Page 30 of The Accidental Detectives

“Okay, fine, I’m sorry.”

Marty flapped her hand upward. “Oh, you are not, you beast.”

Wanda rapped on the window with her knuckles, her stern teacher’s frown in place.

I leaned forward and planted a kiss on Marty’s smooth cheek. “I am, too,” I said with a teasing grin.

Marty sighed nice and loud, so I was sure to hear she was being forced to apologize and didn’t like it. “Whatever. I’m sorry, too. Now let’s go.” She pushed open the door, letting the falling snow drift into the car and hit me in the face.

I hopped out, too, but without nearly as much hope as I’d had before we found out stupid Derek had an alibi.

“There’snothing like a big fat nothing burger to fuckin’ fill you up, huh?” I asked Marty and Wanda as we moved silently back down the stairs of the apartment building like we were casin’ the joint.

Night had crept in as we snuck along the balconies of people’s apartments, listening at their doors, running and hiding in the shadows when someone came up the stairs.

The bruised purple sky had gone an inky black. The snow had stopped, leaving a fresh dusting over the cars in the parking lot.

Wanda tucked her red nose into the fur around the collar of her jacket. “And it’s getting cold. I guess we can call this a wash. We need to get back and talk to Brenda—see if maybe there was someone else in the mix of her relationship with Winston. There has to be something we’re missing or something she hasn’t told us.”

Marty cocked her head. “Maybe she doesn’t remember? I mean, it was a pretty long time ago, Wanda. Like, over a hundred years.”

“Bullshit. She sure remembered who he was and that he was the love of her life. I’m pretty sure she’d remember if someone else was involved, Blondie.”

Wanda nodded as we walked toward the car. “Nina has a point, Marty. It’s a pretty big thing to forget.”

The disappointment we were all feeling was real, evidenced by the silent walk back to the car.

Just as we were about to get into the SUV, I heard, “If it isn’t the makeup ladies! Hey, how are ya?”

Crap. I fought a groan. Sonja. I’d know that husky-rough smoker’s voice anywhere.

We all turned to wave to her as she chucked a cigarette on the ground, which sizzled as it hit the fresh snow, her hand hooked around an older guy’s arm.

“Hi, Sonja!” Marty gushed with a wave as she approached us, her over-processed hair glowing in the night. “Who do we have here?”

She winked a saucy wink, tightening her grip. “My hot date for the night. His name’s Calvin.”

The guy who’d all but spit at us when we’d knocked on his door the other day, right before we knocked on Sonja’s. Interesting.

“Ladies,” he said with a nod, the snow sticking to his thick, bushy beard. “Sorry ’bout the other day. Didn’t mean to slam the door in your faces.”

Wanda gave him a smile that never reached her eyes. “Apology accepted.”

Marty grinned at him before she asked Sonja, “How’s the new skincare routine going?”

She smiled, revealing yellowing teeth, pressing the backs of her hands under her chin and batting her eyelashes. “You tell me.”

Wanda squeezed her arm and smiled warmly. “You look beautiful, Sonja, but you were always beautiful.” Her phone beeped a text, making her pull it from her jacket pocket to hold it up. “Excuse me, would you?”

As Wanda drifted off, Sonja held up her grocery bags in the hand that wasn’t latched to her lumberjack. “I gotta go, too. We’re makin’ dinner, but it was good seein’ ya. I hope you made some more sales today. I told everyone about you girls. Even that horrible Coraline Brown. Out of all of us old biddies here, she’s the one who could use it the most.”

I snickered. You gotta love the neighborhood gossip. Rocking back on my heels, I waved to her. “Bye, Sonja. Good seeing you again.”

As she climbed the stairs to her apartment, Marty whispered, “She’s going to kill herself with those cigarettes. She must’ve smoked half a pack in the forty minutes or so we were there the other day.”

Wanda trudged back toward us, her expression distressed.

“What’s up?” I asked, concerned.

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