Death Turns A Trick (Rebecca Schwartz #1) (A Rebecca Schwartz Mystery) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series)

they weren’t customers?”
    “I told you that when I called you. Jeannette arranged it.”
    “Unfortunately,” said Stacy. She just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
    It occurred to me that Jeannette had done quite a bit of arranging: first the job for Kandi, then the party. Did that mean anything? Probably not. She could hardly have predicted Kandi was going to wind up alone at my house. No one could, for that matter; it didn’t seem to be a premeditated murder.
    The phone rang, affording me a glimpse of a side of Elena I hadn’t seen. She made her voice low and inviting: “Well, helLO, dear. I’ve been hoping you’d call.” Bawdy giggles. “What a MARvelous idea. You’re so inVENtive, darling. I’m getting excited just talking to you. Darling, there’s only one problem. I’m having a little work done on the house right now. How about a hotel, hm? Wouldn’t that be fun for a change? All right, handsome. I can hardly wait.”
    She replaced the receiver, muttered “asshole”, and freshened our drinks.
    “He speaks very highly of you,” I said.
    “Oh, he’s all right,” she said as she made a notation in an appointment book. “I’m just fed up right now, that’s all. In fact, I’m sick and tired of phone calls.” She took the receiver off the hook. “There. What else do you want to know?”
    “Has the senator come for his clothes yet?”
    “Oh dear, didn’t I tell you? He called about ten minutes after you drove away with him. What happened, anyway?”
    “He abandoned ship when I hit that car. I guess he must have panhandled for the call.” I giggled at the notion.
    “Anyway,” said Elena, “he said he had to get his clothes right away. Jeez, he really had a thing about being discovered.”
    “The cops don’t give a shit for johns,” said Stacy. “Especially if they’re influential.”
    “True,” said Elena, “but we had to indulge him. I told him it wasn’t really a raid and that I could put his clothes in the basement so he could get them by coming in through the tunnel. The armoire can be moved from either side, you see.”
    “When did you do it?”
    “Right away. I mean, I asked Kandi to. I was pretty busy with the FDOs. I presume she did and that he came back for them, because they weren’t here the next morning.”
    “So he was here later on. He’s as good a suspect as anybody.”
    Stacy snickered. “Suspect! Who do you think you are—Miss Marple?”
    I lost patience. “Stacy, I wish you wouldn’t needle me while I’m trying to do my job.”
    “Okay, okay.”
    “Did you tell the senator he had to tell the cops he was here?” I asked Elena.
    “Yes, and he said he would. Amid much shouting and hysteria. I had to leave a message with his answering service, which wasn’t cool.”
    “Good.” I turned to Stacy. “On the ride home with Kandi, did you notice anyone following you?”
    “I wasn’t looking in the rearview mirror.”
    “But Kandi was. Did she mention anything like that?”
    “No. All she mentioned was she was pissed off she had to go clear to Telegraph Hill and wait for you.”
    She showed her teeth again, as if she was delighted to have said something personally offensive.
    “Okay, look,” I said, “does either of you know of anyone with a motive to kill Kandi?”
    “Only everyone,” said Stacy.
    “She means,” said Elena, “that Kandi was such a pain that most anyone might have wanted to wring her lovely neck. But real motives, no, so far as I know.”
    “Stacy?”
    “No.”
    “Well, how about alibis—did either Renee or Hilary leave with anybody?”
    Both women shook their heads. “They left separately, before Kandi and I did,” said Stacy. “Even before Elena asked Kandi to return your purse, so they didn’t know where she was going. But of course they could have waited, and followed her. Elena’s the only one with an alibi.”
    “How did you get that?”
    “She was picking you up at the Hall of Injustice. And that makes me the most likely suspect, since I’m the only one besides her who knew where Kandi was headed.” Her voice was bitter.
    “She could have stopped by my place on the way,” I said. If I hoped to get a guilty reaction, I was disappointed. Stacy continued looking sulky. Elena only laughed.
    “So no one has an alibi,” said Elena. “Not even me or Jeannette or the senator. Where does that get us?”
    “I’m not sure. But let me try something else on you. The night of the party, did either of