Murder of a Barbie and Ken Read Online Free PDF Page A

had decided to get off the diet roller coaster. Now she ate sensibly, exercised, and accepted the fact that she would never make the cover of
Cosmopolitan.
    Usually she was okay with her more curvaceous appearance, but occasionally someone would say something, and it would throw her self-esteem off balance for a moment or two. “Bunny, I’m sure you didn’t mean to imply that no one could be attractive if they weren’t a size six, right?”
    The older woman looked at Skye, her eyes widening. “Oh, no, honey. You’re a beautiful girl. Those emerald eyes and that long curly chestnut hair probably have men panting on your steps all the time. I’m sure those extra pounds don’t make a bit a difference for you.”
    “Thank you, but my goal in life isn’t to have men panting at my door. I’m perfectly happy on my own. I don’t need a man to make my life complete.”
    “That’s sure different from my day. But then, everything is different from when I was young.” Bunny’s voice grew nostalgic. “In the sixties, we took acid to make the world weirder. Now the world is weirder than we can handle, and we take Prozac to make it normal.” She was silent a second, then shook her head and straightened her shoulders. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, something’s wrong with your toilet.”
    “What?” Skye wondered if this was Bunny’s way of changing the subject.
    “It didn’t seem to want to flush, and now I can still hear it running.”
    Skye cocked her head. Yes, she could hear it, too. She rushed toward the bathroom. What in the world had Bunny done to it? It had always worked okay until now.
    Flinging open the door, Skye was just in time to see the water in the bowl start to overflow. She leaped to jiggle the handle, but the water kept rising.
    She pushed Bunny aside and ran for the plunger, which was stowed in the bathroom off her bedroom. Returning, she again had to push the older woman out of the way. Why was Bunny so fascinated with a plumbing problem? Could she have flushed something she didn’t want Skye to see?
    The ringing of the telephone momentarily stopped Skye’s efforts to unblock the toilet, but she quickly resumed plunging and said to Bunny, “Could you get that?”
    The redhead paused and listened as the phone rang for the second time, then shook her head. “It might be Sonny.”
    “For crying out loud.” Skye thrust the plunger’s wooden handle at Bunny. “Then you use this, while I answer it.”
    Bunny backed away as if Skye had tried to hand her a pile of poop. “Ew, no way.”
    The phone rang for the third time.
    “Fine.” What was a little more water? The bathroom floor already looked like Lake Michigan. Skye tried to edge past Bunny who had resumed her position in the doorway.
    The phone rang for a fourth time and the answering machine picked up.
    Skye could hear Simon start to talk. “Hi, I got your message. Where are you?”
    Missing this phone call was not an option. She pushed at Bunny, who now seemed to be deliberately blocking her way. The two women struggled, the plunger held horizontally between them like some sort of jousting pole.
    Simon continued, “I’m stuck in Chicago. I’m going to check in to a hotel. The snow has closed down most of the roads, and I don’t want to chance trying to drive home.” There was a high-pitched beep, then he said, “Damn, the battery on my cell phone is dying.”
    With a mighty shove, Skye finally managed to move Bunny and raced toward the phone. She was just in time to hear “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.”
    Bunny had followed her into the kitchen and cooed, “Oh, you missed Sonny. That’s too bad.”
    Skye gritted her teeth.
    Bunny widened her eyes and twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “Guess that means I’m staying here tonight.”
    Skye took a deep breath. “I guess so.”
    “So, when do you think you’ll get my bathroom cleaned up?”
    “How about never?” Skye muttered as she left Bunny standing in the