Diva 03 _ Diva Paints the Town, The by Krista Davis Page A

out because I knew what I had seen. Was it possible that Kurt wasn’t dead after all? Had he leaped from the box when I left Mordecai’s house? Had someone intended to play a prank on me? Or on Nina? Had Kurt wanted to punish Nina by giving her a good scare?
    “Are you listening? I’m going to tell Wolf about this.”
    “Good idea. Maybe he can figure it out.”
    Her head tilted to the side, and a crease formed between her eyes. “You’re not very bright, are you? You’re in trouble.”
    She was the one who didn’t get it. Something was definitely wrong. I didn’t think I should argue with her, though. No matter what I said, she clearly wasn’t going to believe me. And why should she? I’d sounded like a blithering idiot, and there wasn’t even any blood. “I’m sorry. I’m not making anything up.” I did not like the way she was scowling at me. “I guess Kurt meant to play a trick on me. Not very funny.”
    She eyed me critically, and for no good reason, I was suddenly self-conscious about the oversized sweatshirt and my dusty jeans. I turned away from her intrusive scrutiny. Now that a cop was there with me, the house didn’t seem so scary. Could Kurt be hiding somewhere, laughing his not-at-all-funny head off ? I wanted to take a look around, but I’d already lost a lot of time, and I had to get to work.
    I collected my cleaning equipment, but realized we would need it when we tackled the family room and decided to leave everything at Mordecai’s.
    Tara walked out onto the front porch with me, and made a point of gazing up and down the street, as though looking for something. Apparently satisfied, she bounded down the steps to her car.
    I heard rattling, and found Nina shaking dry cat food into a bowl next to the front steps. “Where have you been?”
    She looked up at me with the haggard face of a person who hadn’t slept all night. “There’s this—” She stopped abruptly and watched Tara get into the squad car. Nina’s icy fingers gripped my arm. “What happened? Is it Kurt?”
    I filled her in while we crossed the street to my house. Her expression fluctuated between horror and anger. “I saw the window seat last night when Kurt and I went back to look for the dog. Kurt joked about it and said if they’d tapered one end, it would look like the old-fashioned pine caskets they used in the wild west.”
    Nina didn’t cook, but I was certain she was capable of boiling water, so I left her in the kitchen to make tea while I dashed upstairs to shower and change for work. She brought a mug of steaming brew to me and sat on my bed while I dressed.
    “He really looked dead?” she asked with fear in her voice.
    “I’m afraid so.” He had. Though I wanted to think he’d used poor judgment and played a very ugly prank, it bothered me that he’d appeared lifeless.
    I didn’t have time for makeup or curls. Taking the fast and easy road, I pulled my hair back with a big banana clip.
    Nina looked out the window, but I didn’t think she was seeing the view. “What if he heard me come back last night, thought I had a key, and hid in the box to scare me?”
    “I hardly think he would have waited in the box until this morning.”
    She turned around, her face grim. “What if he suffocated?”
    “Now you’re reaching.”
    “He was woozy from hitting his head, passed out or fell asleep, and suffocated. Dear heaven, I bet that’s exactly what happened.”
    I clipped on earrings and said, “There’s just one problem with that scenario—if he suffocated, why wasn’t he in the box when the cop came?”
    “That’s right!” Nina followed me downstairs. “That skunk! I bet he was trying to pull a fast one on me. And to think I lost sleep over him last night.”
    “What were you doing there this morning anyway?”
    “An orange and white momma cat who just had kittens has been coming around, and I’ve been trying to figure out where she has the babies stashed. It’s too cold for them to be