Murder of a Creped Suzette Read Free Page A

her as far as I could run in high heels.”
    “Kallista, sweetheart.” Rex sandwiched the blonde’s fingers between both of his palms. “I’m sure something terrible must have happened to keep Suzette away. You know she was dying to sing for her hometown and show everyone how far she’s come.”
    “She probably isn’t even really from this place.” Kallista blew an irritated breath through heavily glossed lips. “She only said she was after you told her you’d decided to open the new country music theater here.”
    Skye blinked. A country music theater in Scumble River? How would people react to that? They generally didn’t like change, but a theater smacked of money and glamour, so maybe they’d be tempted.
    “Now, baby girl, how about you do your big daddy an itty-bitty favor and go back in the bedroom and try calling Suzette again? Then later tonight your big daddy will do you just how you like.” Rex turned Kallista around and patted her on the rear until she started walking.
    Ew, ew, ew. That was just icky. Why did men talk like that to grown women?
    Skye squirmed, but focused back on the action when Rex said to Flint, “You have to help me out here. I thought you were a team player.”
    “Right. And what did that get me last time? A blown knee and a ruined career.” Flint shook his head. “Now I’m looking out for number one.”
    “With that attitude, I don’t know how you fool all your fans into thinking you’re such a nice guy.”
    “Really?” Flint let out a scornful huff. “You’re the one who taught me that sincerity is everything, and once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
    Rex ignored Flint’s jab. “You seem to be forgetting that you’re my creation.” Rex snapped off each word as if they were bites of peanut brittle. “Without me you’d still be singing at a honky-tonk, living in your truck, and depending on the tips from a pickled-egg jar to eat.”
    “Don’t give me that crap. We both know you didn’t do me any favors.” Flint spat out the words contemptuously. “If I hadn’t been a damn good singer and songwriter, you wouldn’t have raised a finger to help me.”
    “There’s more to success in this business than talent,” Rex retaliated, his voice rising.
    “Bullshit!” Flint leaned down until he was nose to nose with the smaller man. “Now find that little whore and get her out onstage before I really get mad.” He grasped Rex’s lapels and lifted him off his feet. “I’m not letting you or her ruin my career.”
    Yikes! Skye whipped out her cell phone. It was time to call the cops.

CHAPTER 2
    “Seven-Year Ache”
    B efore Skye had finished dialing Wally’s number, a dusty black pickup pulled perpendicular to the Airstream. She craned her neck around the doorway and watched a young woman dressed in a ruffled denim miniskirt, a pink stretch-lace, off-the-shoulder top, and pink cowboy boots bolt out of the truck before it had completely stopped moving.
    The woman ran around the front of the RV, disappeared from Skye’s view for a second, then reappeared in the trailer’s window as she flung herself at Rex’s feet, sobbing. “I’m so sorry. My cousin insisted on taking me to meet his friends in Joliet and I-55 was a parking lot and the battery on my cell phone is dead and—”
    “We’ll talk about it later, Suzette.” Rex hauled the girl off the floor. “Right now you need to perform.”
    “But my hair and makeup—” Suzette touched her waist-length black mane.
    “There’s no time for that.” Rex propelled her backward. “You look fine.”
    “But my costume,” Suzette wailed. “My beautiful sparkly dress.”
    “Next time.”
    As Rex and Suzette disappeared from sight, Flint called after them, “Don’t forget to tell that new bass player that a diminished fifth is not an empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s.”
    Rex grunted before screaming at the band to get onstage. A few seconds later Skye could hear him yelling, “Get your rear