Slay Bells and Satchels (Haley Randolph Mystery Series) by Dorothy Howell Read Free Book Online

McKenna.
    Holt’s had security cameras outside the building. I knew from experience—long story—that the cameras in the back covered the loading dock and a small section of the parking lot. But that was it. Somebody could have slipped out the door and not been seen.
    Still, this was a great lead.
    “Could I get Jasmine’s number?” I asked. “I know somebody who’s looking for a roommate, too.”
    Yeah, okay, it was a total lie, but I had to talk to Jasmine.
    “That would be great,” Nikki said.
    We both pulled out our cell phones and she gave me the info.
    This was way cool. I’d only been investigating the case for a few minutes and already I had a suspect. I’d go see Jasmine right after my shift ended.
    My spirits fell.
    No, wait. I couldn’t see Jasmine.
    I had to go see someone much more deadly than a murder suspect.
    My mom.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
     
    My folks still lived in the house I grew up in, a small mansion in La Cañada Flintridge, a town set in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena that overlooked the Los Angeles basin. The house had been left to my mom by her grandmother along with a trust fund. No one knew—or was willing to say—exactly how my great-grandmother had come into such wealth. I thought the bigger mystery was why she’d left it all to my mom, of all people.
    Mom was a former beauty queen. Really. She’d worn the crown of Miss California and had placed third in the Miss America pageant before she’d married my dad.
    Mom still thought she was a beauty queen.
    My dad was an aerospace engineer doing top secret work for the government which gave him, luckily, lots of excuses to be gone from the house for days on end, and unable to tell anyone where he’d been.
    Not that my mom noticed.
    I had an older brother who was an Air Force pilot flying F-16s in the Middle East, and a younger sister who attended UCLA and did some modeling.
    When I was a child, Mom had devoted herself to turning me into a show pony—I mean a pageant queen—like herself. She’d subjected me to every type of lesson imaginable—singing, piano, tap, ballet, modeling—in an all-out effort to discover in me some tiny nugget of actual talent. She’d finally given up when, at age nine, I set fire to the den curtains twirling fire batons—which was a total accident. Really. I swear.
    Anyway, my younger sister had turned out to be a Mom-clone and had filled her stilettos to perfection, much to everyone’s relief.
    As I parked in the circular driveway outside my folks’ house, I decided I should give Detective Shuman a call—strictly in the line of duty, of course. Never mind that he was kind of hot. I had a civic obligation to assist law enforcement in a murder investigation.
    That’s just the kind of model citizen I am.
    I wasn’t sure if Shuman knew about all the elf actresses who’d not reported back for work at Holt’s today. It seemed to me this was a vital clue he should be aware of. I mean, if I’d murdered someone and stuffed her body into a giant toy bag, I wouldn’t have come back to work.
    I pulled out my cell and placed the call. While the phone rang, I wondered if I should mention what Alyssa and Nikki had told me about Jasmine Grady, how she and McKenna had been roommates before something happened to end their friendship.
    I didn’t like the idea of throwing Jasmine out there—although Alyssa hadn’t seemed to mind one bit. I wanted to talk to her first. It sounded as if her life was tough enough already, without being interviewed by homicide detectives.
    But I didn’t get to tell Shuman anything. My call went to voicemail. I left a message asking him to call me and hung up.
    For a couple more minutes I sat in the car looking at my parents’ house. I knew I had to go inside and talk to Mom. Jack had asked for my help. Brooke was depending on me. It was the right thing to do.
    I hate it when I have to do the right thing.
    Juanita, the housekeeper who’d worked for my folks as