don’t know.” She helped herself to a forkful of the coffee cake.
“It must be hard to sell expensive fabric right now,” Lacey said. “Times are tough. A lot of businesses are in trouble.” Mine included.
“I suppose the velvet business here couldn’t go on forever, what with cheap velvet coming in from China and India and Mexico. God knows how they do it. Probably use little children, practically slave labor. Slicing off their fingers on that dangerous equipment? Makes me crazy to think of it. But closing us down was just done so cruelly, in bits and pieces. Like the song says, ‘Take another little piece of my heart.’ Rod Gibbs was a cruel man. Now he’s dead and I’m thinking maybe there is some justice in the world. At least he won’t be living high on the hog anymore.”
“Do you have any idea who might have killed him?” Lacey took a bite of the coffee cake. It was delicious. Felicity, the food editor at The Eye, would kill for the recipe. And then she would use it as a weapon .
“No. I don’t really care either.” Blythe poured more coffee. “Some people think it was his wife, Honey. I wouldn’t blame her if she had. Except for throwing him in my dye vat.”
Lacey had to admit the widow had seemed uncommonly happy that her ex was dead, but if Honey Gibbs had killed Rod, wouldn’t she have made some pretense at sorrow?
“But how would she manage it? Tying him to the spool and working the machinery?”
“She used to work at Dominion. Believe you me, Honey Gibbs is not exactly a frail little princess. She is a very strong girl. Solid muscle.” Blythe regarded her own physique. She had strong arms, but she was still a little chubby. “And Honey has a temper.”
“What do you mean?’
“Rod beat her. Common knowledge. But he came in more than once with a big black eye himself.”
“Are you sure it was Honey who did it?”
Blythe smiled. “No, but I like to think she did. One thing I can’t stand is women being beat on.”
“What about Sykes and his so-called Velvet Avenger?”
“That’s a nice idea, don’t you think? Someone taking up the cause.” Blythe smiled and reached for the pill bottle. She took two more Advil for her headache and closed the curtains against the winter sunlight. “I mean, someone going around avenging our lost jobs? It’s right out of a comic book or something. But why would some mysterious avenger start with a velvet factory and not, say—the car industry? Nope, this was personal. And somebody wanted to humiliate Rod, or his poor, sorry corpse.”
It certainly feels personal, Lacey thought. Rod may have been cruel, but his killer or killers had a good measure of cruelty as well, to truss Rod up on a spindle and soak him in blue dye.
“So the Avenger is just a fantasy?”
“I wouldn’t take anything Dirk Sykes says very serious,” Blythe said. “He’s got kind of a Spider-Man comic-book mind-set. And he likes to mess with your head some.”
Exactly , Lacey thought. “He’s a fan of DeadFed, isn’t he? And Damon posts some pretty bizarre theories.” He’ll love the Velvet Avenger . Maybe I should leave that part out .
“Stranger than fiction, I’d say. I still love DeadFed, Lacey. And that Damon, he’s a pistol. I hope y’all get to work on this investigation together. But don’t you catch that Avenger too soon. He’s doing good work.”
Lacey got Inez Garcia on the phone, but she said she couldn’t talk long. Inez was headed to the unemployment office. “I have three months’ severance first, but you gotta keep on top of these things.” She explained that she woke up really late, and then she giggled. The giggle probably involved Dirk Sykes, Lacey thought.
“You guys are a couple, then?”
Inez giggled again. “We better be, after last night. And this morning.”
“So he’s a passionate guy? Like the Velvet Avenger?”
“Oh, Dirk likes to talk. He’s really stuck on that silly thing, I can tell you. Like the
“It must be hard to sell expensive fabric right now,” Lacey said. “Times are tough. A lot of businesses are in trouble.” Mine included.
“I suppose the velvet business here couldn’t go on forever, what with cheap velvet coming in from China and India and Mexico. God knows how they do it. Probably use little children, practically slave labor. Slicing off their fingers on that dangerous equipment? Makes me crazy to think of it. But closing us down was just done so cruelly, in bits and pieces. Like the song says, ‘Take another little piece of my heart.’ Rod Gibbs was a cruel man. Now he’s dead and I’m thinking maybe there is some justice in the world. At least he won’t be living high on the hog anymore.”
“Do you have any idea who might have killed him?” Lacey took a bite of the coffee cake. It was delicious. Felicity, the food editor at The Eye, would kill for the recipe. And then she would use it as a weapon .
“No. I don’t really care either.” Blythe poured more coffee. “Some people think it was his wife, Honey. I wouldn’t blame her if she had. Except for throwing him in my dye vat.”
Lacey had to admit the widow had seemed uncommonly happy that her ex was dead, but if Honey Gibbs had killed Rod, wouldn’t she have made some pretense at sorrow?
“But how would she manage it? Tying him to the spool and working the machinery?”
“She used to work at Dominion. Believe you me, Honey Gibbs is not exactly a frail little princess. She is a very strong girl. Solid muscle.” Blythe regarded her own physique. She had strong arms, but she was still a little chubby. “And Honey has a temper.”
“What do you mean?’
“Rod beat her. Common knowledge. But he came in more than once with a big black eye himself.”
“Are you sure it was Honey who did it?”
Blythe smiled. “No, but I like to think she did. One thing I can’t stand is women being beat on.”
“What about Sykes and his so-called Velvet Avenger?”
“That’s a nice idea, don’t you think? Someone taking up the cause.” Blythe smiled and reached for the pill bottle. She took two more Advil for her headache and closed the curtains against the winter sunlight. “I mean, someone going around avenging our lost jobs? It’s right out of a comic book or something. But why would some mysterious avenger start with a velvet factory and not, say—the car industry? Nope, this was personal. And somebody wanted to humiliate Rod, or his poor, sorry corpse.”
It certainly feels personal, Lacey thought. Rod may have been cruel, but his killer or killers had a good measure of cruelty as well, to truss Rod up on a spindle and soak him in blue dye.
“So the Avenger is just a fantasy?”
“I wouldn’t take anything Dirk Sykes says very serious,” Blythe said. “He’s got kind of a Spider-Man comic-book mind-set. And he likes to mess with your head some.”
Exactly , Lacey thought. “He’s a fan of DeadFed, isn’t he? And Damon posts some pretty bizarre theories.” He’ll love the Velvet Avenger . Maybe I should leave that part out .
“Stranger than fiction, I’d say. I still love DeadFed, Lacey. And that Damon, he’s a pistol. I hope y’all get to work on this investigation together. But don’t you catch that Avenger too soon. He’s doing good work.”
Lacey got Inez Garcia on the phone, but she said she couldn’t talk long. Inez was headed to the unemployment office. “I have three months’ severance first, but you gotta keep on top of these things.” She explained that she woke up really late, and then she giggled. The giggle probably involved Dirk Sykes, Lacey thought.
“You guys are a couple, then?”
Inez giggled again. “We better be, after last night. And this morning.”
“So he’s a passionate guy? Like the Velvet Avenger?”
“Oh, Dirk likes to talk. He’s really stuck on that silly thing, I can tell you. Like the
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