Page 13 of In the Line of Ire

"It'sgoing to take a long time to open every box and check every bag,"said Solomon. "And we don't have the luxury of time on ourside."

"Weshould look for one of the pattern-printed bags," I told him. "It'seasier to tell if they're fake or not."

"Findone."

Thefirst rack only held plain fabric purses but the second rack hadthe same large logo purses Solomon bought for me. I browsed therack and pulled out three boxes before returning them to thestation. The first and second were authentic. The third wasn't."This is a fake," I said. "Delgado, get a photo of this one. Thelogo is wrong here. See where the logo has been cut through themiddle? An authentic purse from this designer would never allowthat. Plus, the serial number is exactly the same as on one of thefake purses I've already seen. The counterfeiters didn't bother tochange it. Let me see if I can find another."

Afterten minutes of searching, I had two more counterfeit purses, alongwith fifteen that were authentic. "If these purses came pre-boxed,the supplier could be at fault," said Solomon.

"That'swhat I thought," I agreed, "except several of the boxes I openedhad a sticker seal on the tissue paper and none of the counterfeitones did. I think they were unwrapped in the store, then theyreplaced the purses with the counterfeit ones and rewrapped themagain. Perhaps someone got too hasty and forgot to add a newsticker or maybe they just ran out. I don't see any stickers atthis wrapping station. They probably thought the customers wouldn'tnotice. I'll put these back." I grabbed the boxes and walked overto the rack from where I selected them but as I began to turn,something caught my eye. A high-heeled shoe was peeking out fromthe edge of the rack at the far end of the room.

For amoment, a lump formed in my throat at the idea of someone watchingus until I realized the shoe was on its side, as if it had beendiscarded.

I pushedthe boxes onto the rack and stepped around to the other side,curious at finding a single shoe by itself especially when HeavenlyHandbags didn't even sell footwear.

"Uh,Solomon," I whispered.

"Foundanother one?" he asked. "I think we have enough evidence of aserious problem."

"Nope."I gulped and took a deep breath at the sight in front of me. Awoman was slumped against the wall, her legs sprawled out in frontof her like a broken doll. Her head rested on her shoulder, or, atleast, I thought it did. It was hard to tell. A purse had beenwedged over her skull, and the zipper was dangling by her chin. Astreak of blood stained her blouse. "I found something else. Abody!"

ChapterFour

I sat onthe floor of the mall, my legs stretched out in front of me, takingdeep breaths. It didn't matter how many bodies I found, one was toomany. "Deep breaths," said Solomon. He was kneeling in front of me,his arms folded across his knees, and genuine concern etched acrosshis face.

"I'mbreathing," I said. "It was just horrible. Sounexpected!"

"Iknow."

"Andthat poor purse! Just sitting there! Pulled over her head!" Iheaved another deep breath, appalled that anyone would deliberatelyram a gorgeous, expensive, designer purse over the head of a deadbody. How could anyone possibly use it now? It wassacrilegious!

"Is thatwhat you're upset about most?" asked Solomon.

"No!" Myshoulders slumped. "But what a waste of a gorgeous purse.Although…" I hesitated.

“Yes?” prompted Solomon.

Iwinced. “It might have been a fake.”

"Ishould have known you were involved," said Garrett. My oldestbrother was a lieutenant in Montgomery's homicide division andalways the first to arrive after the responding officers andparamedics. The paramedics had already pronounced both themselvesand the body "too late" and were loitering in the broad mallavenue, waiting for the police to finish interviewingthem.

"We wereon a job," said Solomon, his voice low and discreet.

"Ahh,your side hustle as pest control specialists," said Garrett, notlooking at all convinced. "You couldn't get a uniform in mysister's size?"

"It wason short notice," sighed Solomon. "Am I going to catch crap aboutthis for long?"

"Nah.I've got better things to do. Lexi?" asked Garrett.

I lookeddown at the oversized suit. "I suppose there are other things Icould inquire about. Like who was that?" I asked, nodding towardthe store. "The dead woman, I mean."

"Wefound a purse in the store room that identified her as AlisonShore. She was the assistant manager. Any idea what she was doingthere after hours?"

"None,"I said.

"Want totell me what you three were really doing in there after hours? Thenafter that, maybe you can tell me how I can explain to my captain’ssatisfaction that my sister and two of my brothers-in-law found amurdered victim in a store they shouldn't have been in to beginwith while they were disguised as pest control workers?"

Solomon,Delgado and I exchanged looks. "You like to keep it in the family?"I quipped.

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