Free High Strung: A Glass Bead Mystery (The Glass Bead Mystery Series) by Janice Peacock

and flip-flops, “and get ready to schmooze some people tonight. Maybe you’ll meet a jewelry designer who wants to place a huge order for your excellent beads.”
    Dylan stood there , staring down at his saggy pants. “I can’t really afford any new clothes. The new apartment is pretty much wiping my bank account clean each month.”
    “ Well, we can’t have that, can we?” I said grabbing my handbag.
    “ Uh…”
    “ Come on, Dylan, nobody is going to take you seriously unless you ‘up your game.’ Okay? So, let’s get moving. I’m going to be your fairy godmother.”
    “ Fairy god—”
    “ That’s right Dylan. Fairy. God. Mother! You know, she gets Cinderella a new dress to go to the ball.” I turned and opened the studio door, and gestured toward the Ladybug.
    “ Sire, your carriage awaits.”
    Dylan looked at me uncertainly. “Let’s go,” I said, trying to clear up the picture for him. “I’m going to buy you an outfit to wear tonight.” This had not been part of the plan for my busy day, but I am always a sucker for a good cause.
    “ I won’t buy you anything crazy, or anything that’s going to make you feel uncomfortable. Just something nice.” I was getting worried Val’s love of makeovers was contagious. “I’m not going to spend a lot, we’re just going to get you something that will make you feel confident, and maybe that confidence will mean someone wants to buy a few extra beads.”
    “ Just the two of us?” Dylan asked timidly, as I opened the car door and pushed him in. I came around to the driver’s side and swung myself into the seat.
    I gave him a sideways glance. “Why?”
    “ Well, I think your neighbor, Val, dresses nice. Maybe she could come?”
    My head came to rest on the steering wheel. Val. If I invited her to come on this little makeover adventure, I would never hear the end of it.
    “Sure, Dylan, if that would make you happy,” I sighed. “Let’s go talk with Val and see if she can come.” I hoped Rudy had already left, and that Val would simply not open the door if we were interrupting something.
    We got back out of the car and came around the side of the house, narrowly missing a pile of poop Stanley had left behind. Dammit, Marta, get your shit together. Literally. Figuratively.
    Dylan followed after me like my own puppy. When we arrived at Val’s door a few seconds later, we knocked and Val opened the door.
    “ Yessssss,” she said with a big curious smile.
    “ Dylan and I were wondering if you’d like to go shopping with us,” I said, subtly craning my neck around Val to see if Rudy was inside.
    “ Becausssssse…,” she prompted me to continue, leaning saucily against the doorjamb.
    I took a deep breath. “ Because Dylan here needs a new outfit to wear for the party tonight, and so I said I’d buy him something.”
    “ But really, Jax, you don’t—” said Dylan.
    “ I want to—”
    “ People! People!” Val said clapping her hands to get our attention.
    We both stopped and looked at her , our mouths still open but no words coming out.
    “ You know that expression, when you don’t have anything to wear, you should ‘shop your closet?’” Val asked.
    “ No,” Dylan and I said in unison.
    Val sighed. “Well, the idea is that before you buy anything new, you should make sure you don’t have the perfect thing already in your closet. But, there is another saying, a corollary.”
    “ Corollary?” we said in unison.
    “ Yes, corollary!” Val said impatiently. I have to admit that while I knew what a corollary was, I was pretty surprised Val did. “The corollary is: when you can’t find anything in your closet, shop your neighbor’s closet.”
    I had never seen Val so pumped up. “Don’t you worry, Dylan, I will take care of you.”
    Dylan looked nervous. I ’m sure he was regretting his idea of asking Val along on our clothes-shopping spree. We were both assessing our options for a getaway plan.
    Val grabbed both of us by