Band Room Bash by Candice Speare Prentice

Author:Candice Speare Prentice
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781466184152
Publisher: Candice Speare Prentice
Published: 2012-07-13T20:17:08.843000+00:00

Chapter Eleven

When I walked into the self-storage office on Thursday morning, Shirl greeted me with a toothpaste commercial smile. That was unusual. Stranger still, I saw books on her desk that weren’t her usual bodice-ripping fare. But the oddest thing of all was the lineup of assorted sizes of bottles and plastic bags filled with dried green and brown weedy-looking stuff.

“Hope the cops don’t come by. It looks like you’re dealing drugs.” I grabbed the mail. “I assume these are legal?”

She sniffed and waved her arm over the assembled plastic containers. “These are herbs.” She pronounced the H. “They’re going to keep me from having to ever use pharmaceutical drugs again.”

Pharmaceutical. That was a big word. I glanced over her collection and wondered if one of them was black cobash.

She tapped the stack of books. “I’m studying these now. That’s where I’ve been going at lunch. To classes. My pharmacist teaches them.”

“Oh.” I thumbed through the envelopes looking for bills to pay.

She narrowed her eyes and stared at me. “You really do look like you could use something. You’re pale and puffy, and you look tense. There’s herbs for that, too, you know.”

“Puffy?” I looked at my fingers. “I’m puffy?”

She looked me up and down. “Your ankles maybe. It could just be all the weight you’ve gained, but you’re probably holding water, too.”

“All the weight I’ve gained? Are you saying my ankles are fat?” I knew my pants were tight, but. . .

Shirl stared pointedly at my hips. “Well, it’s to be expected. Mr. C. said you’re eating like three times as much as normal.”

“He said that?”

Before Shirl could answer, she was distracted by someone outside. “Now who is that, I wonder?”

I didn’t care. I had my leg extended so I could stare at my ankle. It did look swollen. I had to call Max right away and ask him if he thought I was fat. Was that why he was avoiding me lately?

Shirl squinted. “That guy out there sure looks familiar, but he hasn’t been here before, I know that. I know all of our customers by sight and name.”

Finally, I turned and peered through the large front window at the man getting out of his car. I would have recognized his lanky frame anywhere.

“It’s Marvin Slade,” I said to Shirl.

“Marvin Slade?” Shirl stood and leaned over the counter to stare at him as he walked up the sidewalk to the front door. “Name sounds familiar.”

“It should. He’s the band director at the high school.”

Shirl harrumphed. “One of the suspects, you mean.”

Marvin met my gaze through the glass as he grabbed the doorknob.

Shirl was breathing hard. “We need to get him out of here as quickly as possible, Mrs. C. We don’t need murderers coming. . .”

“Hi, Marvin,” I said over her voice. “What can we do for you?”

“I’m just here to check something in Connie’s new storage unit. Costume stuff.” He pulled a shiny key from his pocket. “I have the key and the code to get through the gate.

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