Mayhem in High Heels Read Online Free PDF

details."
    Ten minutes later my toes were encased in a lavender-scented foot bath and Marco was on gossip overload, his eyes glazing over like he was high. He was just beginning to look truly feverish when Dana walked into the salon and plopped down in the pedi chair next to me.
    "God, what an afternoon. I swear I'm going to be hoarse for the next week."
    I turned to look at her. And blinked. Twice.
    She was clad in a pink leotard covered in feathers that started at her throat and ended just above her derriere. Hot pink stockings and pink boots covered her legs, while her arms were encased in long, loose sleeves that seemed to be molting pink feathers all over the black and white checkered floor.
    "Hey, Big Bird," Marco said.
    Dana looked down at her outfit. "Very funny. I had a reading."
    "A voice over reading," I reminded her,
    "Right. I'm playing a flamingo."
    "For a cartoon . You do realize that they usually draw cartoons right?"
    Dana waved me off. "Ricky says the best way to know a character is to live like that character. We're taking this new method acting class together. It's at the Uta Hagen studio."
    Ricky was Dana's boyfriend of the past year and star of the prime-time soap Magnolia Lane . Ricky had recently won a People's Choice Award for his portrayal of the hunky gardener on the show, after which Dana had vowed to follow any and all advice he had for her own acting career (such as it were). I hesitated to point out that Ricky's popularity probably had more to do with the fact that he took his shirt off in every episode than it did his amazing acting skills. But I had to admit, Uta Hagen was the premier acting coach to have. Though...
    "Wait, I thought Uta Hagen passed away?"
    "Oh, she did. It's being taught by one of her student's cousin's coaches. Bernie Sholpenstein. But it's so her method."
    "Ah." I'm proud to say, I totally didn't roll my eyes here. See what a good friend I am?
    "Anyway, what's the pedi emergency?" she asked, slipping off her boots and letting her toes settle into a bath of hot bubbly water.
    Marco and I quickly filled her in. (Okay, mostly Marco. He was already embellishing the scene with blood spatter, ominous music in the background, and a feeling of foreboding creeping up my spine as I walked into the studio. Needless to say, I didn't even try to hide the eye roll this time.) When we were finished, Dana's eyes were as big as two round ostrich eggs.
    "How traumatic! Maddie, are you okay?" she asked.
    I nodded. And here in the bubbly, warm, lavender-scented comfort of Fernando's, it was almost true. Seriously, there was something magical about pedis. I swear if more people took time out for their toes, we'd have altogether less war and crime in the world.
    "So, who do you think killed her?" she asked.
    I shrugged. "I dunno."
    "I bet it was one of her clients," Marco said. "You know she did the Spears wedding last spring."
    "Britney?"
    "No, Hank. Britney's cousin. But it was all over the Us Weekly special. Very tasteful."
    "No," Dana said, shaking her head (prompting pink feathers to molt into her pedi tub). "No, why would her clients want her dead? I mean, without her, there's no wedding, right?"
    Marco gasped, his hands flying to his face again. "Maddie, does this mean the wedding's off?"
    I'd been so freaked out by encountering the dead body I hadn't even thought of that. Was I a bad person that for a brief moment I was relieved I wouldn't have to order four hundred linen place cards after all?
    "No, no way," Dana protested. "No, the wedding will go on. It's too late to cancel."
    "But it's too late to book another A-list planner. Honey, those gals book moooooonths in advance," Marco said, drawing out the word and punctuating it with a sharp snap of his wrist.
    "You know what? It's fine," I said. "We don't need a planner. I mean, we really wanted something small and intimate anyway. We'll just scale it down a little-"
    "Oh!" Dana said, cutting me off as she popped up from her chair. "I