“Yeah. I was painting the sitting room after dark. He said Mona claimed my lights were too bright.”
And that’s all it takes to make Bella throw her head back and laugh. Hard. She places her hand on her flat stomach and laughs until tears roll down her cheek. When she stops, she’s still smiling. “That bitch. One of these days, someone’s going to run her over with their car.”
It could happen. We’re not the only ones Mona annoys with her antics. “Maybe one of the incoming Zodiac fanatics? We could call them the Zodiac Killer.”
“The Zodiac Killer is already a thing.”
I look up at her ceiling and scratch my chin contemplating. “The Zodiac Killer Junior?”
Bella practically spits out her wine. “Jesus, Lou Lou. You’ve got a weird sense of humor.”
“What? You started it with running Mona over with a car.”
Stink eye. That’s what she gives me. Then, a smile. “Let’s face it. We’ve both got a dark side.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m a delight. Everyone says so.”
“Ha.” Bella reaches for the last pastry, and I’m tempted to slap her hand away, when she does the sweetest thing. She tears it in two and gives me half.
Tapping mine against hers, I say, “To best friends.”
“To best friends.”
And we eat the final little treat at the same time as we finish off our drinks.
* * *
“Hear ye,hear ye, let the special session of the Zodiac Hills city council come to order.”
When the hammer sounds, the room gets quiet. There’s a buzz in the air. It’s what I’d label as excitement if this weren’t so damn bizarre.
“Sorry I’m late.” Bella slides into the seat I saved her.
“’Bout time. I practically had to fight people away from the damn thing.” No joke. There’s not an inch of space in this room. I arrived an hour early to get us seats and they aren’t anywhere near the front. No worries. We’re on the aisle so we can see whoever goes up to talk about their ideas.
Handing me a white paper bag, she smiles. “Here. Peace offering.”
I open the top of the bag and smell deliciousness. “Ooh. You made your homemade caramel corn.” I reach in and take a morsel and pop it into my mouth. Mm. Good. “You’re forgiven.”
I lean out into the aisle a bit to see what’s happening. “There’s even a microphone. We’ll be able to hear everything.”
“Awesome,” Bella says, chewing on her sweet treat.
“Who would like to go first?” Kitty says loudly. When no one makes a move, I frown. There’s two hundred people in this room and nobody wants to share their ideas on ways we can bilk the poor people who wander into our little flytrap we call Zodiac Hills?
“I’ll go.” Bella stands, raising her hand.
“What the…?” I’m sincerely shocked. “Bella?” She looks back at me and winks.
“Bella Truman.” Kitty hits her hammer onto the block. “Please come up to the microphone.”
Bella hands me her bag of popcorn and steps past my legs and out into the aisle. I’m tempted to eat hers instead of mine, but I’m riveted by the recent developments. I lean out and watch her walk to the mic. She’s wearing one of her cute summer dresses. This one is white with yellow and blue flowers all over it, and she’s matched up her sandals to go with the blue.
When she gets up front, she taps the mic. “Is this thing on?”
I snort at her words because that’s a running joke with us, only we say it about anything that has a power cord.
Yeah. I know. It’s only funny to us.
