—and the shapely length of thigh and curve of calf.
    â€œHow come they want me? I wasn’t even in there when she fell.”
    â€œI wouldn’t know, ma’am.”
    Delicately, she patted fingertips at the hollow of her throat. “Is it always this hot here?”
    â€œNo, ma’am. Only half the time, the other half you’re freezing your butt off. Being from California, I figure you must like heat.”
    â€œI don’t like it here, I can tell you that. I can’t wait to get out of this place.”
    Yancy nodded. Hollywood go home. He could go back to being a cop. But this accident that smelled like homicide sure beat all to hell whatever story they were trying to film.
    â€œIf you want to know the truth,” Sheri said, “I’m not terribly terribly surprised this happened. Laura’s been hyper-uptight from the beginning, you know?” She stopped for a second, then added, “Like just waiting to mess up super bad,” in case he wasn’t following along with his dim countrified brain.
    â€œIf you want to know the truth,” she said again, “Fifer knows it too. You can be sure he isn’t telling it like it is in there. You can be sure of that. He needs a great success artistically and financially and I’m afraid—” She shook her head sadly.
    â€œI understood this movie was going well.”
    â€œOh, that’s what they say, but Laura—well, she was quite good in her day. With a certain type of part, one that didn’t require—how shall I put it—a quality of vulnerability—she was okay. She has no subtleties. Just a certain hard—ah—brittle, you might say, archness. It’s all just so—so—TV miniseries.”
    â€œIsn’t Ms. Edwards supposed to be a great