Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,88
focus off her.
Nina’s voice emerged from the speaker beside her phone. “Miss Sinc—I mean, Tori? Milo is on line one.”
“Uh, okay.” She reached across the desk and hit the top button. “Milo?”
“Hey, beautiful. You’re never going to believe who just called me.”
“I—I have no idea.” Dropping into her desk chair, she raked a hand through her hair. “But Milo I think I figured out who—”
“Beth. She actually called to tell me someone is trying to run her off the road. Can you believe it? Like I’m going to jump in my car and—”
She sucked in her breath as yet another dose of reality rushed in. Regina had killed Ashley because of the last six designs—designs she still needed in order to forge a partnership with Fredrique Mootally.
Only there was one little problem.
Beth had them.
“Do it, Milo!” she screamed. “Find her! Now!”
His laughter echoed around the room. “C’mon, knock it off. A person can only cry wolf so many times before—”
Jumping to her feet, she ran toward her office door, the pounding of her heart drowning out the rest of his words. “Milo, please! This time there really is a wolf!”
Chapter 33
They were all there—Leona, Margaret Louise, Rose, Melissa, Debbie, Beatrice, Georgina, and Dixie. All eight of her sewing sisters in the throes of what they did best.
“Can you imagine the gall of that woman?” Margaret Louise grumbled. “Standin’ there at my grandbaby’s party, givin’ us a piece of her mind, only to up and take our idea and try to give us credit for the outcome?”
“We were the perfect alibi.”
Melissa pinned Dixie with a disbelieving eye. “We? We? You were barely on Chief Dallas’s radar for longer than a minute. Beatrice and me? We still feel his breath on our necks, don’t we, Beatrice?”
The shy twenty-something nodded from her stool on the other side of the table. “But it’s okay now. And that’s all that really matters. Well, that and the fact that I get to stay on as Luke’s nanny.”
Leona pushed her teacup into the center of the table. “The most important thing is that Victoria has a bit more time on her hands. We’re going to need that to revisit some of our lessons.”
“We do? Why? I thought I was starting to get this southern thing down pretty well.”
Leona slowly shook her head. “The southern thing? Perhaps. Though there are times I still see a bit too much of your city ways for my taste.”
“My city ways?” she echoed.
“What else would you call this innate desire you have to corral criminals?” Leona’s chin rose into the air in defiance. “You most certainly didn’t learn that here.”
She had to laugh. “I didn’t? Really? Because the last time I checked all those criminals—as you call them—were corralled here, in Sweet Briar.”
Leona peered over the top of her glasses. “On the heels of your arrival from Chicago.”
Rose rolled her eyes.
Dixie shifted in her seat.
Georgina cracked a grin. “Are you saying that Victoria brought them here with her?”
“These things didn’t happen until she showed up, did they?”
“Oh, shut up, Twin.” Margaret Louise slid off her stool and came around the table to give Tori a hug. “I, for one, can’t imagine Victoria not being here. She’s brought a much needed breath of fresh air to both our sewing circle and Sweet Briar.”
“I second that,” said Rose.
“As do I.”
Tori met Beatrice’s timid smile with one of her own. “Thank you, ladies. It’s nice to know that at least some of you are glad I’m here.”
“I’m glad you’re here, dear. I never said otherwise. But I do think we need to go over a few things about Milo. Especially in light of that foolish move you made today.”
“Foolish move?” piped in Debbie. “You mean the one where she saved Beth’s life?”
“Saved Beth’s life by sending Milo to her rescue.”
“What did you want her to do, Leona?” Georgina challenged. “Stamp her feet and tell Milo he couldn’t go?”
“Milo didn’t want to go. Victoria made him go.”
“Because the woman’s life was in danger.” Dixie forked a piece of cake from her plate and brought it to her mouth. “I think that goes to show just how special Victoria is.”
Tori swallowed over the lump that rose in her throat. Somehow, some way, things were starting to thaw between her and Dixie. And it felt good.
Real good.
“Which is something I’ve known from the very start.”
Tori whirled around in her seat to find Milo standing less than two feet away, a strange smile on his lips. “Milo, I didn’t