Page 16 of The Summer Request
Val leaned in, pointing to a picture on her phone. “I found a way to get into Justine’s old beach house.”
“No. Stop,” Michelle said, eyes closed. “We’re not breaking into Lou’s beach house.”
“We don’t have to break in. I found a job posting for it.”
Lisa grabbed the phone out of her hand. Sure enough, there was a bright red “accepted” on the screen. “A maid job?” she asked. “Will I have to wear one of those little outfits?”
Val shook her head. “It’s not like that. It’s an actual cleaning job. This app, Skillz – I use it sometimes back home – lets you find someone to drop in and clean on short notice.”
Michelle looked skeptical. “Is that like Uber for house cleaning?”
“Yeah, exactly! There are other jobs, too, like mowing grass, pool cleaning, tutoring – I mean, you get the idea. It’s the perfect opportunity to look around.”
“No, it isn’t,” Michelle said, reaching forward and heaving Val’s smaller bag from the belt. “If Lou sees us walk in there, he’s going to call the police. He’s not stupid.”
Lisa made a face. “Well, I don’t know about that. He’s kind of stupid.”
“He’s not home,” Val said. “Look, he’s posting pictures of himself right now. He’s in the Maldives on a spiritual retreat.”
Lisa let out a groan. The water was blue and crystal clear. “Can we clean his house there instead?”
“I thought this was a spa trip,” Michelle said, dragging the second bag off of the belt and dropping it with a grunt. “I wasn’t planning on doing manual labor.”
“Suit yourself.” Val shrugged. “I’ll go on my own.”
That giddy feeling crept over Lisa again. “I’m going with you, Val!”
“Guys!” Michelle looked exasperated. “I thought we were doing what Justine wanted us to do. Getting our nails done and bonding or whatever.”
“There’s plenty of time for that,” Val said. “What kind of friends would we be if we didn’t even look into her death?”
Lisa had nothing to add. Tammy was kooky and angry, but what if she had a point? What harm was it to entertain the idea?
Michelle said nothing as the car rental shuttle pulled up. “Don’t forget your other suitcase,” she barked, stepping on board.
Six
The cat was out of the bag. Now they understood why Val had insisted on renting a car at the airport instead of being picked up by a limousine as Justine had suggested.
Val had come up with her house-snooping plan right after Michelle had broken down and agreed to the trip. She’d stayed up most of the night, powered by her new obsession with Lou, and frantically tried to find a way to get inside the house. She didn’t question where the energy was coming from. She didn’t need to. She was onto something real.
At first, Val had dismissed Tammy’s ramblings about Lou murdering Justine. Nothing else Tammy said made sense, and it was too horrible for words.
Yet, no matter what she did, she couldn’t get it out of her head. Lou was a scumbag—that was nothing new. But a murderer? The thought made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. He was, in some ways, a simple man, fueled by greed and ego.
Those were the type of men who killed, weren’t they? If Justine had embarrassed him, or threatened his precious money, how would he have reacted? The divorce had taken years, and though Justine didn’t talk of it much, Lou had raged against her every step of the way. What if he didn’t get what he wanted? He probably wantedeverything,which of course, was impossible. Even for generous Justine.
What if he’d come up with his own solution?
After Val had found the location of Lou’s Miami house, the rest of her scheme fell into place. She’d changed her location in the Skillz app to Miami, just for kicks. Normally she tried to get jobs like singing lessons or celebrity drop-ins. Those happened often enough in LA.
Her friends didn’t need to know sheoccasionallyagreed to clean houses, too. The money was helpful, especially since sales of her old albums had disappeared over the last ten years or so, and it had been a few months since she’d done any performances. Reggie had never been a good manager; the divorce only made him more negligent.
Val didn’t mind the cleaning jobs. It was fun to go inside those huge mansions, and she’d be back on her feet in no time.
“Won’t it be a bit suspicious when we show up to clean in a ruby red convertible?” Michelle yelled from the backseat.
“They won’t be home,” Val said confidently. At least she hoped not. If only she’d thought to bring disguises.
