Polished Off (34 page)

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Authors: Barbara Colley

BOOK: Polished Off
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Hank chuckled. “I swear, you and that bird are something else.” He shook his head. “So—where was he?”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Would you believe he was under my bed? He’s never gone under the bed before. And get this. I found him perched on top of a sock—Davy’s sock—the one I couldn’t find when I packed his bag to give to Judith.”
“Strange,” Hank commented. “Who would have thought that a parakeet could get that attached to someone?”
Charlotte smiled. “Davy was easy to get attached to. Makes me wish I had a grandchild.” She cleared her throat. “But to have a grandchild, my son would need to get a wife.”
“Aw, come on, Mom. Don’t start. Okay?”
Charlotte gave him a saucy grin. “Just want to make sure you know how I feel about such things. So, where is everyone?”
“Nadia, Daniel, and Aunt Madeline are in the receiving line over there.” He motioned across the room.
Charlotte had noticed the line of people on the far side of the ballroom, but she’d thought they were there because the caterers had already begun serving food. “And what about the rest?” she asked.
“Carol took Davy to the bathroom, and Judith is getting grilled by Louis about that Ricco Martinez mess.”
“Uh oh,” Charlotte murmured. Evidently Louis had showed up after all. And if he was grilling Judith, Charlotte figured it was a sure bet that he was getting the lowdown on her part in the whole affair as well.
Hank narrowed his eyes and peered down at her. “Why the ‘uh oh,’ Mom?”
Charlotte shrugged and gave her son a tight little smile. “No reason, hon. Just muttering to myself. Maybe I should go rescue Judith. See you later, hon.” Without waiting for him to comment, Charlotte turned and headed toward the front of the ballroom in search of her niece and Louis. She figured that there might be a remote chance that Judith hadn’t spilled the beans on her yet
Louis would find out eventually. Of that she had no doubt. But she had hoped to have time to adjust to everything that had happened herself before having to contend with him.
It took Charlotte a few minutes to locate Judith and Louis. One look at Louis’s angry face and Charlotte knew she was too late. Judith had already blabbed.
Neither Judith or Louis had seen her yet, and for a moment Charlotte was tempted to walk away. But only for a moment. There was no way she could avoid Louis all evening. Besides, what she did or didn’t do was really none of Louis Thibodeaux’s business.
Isn’t that a contradiction? One minute you’re worried about what he’s going to say, and the next minute you’ve decided that what you do is none of his business.
Ignoring the aggravating voice in her head, Charlotte straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. She didn’t like confrontations, but she’d never made a habit of running from them, either.
Plastering a smile on her face, she marched over to join Louis and her niece. When they first saw her, it was almost amusing to see their reactions. Almost, but not quite.
Judith immediately began to fidget, and after the briefest smile of greeting she lowered her gaze and couldn’t seem to look Charlotte in the eyes.
Guilty.
Louis simply nodded his greeting, but the look he gave her made her want to cringe.
Guilty.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they had indeed been discussing her.
“I see you made it after all,” she told Louis. When he didn’t offer a response, she turned to Judith. “You look lovely, hon. That color of blue is perfect for you.”
“Thanks,” Judith murmured.
“So where’s Billy?” Charlotte glanced around as if searching for him. “I haven’t seen him yet. Didn’t he come?”
“Ah... no ma’am,” Judith answered, still unable to look Charlotte straight in the eyes. “He had to work.” Judith visibly swallowed. “Guess I need to go check on Davy and give Carol a break.” With one last tight smile, she said, “See y’all later.” Then she turned and hurried away.
After a moment, Charlotte took a deep breath and faced Louis. “Okay, let’s get it over with.”
Louis gave her a pitying look and shook his head. “Charlotte, Charlotte, what am I going to do about you?”
Charlotte crossed her arms and sighed. “I’m still waiting, so let’s have it.”
Louis rolled his eyes. “Could we at least sit down somewhere first. I’ve been on my feet all day, and these new shoes are killing me.”
Her automatic reaction was one of sympathy, but Charlotte squashed the emotion and headed toward the nearest table. Once she was seated, Louis seated himself in the chair beside her.
“Oh yeah,” he drawled. “That’s much better.” He turned sideways to face Charlotte. “As you already suspect, Judith filled me in on the part that you purposely neglected to tell me.
“How you get yourself in these predicaments never ceases to amaze me. And I’d really like to yell at you right now, but not for the reasons you think. I think it’s about time for me to get something straight with you. If I yell and stomp and snort, it’s purely because it scares the sh—it scares me to think of you getting hurt. And it has nothing to do with whether I think you’re intelligent, capable, or any of that stuff.”
Louis suddenly looked really uncomfortable, and Charlotte wasn’t sure what to say or even if she should say anything.
He finally cleared his throat and continued. “Knowing you,” he said, “I figure you’re still blaming yourself for Will Richeaux’s death. I just wanted you to know that the first time something like that happened to me, I felt the same way ... for a while, anyway. And, no, you don’t ever get completely over it, but with time you come to grips with it.
“What you have to keep remembering is that Richeaux had a choice, and he made the wrong choice. As sure as I’m sitting here, he would have killed you without a second thought if you hadn’t been so quick to react.”
Charlotte’s throat grew tight, and something deep inside broke loose. Once again Louis had surprised her, which, in turn, only served to confuse her more. If she lived to be a hundred, she would never figure him out.
All she knew to do at the moment was to say, “Thank you, Louis. I appreciate your concern, and I’ll try to keep what you’ve told me in mind.”
Louis nodded. “Good. And another thing. You know ... whether you want to admit it or not, we’re a lot alike.”
It was the last thing she’d expected him to say, and though his statement left her speechless, she was also intrigued.
“Both of us have lived single lives and are pretty set in our ways,” he continued. “We’ve both raised sons without the benefit of a spouse’s help. Neither of us likes having to depend on anyone else for anything. What’s more, I aggravate the stuffing out of you, and you—you... well, let’s just say there’s never a dull moment.” He threw up his forefinger. “Whoa, now. Don’t go getting all huffy on me—at least not yet, not until you hear me out.”
Louis took a deep breath and sighed. “All I’m trying to say is that I’m glad we can be friends, and though I would like for us to be more than just friends, I won’t push it. Mainly because I wouldn’t want someone pushing me when it comes to something like that.”
Once again Charlotte wasn’t quite sure how to respond, and couldn’t have responded if her life had depended on it. She’d wondered about his feelings, and now she knew. But until she had time to really think about what he’d just said, she wasn’t about to say anything herself, except, “Thanks.”
Feeling a real need to lighten things up, she made an attempt to change the subject. “So... how was New York and your new job?”
Louis laughed. “Changing the subject, huh?” He held up his hand. “Now don’t get huffy. I’m just teasing. New York was crowded and loud, and my new job was not exactly what I’d pictured myself doing. I was told I’d be serving as a bodyguard; the last four weeks were a trial run to see if our company is suitable for the job. But baby-sitting is what I’d call it. And baby-sitting some spoiled, self-proclaimed diva is not my idea of fun.”
“So, who is this spoiled diva? Anyone I’ve ever heard of?”
“Oh yeah,” he drawled. “Unless you’re comatose, I’m sure you’ve heard of her. Most of the country has.”
“Well?”
“ ‘Well’ what?” He feigned innocence.
“Well nothing, if you’re going to be like that.”
Louis laughed. “The diva is Angel James.”
“Nooo—no way,” Charlotte scoffed.
Louis held up his hand, palm out. “I swear. If I’m lying I’m dying.”
There weren’t that many modern-day singers who impressed Charlotte, but Angel James was one of them. Everyone, but everyone, had heard of Angel James, the teenage wonder who had taken the music scene by storm and had every person from eight to eighty humming her songs.
“And did your company get the job?”
Louis grinned. “Yeah, we did.”
“Does that mean you’ll be leaving again?”
He shook his head. “Not right away. She’s planning on taking a hiatus, here in New Orleans, before her fall tour.”
Charlotte frowned. “Don’t I remember something about her buying a house here?”
“Yep, she owns one over on First Street. That’s where she’ll be staying for a couple of months.”
Charlotte grinned. “Well, if she needs a maid, you will be sure and recommend Maid-for-a-Day, won’t you?”
A Cleaning Tip from Charlotte
To have a fresh-smelling room, use the following procedure when cleaning ceiling fans: Dust the blades and base of the fan well. Then saturate a cloth in a mixture of approximately one part pine or lemon-scented cleaner to five parts water. Ring out the wet cloth well and wipe each fan blade, top and bottom. Rinse the cloth in clear water, squeeze out excess moisture then wipe down each blade again.
Now turn on the fan, and the pine or lemon scent will waft through the room, leaving it smelling clean and fresh.
Running Maid for a Day keeps Charlotte LaRue plenty busy. But her latest Job involves more than dusting and mopping. She’s got to contend with the rumblings of a feuding gardening club—and things certainly aren’t coming up roses ...
 
The summer’s off to a sweltering start—and Charlotte is already feeling the heat. One of her best clients has just up and moved—leaving Charlotte with a big chunk of free time in her normally hectic schedule. Her son, Hank, is thrilled. He thinks it’s high time his mother retired. But Charlotte has other ideas—and soon she has a new client, forty-something gardening enthusiast Mimi Adams. Mimi’s planning to host the next meeting of the Horticultural Heritage Society—a club that’s popular with New Orleans’s society set—and she wants Charlotte to be there.
 
Charlotte’s not sure what to expect. Some gardening talk, sure. Lots of good gossip, most definitely. But these ladies have their claws out—and things get down and dirty fast. There’s talk of extra-martial affairs (did Mimi
really
sleep with her friend Rita’s husband?) and a bitter argument over the club’s just-completed presidential election (Mimi won—but was it rigged?) A few days later, Mimi’s dead. The doctor says she was poisoned. But who planted it—and where? Was it in the bitter brownies Mimi munched at the meeting? Or in the red wine she sipped later? As Charlotte takes a closer look at Mimi’s resentful “friends” and neighbors—and gets to know her scheming husband—she realizes she has a whole plot full of suspects to weed through ... and she’d better start digging...
Please turn the page for an exciting sneak peek of
WIPED OUT,
the next Charlotte LaRue mystery
coming in February in hardcover!
T
he weekend had passed much too fast, Charlotte decided, as she knocked on the Adams’s front door on Monday morning.
Saturday had been filled with her own household chores, as well as making out the payroll for Maid-for-a-Day and recording receipts. She’d attended church services and the weekly family lunch afterward on Sunday. And thanks to her sister’s spicy jambalaya at lunch, she’d battled indigestion all night.
Charlotte heard the click of the deadbolt lock. With a sigh of weariness and hoping that she looked better than she felt, she stiffened her back, squared her shoulders, and forced a smile of greeting.
When the door swung open, Charlotte was shocked at Mimi’s appearance. She was still wearing a nightgown and robe, her face was bare of makeup, dark circles ringed her bloodshot eyes, and her hair looked as if she’d just crawled out of bed. Was she ill?
Mimi nodded a greeting, stepped aside, and motioned for Charlotte to come in. “I’m afraid you have your work cut out for you today,” she said. “The house is a wreck.” She closed the door and locked it. “My son and daughter both decided to come home this weekend,” she explained. She turned and walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, and Charlotte followed. “June just got here,” Mimi said over her shoulder. “We’re having tea in the kitchen.”

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