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Hamid guy
acting strangely.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, he was there at the bar when we
arrived, but after the show started, he seemed to vanish for a
while, letting that waitress take the drink orders.”
    “So?”
    “Well, then after the lights dimmed and the
actors came out with the flashlights, I could’ve sworn I saw him
wandering around from table to table.”
    “What do you think he was doing?”
    “I don’t know. He never really seemed like he
was part of the show, did he? It was like he was too serious for it
or something. Maybe he owns the place?”
    “I think you just found your reason to call
the detective.”
    “You’re right. I think I just did.”
    “What are you waiting for?”
    “For my ‘official morning break’, then I’ll
call him?”
    “Oh, puhlease...”
    “Well, I am a dedicated government worker,
after all.”
    They both start laughing.
     
    *******
     
    On her “official morning break”, Isabella
calls the number on the detective’s card. He picks up on the first
ring. She’s surprised to hear his voice and her stomach does
flip-flops. It takes a few seconds to find her voice and she says,
“Hello, Detective Sterling. This is Isabella Forshey calling.
Remember me from the night of the murder at the dinner
theater?”
    “Oh, yes. How are you Isabella?”
    “I’m fine. And you?”
    “I’m fine, too. How may I help you
today?”
    Isabella can think of a million ways he could
help her, some of them happening in the bathtub with her, but she
behaves herself and says, “I’ve thought of something that might
help your investigation.”
    “Great. What do you have?”
    “Well, I was hoping I could meet you
somewhere. It’s pretty long and involved, what I have to tell
you.”
    “Okay. Why don’t you come into the station
and we’ll talk?”
    “Well, police stations kind of give me the
creeps. There are a lot of scary looking guys lurking around all
the time.”
    “Okay. Where do you suggest?”
    “How about Original Mike’s? Do you know where
that is?”
    “Sure. I’ve been there a few times.”
    “How about lunch tomorrow?”
    “Sounds good. See you there at noon.”
    “Okay. Bye,” Isabella says, wishing they
could have talked more.

Chapter Ten
     
     
    That night, Isabella is in a panic over what
to wear to her meeting with the detective. She doesn’t like
anything in her closet. She tries on several outfits; then gives
up. Time to go shopping at South Coast Plaza , she tells
herself, grabbing her car keys.
    She has a favorite store at the mall but has
never had the courage to go inside. It’s one of those boutique
shops that only the bussed-in tourists from Japan can afford to
shop at. She’s always admired the window displays at “Missoni” when
she and Nicole walked by the store on their way to “Wolfgang
Puck’s” for pizza. Tonight, she finally has garnered the courage to
go inside and try on some of their very expensive dresses.
    “Maybe, I’ll just look around,” she tells
herself.
    “Missoni” is a very small store with only
about forty dresses on their racks. She wonders how they stay in
business since she rarely sees customers inside. She hopes that she
won’t be the only shopper getting all the attention. To her
discomfort, upon entering the store, she realizes she’s the sole
customer. She walks over to look at a rack of dresses and a
saleslady comes up to her, introduces herself, and asks her name.
She asks what brings her to the store and Isabella says that she’s
always admired the window displays, but has never tried on any
dresses yet. The saleslady shows her some dresses and Isabella says
that they are very pretty but she can’t wear horizontal stripes
because they make her look fat. Isabella looks around at all the
dresses in the store and before settling on three to take to the
dressing room. The saleslady informs her that these dresses are 40%
off. Isabella does the math in her head. Forty percent off
of $850.00