Lavender Lipstick Lies: A Mystery of Makeup & Mayhem by Mary Maxwell Page B

examine my mascara, a man and woman walked toward us. They were
busy talking and didn’t even seem to realize that Emma and I were standing near
the console table and mirror. As they passed us, the man glanced over and
smiled before resuming the animated conversation with his companion.
    “Wait until they’re gone,” Emma
said quietly.
    I nodded. “Gotcha!” I whispered.
“Thanks for being my accomplice on this, Em. I don’t know what I’d do without
you.”
    After the elevator arrived and the
couple stepped inside, I removed the cap from the lipstick and quickly went to
work. My hand was steady as I wrote a message of my own on the gilt-framed
mirror:
     
    I will withdraw from Achiever
Award. My letter of decline will be taped to hotel spa entrance at 9PM .
    A.E .
     
    “Do you really think this is going
to work?”
    “It’s my best shot,” I said,
putting the lipstick in my purse. “When I got the first note by the pool on
Thursday, I was confused. The second and third notes on the mirror in my room and
down in the spa made me frightened. But now, after thinking about how
ridiculous this is, I’m mad. And I’m also determined to stay the course.”
    “That’s the spirit!” Emma cheered
and pumped her fist in the air. “Stay strong! Fight evil! Show the skunk behind
the threats that truth and justice will—”
    “Are you about done?” I
interrupted.
    She blushed. “I was just trying to
make you smile, Abs.”
    “Mission accomplished!” I flashed a
wide grin and took her arm. “Now, let’s go downstairs to the banquet hall. The
reception should be starting just about now.”
    As we turned toward the elevator,
another door opened in the opposite direction. I looked back and saw Bree
leaving our suite.
    “Hey!” she called. “Wait for me!”
    “Hurry up, slowpoke!” Emma replied.
“If we don’t get down there soon, all of the canapés will be gone.”
    Bree headed toward us at a fast
clip. Her hair bounced and her legs scissored beneath her sleek black pencil
skirt. As she approached the console table, she noticed the lipstick lettering
on the mirror and stopped to read the message. Even though Emma and I were
about twenty feet away, I noticed the expression on her face suddenly shift.
Her jaw clenched, her eyes narrowed and her hands clamped into tight fists.
    “Did you guys see this ?” She
pointed at the mirror before resuming her walk down the corridor.
    “Yep,” I said. “I wrote it.”
    Bree put one hand over her mouth. “Did
you really ?” Her voice crackled with jittery surprise. “Are you seriously
going to withdraw from the Achiever contest?”
    “I think it’s the right thing to
do,” I said, punching the elevator button. “I mean, whoever is sending the
threats seems determined to scare me off. And I don’t want to risk anything
really bad happening.”
    The elevator arrived and the doors
opened with a muted ping.
    “C’mon!” I said cheerfully,
stepping into the elevator. “I don’t know about you guys, but I could really
use a glass of chardonnay about now!”
    While we descended toward the
lobby, I kept one eye on Bree. She seemed anxious and there was a little twitch
in her eye, a barely perceptible tremor that I’d seen a few times before when
she was caught telling a white lie. When the elevator doors opened again, we
were swept into a throng of laughing, chattering hotel guests and Splendora
conference attendees. It was a busy Saturday night, and the air fizzed with
excitement and anticipation. Some people were headed for the casino to try
their luck at the tables. Others were moving toward the main entrance so they
could walk down the Strip for an evening of fun in one of the other hotels.
    “Our banquet room is this way,”
Emma said, tightening her grip on my wrist. “If we get separated, it’s in the
Venice Ballroom, okay?”
    A pair of burly men wearing
sharkskin suits and too much cologne bumped into us.
    “Watch where you’re going,” one