Page 46 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“Zeke’s going to be able to tell,” Violet said as we left the store. “He’s really smart for his age. I just know he’s gonna know.”

I was carrying the new lizard or else I would have grabbed her hand to reassure her. “How about I be there when you tell him you found it? Kids believe adults. Especially when they’re outnumbered.”

She laughed. “That would be great if you could help convince him.”

“No problem at all. I have the whole day off. Speaking of which, do you still want to look for a jacket? If you want to keep mine, it’s fine, but I should probably get a new one then. Winter will be here before we know it.”

“I’m not stealing your coat,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll grab a new one real quick while we’re out. This was the boutique I was talking about.” She ducked into the store before an approaching group of women could notice us.

I followed her in and looked around at the array of clothing. I lifted up the price tag of the shirt I was next to and tried not to let my eyes bug out of my head. Who could afford to pay this much for two pieces of material sewn together? I looked up to see that Violet was already trying on a jacket.

No one should look sexy in a poofy winter coat, but somehow she did. Or maybe the ridiculous price tags actually did make a difference. I watched her pull her hair out from underneath the fabric and turn to look at the mirror. No, it was her. She’d look good in anything. I watched as she looked at the price and had no reaction. Could she actually afford to buy clothes here? I had just been wondering earlier if she even had a job.

The plastic container moved in my hand. I look down to see the lizard clinging to one of the side walls. It was almost like he was staring at Violet too. “She’s pretty, huh?” As soon as I said the words out loud I felt like an idiot for talking to a lizard. I walked over to Violet.

“That one looks good on you,” I said.

She turned away from the mirror. “Thanks. I guess I’ll get it.”

For a second I thought she was kidding. I had been shopping with women before. They never bought the first thing they tried on. At least not before trying on a million other things and pretending they looked fat in all of it. “You don’t want to try on any others?” There were at least two dozen more to choose from.

“Nope. I guess you can have this back now.” She held out my coat for me.

I would have been worried that she was just trying to cut her time with me short, but she had already invited me back to her place to help convince Zeke that this imposter I was holding was the real deal.

“Need anything else while we’re out?” I asked, not that I minded her calling me if she needed to go out again before her car was fixed. Which reminded me that I still needed to call Damien to come out and look at her truck.

“Nope,” she said again.

I wanted to try to persuade her to eat with me. We were already in the mall during lunchtime. What did it matter now? I followed her to the checkout counter. “Want to get a bite to eat?”

“Nope.”

“Is that your new favorite word?”

“Nope,” she said with a laugh as she pulled out three hundred-dollar bills from her purse and handed them to the checkout girl.

That answered my question about if she could afford the clothes in this place. Who carried around that kind of cash? The detective in me couldn’t help but have a nagging t

hought - someone that was ready to flee at any moment would carry around that much cash. Someone who was guilty of something. I tried to shake away the thought but my mind immediately went to another detective thought. Her mother and stepfather’s last name was Johnson. That meant the house I had been searching earlier today had been vacant for several years before Rosie moved in.

Violet’s childhood home was in a prime location in a great neighborhood. It should have been highly sought after. Unless there were more rumors that I didn’t know about yet. Sally had said that something terrible had happened in that house. Even though her scale of terrible started at stolen lawn gnomes, it didn’t mean it didn’t include something actually horrible. Houses didn’t just remain vacant for no reason. They remained vacant because no one wanted to move in.

Violet assumed I hadn’t heard those rumors. I had. I watched her grab the bag with her new coat. She turned to face me with a smile. The rumors couldn’t possibly be true. I dealt with my share of criminal masterminds and murderers in my job. Violet wasn’t one of them. I could feel it in my gut. But I still needed to look up what had happened to her parents. I got the sense that she didn’t want to answer any more of my invasive questions. And now that I knew their last name it would be easy.

“We’re going out to eat,” I said.

“No…we’re going back to my place.”

“I’m the one driving. And I’m also holding Lizardopolous 2 hostage.” I lifted up the plastic prison. “You kinda have to do what I say.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. “You’re holding him ransom?”

“Come on,” I said. I started to walk out of the store backward.

“Why are you trying to torture me?”

“Lunch with me is anything but torture, I promise.”

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