The Bad Always Die Twice by Cheryl Crane Page A

can’t vouch for him. He left early that morning. The missus said he had casting calls.”
    “And when did he get home?” Nikki tossed another clean shrimp in the bowl. She was on a roll.
    “Late. Dancin’ with the Stars was already on.”
    “And that comes on, when? Eight?”
    “Eight o’clock,” Chessy agreed. “That’s right. I remember ’cause I was annoyed. I like to be home to see the beginning and it was already on by the time I went out that door.” She indicated the service entrance.
    “Ma, I TiVo it for you every week. You can watch it whenever you like.”
    Chessy frowned. “I like to see it live.”
    “It’s not live, Ma.”
    Chessy glanced at her gorgeous daughter. “You got more toenails to sweep up?”
    Nikki smiled into her bowl of shrimp. “So Thompson was on casting calls.” She nodded. “Tricky, but not impossible to track down.”
    “You might be wastin’ your time there,” Shondra said. “I’m thinking that hunky monkey’s not going to matter around here much longer.”
    “What makes you say that?”
    “Because I think Mrs. March is about to kick him out on his pretty tail.”
    “Thompson? Really?” Nikki stared at Shondra. “But I thought things were good with them. They seemed happy together Saturday night and when I came by Wednesday,” she thought about how’d they’d been together, “everything seemed good.”
    “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that how rich people act in front of people like you and how they act in front of people like me, it isn’t always the same.” Shondra sipped her Coke. “It’s like they don’t acknowledge our existence, if they don’t have to.”
    Nikki had to stop deveining for a second to take in what Shondra was saying. “So you think Edith and Thompson are having problems?”
    “Sure sounded like it Saturday. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but there was a lot of hollering going on in her suite, then door slamming, and next thing I know, he’s taking off on his motorcycle.”
    “Thompson left here Saturday afternoon, before the party?”
    “Sure did. Didn’t come back until a few minutes before the guests started arriving.” Shondra leaned on the countertop beside her mother. “I heard her tell him just before she went downstairs that he better hurry up and get dressed if he was going to her party.”
    “Interesting,” Nikki commented, as much to herself as to the two women. Plopping the last clean shrimp in the bowl, she went to the sink to rinse off her hands, checking her vintage Patek Philippe watch. Technically, it was a man’s watch, but one of her favorites. “I better get back to work, but I appreciate you talking to me. Not that you’ve done anything wrong.” She grabbed a hand towel. “But you know what I mean.”
    “The help’s not supposed to tattle on the employer?”
    “You’re not tattling,” Nikki insisted, heading for the door. She was going to be late to a meeting at the office and she was going to have to either show up without Jessica’s lunch or be beyond fashionably late. “Edith and Thompson didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “Not that you know of,” Chessy called after her, her tone as sassy as ever.
     
    Nikki skipped making a second stop at In & Out and was only fashionably late to the meeting at the Windsor offices on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. The agents spent more time fussing over Jessica and discussing what they’d heard on talk radio about Rex March’s murder than they did discussing the new properties coming on the market. Nikki tried to not let it bother her that Jessica seemed to like all the attention. It shouldn’t have surprised her; Jessica was a firm believer that there was no good publicity versus bad publicity. Just publicity.
    After the meeting, Nikki went into the small office she and Jessica shared; actually, it was more like a cubicle with high walls and a door. While Jessica chatted in the break room, Nikki pulled the March file.