The Booster Club by Angela M. Sanders

Author:Angela M. Sanders
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Widow's Kiss

13

Ruby glanced at her watch. An hour until the hearing. She unclamped the curling iron.

“You’re not done yet,” Gilda said. “Finish me. This weather makes my hair all flyaway.”

“I’ve got just a minute before I have to leave for the county building.” Gilda was right, though. Humidity mounted in the air. Summer was trying one last stand, but all its heat had condensed into black clouds that had darkened the afternoon enough that Ruby clicked on the overhead light. She pulled her silk shirt from her damp chest.

Gilda pouted in the mirror Ruby had set up in the retirement home’s dinner room. “That curl by my ear isn’t long enough. It needs to be longer. Look at the photo. What do you think, Hank?”

Claudine’s father looked up from the book in his lap. The book was some kind of exhibition catalog for jewelry—at least, a diamond- and ruby-studded tiara was on its cover. His perusal seemed half-hearted. Really, she was surprised he was downstairs instead of taking one of his many daily naps.

“Looks beautiful, hon,” he said. “You’re a real magician, Ruby.”

Ruby grabbed a comb and skimmed it over Gilda’s hennaed head. Where were the kids, anyway? During the week, Deborah had enrolled them in school. Thanks to resident Villa expertise, it was easy to forge birth certificates. Deborah insisted on buying them backpacks and school clothes. She’d told the school’s staff that the kids had just moved to Carsonville, and she was a cousin helping them get enrolled while their parents were at work.

But school should be out by now. Ruby lifted her head from the curling iron and found Scotty near the fireplace chatting with Eddie, who was hooked to his oxygen tank. They seemed to be focusing on something between them. A board game? The man moved three small shells. Shoot.

“Just a minute, Gilda.” Ruby dropped the comb and charged toward them. “You,” she said to the man. “What are you teaching this child?”

The man put up his hands in mock surrender. “What? It’s just a game.”

“Just fraud. Come on, Scotty. Pay him no attention.” She hadn’t had a moment’s rest since she’d arrived. Maybe when they’d moved in, the residents had to sign an oath that they’d leave their professions behind, but they still considered it sporting to practice. She’d be lucky if she had tires on her car when she left.

“Hmm.” Gilda lazily scratched between her breasts.

Ruby’s eyebrow went up. “Hand it over.”

“What?”

“Whatever you stole from my bag. Where’d you put it? Your bra?”

Gilda sniffed and pulled from her blouse one of Ruby’s best lipsticks, a Dior she’d boosted from Klingle’s.

“Thief,” Ruby muttered.

“Look who’s talking,” Gilda retorted.

“Sit back and shut up. I’m almost done with your hair, then I’ve got to leave.”

“Hi, Ruby. Hi, Gilda.” Deborah breezed into the dinner room.

“There’s our sunshine,” said Eddie from the fireplace. He’d put away the shells and now had a well-worn copy of True Crime in his lap. “The sunshine of Villa Saint Nicholas.”

When Deb hadn’t been at

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.