Read Online Mama Sees Stars: A Mace Bauer Mystery by Deborah Sharp - Free Book Online

been shopping at the hootchie ho’ outlet store.
    I was surprised to see Toby in a booth off to the side. A can of Coke and a glass of ice sat beside a cowboy hat on the table. Alone, he watched Jesse’s performance with a dark frown on his face.
    Carlos sat at the far end of the bar. Empty seats on either side created a protective barricade, as he nursed the one beer he’d keep all night. He alternated between aiming disapproving looks at Jesse, and keeping watch over Toby. I crossed the room.
    “Hey.’’ The kiss I planted on his cheek caused a small crack in the granite of his jaw.
    “Hey, yourself.’’ He stood, smiled, and took my arm. “Let’s get a booth where it’s quieter.’’
    With one last lip curl of contempt at Jesse, he steered me to a spot where he could still survey the room.
    “That girl is making a spectacle of herself. It’s not right.’’ He waited for me to slide in first, and then sat beside me in the booth, both of us looking out. “She needs a Cuban tía for a chaperone. She’d be afraid to misbehave.’’
    “ Tía ?’’
    “Auntie. Nothing gets past them.’’
    “The real shame is that Jesse is a lot smarter and competent than she lets on.’’ I told him about how in-charge she’d been when Toby shot Johnny Jaybird.
    Then I nodded toward Toby. “He doesn’t look like he’s enjoying Jesse’s showy side much. I thought you’d have him in jail by now, enjoying bread and water and doing hard labor.’’
    “Well, he’s a minor. And I’m not sure about intent. Toby swears he thought the gun was loaded with blanks. The reason he thought that is because it’s a replica of the prop gun. The one with the blanks is still in the possession of the prop master. They’re really careful about that on movie sets, ever since Brandon Lee was fatally shot on the set of The Crow .
    “So the copy was loaded?’’
    He nodded.
    “Where’d it come from?’’
    “Good question. Toby says he found it right outside his trailer before lunch. He decided to pick it up and rehearse with it, thinking it was the gun with blanks.’’
    “So it was planted?’’
    He picked at the paper label on his beer bottle. “Looks like it.’’
    “By whom?’’
    He shrugged. “Are you going to investigate, as usual?’’
    “You can wipe the smirk off your face. This one is all yours. I hate to say it, but I don’t really care who murdered that jerk of a producer.’’
    He winked at me. “So you say now. We’ll see. Anyway, I still have a lot of questions to answer about how that gun came into Toby’s hands. Prosecutors like their i’s dotted and t’s crossed when it comes to filing formal charges of attempted murder, or even assault.’’
    We both glanced toward Toby, who still hadn’t poured his soda. He stared morosely into the glass of ice.
    “He’s not going anywhere,’’ Carlos said. “Besides, Barbara’s protecting him, and she can be pretty persuasive.’’
    I raised my brows. Where was the hard-case Miami detective of a year or so ago? Carlos had tossed my mama into jail on less evidence than he had here. Of course, there were extenuating circumstances with Mama. There always are.
    “The kid has had it pretty rough.’’ He sipped his beer. “His parents see him as an investment. The way Barbara tells it, she’s the only person in the world who really cares about him.’’
    “Yeah. Earning fifteen percent off him really brings out the maternal instinct.’’
    He leaned back in the booth and frowned.
    “What?’’
    “It’s a rare day when you’re more cynical than I am. Who’s Miami here and who’s Himmarshee?’’
    “Can’t help it. I don’t trust these Hollywood people. I can’t tell their real emotions from their fake.’’
    Across the room, Jesse was trying to pull one of the biggest cowboys up on the bar to dance with her. Instead, he lifted her into the air like she was a fluff of dust. He had one hand on her butt, and the other on a breast as he