1 Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun (24 page)

"I have no desire to ruin your reputation." I figured his lack of
talent would do that soon enough. He didn't need my help.

Gina stopped me as I approached the door. "Anastasia, why did
you come?"

I pasted an innocent smile on my lips, placed a comforting
hand on her arm, and lied through my teeth. "You seemed so upset
yesterday. I was worried, and since I was in the neighborhood, I
thought I'd stop in to check on you."

Luckily, Gina was too fixated on Emil/Edwin to pick up on my
lack of talent as a fiction fabricator.

I glanced toward the equally unaware Emil/Edwin. "But I can
see there's nothing to worry about."

Gina smiled back. "Yes, everything is going to be fine now."

"So you think Gina glue gunned Marlys to death?" asked Cloris.

I had made it back to the office by two o'clock. My stomach
roaring from neglect, I ducked into Cloris's cubicle to see what culinary delights she had hidden away. Apologizing for the slim pickings, she handed me a half-empty bag of slightly stale gourmet potato chips.

"She's far gone enough over Emil," I said stuffing a handful of
chips into my mouth. As soon as I swallowed, I felt an additional
layer of fat globules taking up residence on my hips, but I was too
hungry to care.

"Gina takes puppy love to new heights. Or maybe it's new
depths. Frankly, I don't see what she sees in that pompous, no-talent
phony." I thought for a moment, then smirked. "No. Scratch that. I
did see what she sees in him. And what Marlys saw in him."

"Nice packaging?"

"Right off the pages of GQ. Nothing but hot air and arrogance
inside, though. He treats Gina with such ill-concealed disdain that
I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into
her."

"Kind of the way we felt about Erica and Marlys," said Cloris.

I reached into the bag for another handful of chips. "Must be
genetic."

"People who let other people walk all over them sometimes
reach a point where they go postal. Did you get the impression
that Gina was so blinded by love that she'd go to any lengths to
eliminate her competition?"

I had mulled that question over throughout the train ride back
to New Jersey. "I don't know that she's got the smarts, and I doubt
she's got the strength."

"Unless she had an accomplice."

WITH A HANDFUL OF chips poised to enter my gaping mouth, I
stared at Cloris. "So how well do we really know Gina?"

"Only what Erica told us about Gina and what we observed
ourselves yesterday."

"Plus what I saw today."

I scanned the instant replays of Gina as they darted through
my mind. My perceptions of her didn't match Erica's vociferous
defense of her cousin. "As much as I hate to admit it, I suppose we
have to question Erica's credibility, considering her staunch devotion to Gina."

Cloris reached for the bag and shoveled a handful of chips into
her mouth. "Exactly my point," she said around the mouthful.

"If Gina did kill Marlys, she would have needed help moving
the comatose body to my office"

"Emil?"

"Impossible. He can prove he was fighting a blizzard in Minnesota while Marlys was getting herself killed in New Jersey."

I felt no guilt over having divulged the Emil/Edwin connection
to Cloris. Telling Cloris would have no adverse effect on The House
of Pachette. Had someone told her Jacques Pepin was actually John
Peterson of Prairieville, Kansas, she'd be shouting, "Holy expose!
Stop the presses." But being into food, not fashion, Cloris could
care less about Emil's true identity.

"Besides," I continued, "you're forgetting that Emil doesn't return Gina's affection, at least not from what I observed of them
together. Emil is arrogant and ambitious. Marlys held the means
to hoist him a little closer to the twenty-four-carat gold ring of
fashion stardom. He had no motive for killing her."

"Someone had to help her. How else would Gina have gotten
into the office after hours?"

The thought hit us both at once. I clapped a chip-greasy hand
over my mouth. "Omigod! You don't think-?"

"Anything's possible," said Cloris. "They both had enough motive."

"Erica isn't that devious."

"I wonder." Cloris tapped her nails on her desk. "Sometimes I
find it hard to believe that anyone could be as naive and innocent
as Erica leads everyone to believe she is. After all, the kid grew up
in the Bronx, not Mayberry."

"You don't like Erica much, do you?"

Cloris hesitated before speaking. "Let's just say the jury hasn't
"
reached a verdict yet."

I know she's grating at times, but all other factors aside, Erica's no actress. If she was involved in Marlys's murder, she'd have
caved the moment Batswin and Robbins first started questioning
her."

"I suppose you're right. But now what?"

"Now I get some work done, or Naomi will have my tush in a
sling. I'll have to think about Gina later."

"Don't wait too long," warned Cloris. "I get the feeling Batswin
and Robbins want to wrap up this investigation as soon as possible."

Even if they arrest the wrong person. That ominous thought
settled in my stomach like a grease-soaked, fifty-pound gourmet
potato chip.

Back in my own cubicle across the hall, I stared at the flickering
cursor ticking off the seconds on my computer screen. Or was
each pulse a countdown to impending doom? In a matter of days,
my life's story had segued from normal to insane, from working
mom to widowed murder suspect. Not to mention Chump of the
Decade, given how blind I'd been to Karl's deceit and secret life.

For all I knew, he did have an affair with Marlys. Maybe she'd
been systematically working her way through each colleague's husband just for kicks. And only because she knew she could, knew
the power she wielded whenever she set her sights on any man. I
glanced down at my cellulite-dimpled, pear-shaped body and
wondered what having such domination over the male species
must feel like.

Tears welled up behind my eyes. What a mess! I was a prime
candidate for a Lifetime Channel movie-of-the-week. Under the
circumstances, concentrating on Fourth of July craft projects
proved next to impossible.

However, since I couldn't run the risk of losing my job, I forced
myself to leave the pity party and get back to work. Snuffling the
tears into submission, I turned my attention to a no-brainer task, tackling the stack of reader mail that had accumulated over the
past several weeks.

Once caught up on my paperwork, my mind had clicked sufficiently into work mode to concentrate on the July issue. I cobbled
together a three-project proposal and attached an assortment of
fabric and color swatches to it. Jeanie Sims, our decorating editor,
had left me a memo about having found pre-made bandana toss
pillows to incorporate with the denim furniture she planned to
feature, so I concentrated on patio crafts.

Naomi insisted on two criteria for all the craft projects that appeared in American Woman: quick and easy. Our readers weren't
die-hard crafters. I needed to come up with ideas where even the
novice, most-all-thumbs reader would feel like Martha Stewart
when she gazed at her finished project.

Naomi also liked a variety of mediums in each issue, so for the
Fourth of July spread, I included ideas that incorporated sewing,
painting, and scrap crafts.

RECYCLED JEANS PLACEMATS

Stop! Before assigning those favorite but now threadbare
jeans to the rag heap, carefully cut out the back pockets for
these nearly no-sew, perfect-for-a-picnic placemats.

Materials: denim fabric (1 yard will make 6 placemats);
one jeans back pocket per placemat; red bandana fabric
(11/3 yards will make 6 napkins); red and blue sewing
thread; basic sewing supplies; fabric glue.

Directions: Pre-shrink denim and bandana fabric. For
each placemat, cut denim to 15 x 18-inch rectangles. Machine stitch around perimeter of denim, 1 inch from cut edges.
Fringe all four sides of placemat to stitching. Position
pocket at lower left of placemat. Glue in place around sides
and bottom edges.

For each napkin, cut bandana fabric to 16 x 16 inches.
Machine hem all four edges. Fold napkin and insert into
pocket. Place silverware in pocket over napkin.

NOTE: For an even quicker project, use store-purchased napkins instead of bandana fabric.

FOURTH OF JULY CLAY POT CANDLES

Party the night away by the light of these easy-to-make patriotic candles.

Materials: 4-inch diameter clay pot and matching saucer; white primer spray paint; red, white, and blue acrylic
paints; satin spray varnish; paint brushes; 1-inch square
compressed craft sponge; tacky glue; pencil; scissors; 3-inch
red pillar candle.

Directions: (NOTE: Allow paint to dry thoroughly between steps.) Spray paint cup and saucer with primer. Paint
inside and outside of saucer red. Paint inside of pot and
outer rim in red. Paint remainder of outside of pot blue.
Paint white vertical stripes around pot rim.

Draw a star on a compressed (dry) sponge. Cut out.
Wet sponge to expand. Using white paint, sponge paint
stars randomly around blue portion of pot.

Glue pot to saucer. Apply several coats of varnish. Insert
candle.

DECOUPAGED FLAG TRAY

In just a few easy steps you can turn fabric scraps and an
unfinished wooden tray into a red, white, and blue patriotic masterpiece.

Materials: unfinished rectangular wooden tray (available in craft and hobby stores); white primer spray paint;
blue spray paint; clear acrylic varnish; scrap of red bandana
fabric large enough to cover inside of tray; scraps of blue
print fabric and white fabric measuring one-quarter the
size of tray; pencil; scrap of cardboard one-quarter the size
of tray; scissors; decoupage medium; brush.

Directions: (NOTE: Allow paint to dry thoroughly between steps.) Wash fabric to remove sizing. Spray paint tray
with primer, then two coats of paint.

Using the tray bottom as a template, cut a piece of bandana fabric to size. Place inside tray. If necessary, trim fabric slightly until it fits within tray without puckering.

Make a star template with the cardboard and trace the
shape on the white fabric. Cut out star. Position blue fabric
in upper left corner of tray. Center the star over the blue
fabric. Adjust dimensions of blue fabric and star until satisfied. Remove fabric from tray.

Brush the inside of the tray with decoupage medium.
Position bandana fabric, right side up, inside tray. Brush
right side of fabric with more decoupage medium. Repeat
for blue fabric and star, applying decoupage medium over
entire fabric surfaces each time. Allow to dry. Apply two
coats of clear acrylic varnish to entire tray.

By the time I finished the proposal, everyone else had gone for the
night, including the cleaning staff. My jaunt into the city to question Gina had resulted in another late evening at the office. I
grabbed my purse and coat and headed down the hall to Naomi's
office to drop the proposal in her IN basket before I headed home.