I shooed her away.
She gave me a playful scowl, then shuffled down the bar to attend to another customer.
"You've got your hands full," Tiffany said. "I saw you on the news. It's a shame about the Five Fathoms. Is there nothing sacred around here anymore?”
"I suppose not."
"Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up. I'll be doing a photo shoot this afternoon for Haute Lumière Magazine.”
It was a premier fashion rag.
"Sounds exciting," I said.
"Should be fun. You're welcome to join. You, JD, and Flynn. I think that would be a hoot.”
"Something to consider.”
"I'll send you a text with all the details. But I just wanted to let you know ahead of time so you don’t get the wrong impression. Since my husband left me with nothing, I need to position myself moving forward financially. You understand. The magazine called and offered a nice sum of money, and it would be great publicity going forward to promote my new brand."
"What's your new brand?”
29
"Femme Fatale,” Tiffany said. “We’re starting a line of perfume. It's amazing how many companies want to partner with you when you’ve got media attention, good or bad. The perfume is going to be in every major department store across the country. If it's a hit, I stand to gain a considerable sum. From there, we can expand into cosmetics, clothing, and shoes. Who knows? The sky's the limit." She paused. "Strange times indeed, but a tragedy like this can launch a career. It seems everyone's got a morbid fascination."
“It seems.”
"Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up so you didn't get the wrong impression. I know it's a little odd and daring, given the current situation. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
"Well, I appreciate the heads up. You’ll be happy to know you're pretty low on the totem pole as far as suspects go.”
"That does make me happy. You see, deputy, I'm really not such a bad person after all.”
Tiffany said she'd be in touch before ending the call, then sent the details of the photo shoot a moment later. I figured we’d check it out. What the hell? All part of the investigation, of course.
After I ate, I went back to theAvventurato see what kind of trouble JD and Flynn had gotten themselves into while I was gone. Those two unsupervised could lead to trouble.
To my surprise, the boat was still afloat. The duo lounged on the sky deck, soaking up the sun, kicking around ideas for the movie, sipping strawberry daiquiris.
“How’d it go?” JD asked.
“I take it you haven’t been watching the news,” I said.
He and Flynn exchanged dumb looks.
I filled them in on the attempted robbery.
“No shit?” Flynn said. “Glad you’re okay.”
I left out the details about Kendra being Mickey’s daughter.
“So did you get a rain check with Reckless?” JD asked.
“Not really.”
“Losing your touch,” he teased.
"It’s complicated,” I said, then changed the subject. “I talked to Tiffany." I proceeded to tell him about the photo shoot and her perfume line.
