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And finished them by ramming into Eve’s legs, clutching her trousers like a rope off a cliff.
“Just this morning,” Mavis sniffled, “Leonardo put her down to play on the floor while we got her breakfast. And she pulled herself up on the chair, and walked to him. She walked to her daddy. It still waters me up,” she managed, and swiped at her eyes.
Behind Eve, Leonardo sniffled in stereo.
And Bella, head tilted back, fingers clutching, eyes imploring, said, “Das.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants you to pick her up,” Mavis said.
“Why? She can walk.”
“Das,” Bella said again, and managed to infuse the single syllable with absolute love.
“Okay, okay.” With trepidation, Eve reached down, hauled her up.
Bella kicked her feet in delight, shouted, “Slooch!” and pressed her mouth—always damp—to Eve’s cheek. “Hi! Hi!”
“Hi.”
Bella patted Eve’s cheeks, babbled, then threw out her arms. “Peebo!”
“That’s me,” Peabody said, stepping over to take Bella. “I’m Peebo. You’re so pretty. You’re so smart.” Peabody gave Bella a toss in the air that all but stopped Eve’s heart.
“Are you crazy?”
“She loves it.” Peabody tossed the kid again, and made Bella laugh like a lunatic.
“We’re actually here officially,” Eve began, and noted Mavis didn’t seem to mind a bit that Peabody threw her kid around like an arena ball. “K.T. Harris was murdered last night.”
“Murdered?” Mavis’s mouth dropped open. “Come on, we were all there. She was fine, for a total mega b-word.”
“She drowned in the lap pool on the roof. She had help.”
“This is horrible. This is...” Leonardo passed a hand over his wide face. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You’d left before the body was discovered, but we need to talk to you both.”
“Listen, why don’t I take Belle in to play?” Peabody suggested. “It’ll go faster and easier that way.”
“Yeah, would you? I don’t want her around the murder vibes anyway,” Mavis decided. “It can’t be good.”
Bella leaned over Peabody’s shoulder as they started out, waved her hand, blew kisses. “Bye-bye. Bye-bye.”
“I’ll get the coffee.” Leonardo brushed a hand over Mavis’s shoulder as he went to the kitchen.
“This is total shock time. I mean, we were there, we talked to her. Sort of. And that crap she pulled at dinner... Do you know who did it?” Mavis demanded. “Do you have a target suspect? They’re all actors and stuff. How could one of them kill her? They’ve got a major vid going.”
“Sit down, sweetheart.” Leonardo brought out steaming cups on a tray. “I made you some nice jasmine tea.”
“The coffee smells a lot better. Still nursing,” Mavis added, “so I’m mostly off coffee. I had scenes with her, you know? And once we were in the mode, she was good—she was Peabody. I liked her when we were in the mode.”
“Did she have trouble with anyone?”
“Try everyone. Out of the mode, she was the big b-word, and nothing like Peabody. She was always looking to screw with Marlo, and she gave Matthew grief every chance she got.”
Mavis brought up her legs, crossed them under her, sipped at the tea. “I heard her yelling at Julian inside his trailer one day when I was going to mine. And she treated Preston—who’s a total doll baby—like s-h-i-t. She didn’t mess much with Andi. I think she knew Andi would have decked her, plus Andi’s got a mouth and a way of using it that’s better than a punch in the face. She got on Roundtree’s back a few times, but he rolls with that, as far as I could see.”
