Steamed

lying and his drunk father trying to grope me.”
    Was Phil so desperate to avoid paying off all the money Eric owed that he killed him? Was he trying to stop Eric from ratting on him to Sheryl?
    “Did Detective Hurley talk to you?” I asked.
    “Yeah, I told him what a prick I thought Eric was. Can you believe he actually suspected me of killing Eric? Because I was so mad at him for being such a jerk? Hardly. I was off the hook after about half a second because I was with Noah that night, if you know what I mean.” She might as well have wink-winked at me. But Noah had implied as much in saying that he’d had company, as he’d phrased it, on the night of the murder. “Noah said something about all of his women reporting him to the police, which I didn’t understand, since it wasn’t my fault they went to talk to him after me. He was my alibi, so what was I supposed to do? He’s a little nuts sometimes.”
    Since Veronica and Noah alibied each other, it was possible that they’d acted together to murder Eric. Although Veronica’s ego had taken a blow at Eric’s deception, she didn’t seem to have cared enough about Eric to bother killing him.
    I asked, “Veronica, do you know why Eric went around telling people he was dating someone? After you broke up with him. His parents and everyone at Essence kept saying they’d heard so much about me and that Eric had been talking about me for weeks, which is impossible, since I’d just met him that night.”
    “Oh, easy. To see if he could make me jealous enough to go back to him. He was trying to spread rumors that he was hot and heavy with someone, hoping I’d hear about it and beg him to take me back. Yeah, right. I figured it was a bunch of bullshit, though. Sounds like he pawned you off as the mystery woman he’d been bragging about.”
    I was mildly insulted but recovered in about thirty seconds.
    Veronica pulled out a nail file and started sharpening her talons. The dryer turned off. “Oh, that was toasty!” she chirped as she hopped off her seat to unload her dry clothes. “Well, I’m off. Nice talkin’ to you, Chloe. Tell Josh I said hello and maybe I’ll see you guys at Magellan. Hey, you two and Noah and I should double some night!”
    Practically gagging at the suggestion, I raised my eyebrows and nodded. “Yeah, why don’t you run that by Noah.”
    “See ya!” Veronica waved and walked out of the basement.
    As much as I loathed Veronica, who would forever be the skanky blonde I’d caught leaving Noah’s apartment, I had learned a few things from her. For example, tonight wasn’t the first time Phil Rafferty had tried to grope his son’s girlfriend or, in my case, alleged girlfriend. What would my classmates make of that revolting habit? Would they see it as some bizarre Oedipal twist?
    I went back up to my condo. It was still too early to descend on Josh. But I was starving. I opened the fridge but found nothing of interest. Ordinary food had begun to pale by comparison with Josh’s cooking; I was rapidly getting spoiled. I decided to settle for boring cheese and crackers! Josh had left one of his small knives in my kitchen, and I used it to slice some cheddar. Ow! I sliced a mean cut into the top of my left forefinger. Dammit, that hurt! Rinsing my hand under water, I winced at the sting. With a dishcloth wrapped around my hand, I went to the bathroom in search of a bandage. I probably needed stitches but was in no mood to waste five hours in a Boston ER on a Saturday night. It was hard to believe that a small knife had inflicted such a bad cut. My thoughts turned to the damage a large knife could do, a large, curved knife like cimiter used to kill Eric. One quick slice across the neck and... a wave of nausea rushed through me. I held onto the sink with one hand and bent over to send blood back into my head.
    I needed chocolate.
    My cabinets yielded the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. I preferred to buy Tollhouse cookie dough, but with Josh in my life, I now felt obliged to cook from scratch. Besides, the wholesome activity of baking cookies might lift my spirits. As it turned out, what actually cheered me up was eating most of the batter. While the cookies baked, I changed into Josh-seducing clothes. With luck, my cookie-bloated stomach would shrink by the time he saw me naked, but for now I had to avoid anything too fitted. Also, I didn’t want to look too obvious.
    Clad in a white V neck and casual pants, I fixed my