The Once and Future Scream Queen: Marlene Ambrosia Mysteries Read online

  Uh-oh. She was probably the last person Bob wanted to see, but Marlene couldn’t just do nothing. Andre was a nice guy but he was quick to take offense sometimes. She didn’t want these guys coming to blows and getting hurt.

  Deep breath.

  Marlene hurried over and poked her head inside. “Hey, Bob.”

  Her ex-client stopped mid-rant and wheeled on her. “What do you want?”

  An older female customer used this break in the screaming match as an excuse to leave. She slipped past Marlene.

  Marlene held out a palm. “I just saw you and wanted to say hi.”

  “Great.” He sneered. “Now you’ve said hi. You can go, unless you want pizza.”

  Marlene stepped inside. “I was thinking about a slice, actually.”

  Bob rolled his eyes. “Sure you were.”

  “Bob,” Andre cut in. “You can’t carry on in here like that. I just lost a customer.”

  “You lost a customer because she saw how ridiculous you were being! It’s two-thirty and I’m here for lunch. All I’m asking for is the lunch special you offer.”

  Andre nodded. “I understand, Bob, but like I explained our lunch special ends at two o’clock. If it was only a few minutes after two, I wouldn’t think twice about it. But I have to make a living.”

  “This is unreal.” Bob’s face had gone from red to purple. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been in here! I’m tired of people like you trying to screw me over! And when have you ever offered me—”

  Andre cut him off. “Two months ago actually. I didn’t charge you for a couple slices, Bob!”

  “What? I don’t remember that!”

  Marlene saw this wasn’t going anywhere good. “You know what? I owe Bob a lunch. Let me pay for his and mine.”

  If Andre had only known what Bob was going through, he’d probably offer the guy a whole pie free of charge. But she couldn’t share a client’s private information like that. The lunch special might have only saved Bob a dollar or two, but being out of work changed your perspective on money.

  Andre shook his head. “You’re too nice, Marlene. He doesn’t deserve it.”

  Bob cursed and reared back. Marlene realized, almost too late, that Bob was going to take a swing at Andre. That was the last thing he needed.

  She couldn’t let him do this, even if he wasn’t a client anymore. She didn’t want to see him get into trouble.

  Foolishly, Marlene got in the way. She pictured where she thought Bob’s fist was headed and reached out—

  And grabbed his hand.

  Before Andre could retaliate against the stopped strike, Marlene held her other palm up. “Just hold on a second, Andre.”

  Both men stared at her incredulously. Marlene had never been in a fight in her life, and yet she’d just broken one up between two grown men.

  “How did you …” Andre started to say.

  Marlene just smiled. “Now I think it’s best if we go our separate ways. Bob, could we talk outside?”

  Wide-eyed, Bob just nodded. She let go of his fist. Bob lowered his head in shame, realizing just how crazy he’d been acting.

  “I’m sorry, Andre … I was out of line.”

  Marlene could tell Andre was about to say something snarky, but she shot him a look.

  “Bob, tell you what, next time you come in, it’s on the house. Okay?”

  With downcast eyes, Bob nodded and quickly left. He was obviously embarrassed by how he’d been acting.

  “Thanks, Andre.”

  He kept his eyes on Bob for a moment, before turning back to her. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?” Marlene asked.

  Before he pressed her for an answer she herself didn’t have, Marlene hurried outside. Bob stalked along the pavement in front of the laundromat. She didn’t see his car anywhere and wondered where he’d parked.

  “Hey, Bob! Hold up a sec!”

  He turned. “Marlene, I …”

  She started toward him.

  But Bob spun and hurried away. She felt kind of foolish chasing after him, but Marlene knew how much he was hurting right now. He needed somebody to talk to.

  “Bob, wait!”

  She ran but didn’t reach him in time. He’d parked on the side lot next to the laundromat. Already in his car, Bob cranked the engine and got out of there fast.

  Marlene was sorry to see him go. Bob Balin was not in a good place right now. He’d been clearly in the wrong, but had still blown up on Andre. A person in their right mind wouldn’t have gotten upset, especially when they missed the window by over a half hour.

  While fretting over whether she should call Bob or not, Marlene turned to head back to her car.

  And walked right into Detective Dan Bors.

  “Marlene.”

  He leaned against his police cruiser, now parked in front of the pizza shop.

  “Oh. Hi.”

  “Got a minute?”

  She checked her phone for the time. “Not really. I have an appointment.”

  “It’ll only take a minute,” he said. “Why don’t you come on over here, so we can talk?”

  “Okay.”

  She met him in front of his car. Bors had what looked like the same suit on as yesterday. He was freshly shaved, and the mustache was even more crooked than usual. He must have accidentally lopped one part of it off.

  “What are you looking at?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing.”

  His expression oozed suspicion. “Right. I wanted to talk to you more about this man you saw yesterday. The one wearing the hoodie.”

  About time, she didn’t say. “Like I said, he was just coming out of Gelder’s store.”

  “You saw him coming out of Gelder’s?” Bors asked.

  The question unnerved her. Bors was paying a lot more attention to detail than he normally did.

  “Oh, I guess not. I mean, he was standing like he had.”

  “How exactly does someone stand like they’re coming out of a convenience store?”

  She groaned loudly. Then turned and pointed. “He was on a line with the door, from where I was standing.”

  Bors squinted his eyes. “Where exactly was he standing?”

  “He was almost in front of it.”

  “When you say almost, what do you mean?”

  “Look. When I say almost, I usually mean almost.”

  Bors’ eyes flashed. “You look. This is a murder. There’s a reason I’m asking you questions, Ambersia.”

  “It’s Ambrosia,” Marlene said. For a moment, she toyed with the notion of telling Bors that the man wearing the hoodie had visited her last night. But the detective wouldn’t have believed her. “And I’m telling you the truth.”

  “Where exactly was he standing?” Bors asked. “On the sidewalk or in the parking lot?”

  Marlene thought about it. “Now that you ask, I’d say he was in the parking lot when I saw him, right by the curb. He was watching me.”

  “He was watching you.”

  Was he going to challenge everything she said? “Yes.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Like I said, that dog ran out and growled, and he got in his car and left.”

  “What kind of car was it again?” Bors took out a tiny notepad. “Make, model, color.”

  “Oh …” Marlene had never been good with cars. She closed her eyes and thought back to yesterday morning. Bringing all her focus to bear, words suddenly came to her. “It was a black, ’73 GTO.”

  Bors arched an eyebrow. “You know your cars.”

  This display of random, heretofore untapped, knowledge had somehow endeared her to him.

  “Yeah.” She laughed nervously, not knowing where she’d pulled that out of.

  “License plate?” he asked.

  “It was a Jersey plate.” She closed her eyes again and thought back. “1SA-X0N.”

  He looked at her incredulously. “Pretty good recall. You should be a cop.” He wrote it down. “A
re you sure it was a zero and not the letter O?”

  She nodded. She could see the license plate clearly in her mind’s eye. Though how she was able to recall it, she had no idea. Details like this just came to her sometimes. It was a nice trick to show off at cocktail parties.

  Not that she’d been to a cocktail party in years.

  Bors wrote a few more notes and pursed his lips. “See, this is all very interesting.”

  “Yes.” Marlene really wanted to say Duh.

  Bors eyes looked up from his notepad. “Because nobody else saw him.”

  “What?” Marlene asked. “Well, I guess he didn’t go into the convenience store then.”

  The detective nodded, but it was an insincere gesture. “Right. He just parked there for what must have been a few minutes—because if he’d been there for a while, somebody other than you would have noticed him, right?”

  Marlene said nothing.

  Bors kept going. “So he parks there, just for a few moments, probably less than a minute, and this just so happens to coincide with the time of your late arrival.”

  Marlene kept her mouth shut.

  The detective smirked. “He looks at you for a moment and then jumps into his car and drives away.”

  “You’re forgetting the dog.”

  “Oh right.” Bors laughed evilly. “The stray dog that came by just when you needed it to scare this guy nobody else saw away.”

  “That’s what happened.” Marlene looked back across the street and noticed the security cameras on the strip.

  “Look, Bors. If those cameras are working, all you have to do is review the tapes. I’m sure one of them caught him.”

  His smirk deepened and turned ugly.

  Marlene thought she had him. “Honestly, I don’t know why you didn’t do that already. I told you yesterday morning about this guy.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, we already looked at the tapes, Ambrosia.”

  This time he got her name correct, and it was chilling.

  Marlene’s throat had gone dry. “What?”

  He nodded again slowly, as if savoring the gesture. “Your mystery man is nowhere to be found on the footage. No ’73 GTO. No man. Nothing. We went over them tapes. Over and over. Nothing. Nobody except everybody we already knew about. He was never here.”

  Marlene shook her head. “That’s impossible. I saw him with my own two eyes.”

  But as she said those words, she remembered last night. Marlene needed to adjust her definition of possible and impossible after seeing this guy shapeshift and then disappear. Was it far-fetched to think he wouldn’t appear on security footage?

  Maybe not …

  “Look. Those cameras have been rolling for years and probably haven’t been checked out in a long time. Run the license plate I gave you and see what that returns.”

  The detective put his notepad away. “I’ll get right on that. Now tell me about your relationship with Gwen.”

  Marlene felt herself going on the defensive. “Uh, well, we hadn’t seen each other in a long time. We were friendly in high school, but not close I’d say. Before she came back to town, she must have heard about my new business and since she was going through a significant life change, she wanted to talk it through with me.”

  “Right. You were going to life coach her.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Did you two ever get into an argument?”

  Marlene took a deep breath. She realized now how she must have looked to the detective. Gwen had been murdered behind her office. Marlene was alleging to have seen a strange man across the street—that nobody else had seen, including the security cameras.

  Bors must have thought she was trying to throw him off her own trail.

  She swallowed hard. “Never. We weren’t close enough to have argued about anything.”

  “So you argue with your close friends?” Bors asked.

  “No. Look. What I meant was, normally you need to have a deep connection with another human being to argue with them.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Bors said. “Anytime anybody brings up religion or politics in the office, there’s a big fight. I’ve seen people come to blows over the most trivial things in the supermarket. By the way, who are your close friends?”

  Marlene didn’t really have any. Her sister was the closest thing. “Ganny.”

  “Your younger sister, right?” Bors gave her a funny look. “Anybody other than a close family member?”

  “I’m friendly with a lot of people,” Marlene said.

  “Yeah, but who do you go to the movies with? Or go out for drinks with?”

  “Uh … it’s been awhile to be honest. I’ve been so focused on my business that I’ve poured all my time and energy into it.”

  He gave her a funny look.

  “It means I’m a hard-worker, Bors.”

  “So no close friends is what I’m hearing.”

  “You don’t have to sound so happy about it.”

  Bors nodded. “I’m going to have more questions for you. Don’t leave town.”

  “I live here,” Marlene said, under her breath.

  Sixteen

  Marlene’s next appointment was with a new client. Andrew Kerrigan had been one year behind her in school. She’d always suspected he had a crush on her, and she hoped that wasn’t the basis for his business.

  Andrew jumped out of his chair and rushed to the door after she got to the coffee shop. Ganny was working again today and gave Marlene a put-upon look as she stepped in.

  “Hey, Marlene!” Andrew pumped her hand and held on just a little bit longer than was normal.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Marlene said. “I got held up by—”

  He waved it off. “It’s only been thirty-seven minutes, no big deal.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.” His smile could not get any wider. “It’s great to see you.”

  Andrew was a few inches shorter than her and wore dark blue pants and a starched white shirt that looked straight out of the drycleaners. She remembered him from high school as being the guy that forever tried out but never made any of the teams. He always ended up being some kind of assistant, keeping stats for the coaches and helping out at practices. Marlene had always felt a little bad for him, even though he didn’t seem to mind his background role.

  “You too, Andrew. Mind if I get a coffee?” she asked.

  “No, no, go right ahead.”

  Marlene met Ganny at the counter. Her sister blew an unruly strand of hair out of her face. It shot up and floated back down in front of her eyes while she struggled with one of the grinders.

  “It’s day like this …” Ganny shook the machine, turned it off, and turned it back on. “I’m serious, Mar, this might be it.”

  “Do you have something else lined up?” Marlene asked. Her sister had been threatening to quit this job since her first day here. It was the same wherever she went.

  “How did I know you were going to ask that?” Ganny spat out, frustrated and wringing her hands. “You know what? Sometimes you’re more like Mom than Mom is.”

  Marlene held her palms out. “Whoa, Ganny, I was just asking a question.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Ganny gave up trying to get the one grinder to work. She pulled out the filter and stuffed it into another one, in the process spilling about half the beans on the floor.

  “Maybe I’ll come back in a few minutes,” Marlene said.

  Ganny didn’t even hear her. She was too busy muttering about how she didn’t need this job and how she was underpaid and how the hours sucked and how nothing worked in the store …

  Marlene met Andrew at a table in the middle of the storefront. He rose from his chair again as she approached and met her halfway.

  “It really is great to see you, Mar.”

  “You too, Andrew.”

  He pulled a chair out for her.

  “Oh, thanks.”

  She sat and then he rounded the table and took his seat again. Andrew le
aned forward and cupped his coffee with both hands. A half-eaten bagel was on a paper plate next to him.

  “So,” he said. “First things first. I wanted to talk about Gwen O’Vear.”

  “Oh.” Marlene hadn’t been expecting this. “Did you know her well?”

  He nodded. “We traded emails the whole time she was out in LA.”

  “Really?” Marlene would never have expected that.

  “Yes. She was so kind and so funny. She told me all the stories, all the things that went on when the cameras weren’t rolling. Hollywood is a crazy place.”

  “I’ll bet,” Marlene said. “So you must be—”

  His eyes were instantly wet. “Yes. I’m a big softie. I’ve been crying off and on since I heard. You might not have known this, Marlene, but I wasn’t popular in school.”

  She kept quiet.

  “You know, I tried to become friends with all the guys but they never took me seriously because I was never good enough to actually make the team. They thought I was a nerd, but I wasn’t the smartest in school either. I really struggled with chemistry. I only got a B-plus in that class.”

  “Horror of horrors,” Marlene said with a smile.

  He laughed. “I know, right! That was like the worst thing that had ever happened to me, getting a B-plus in chem. I’m serious. I felt like I had failed. My parents weren’t upset at all, but I was beside myself. And looking back now, what does it matter? I’m doing really well.”

  “Yes.” Marlene took out her notebook. “Remind me again what it is that you do.”

  “I work for a TPA that specializes in selling insurance to reinsurance companies.”

  “I’m not even going to try to understand that.”

  He laughed. “It’s not important. It’s pretty boring, but I do well.”

  “So work life is going well?” Marlene said.

  “Oh yeah. I’ve gotten three promotions since I’ve been there. They just made me a director and I manage a great team.”

  “That’s great.” Marlene smiled. “So how about your personal life?”

  “I just joined a skeeball league,” Andrew said. “And I’ve made a few new friends. Later this year, I’ll run my first marathon also. I’ve been training for a while and if my time is good enough, I’ll qualify for Boston.”