Read Online Corpse Suzette by G. A. McKevett - Free Book Online

have no point. It was just a simple observation.”
    “No, you were bitching at
me. Criticizing my language, like you always do. I know when I’m being
criticized. If I wanted some br... woman to bitch at me, I’d get
married.”
    “If you could find some
broad who’d have you,” she muttered under her breath, losing the Zen.
    “What?”
    “Nothing.” She opened her
eyes and shook herself back to reality, grim as it might be. “What were you
saying? You don’t like somebody. What else is new?”
    “I don’t like that gal
who’s the receptionist or secretary or whatever back there at that Emerge
place.”
    “Any particular reason?”
    “She’s a bimbo. And worse
yet, an old bimbo.”
    “Young bimbos are somehow
better than old ones? Why? Because they’re easier on the eyes? You don’t mind a
woman being an ignoramus as long as she’s firm and perky?”
    “What?” He stared at her
for a long moment, obviously confused. “No, it’s not that. Firm and perky?
That’s stupid. It’s just that if a gal’s older, she’s had more time to figure
out how to smarten up. She doesn’t have any excuse for being a bimbo past...
oh, thirty-five or so. After that, she oughta be wiser.”
    Savannah studied her old
friend’s face and saw only sincerity. She gave him a sweet, warm smile. “I love
you,” she said.
    He looked pleased but
confused. “Okay. First you criticize me, then you say something like that.
You’re nuts.”
    “But not a bimbo?”
    He smiled back. “Not even
in the ballpark with bimbo.”
    “Tell me more about the
receptionist.”
    “She’s gotta be pushing
sixty, but she was flirting with me, actually coming on to me.” He shut his
eyes and shook his head as though trying to shake out the very thought. “Yuck.
She could almost be my mom. And that wouldn’t even matter, except that she’s
had a ton of bad plastic surgery. Her eyebrows are up to her hairline, her nose
is as pointed as a just-sharpened pencil, and her lips are all plumped up like
she’s been bee-stung. It’s gross, I tell you. If she’d had one more face-lift,
I swear she’d have a beard.”
    Savannah groaned. “That’s
an old one.”
    “But applicable in her
case. She asked for my number. Can you believe it? She was commenting on the
fact that I’m not wearing a wedding ring and wanted my home phone number.”
    “Did you give it to her?”
    “Hell no. I gave her Ryan
and John’s.”
    “You’re a bad boy.”
    He snickered. “I know.”
    “Did you get a read on her
about Suzette?”
    “Just that she doesn’t like
her. Has worked for her and ol’ Sergio forever, but doesn’t have an ounce of
respect for either one of them.”
    Savannah shrugged. “Well, I
can understand that where Sergio’s concerned. He seemed more than a bit smarmy
to me.”
    “And Suzette lived like a
pig.”
    “She was a bit
sanitation-challenged, yes...
    “And who was that pretty
boy you were talking to over there by the butterfly cage?”
    “The gentleman by the
atrium was Jeremy Lawrence, Emerge’s style consultant.”
    His eyebrows raised a
notch. “Lawrence?”
    “Yeap. How much do you want
to bet he was Suzette’s luncheon date that didn’t show at Toscano’s?”
    “Gotta be. I’ll be talking
to him next. And the gal with the weird hair and the sprayed-on jeans?”
    “Devon Wright. She handles
public relations for Emerge. We don’t like her much either.”
    “Oh, why not?”
    “Because she doesn’t
like me. Didn’t believe me when I told her I’m a reporter with San
Carmelita Today magazine.”
    “That newspaper thing that
comes out on Sunday?”
    “That’s the one. And just
because I didn’t have a press pass or a business card, she didn’t buy my story.”
    “You’re slippin’, gal. Once
upon a time, you’d have had a business card for at least six businesses at a
given time in your wallet.”
    “I know. Tammy hasn’t
printed any for me lately. It’s her fault.
    Anyway, I—”
    Her cell phone