Free Killer Blonde by Elaine Viets Page A

the time. She tore her suit hauling Vicki’s body.”
    â€œThat sounds reasonable. Maybe,” Helen said. “But how did you know some of that stuff, like that bit about the dropped pink high heel and Vicki’s warm foot?”
    â€œOh, I made that up,” Margery said a little too quickly. “I don’t really know if Minfreda talked to herself when she moved the body, but I know I would. Little details like that make a better story. So I added a few here and there.
    â€œBut if you insist on just the facts, ma’am, here’s what I know for sure: Vicki was never seen dead or alive again. The cops may have bought the story that she sailed off into the sunset, but I didn’t. Vicki was a corporate creature. An office was her natural habitat.
    â€œHere’s another fact: Minfreda was extra jumpy all that week. She haunted the back hall by the construction chute. She would stand there, pale as a ghost, staring down at that Dumpster, which got fuller each day. Lucky for her, it was a chilly week in Lauderdale.”
    â€œWhy was that lucky?”
    Margery sighed. “Use your head, Helen. What do you think one hundred pounds of spoiled meat would smell like in hot weather?”
    â€œOh, yuck,” Helen said, when she thought about it.
    â€œMinfreda didn’t relax until the construction company carted away that Dumpster a week later. Then she was a different person. She smiled for the first time since Mr. Hammonds’s stupid memo.
    â€œOne more thing: She never went near the back hall again.”
    Helen’s head was spinning, but she didn’t know if it was from too much wine or too much information.
    â€œHow did the office react when Vicki didn’t show up?”
    â€œI was the first to know,” Margery said. “I found the letter in Vicki’s typewriter. I took it and Minfreda’s carbons straight to Mr. Hammonds’s office. Francine read the letter, examined the carbons, and clucked, ‘Margery, I never did like that young person.’
    â€œâ€˜Me, either,’ I said.
    â€œâ€˜No sense of responsibility,’ Francine said. ‘What’s she thinking, running off with her boyfriend like that? Mr. Hammonds gave her an opportunity no other woman at this company has ever had. Selfish, I call it. She makes all women look bad.’
    â€œPeople talked that way then. You weren’t a good or bad boss. You represented the entire sex.
    â€œâ€˜There’s another deserving young woman here,’ I reminded her.
    â€œâ€˜Yes, there is. And we must not forget those were really her ideas and that Vicki person misappropriated them,’ Francine said. ‘We must right this wrong. Wait here, Margery, while I talk with Mr. Hammonds.’ She went straight into the CEO’s office. Francine was a determined woman, with a strong sense of what was fitting.
    â€œI waited maybe half an hour. Then Francine came out. ‘Mr. Hammonds would prefer you say nothing about this until he makes a decision,’ she said.
    â€œâ€˜I’ll have to tell people something,’ I said, ‘or the rumor mill will go crazy.’
    â€œâ€˜Then say that Vicki has taken an unscheduled leave of absence. That is the truth.’”
    â€œSpeaking of the truth,” Helen said. “Did you mention your doubts about the resignation letter?”
    â€œThey were doubts, not facts,” Margery said. “Mr. Hammonds didn’t like anything that wasn’t cut-and-dried.”
    â€œAnd you liked Minfreda.”
    â€œI did. I still do.
    â€œOur department went through the motions for the next week. Everyone was asking me: Was Vicki gone for good? Was she still our boss or not? Everyone but Minfreda. She knew the answers, of course. She didn’t ask me anything. She seemed curiously lifeless.
    â€œThe boys didn’t know whether to wear black armbands or break out the champagne. They had the lip balm