An Uplifting Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

smile.
     
    Cody dropped his bag and backed away from Frankie. He stood in the center of the store, a blushing hero turned to stone, scrambling to pick up the lingerie bag.
     
    “I can ring you now, Frankie,” Laura said, trying to get Frankie’s focus away from the bumbling hero. “Did you find what you needed?”
     
    “This will do,” Frankie said. She held up a fashionably fat Gucci purse. “Good thing I’m honest. I could have shoplifted this bra. Your saleswoman Trish certainly didn’t stick around. Too eager to wait on a man, I see. I thought this store was supposed to be by women for women.”
     
    “I’m sorry you’re not happy,” Laura said. Josie noticed she didn’t apologize for her saleswoman. “Trish is one of our finest sales associates. She was able to fit you when no other store could.”
     
    A white-faced Trish came around to the counter and began stacking lingerie hangers. Cody dropped the bag again.
     
    “What is the address of your corporate headquarters?” Frankie asked. Her tone sounded like trouble.
     
    Laura handed her a business card.
     
    “And where’s your bathroom? I need to pee.”
     
    Cody went a shade redder under his sun-weathered skin.
     
    “There are restroom facilities two stores down on the left,” Laura said. “Your total is seventy-six twenty.”
     
    While Frankie wrote a check, Rosa approached a young woman in the doorway. She was about as tall as Rosa, but dressed older than her years. She hid what looked like a buxom figure under a shapeless navy coat. Her shiny dark hair was pinned into a tight French roll.
     
    “May I help you?” Rosa asked.
     
    Miss French Roll looked around the lingerie store. Her eyes widened and she stammered, “Do I have to take off my top for a fitting?”
     
    “Just for a moment,” Rosa said. “We’ll give you a robe to wear.”
     
    “Uh, no,” she said, and left.
     
    “We get some shy ones sometimes,” Rosa said.
     
    Everyone had stopped to watch the doorway drama with the shy woman in the French roll. “Excuse me,” Frankie said. “You have customers here trying to buy things. Like me.”
     
    “I’ll need your driver’s license for that check,” Laura said.
     
    Cody dropped the bag for the third time. Trish ran out, picked it up and handed it to him. “You’re all set,” she said. “If your wife has any problems, please, have her call us. My card is in the bag.” Cody sprinted for freedom as Trish went to the second register.
     
    Out of respect for Cody’s unease, Josie and Alyce had stayed in the doorway to the dressing rooms. Now that he was gone, they went to Trish’s register with their lingerie. Neither woman stood close to Frankie, as if she might lash out and attack them.
     
    Josie presented her credit card to Trish. The blond saleswoman had cushiony pink lips and hair so short it looked shaved, but stylishly so. Her skin was the color of skimmed milk. Standing next to Alyce, the two pale women were a whiteout.
     
    Alyce was wearing her new black lace bra under her blue sweater. She admired her improved figure in the shop mirror. “Look,” she said. “With my new bra, I have a waist for the first time since I was pregnant. I may even buy a belt.”
     
    “We can shop for one now,” Josie said.
     
    “Deep Designer Discounts at the west end of the mall has good buys on accessories,” Laura said. “That’s where I got this black-and-white scarf.”
     
    “Pretty. It looks like a Chanel,” Josie said.
     
    “It’s my ten-dollar bargain,” Laura said. “DDD has a pile of them. Where else can you get a Chanel for ten bucks?”
     
    “It’s a Chanel knockoff,” Frankie said. “I have the real thing at home.”
     
    Laura hooked the bag for the newly purchased bra over the dress hanger and handed it to Frankie. She sailed toward the door, the plastic-covered dress billowing behind her.
     
    “See you later,” Frankie said.
     
    “I hope not,” Josie said.
     
    Chapter