Larcency and Lace Part 28

I chuckled. "Eric. I saw it on his nameplate at the dealership."

We finished walking the rows of scarecrows, more than fifty, when I saw Werner and took my turn at the microphone to introduce and thank the judges.

"Since, we don't want them consulting with each other," I said, "councilman, could you start at the end of the rows? Mrs. McDowell, start in the middle, and Detective Werner, start at the beginning?"

The McDowells complied. Werner saluted.

"Entrants and friends," I said, "please wait until the judges are finished before you view your neighbors' works of art. While you wait, you'll find refreshments on the tables behind me."

As soon as I got off the riser, Eve pulled me into the shop and shoved her cell phone into my hand. "I got a message from Vinney."

"Shut. Up! What did he say?"

"You have to listen. I'm not sure, but I think he said, 'You're a b.i.t.c.h.' "

Thirty-nine.

I want to invent new ways of making clothes in new materials, with new shapes and fashion accessories that are up-to-date with the changing ways of life.

-MARY QUANT I listened to Eve's voice mail. "I think he's saying, 'Y'all's a bi-' He doesn't finish the last word, does he? Is he southern?"

"No. Maybe he thinks we're both b.i.t.c.hes."

"Can you amplify the sound?" I asked.

"No, that's as loud as it gets."

Each of us listened to it several more times.

"Can you hook it up and amplify it with a computer?"

"Not at home," Eve said. "But I'll try in my computer lab at the university tomorrow."

"Judging is finished," my father said, coming inside.

"My prize certificates?" I asked Eve.

"I put them behind the counter."

I grabbed them. "I'd better get out there."

"Not until the ballots are tabulated. Sherry has the score sheets I made."

"Eve, what would I do without you?"

"You won't have to find out if you don't let Vinney near me. Should I call him back?"

"Not in this crowd. Wait till I'm with you, 'kay? His tone skeeved me out. It's so dramatic then . . . end."

"Mad, we have the winners," Sherry called.

"Go," Eve said. "I'll wait."

Back at the podium I took the mike. "First prize goes to number thirty-three, Vanessa Vancortland, for her bride scarecrow."

The crowd gave an audible "aw" when Cort, her grandfather, held up the three-year-old so she could accept her certificate.

"Vanessa, this is going to buy you a lot of bee-utiful purses." Sherry's flower girl and niece, Vanessa, was a handbag connoisseur who even had a sleep purse in which she kept Duck Duck, her bedtime buddy.

"Second prize goes to number twenty-five: the Oscar Norton family for their baby-rocking granny scarecrow. And last but certainly scariest, number six: our own Tunney Lague for his b.l.o.o.d.y, meat-cutting vampire scarecrow."

Laughter accompanied the applause.

When Tunney accepted his certificate, he took the mike from me. "Let's give a big round of applause to Maddie and friends, who gave us such a wonderful day."

After the awards, people looked at the scarecrows for a while, but most of the crowd left when the food ran out.

At Sherry's request, Justin went across the street to Mystic Pizza and brought back pizza and sandwiches. The best.

Justin, Eve, and I sat on the steps. Dad, Fiona, and Sherry each got a folding chair from Justin's trunk. The wind had died down and the air warmed a bit as we ate, waved to neighbors as they collected their scarecrows, and generally babysat the dwindling a.s.sortment.

"How many do you think are left?" Eve asked.

"Fifteen or twenty," I said.

"If you do this again next year, I might enter. Let's go look at them."

I followed, certain she was antsy. We didn't stop until we stood in the middle of the scattered scarecrows.

"I'm dying to call Vinney," she said. "I'm scared, but I have this gut-instinct need to do it."

"No reason to be afraid. You're surrounded by people who love you."

"Suppose he knows that I was the one who hit him that night outside McDowell's guesthouse, and he is saying, 'You're a b.i.t.c.h.' Maybe it's a threat."

"He can't hurt you over the phone."

She hit speed dial and listened, again, but I was distracted by the faint sound of slot machines behind me. "Do you hear a slot machine?" I asked.

"That's not funny!" She snapped her phone shut.

"I didn't mean it to be, but don't worry, it stopped."

Eve got a sick look on her face and hit speed dial again.

I heard the slot machine again. "Can you hear it?"

"That's not a slot machine. It's Vinney's cell phone. Mad, he's here." She dialed again, and in view of my father-I even waved to him-we followed the sound to the first scarecrow in the last row, a crudely painted leather skeleton-like the one worn by Lolique the night she broke into my shop?-from which the sound of slot machines burst forth.

"This one wasn't here before," I said. "People started setting up here." With a sick feeling, I put my gloves back on to raise the skeleton mask . . . and saw vacant, staring eyes.

"Vinney!" Eve gasped.

"Don't faint," I said.

Forty.

Fashion must be the intoxicating release from the ba.n.a.lity of the world.

-DIANA VREELAND Still wearing my gloves, I touched the scarecrow's bare hand, stiff and unbending, and if I hadn't been sure before, I knew now. "It's too late to call an ambulance," I whispered.

Eve just stared at me while more scarecrows were taken away and people chatted a few feet away from us. Just as well that she was speechless, under the circ.u.mstances. I took her hand and led her back toward the family. Without a word, we sat on the steps.

Sherry frowned. "What's up with you two?"

"One of the scarecrows-"

I touched Eve's hand. "Sherry, how's your tummy, sweetie?"

"It's great now that it's full of pizza."

"Justin, maybe you should take her home."

"What? Has something bad happened? I want to know. I can take it. Finish the sentence, 'one of the scarecrows...' "

Eve swallowed. "Has a dead body in it. Vinney Carnevale's body."

Sherry gasped and Justin wrapped a protective arm around her.

I wished I hadn't left Chakra home, because I could use her calming presence, right now. But I'd been afraid she'd be frightened or get stepped on with so many people around. "I don't think any of us should panic right now, especially with so many neighbors nearby."

"I'll go make sure that we don't need to call 911," my father said, and I didn't bother to argue.

The leather skeleton outfit had not been baggy on Vinney's robust build. It had to be the same leather skeleton jumpsuit.

"Let's wait to call Werner until after the other scarecrows are gone," I suggested.

My father heard me as he came back, shaking his head. "A few minutes won't matter to Vinney."

I covered my face with my hands. "I really don't want any more crime scene tape around my shop."

"A man is dead," Eve said. "And you're worried about crime scene tape?"

"The man who nearly strangled me. Who you nearly killed with the heel on your shoe to save my life. Ten minutes ago, his phone message freaked the h.e.l.l out of you."

"You nearly lost your life?" my father said. "I dearly hope you're exaggerating."

"I am, Dad." Not.

He looked like he didn't believe me. "We need to shield the last of our neighbors from the grisly sight," he said. "It would be too easy, as the scarecrows thin out, for someone to go and check out the skeleton." My father got up. "Let's move the last of them closer to the curb."

Eve and I sat frozen as dad and Justin went to separate the scarecrows from the murder victim. Sherry and Aunt Fiona weren't saying much, either. Two more cars and a van arrived. Dad and Justin helped them load up.

My father came back. "The last of the real scarecrows are on their way."

"Justin, I think you should take Sherry home, now, because I have to call Werner."

Sherry stood. "Please, yes." They left as I dialed the police station and asked for Werner.

"Lytton," I said, when he came on the line, "can you come quietly back to Vintage Magic. No sirens?"

Werner sighed. "What now, Madeira?"

"I can see why our night watchman got the feeling he was annoying you with his calls."

"Low blow."

"Well, try not to place blame before you hear the facts. Somebody stuck an unentered scarecrow in the back row . . . in plain sight of all of us, even you. It's Vinney Carnevale in a skeleton costume. He's dead."

It didn't take Werner five minutes, no sirens. Eventually, however, the ambulance, police cars, and coroner's car sure attracted attention.

I put my hand on Werner's arm. "Please, no more crime scene tape."

"No need to cordon it off," he said. "There were at least a hundred people here, today. Any stray evidence has been trampled. What happened? n.o.body took him home, so you checked him out?"

His cell phone rang.

Eve raised her open phone to show that she'd called him. "He'd left me a cryptic voice mail message so we called him back. That's when we heard what you're hearing."

Werner listened to her call, pointed to her phone, and it got scooped into an evidence bag.

"Hey! I need that."

Werner denied her request with a shake of his head. "You'll get it back as soon as we a.n.a.lyze the message." He looked at his men. "The skeleton's got a phone on him. What are you waiting for? Find it." He signaled for the men with the coroner's stretcher to wait, but his team searched without luck.

"Ms. Meyers," Werner said, "don't open the evidence bag but use your phone to call him again."