Alibi in High Heels by Gemma Halliday

down and kissed her hand.
    Mrs. Rosenblatt giggled. "I could get used to these European men."
    Oh brother.
    "Maddie, what exactly happened today?" Mom asked, gathering my fallen crutches for me.
    I hopped over to the double bed and sat down, pillows floofing around me. Reluctantly, I filled Mom and Mrs. R in on the events of the morning. I glossed over my run in with Moreau as best I could (in case you hadn't noticed, Mom tended to be a little overprotective) but by the time I was done, she still had her lips clenched together in a tight white line.
    "How could they possibly think you had anything to do with this, Maddie?" she asked.
    "Wow. Creepy finding her like that. You've definitely got some bad karma issues, bubbee, " Mrs. Rosenblatt said, putting a sympathetic hand on my arm. "You wanna aura cleansing?"
    What I wanted was a long hot bath, a handful of pain pills, and a nap. But I had to agree with her, my karma did suck.
    "What she needs is a lawyer. The nerve of that policeman questioning you," Mom said.
    "It sounds like a set-up to me," Mrs. Rosenblatt offered. "Someone's trying to make you look guilty."
    Which, thus far, was working splendidly.
    "Who would want to do that to my baby?" Mom asked, her eyes going big and round beneath her powder blue eye shadow.
    "You pissed anybody off lately, doll?" Mrs. R asked.
    I shrugged. "How could I? I don't even know anyone here. It's got to be a coincidence."
    "The real question is who would want Gisella dead?" Felix piped up from the corner.
    He'd been so quite I'd almost forgotten he was there, sitting at the mini desk, absently doodling on a pad of hotel stationary. His forehead creased as he went on. "Anyone could have read about your exploits, Maddie, and decided you'd make a convenient scapegoat. The real question we should be asking is who had issues with Gisella? When was the last time you saw her?"
    "Yesterday. Jean Luc introduced me to her right after she lost the necklace, then I did a fitting for her shoes right before we left for the night."
    "Hold on." Felix stopped me. "Go back. What necklace did she lose?"
    "Lord Ackerm-" I started. Then checked myself. "I mean, uh... yours."
    Felix lifted an eyebrow. "Mine?"
    Oops. "Uh, Jean Luc didn't tell you?"
    He shook his head from side to side. "Care to fill me in?" he asked, leaning forward.
    I quickly relayed the scene I'd witness the day before between Gisella and Jean Luc. When I finished, Felix looked deep in thought.
    "So, the necklace goes missing, then Gisella ends up dead."
    "I betcha it was stolen." Mrs. R nodded sagely, her chins (plural) bobbing up and down. "You know France is crawling with them cat burglars."
    I rolled my eyes. "Only in Carey Grant movies."
    "But then, why kill her after they already stole it?" Mom asked, pursing her drawn-in eyebrows.
    "Good point. Why kill her if they'd already gotten away with the necklace?" I asked.
    "I say we start with the necklace anyway. It's our best lead," Felix decided.
    "This wouldn't have anything to do with you wanting to recover it, would it?" I asked.
    Felix shrugged. "It's insured. But, yes, I wouldn't mind if it showed up."
    "I have an even better idea," I offered. "How about we just leave this to the police?"
    Three pairs of eyes turned my way.
    "So they can arrest you?" Mom asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.
    "But I'm innocent."
    Silence.
    "I am!"
    Mom reached over and patted my arm. "Of course you are, baby. We believe you."
    I looked around the room. Clearly I was outnumbered.
    "Okay, fine. Where do we start?"

    * * *

    Taking Felix's suggestions, Mom and Mrs. Rosenblatt decided to find out all they could about Gisella by doing some serious Googling downstairs in the hotel's business center. Felix said he had some things he wanted to check on (though I suspected he really wanted to call in the story to his editor at the Informer ) and would meet up with me in the lobby later that afternoon. For lack of a better direction, I decided to see if there