Read Online With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) by Diane Vallere - Free Book Online Page B

past, and in that year I’d had to deal with my own demons when they came knocking on my door. When Hudson had resolution, I hadn’t. And now that I had resolution, Hudson wasn’t around. I missed him more than I thought I would.
    “Are you back in Dallas?” I asked.
    “Not yet. I don’t know when I’ll be back, to tell the truth. I still have a couple of states to cross. If it’s urgent, why not call one of the contacts I gave you when I left?”
    “I can do that.” Our conversation dropped to silence for a few seconds.
    “Sure is good to hear your voice,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”
    “Bye, Hudson.”
    I didn’t realize that Cleo had reentered the room while I was on the phone. I closed the sketch pad and notebook and put my phone away. “I was making arrangements with my handyman.”
    “I was hoping you’d call him. Is he the one who was suspected of that murder?”
    “He was innocent,” I said in Hudson’s defense. “How do you know about that?”
    “It was all over the news. Makes a great story, you know? Why do you think we hired you?”

SEVEN

      
    “You hired me because of my history? Because of my involvement in a homicide investigation?” I asked. Even saying it out loud didn’t make it sound more rational.
    “That’s how Dan and I found out about you and your business. Truth is, we’d like to talk to you about buying the rights to your story. Could make a great movie,” she finished in a sing-song voice.
    “Cleo, I don’t know how I feel about this. What happened last year isn’t my story. It involved a lot of other people too.”
    “But you were at the center of it. If you sell to us, we’ll build the whole thing around you.”
    The rundown house and the carte blanche mid-century decorating job were starting to make a bit more sense. Cleo and Dan were movie producers with money to burn, and I was the novelty act du jour. I didn’t need to subject Hudson to an environment like this, where his past would be the deciding factor in getting the job.
    “My regular contractor is out of town. I’ll be hiring someone else to work with me.”
    “Boo-hoo,” she said, pushing her glossed lips out in a pout. “I was so hoping to meet him face to face. But speaking of being out of town, I’ve decided to throw a pool party while Dan is gone. How does Saturday night sound? I know you won’t be done with the renovations, but is there anything you can do in the interim, you know, to make it seem more special than, well, than it is right now?”
    I flipped through the pages of my sketch pad until I reached the one with the list of renovations. It was going to be a long time until their house was ready for entertaining.
    “What part of the house do you want to be available to guests?”
    She stared at me as if she didn’t understand the question.
    “Cleo, once I tackle this wall of glass blocks, it’s going to be a mess in here. Right now you have an empty room. I can stage it with furniture and knickknacks from my storage locker, but that’s going to cost you—”
    “Like a rental? Don’t worry, I’ll pay whatever you want. What’s the going rate?”
    “I was going to say it would cost you in time. It’s going to take time to clean up this room, bring furniture in, have your party, and take the furniture out.”
    “We’ve got all the time in the world.”
    Cleo’s lackadaisical approach to the completion of her deadlines had been bothering me. Add in her confession that I was hired because she and her husband were interested in the development rights to my story, and I was growing less and less enthusiastic about her and Dan’s business. They’d paid me generously to start the work on their house, and under just about any circumstances it would have been difficult to turn down the opportunity to work on a Cliff May house so in need of repair. But still, I was starting to feel like the entertainment.
    “Before I agree to anything, I have to check my calendar and