Voices in the Wardrobe by Marlys Millhiser Read Free Book Online Page B

employed both Luella and Charlie. “What the fuck’s going on down there? I just saw the score on Judy Judd’s murder on TV. Luella’s not answering my calls. I’m getting royally pissed, babe. Why hasn’t anybody filled me in on all this? Heads are going to roll around here, I’m warning you.”
    Charlie rubbed the back of her neck. She was going to need a massage pretty soon. Luella was in the room with Maggie so not as free to speak as they both would have liked.
    â€œI like the VanZants but the help is creepy and there’s hardly anybody here but the aforementioned and a cop now and then.”
    Charlie could hear muted voices in the background. “Has she opened the wardrobe doors?”
    â€œNo, just listens. It is kind of interesting though. I don’t pay any attention to the commercials when I’m watching TV unless one of the agency’s clients are involved, but did you realize half the commercials are prescription drugs and the other half car dealers?”
    â€œYeah, it used to be ask your doctor, now it’s tell your doctor. Kinda scary. Richard the Lionhearted is trying to get hold of you.”
    â€œI know. He’s going to expect me to solve Judy’s murder while I’m here. That’s your department.”
    â€œNo Luella, my department is writers. Judy was your client.”
    â€œAnd Maggie Stutzman is your friend.”
    Libby actually picked up her cell but she wasn’t home with Tuxedo the terrible tomcat unless all of Wilson High was over for a party. “Where are you? This is your mother answering your distress signal, dammit.”
    â€œHi Mom, I’m at the Smelly Socks concert. It rocks. Can you hear?”
    What Charlie could hear was the slight slur in her daughter’s consonants. “What about the cat barf and shit all over the kitchen? Did you clean it up?”
    â€œItch your kitchen.”
    â€œAnd it’s your cat. Did you figure out what to do with the pill?”
    â€œYeah, Doug shtuck it in a piece of cheese. I left before I found out if the cheese stayed down.”
    â€œYou clean that mess up before I get home, toots.”
    â€œGotta go now, bye.”
    Charlie went back in the room and closed the balcony door on the peaceful night. Her stomach started the familiar burn. She looked at the light blinking on the room phone and considered ignoring it, turned on the television in the wardrobe, and muted the familiar Aviatrix commercial, then listened to the message on the hotel voice mail. It was Kenny Cowper, a.k.a. Kenneth Cooper, and another of Charlie’s clients. He was staying in the hotel. Kenny was a book author. What the hell was he doing at this conference? He was also stud city and the last complication she could handle now.
    She jotted down his room number though. He was better than a massage—but no.
    Charlie unmuted the TV for the eleven o’clock news. Might as well, she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight anyway. Dr. Judith Judd had not died of drowning in the eddy pool at the Sea Spa at the Marina del Sol. She’d been strangled first and then either fell in or was deposited there.

Eight
    Charlie woke up groggy from having slept so hard, surprised she’d slept at all. She ordered room service, showered, shampooed, dried and tamed her hair as best she could. She’d had it cut shorter than usual which made the curls go ballistic, so she tied it back with a navy blue scarf to match a severe tuxedo suit she’d don when she finished eating and offset it with a naughty, blazing-white, frilled peek-a-boo blouse.
    When her breakfast came she took it and the newspaper out onto the balcony, dressed again in the hotel robe. Fog rolled sluggishly off the bay as if it too needed coffee. She wasn’t due to go on until ten.
    Vegetarian eggs hollandaise, a pot of coffee, luscious thick toast. A yacht pulled out from the next pier over. An article about the Sea