Jane Bites Back_ A Novel - Michael Thomas Ford [68]
Minutes later, clutching a pair of black pumps, she left a stunned shoe salesman still kneeling on the floor surrounded by boxes. Next she tackled the makeup counter. “Eye shadow, lipstick, blush,” she shouted at the surprised clerk. “I don’t care what colors as long as it matches.”
The girl stared at Jane with wide eyes. “What brand would you like?” she asked. “We have a special on—”
“I have five minutes!” Jane shrieked, pounding her fist on the glass countertop.
The girl opened the cupboards beneath the counter and started pulling things out. As she worked, Jane craned her neck, hoping Sandra had given up on her. To her horror, she saw the girl wandering through the racks, apparently looking for her.
“This all looks wonderful,” Jane said to the makeup associate. “And I’d like to pay for all of this as well.” She loaded the counter with her clothes and shoes and practically flung her credit card at the girl, who ran it through the machine and handed Jane the sales slip to sign.
“I’ll just fold these for you,” the girl said, opening a bag and picking up the blouse.
“No time!” Jane said. She snatched the blouse from the girl’s hands, threw it into the bag, and swept everything else on the counter after it. “Thanks for all your help,” said Jane as she ran off. “Tell Sandra I’m sorry.”
She arrived back in her room at five minutes to one. Through the door she could hear the phone ringing. She went inside and snatched up the receiver. “Hello?”
“It’s Kelly. I just wanted to make sure you’re almost ready. We’ll be downstairs in fifteen. As usual, Bryce is running late. He has to make himself pretty for Comfort and Joy. But we’ll be at the station in plenty of time. It’s not far away.”
“Fine,” Jane said, keeping her voice as calm as possible. “That’s fine. I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.”
Hanging up, she emptied the contents of the shopping bag onto the bed and set to work. Getting the clothes on was easy enough, but doing her makeup was another matter. She’d left Lucy’s note in Sandra’s hands, and so she had to try to remember exactly what Lucy had said to do. Opening the eye shadow, she saw that the girl had chosen a peculiar shade of purple. When Jane dabbed some on her eyelid it gave her the appearance of having a bruise.
She tried to ignore the color and applied it as well as she could. Then she added lipstick and blush to her face and sat back to look at the results.
“I look as if I’ve been dragged backward through a hedge,” she muttered. But there was no helping it. She was due downstairs.
As she put on her new shoes, she accidentally kicked one under the bed. Kneeling, she felt around for it. Her fingers closed on the heel almost immediately. Then, as she pulled the shoe out, she realized that there was something her fingers had not touched.
Lifting the bedspread, she looked under the bed. Farrah’s body was gone.
Chapter 24
The cottage was small and plain, but it had a lovely garden and a pond. It would do very well. She imagined herself sitting in the small study, looking out at the flowers and writing for hours at a time. “With persistence and six months’ time,” she told herself, “you will complete your first novel.”
—Jane Austen, Constance, manuscript
“GIRL, WHAT DRAG QUEEN DID YOUR EYES?”
Comfort took one look at Jane and hauled her away to her own dressing room. “Sit,” she said, practically pushing Jane into a salon chair. “Tomboy, where are you?” she bellowed.
A moment later a tall Latino man ran in, drying his hands on a towel. “Settle down, woman,” he said. “I was spackling up Miss Joy. You know how long that takes.”
He and Comfort cackled over the joke while Jane sat silently, looking at her peacocked eyes in the mirror. Kelly and Bryce had been kind in their compliments; she looked awful, like a prizefighter on the losing end of a punch.
“Jane, this is Tomboy,” said Comfort. “He does our makeup, so you know he’s a genius. Tomboy, this is Miss Jane Fairfax.