Murder Has a Sweet Tooth - By Miranda Bliss Page 0,52
they want it for their own. Rather than lose my concentration and risk a little too-close-for-comfort bumper-to-bumper, I told Eve we’d talk later, clamped both hands on the wheel, and kept my eyes on the road—and on Beth’s SUV.
When she merged onto Arlington Boulevard, I did, too. I was glad to be off the highway when my phone rang again. It was Norman.
“We’re in Arlington,” he said, referring, of course, to himself and Glynis. “We’re headed toward Ballston.”
The call-waiting feature on my phone beeped. I switched over to the other call. It was Eve. “We’re in Arlington,” she said. “Near Crystal City.”
And me? I wasn’t all that far away from either of them.
That may sound odd, but here’s the thing about Arlington: It’s not a city, like most people think. Arlington is a county. In fact, since I’m a numbers sort of person, I remember from back in my high school days when I learned that, at twenty-six square miles, it’s the smallest self-governing county in the country. There are no cities in the county, but there are neighborhoods, like Clarendon, where Très Bonne Cuisine is located, and Ballston, where Glynis was headed, and Crystal City, which was apparently Celia’s destination.
As for Beth, she was driving in the direction of Rosslyn, the area just north of Arlington National Cemetery. With the way traffic was moving faster than the posted speed limit and drivers doing their best to outpace each other, I really had to concentrate to keep an eye on her SUV. Up ahead, she slowed down and I did, too. The car behind her turned left. So did the car behind that one. Like it or not, at the next red light, I found myself right behind her.
I wasn’t about to take any chances, not after getting this far. I slunk down in my seat and propped one elbow on the steering wheel so I could use my hand to partially cover my face. “I’m in Arlington, too,” I told Eve, keeping my voice down in spite of the fact that I knew I didn’t have to. “This is just weird.”
“Do you suppose they’re all going to meet somewhere?” she asked.
And honestly, I couldn’t say. The light turned green and we started up again, and when a pushy driver wedged his pricey sports car between Beth’s SUV and my sensible sedan, I was grateful. I eased back a bit, but I never took my eyes off Beth’s car.
A couple quick turns and I saw her brake lights flash on. She turned into the parking lot of a place called Preston’s Colonial House. I still had my cell phone to my ear, and I was about to report this turn of events to Eve when she said, “Fergie’s.”
“Huh?” I couldn’t follow Beth into the parking lot without her seeing me, so I hung back, pretending I was waiting for a parking place to open up on the street. “What do you mean, Fergie’s? Beth just went into—”
“Celia just walked into a place called Fergie’s,” Eve reported. “It looks nice. Upscale. Well-dressed people coming and going. It’s a bar.”
“So’s the Colonial House.” I didn’t have time to consider what this meant. My phone beeped and Norman got on the line with his report.
“The Purple Tiger,” he said. “It’s a bar. Looks like a younger crowd. Hip and trendy. You know the type.”
I didn’t want to burst his bubble and tell him I wouldn’t know hip and trendy if it walked up and introduced itself. Instead, I got lucky and a parking place on the street opened up. I slid the Saturn into it, then grabbed my clipboard and took notes.
Under the column that said Celia in bold, black letters, I wrote Fergie’s in Crystal City along with the time. I did the same for Beth and Glynis, listing the names of the bars they’d gone to, the time they entered, and—
“Now we wait,” I told Norman, though since I heard his car door slam, I didn’t think he was listening.
“No worries,” he said, sounding as carefree as he did on his TV show when he was combining what sounded like impossible-to-go-together ingredients into what always turned out to be an incredible meal. “She doesn’t know me. It’s perfect, Annie. I can keep an eye on Glynis. You know, up close and personal.”
“Not too up close and personal,” I warned him, at the same time I clicked back over to Eve. “Not too—,” I’d just said when I heard her car door