Act V Read Free Page A

nice to look at.”
    “ And yet she married you.
Must have been love.”
    “ Yeah, that and my fine
physique.”
    Brice didn’t bother to respond to that
one. Addison, with his coffee-colored skin, stood six inches
shorter than Brice and weighed fifteen pounds more. Add to that the
fact that he had more hair on his lip than on his head, and you had
one heck of a man. He reminded Brice of Mr. Potato Head. Still, you
couldn’t have designed a better detective or partner. Brice would
have chosen Addison to back him above anybody else if he’d been
surrounded by street thugs, junkies or serial killers. He was one
of the good guys and as reliable as heat in summer. “Go home to
your lovely, but obviously blind, wife. I’m going to finish up here
and head home. The Braves are playing tonight.”
    Addison grabbed his keys and wallet,
then started for the door. “You know, it’s been a quiet week around
here. The worse thing to happen was that B&E on Lee Street and
that’s pretty common over there.”
    “ Yeah,” Brice agreed, “it
makes me wonder when the other shoe is gonna drop.”
    *****
    Glynnis brushed her teeth, touched up
her hair and makeup, put on her new crepe pants and a low-cut, teal
blouse with flowing fairy sleeves. The blouse made her feel airy
and a little sexy. She would have worn a dress, but heels could be
a problem these days, and she didn’t want to attract that kind of
attention at the shower. “Okay Carl, how do I look?”
    Carl thumped his curled tail against
the floor.
    “ You’d say the same thing if
I was wearing dirty sweats as long as I fed you and let you sleep
on the bed.” She reached down to pet the dog. “I’ll see you in a
couple of hours.” Carl looked forlorn. Glynnis had decided not long
after she got the full-grown Basenji about a year ago, that he had
separation issues. “Aw, come on Carl, you know they won’t let you
in the country club. Dogs aren’t allowed. I’d rather be here with
you anyway, but I have to make an appearance.”
    Carl whined, but waggled his
hind-quarters when she tossed him a doggy treat.
    *****
    It took her ten minutes of roaming the
parking lot to find a space and then it was a good block and a half
away from the reception room where the party was being held.
Glynnis snatched the white bag with white tissue paper,
superimposed with white gardenias, out of her trunk. She locked the
car with the clicker and started for the Magnolia Room at the
Fairfield Country Club. The place was amazing, and huge! She had
been here twice before but couldn’t imagine what it would cost to
actually be a member—not that they’d let her if she could afford
it. You almost had to be born into this place. Self-consciously,
she peeked into the reception room and scanned the crowd until she
found Sissy. She was all poise in the corner with a dazzling yellow
sundress that only accentuated her dark coloring. They had never
been best friends, but back in high school the two of them had gone
through theatre classes together. Sissy naturally wanted to be on
stage all the time. Being the center of everybody’s attention was
what she did best. She landed the role of Marianne, the librarian
in “Music Man” and Alice in “Through the Looking Glass” along with
several other prime roles. And she was really a great actor. She’d
even worked with Glynnis doing Shakespeare in the Park a couple of
times in the last three or four years. She’d made a great Rosalind
in “As You Like It”.
    Glynnis had never enjoyed being on
stage. She was much more comfortable setting up scenery, working
lights and imagining how the whole play should look and sound when
it was finished. Putting the whole thing together was like watching
a jigsaw puzzle take shape. It was a pure adrenaline rush on
opening night. Glynnis and Sissy got along really well, probably
because they never competed with each other for acting
roles.
    Glynnis walked to the table where a
mountain of white, pink, and