Ultimate Concealer, A Toni Diamond Mystery: A Toni Diamond Mystery (Toni Diamond Mysteries) by Nancy Warren Read Free Book Online Page B

already booked your first makeover. Maybe even got someone in your circle interested in selling Lady Bianca at a home party.” Patience was a member of a church with a large congregation. She also worked for a multi-national company. She had all kinds of opportunities to go friendly fishing in her own pond.
    “I’m not sure I’m ready. There are so many people, so many other Lady Bianca reps offering makeovers, I’ll only make a fool out of myself.”
    Toni didn’t let her smile dim, not by a single watt. She reminded herself that her newbies were like toddlers. They had to be encouraged to walk, and the next thing you knew they’d be running all over the place. “Okay. The first thing we need to work on is attitude.”
    She gave a pep talk and at the end of it, Patience had agreed that she would go to her women’s circle at the church tomorrow night and talk to at least three ladies about her exciting new venture. In fact, she’d committed to talking to as many as ten ladies, stopping only when she’d booked one for a makeover.
    When she put down the phone, her mom was putting the final swish of Raspberry Parfait gloss on her plump lips and staring at the result critically.
    “Was that girl calling you to try and quit?” she asked, as she turned from the mirror.
    “Oh, sure. The newbies usually get cold feet at least once. I’ve got her reenergized. All she needs is one success and she’ll start to feel that fire in the belly.”
    They passed the time during the short drive back to Brent Hodgkin’s house arguing whether a makeover or booking a home party was the most exciting success for a new recruit.
    When they got to the boring house with the exotic interior, they walked up the path, her mother insisting she wanted to take a photo of the living room on her smart phone as she wanted to do something similar with balloon curtains in her home. Since Linda’s double wide was already a shrine to her idol, Dolly, Toni wasn’t sure the curtains were going to match but she kept her mouth shut. She rang the doorbell and waited.
    She pictured Tiffany with her blow dryer going, unable to hear her. She pulled Tiff’s cell phone from her bag so she’d remember to return it and they could communicate again.
    When the door finally opened a stunning woman stood there. Tall, slender, with cascades of blond ringlets and floor-length showgirl costume, she said, “Come in. Tiffany’s almost ready.”
    In the second blink, Toni recognized that under the makeup, the wig and the glam, was Brent Hodgkin, the dull-looking man who owned the house.
    Her mother must have made the connection about the same time for she said, “Oh, you’re a tran—” She turned to Toni. “What do they call those?”
    “A female impersonator,” Brent said in that rich, low voice that was so much more at home in this persona than in his daytime one.
    “What’s your act called?” Toni asked before her mother could speak another word.
    “Sunny and the Three Chers,” he said. “I’m Sunny. With a u.”
    “Oh, I get it,” Linda said. “Where are the three Chers?”
    “We’ll meet at the club later.”
    Toni asked, “Do you and Dwayne work together?”
    “Yes. That’s how we met. We’re part of the floor show at the Double Nugget Casino.”
    “The Double Nugget?” Linda asked. “Is that on the strip?”
    “It’s one of the older casinos,” Brent said. “It had its heyday back in the ‘50s when the Rat Pack dominated Vegas.”
    Toni didn’t know much about Vegas but she knew that the old downtown had very much gone to seed, giving way to the new strip with the big, glitzy places like the Bellagio and the Venetian and so on where the shows tended to be more Cirque du Soleil than Sunny and the Three Chers.
    The Double Nugget was to the strip as Dwayne Diamond was to Neil Diamond.
    “So singing is your second job?” Linda asked.
    “Yes.” He seemed so much more confident and interesting than he had earlier.
    “I’ve