Fleeced: A Regan Reilly Mystery by Carol Clark (reading in the dark .txt) 📕

around with fire in her eyes. “What do you want, you little food grubber?”

“I’ll choose to ignore that,” Janey said politely. “You know what I’m here for. Dolly and Bah-Bah. It’s time to bring them home.”

“My career will be ruined if they have to leave,” Daphne insisted.

“Well, I don’t think my career is in such good shape at the moment either,” Janey replied. “Everyone in New York knows that if they die before they eat my food, I’ll be back to take it. How do you think that feels?”

“It’s your own fault for being lazy,” Daphne snapped.

“Once again, I’ll turn the other cheek. But I’m going in with you to get the sheep.”

Daphne rang the bell, and an assistant let them in. Pumpkin was standing alone in the middle of the set, doing stretches and making guttural noises as she prepared for the next scene. Janey could see that Dolly and Bah-Bah were positioned under the hot lights. They looked as if they’d been combed and brushed and fluffed.

“You’re back!” Jacques cried to Daphne. “And who is this with you?”

“Hello, sir!” Janey said. “I’m from the Settlers’ Club, and I’m here to get the sheep.”

“What?!” Jacques demanded.

“I couldn’t talk them into it,” Daphne apologized. “I’m sorry.”

Jacques shook his head. “Then get out! Both of you! Ruin my movie! Take them! I’ll get new ones someplace else!”

“Are you firing me?” Daphne asked.

“I guess that’s what you would call it.”

As Daphne ran to grab the wardrobe she’d brought down with her in the morning, Janey hurried over and grabbed Dolly. One of Dolly’s eyes popped out onto the floor. She quickly picked it up and stuck it back in, noticing that the other eye was also gone. She looked over at Bah-Bah and lifted up the wool off his face. He, too, was a one-eyed monster.

“Hurry up!” Jacques ordered. “Get out! I can’t stand the sight of you!”

Janey began looking around on the floor for the missing eyes.

“Move!” Jacques cried.

“Their eyes are missing,” Janey explained. “I have to find the two eyes!”

“You can get them another time. I have to make my movie.”

The sense of empowerment Janey felt in the cab was firmly in place. “I’m not leaving until we find those eyes!”

“Help her find the eyes!” Jacques screamed. In an instant, several assistants were on their hands and knees, searching the floor.

“Pretty dusty down here,” one of them muttered.

“I’m giving you thirty seconds,” Jacques yelled. “Time is money.”

From the corner, one of the assistants cried, “I found one! Under the heater!”

“And I found the other!”

The two assistants came from different directions and handed the eyes to Janey.

“GET OUT!”

Janey stuffed the stones in her coat pocket and grabbed Dolly under the belly. She turned and called to Daphne. But she was gone. “Could someone please help me carry this other one downstairs?” Janey asked. “I’d be ever so grateful.”

At least six assistants tripped over themselves trying to help. Janey was down the steps and out on the sidewalk in two minutes, Dolly and Bah-Bah next to her. Not a cab nor a car was in sight. “Well, guys,” Janey said as she reached in her purse for her cell phone. “I’ll have to call a car service.” Janey’s newfound sense of empowerment continued its streak. “I have two very important passengers,” she declared to the car service. “I’d like a limo. Make it a stretch!”

78

Back at the club, there was a flurry of activity. Stanley had his trusty video camera out, following the staff and student butlers around as they spit and polished, placed fresh flowers around the first-floor rooms where the party would be held, prepared food in the kitchen, and set up buffet tables. The whole downstairs area of the club had been cleaned and shined. Clara had worked like a dog all day long and was exhausted.

“Clara,” Thomas said. “Why don’t you stay for the party tonight?”

“You mean to work?” she asked incredulously.

“No, I mean to have a good time.”

“That’s different,” she said.

“Do you have anything to wear?”

“I keep a dress and a nice pair of shoes in my locker because sometimes my sister gets half-price tickets for the theater at the last minute, and I always want to be prepared, just in case-”

“Very good,” Thomas said, cutting her off. “If you’d like to take a nap, you can go into my apartment and lie down on the couch.”

“Are you feeling all right?” Clara asked, suspiciously.

“More than all right,” Thomas shot back. “I’ve decided that if we’re going down, we may as well enjoy our last moments.”

Clara looked thoughtful. “It’s kind of like one of those movies where you die and then you come back to life and enjoy things more.”

“Something like that.” Thomas stared out the front window of the club. “Oh my God,” he said.

Clara followed his gaze. “The sheep are getting out of a stretch limo with Janey!”

“Now you see why I fell in love with her,” Thomas said softly.

“Well, if you love her, you’d better go help her drag them in here.”

Stanley appeared behind them. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nat and Wendy’s sheep are back,” Thomas said as he hurried outside.

“I love this!” Stanley cried, capturing on film the limo and the sheep being carried over the threshold of the club. “I’m sure I’ll be able to use this in my piece.”

Thomas and Janey carried the sheep back into the parlor, Stanley’s camera following their every move. “Thomas, if these sheep are so important, we should do something dramatic with them,” he suggested. “It’d be good for my piece.”

“What should we do?” Thomas asked. “I was going to put them in front of the fireplace.”

Stanley shook his head and looked around. “Why don’t we place them on a platform by the window? It’d be gorgeous. You know how some restaurants have all sorts of stuff hanging from the walls? The two sheep could be like two guards at Buckingham Palace, except they’re guarding the Settlers’ Club. And