Bonnie of Evidence Read Free

stop you. But if we hang tight, one of us can look forward to a free vacation in our future! Are you with me?”
    Eye rolling. Sighs.
    Not surprisingly, Cameron had listed his occupation as “motivational speaker.”
    “What’s our team slogan?” he prodded, cupping his hand around his ear.
    “Yes, we can,” came the grumbled reply from his teammates.
    “I can’t heeeear you.”
    “Yes, we can,” they recited with slightly more gusto.
    “Once more with feeling!”
    “Yes, we can,” they chanted as they tapped into his enthusiasm. “Yes, we can!” Lucille, Dolly, and Isobel high-fived each other. “YES, WE CAN!”
    “Yes, we can,” chimed Osmond, pumping his spindly arms as he boogied to the beat. Dick Teig whacked him on the shoulder.
    “Cool it. You’re not on their team.”
    Cameron Dasher banded his arm around Bernice and gave her a squeeze. “And from now on, Bernice promises to respect all our opinions and not hijack the whole show. Right, Bernice?”
    “Good luck with that,” wisecracked Dick Stolee.
    Bernice glanced from Cameron’s hand to his face, melting against him with a breathless sigh. “Whatever you say,” she gushed, fluttering her lashes like a silver-screen movie goddess.
    Whoa ! This guy was good. I wonder if he’d ever consider free lancing as an assistant escort on tours saddled with especially nasty guests?
    Bernice’s teammates fell suddenly silent, their mantra dying on their lips as they narrowed their eyes and hardened their jaws. Unh-oh . It had been awkward enough that every woman on the tour had wanted to be on Cameron’s team, but if they started throwing daggers at each other every time he paid attention to one of them, there was going to be trouble.
    “It’s decided then?” Cameron asked good-naturedly. “We’re still a team?”
    “Of course we’re still a team,” Dolly assured as she looped her arm through his, smiling possessively. “And just to set the record straight, it wasn’t my idea to change teams in the first place.” Honey oozed from her voice. “It was Isobel’s.”
    “Me?” Age might have ruined Isobel’s complexion and turned her hair gray, but her hearing still rocked. “What the hell have you been smoking? You’re the one who—”
    Cameron raised his hands in Biblical fashion as if to calm the waters. “L aaa dies, l aaa dies, it doesn’t matter who said what first. All that’ll matter in the end is how many checkmarks we have in the ‘Find’ column, so let’s put this episode behind us and start with a clean slate tomorrow. Fair enough?”
    Bernice and Dolly took wary measure of each other as they lingered at Cameron’s sides, looking like two spurs of an about-to-be-snapped wishbone. “Fine,” they crooned in unison.
    Lucille heaved a sigh and nodded grudgingly. “Okay.”
    Isobel’s mouth strained at the corners as if she were trying to force her lips into a smile, but all she managed was a sneer. “Whatever,” she spat, her eyes narrowing to hostile slits.
    Yup. There was going to be trouble.
    As a troupe of Shakespearean players paraded past us, reciting extraneous lines of prose to any tourist willing to listen, Nana grabbed my arm and dragged me aside, concern etched across her face.
    “I know what you’re going to say,” I offered preemptively. “You’re afraid that glaring jealousy issues on Team Five might lead to trouble, and I have to admit, that makes me a little nervous, too, but here’s the thing.” I raised a determined finger. “It’s going to be different this time because Etienne is with us. Guests will not be creeping around, trying to knock each other off, with a former Swiss police inspector watching their every move. So, even if the ladies of Team Five get into it with each other, I don’t expect it’ll escalate beyond snotty name calling or an occasional cat fight.” I flashed a confident smile. “I think we’re good!”
    “Whatever you say, dear.”
    My smile morphed into a wince.