Corpse Suzette

and—”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I’ve
been on stakeouts with you when you had the stomach flu, and I didn’t even
complain. Now that’s true romance.”
    Savannah smiled. “It is. It
is. You’re quite the Romeo.”
    “You wanna hear what I’ve
got or not?”
    “Absolutely. Go.”
    “Liu says it was that
stuff. That super bot-whatever medicine that the receptionist told you about.
It showed up in D’Alessandro’s tox screen.”
    “Enough to kill him?”
    “Oh yeah, a couple of times
over.”
    “Wow. Okay, that narrows
our list of suspects a bit,” she said. “It wasn’t someone who just walked in
off the streets. Somebody had to have a key to their medicine cabinet.”
    “Yeah, I was gonna go over
there to Emerge this afternoon and ask around about that. But right now I’m on
my way to Santa Barbara to talk to Du Bois’s sister. They’re estranged, but I
wanna shake the family tree and see if anything like rotten apples fall out.”
    “Okay, Tammy and I are
working here at home on Sergio’s computer. And she’s trying to get a hit on
that bank account number and password.”
    She heard a click on the
line and glanced at the ID screen. “Hey, somebody’s calling here from Emerge,”
she told him. “Let me see what they want, and I’ll get back to you.”
    She punched the “Flash”
button. “Hello?”
    “Hi, is this Savannah?”
    She recognized the husky,
tobacco-and-bourbon-roughened voice on the other end instantly.
    “Yes. Hi, Myrna. What’s
up?”
    “Is Abigail there with
you?”
    Savannah glanced into the
living room, where Abby was still lecturing away to the cats and herself as
Tammy continued to work at the desk. “Yes, she is. Did you want to speak to
her?”
    “That isn’t necessary. If
you would just give her a message. Tell her we feel bad about what’s happened
with her. How she traveled all the way here from the East coast and isn’t
getting her complete Emerge experience. So, we want to give her a makeover
anyway, at least as much as we can without a surgeon. Hair, makeup, wardrobe,
all of that.”
    “That’s very sweet of you.
I’m sure she’ll enjoy that.” Maybe she'll enjoy it, Savannah added
mentally. Or she might just spit in your face. You just never know with Miss
Abby.
    “Great!” Myrna said. “If
you could bring her over right away, we can get started.”
    Sure. I didn't have
anything else to do today, Savannah thought. Just cart Abby around and listen to her ranting and...
    Then she remembered the
medicine cabinet and the fact that Sergio had died as a result of injected
Bot-Avanti.
    “You betcha,” she said.
“I’ll get her over there right away.”
    As soon as she had said
good-bye to Myrna, Savannah went back to Dirk, who was, surprisingly, still on
the line. “You just take care of interviewing the Du Bois family members,” she
told him. “I’ll check out Emerge for you.”
    “Wow, thanks, Van. I
appreciate it. Especially since you aren’t even getting paid anymore, now that
your client’s gone toes-up. Making a special trip and all just for me. That’s
so sweet.”
    “Hey, what are friends for?
You can make it up to me someday soon.”
    There was a long silence on
the other end, then a dubious, “Oh, yeah? How?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. The oil
in my Mustang needs changing, the seal on my downstairs toilet is leaking, a
couple of tiles on my roof are loose.”
    “Hurrumph.”
    He hung up. Dirk was never
one for long, sentimental farewells. Especially after home and auto repairs had
been mentioned.
    Smiling, she replaced the
phone and walked into the living room. “Get out of those pajamas,” she told Abigail.
“And put your ridin’ britches on, girl.”
    Abigail looked skeptical.
“Why?”
    “Cause you’re on your way
to Emerge. You’re gonna go get all prettied up. A whole day of be-e-e-auty.”
    “No.”
    “Yes.”
    “Hey, I’ll take it!” Tammy
piped up. “I’d love a day of beauty at a spa! Besides, it would be worth it
just to hang out with that hotty Jeremy.”
    “I’ll go. I’ll go.” Abigail
didn’t exactly shoot off the sofa, but the cats had to scramble to keep from
hitting the floor when she dumped them off her lap.
    As she headed up the
stairs, Savannah walked over and slapped Tammy on the back. “I didn’t know you
had a thing for Jeremy Lawrence.”
    “I don’t. But she does, and that’s all that matters.”
    “Deception. I didn’t know
you had it in you, Tam.”
    She chuckled. “I