Weapons of Mass Distraction (14 page)

“In case we break in somewhere with an attack dog that needs subduing.” Lily paused, then added, “Duh!”

“O-kaaaay.” I placed the bone back on the table and held up the wig and the invitation. “And these?”

“Disguises. We have wigs, hats, and sunglasses, in case we need to change our appearance. The invitation is in case one of us needs to pretend to be a bride and we can say, ‘Yep, there totally is a wedding! Not faking!’. Genius, right?!”

“It has your name on it.”

“Oh, crap. I didn’t think of that.”

“Besides, you
are
a bride so we don’t need to pretend, and I don’t think we need to dress up either. Why are there three hats?” I asked, poking them. “We only have two heads.”

“In case one of us wants to change.”

“Hmm.” I held back a laugh and Lily pouted.

“This is going to be less fun than I thought it would be.”

“Sorry, but you volunteered us,” I pointed out.

“For a good cause. My dress! To think I was worried about a serial killer screwing my wedding. Having my dress stolen would totally blow it!” Lily scooped her items into her purse and zipped it shut. I hoped she didn’t plan on lugging it around with her the whole afternoon because she would get a very sore shoulder, which would make her whine. The only whines I could tolerate needed de-corking. “Where are we heading first?” she asked. “What’s the plan?”

I pulled my notepad from my purse and flipped it open, checking the brief notes I’d made. “First stop is the bridal store down the street. Georgina’s Gowns. They were raided first. My cousin, Sian, got her wedding dress there. I haven’t been by since, but it’s a good place to start. The second store is downtown, and the third one a block from there. The fourth store is in West Montgomery so we can go home after that.” I stopped. I forgot that neither of us lived in West Montgomery anymore. I had my bungalow. Lily and Jord were still in her parents’ house in Bedford Hills while their new house underwent renovations.

“We could go to my bar afterwards?” Lily suggested. “Jord gets off shift at six. He might join us.”

“It’s a date.”

“Threesome!”

“Gross.”

Lily giggled. We waited another ten minutes, talking strategy, until our coffees were nothing but frothy dregs. Fortunately, Lily decided to stow her bag in the trunk of her Mini before we made our way to Georgina’s Gowns, just a few minutes’ walk away. Having been recently burglarized, it was not apparent. The windows gleamed, the lettering was perfect, and the white awning overhead provided a light canopy over the window and door. I looked closely for a security camera and noted they had two, one fixed on the door and one that looked out onto the street.

“Good news, they have cameras,” I said, nudging Lily as she added a hat to her outfit. “They might have caught something on tape.”

“Hurrah. Easy case! Let’s go crack this mutha open!”

I sighed, but followed her inside anyway, entering into a wooden-floored, roomy space with glass cabinets displaying shoes and jewelry across one wall, and racks of white dresses at the back. A couple of mannequins wore dreamy gowns and I had to stop myself from running an appreciative hand over them as we crossed to the cashier’s desk where an assistant waited. Her nametag read “Cindy” and she was absolutely expressionless as I asked for the manager.

“Georgina isn’t here,” said Cindy. “Can I help?” She glanced over toward the shoppers, pulling out dress skirts and cooing, then back to us, her smile never leaving her face, but somehow, not exactly illuminating it either. I couldn’t decide if she looked crazy or just super perky.

“It’s about the robberies.”

“Oh my! Oh yes!” Cindy exclaimed, putting a quieting finger to her lips. She lowered her voice and nodded to the other patrons. “We’re keeping that very quiet. You must be from the insurance agency. I’ll get you the forms you asked for.”

“Okay,” said Lily as she nodded. She beamed at me as Cindy crouched behind the desk. A moment later, she popped up with a slim folder and passed it to me.

“This is a list of all the items that were stolen, the deposits and balances paid. Some of the dresses were due to be picked up the next day, you know. We had to drive all over to get new, matching dresses, but we did it. We never,” Cindy fixed Lily and I with a serious look, “never, ever, let a bride down.” She straightened, smiling at us both. I couldn’t help smiling back. Okay, maybe she was a little manic, but she was sweet, and helpful, and so what if her forehead didn’t move? “Okay, if that’s all you need…?”

“Your security tapes from the day of the robbery as well, please,” I told her.

“Oh, I thought you knew.” Cindy grimaced - somehow managing to still smile - and shrugged. “We only got the cameras installed after the—” here she dropped her voice again, “—you know what.”

“Right, of course. Did anyone see anything suspicious? Maybe that day?” I persevered.

“No, I was here all day. It was a Friday and we had a lot of new brides come in that afternoon, but nothing suspicious. I mean, no guys or anything. That’s always weird when guys come in. I mean, we’re a bridal shop! We sell bridal, bridesmaid, and mother-of-the-bride. No menswear here.”

“Did you notice anyone outside the store?” asked Lily, leaning in. Despite leaving her bag behind, she somehow managed to extract a hat and was now wearing it.

“No, it’s pretty busy here on Fridays. I didn’t see anything unusual at all, but we were so busy, I didn’t really look outside.”

Lily’s hat slipped over her eyes. She pointed one finger under the brim and pushed it back. I tried not to imagine her in a Western, but failed. “Any of the brides acting in a way you wouldn’t expect?” she asked, oblivious.

“Not really. I mean, they’re all so excited, right?”

“Right,” we agreed.

“So… you’ll be in touch? We’ll get our insurance paid out?”

I waved the file as we turned to leave. “I’ll make sure it gets to the right people,” I told her, which meant precisely nothing, but she seemed to accept that.

Lily and I waited until we were in her car before we spoke again. “That was easy,” she said, removing the hat and tossing it into the backseat. “We have a whole list of everything that was stolen. Shame about the security tapes.”

“Yeah, that was a downer, but we can assume one thing,” I decided.

“What’s that?”

“Whoever cased that store was probably a woman.”

“Riiight, because no guys go in there?”

“Nailed it,” I said, and Lily high-fived me.

“So all we have to do is look for a woman, pretending to be a bride, who’s hiding way more dresses than she needs. Hey, do you think maybe it’s a really indecisive bride? Or maybe a kleptomaniac? Or maybe she couldn’t afford her dream dress, so she didn’t want anyone else to have theirs?” asked Lily.

“Good theories,” I replied as I browsed the list of stolen items, “but I think we should stick with the theory that this is plain theft. The dresses from here alone come to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars!”

“Whoa. And with four stores hit? That’s…”

“Maybe over half a million dollars.”

“I should have opened a bridal store, not a bar,” said Lily. “That’s good money.”

“Yeah, but people only get married once…”

“I hope!”

I continued, “but they carry on drinking.”

“I’d toast that, but I’m driving.”

“Safety first.”

“Next bridal store?”

“You bet.”

“Shuler and Graves on the case!” Lily yelled, gunning the engine.

~

We didn’t have nearly as much success with the other robbed stores. The Bridal Emporium had a closed sign in the window, the lights were off, and both racks and display cases were empty. A “For Rent” placard sat on the window ledge inside the building. We went into the boutique next door and asked when the bridal store folded.

“They got robbed,” said the sales assistant as she busied herself hanging clothes. I suspected she was having a slow day because she became very chatty. “The owner was thinking of retiring anyway so she took that bad luck as a sign and decided not to reopen. I hear she’s gone on a cruise with her husband. Insurance money must have been good.”

“Were a lot stolen?” asked Lily.

“All the dresses,” said the assistant. “Fortunately, the brides managed to get dresses elsewhere, but imagine if that was your wedding day, huh? And how excited you would be about getting your dress? Awful.”

“Really awful,” I agreed. “Was it a weekend?”

“No, a Tuesday, I think, but I wasn’t here. My little boy was sick and stayed home from school that week so I only heard from Jessica, our other assistant, the week after it happened.”

“Did you notice anyone casing the joint?” asked Lily. She lost the hat, but had buttoned her mac all the way under her chin. And added sunglasses.

The assistant frowned, looking from Lily to me, then back again. “Who are you two? Cagney and Lacey?”

“Just curious,” I asked. “My friend is getting married and she heard about this place.”

“Oh. Okay. There’s another store a few blocks away. I heard they got robbed too, but they’re still open.”

We thanked her and left.

“Cagney and Lacey?” said Lily. “Oh please!”

“Nothing wrong with Cagney and Lacey.”

“Yeah, but we could be so much more modern.”

“It could have been worse. She could have said Diagnosis Murder.”

“Very true.”

“Maybe we’ll have better luck at Montgomery Bridal.”

Montgomery Bridal was open just as we were told and this time, we found the owner right away. She wasn’t quite as interested in helping us, or bored enough to, until she took a closer look at me and asked if I was Matilda Graves’ daughter. When I confirmed I was, she was all smiles and introduced herself as Sally-Anne McLoughlin. “Your mother is such a nice lady. We take Tai Chi together on Sunday mornings. You should come along. It’s not just for older folk, there’re plenty of you young things too. Your mother told me you’re a private investigator. That true?”

“Yes, I work for the Solomon Agency,” I confirmed, glad that the lady decided to open up.

“How come you’re interested in my store getting robbed?” Sally-Anne asked. “I told your mother and a few people. Did she ask you to look into it?”

“No, we heard that four wedding stores had been burglarized…”

“And you took it upon yourselves to look into it. You’re kind-hearted girls, aren’t you? Your mother is proud of you, Lexi. Bet your parents are awful pleased with you too, Lily.”

Lily shrugged and looked away. “I guess.”

“Are you a private investigator too?”

“No, I own a bar,” Lily said, turning back, her composure recovered. “Lily’s.”

“My daughter goes there. Says you have the best cocktails in town.”

Lily beamed. “Thank you. I test them all myself.”

“So, you said four stores got robbed, including mine? I heard about the one near here. The Bridal Emporium. You know it? They didn’t reopen.”

“But you did…”

“Oh yes. I can’t let all my girls down and their menfolk. We sell menswear here too, not just bridalwear.”

“We’re trying to find out who robbed these places,” said Lily. “We don’t think it’s a coincidence four wedding stores were burglarized in such a short amount of time. Did you see anything suspicious on the day of the robbery, or maybe before?”

“Now, you mention it, there was one very peculiar woman. She wanted to know all about the dresses, if we had any stock kept in the back. She asked if she could make an evening appointment and I said we shut at six on the dot every night. Always have, always will. Except Thursdays, which is seven, and then we open late on Friday, at ten a.m.”

“Did she ask anything about prices?” I asked, sticking to my theory of it being high-end retail theft. “Or about the value of your stock?”

“No, but she seemed to recognize the designers right off. Very knowledgeable. Could tell the designer just by looking at the dress. Asked for the Monique Lhuilliers and Vera Wangs, then to see the Caroline Castigliano collection, as well as the new Melissa Sweet gowns. Later on, I thought, maybe she’s opening a store here, and wanted to check out the competition. I didn’t really think of her again until now.”

“Do you remember when she came in?”

“Oh yes. It was about a week before the store was burglarized.”

“When did that happen?” I asked, pulling out my notepad.

“Thursday night.”

Lily and I glanced at each other. “I don’t suppose you have cameras?”

“Yes, I do, but they aren’t great. They record, but they’re more for deterrent purposes.”

I didn’t like to point out they hadn’t deterred anyone. “Can I see the footage from the night of the burglary? And if you have any from the day that woman came in?”

“Let me go check. Take a seat while you wait.”

“This is interesting,” said Lily. “I smell a breakthrough.”

Sally-Anne got us the tapes, having amazingly saved both of them, and she gave the discs to me. In turn, I gave her my business card. “If you can find out anything, I’d be very grateful,” said Sally-Anne. “My insurance hasn’t come through yet, and I used my savings to restock. I’d hate to think this could happen again. I hear of it happening. Thieves watching you until you restock, then taking all that too. Honestly, girls, it would ruin me.”

“That’s why we’re going to bust these creeps,” said Lily, determination etched across her face. “Aren’t we, Lexi?”

“I knew you could do it!” exclaimed Sally-Anne before I could give a less than optimistic answer, but who knew? The security footage might be everything we needed to present our case to MPD. “What wonderful young ladies you are! I can’t wait to speak to your mother!”

“We are going to break this case,” said Lily as we climbed into her car again, my heart sinking at the idea of Sally-Anne telling my mother about the investigation. Not that it was a secret, or that my mother’s connection had gotten the lady talking, just the idea of disappointing one of her friend’s was extra pressure I didn’t need. “Look at all the breakthroughs we’ve had today. We’ve got a suspect
and
security tapes!”

“We have a friend of my mom, and tapes we haven’t seen yet. We don’t know where the stolen dresses are, or if this mystery woman is part of it.”