Ultimate Concealer, A Toni Diamond Mystery: A Toni Diamond Mystery (Toni Diamond Mysteries) (2 page)

“Thank you. Now I’ve got to g—”

“Whoa! Not so fast there, honey. We’ve got some catching up to do. When I saw that picture of you in the magazine, and saw you were as pretty as ever, I figured it was time we got reacquainted.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Toni, you used to be a lot softer.”

“I wonder what toughened me up?”

“Listen, let me buy you a drink. A cup of coffee.”

“You’re in town?” Horror sharpened her tone. He’d left Dallas as well as her and moved to Austin, which she’d only discovered when a very pissed-off woman had called a few months later looking for him.

“I could be on the next plane.”

“Plane?” It was a three-hour drive, give or take, to Austin.

“Sure, babe. I’m a headliner in Vegas.” The only place she could imagine Dwayne being a headliner was at a lice convention. He was a country singer with a mediocre voice and songwriting skills that were derivative at best.

“No. Thank you. I don’t want to have a drink with you.”

“Darling, it would be worth your while. I’ve got a business proposition for you, you being such a top business woman and all.”

She refused to scowl. She wasn’t getting wrinkles for Dwayne D. “Dwayne, did you seriously call me up after abandoning me sixteen years ago to ask for money?”

“I’m not asking for a gift, sweat pea. It’s an investment.”

“An investment. In what? A new guitar?”

“I don’t just play country and western music.” He sounded stung. “I’m diversified.”

“I bet you are.”

“Look, if you’re not interested in an investment, I’ll take a loan.”

She didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. “Dwayne, please don’t ever call me again.”

“Don’t hang up.” She heard a tone that hadn’t been there before. He’d dropped the smarmy tone and something sharp came through. “We haven’t talked about that sweet daughter of ours. How is she?”

Toni practically had to pry her teeth apart to get words out. “She’s fine.”

“You tell her hi and that I’m going to come and see her real soon. We’ve got lots of years to catch up on.” In the background, a woman called his name and he said, “I’ve got to go now, but I look forward to seeing you both real soon.”

When she got off the phone she found that the fingernails of her left hand had dented half-moons into her palms and one of the diamantes she had embedded into her nail tips had come out, leaving a small round hole in her nail like somebody had shot a bullet through it.

Chapter Two

“I don’t have a girlfriend, but I know a woman who’d be mad at me for saying that.”

— Mitch Hedberg

Rage. She recognized the emotion even though she hadn’t experienced it for a long time. Rage. Directed at Dwayne D. Diamond.

Toni couldn’t settle to work. She couldn’t settle to anything. In fact, she couldn’t stand her own company cooped up in her house. She’d go to the salon, that’s what she’d do. Take comfort in the familiar ritual of a manicure. Even if it was a week ahead of schedule, she would not go an entire week when a hole existed where a diamond ought to be.

But when she got to her garage and the space where her pale mauve Prius usually sat was empty, she remembered she didn’t have a car. Tiffany had it.

She grabbed her cell phone out of her bag, speed dialed Linda Plotnik.

“Mom,” she wailed when Linda answered. “I need you. Can you come get me?”

And the wonderful thing about a mother, whether her daughter was sixteen or thirty-four, was that, of course, she did.

Toni was waiting outside on the curb when the mauve Cadillac screeched to a halt — with “Here You Come Again” blasting out the windows. Her mother’s obsession with Dolly Parton, which used to embarrass Toni into a coma, now seemed endearing. She only hoped Tiffany would grow similarly appreciative of her own eccentricities given enough time.

When she jumped into the passenger seat, her mother said, “Baby, what’s wrong?” before Toni even had time to buckle her seat belt.

“Dwayne called.”

Her mother’s generous cleavage almost catapulted out of her apricot tank top when she gasped. “Dwayne Diamond?”

“Yep.”

As they drove to the salon, Toni filled her mother in on the call.

“He abandons you and your infant daughter. Doesn’t see either of you for sixteen years.” She turned left, so wide she nearly took out a Humvee, which honked loudly as it swerved. “And not one single cent does he ever send you. And he’s got the nerve to ask for money?” She was so angry her platinum curls were smacking her cheeks as she ranted.

“Pretty much what I thought,” Toni said.

There was silence but for the sound of Dolly. Then Linda said, “Do you think he’ll try to get to you through Tiff?”

And that, of course, was the part that Toni didn’t even want to contemplate. “I think he said that to piss me off. He’s never wanted to see her before, why would he now?”

“Does she still ask about him?”

Toni shook her head. “Not for a few years now.”

“We should have told her he was dead like I wanted to.”

“But he’s not dead.”

“And ain’t that a surprise? I thought for sure some jealous husband would have put a bullet through his cheatin’ heart by now.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, honey. Some girls just don’t have any luck.”

Somehow, the salon and her mom helped Toni get back on track. Dwayne was a no-good, cheating loser. Irresponsible and childish, he used his charm and good looks to drift through life, rarely challenged by anything approaching morals. But she didn’t think he’d contact Tiffany. An almost grown daughter would make him feel old, she suspected.

She’d said no to giving Dwayne money and that was most likely the last she’d see or hear of Dwayne for another sixteen years. Or sixteen million, if she was lucky.

Her diamond restored to the tip of her nail where it belonged, sparkling with the other nine, and a pedicure thrown in for the heck of it helped her the way therapy might help another woman. To Toni, being surrounded by women laughing, gossiping and relaxing, with her mother for company, was as good as a group counseling session.

When she got home, even Tiffany was in a better mood.

“How was enviro club?”

“Really cool. And I’m sorry about your car. The man said it would be good as new with a new bumper and engine and a couple of new doors.”

“You are so grounded forever.”

Tiffany laughed. “I put the keys beside the fruit bowl. What’s for dinner, Tiger Mommy?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She opened the fridge. “How about mushroom lasagna and salad?”

“Or we could have pizza?”

“Pizza and salad. Honestly, for a vegetarian, you don’t eat enough vegetables.”

They chatted over dinner and Toni thought, as she had so many times over the past sixteen years, that Dwayne had missed out on the only good thing he’d ever done.

She managed not to think about her deadbeat ex for the next few days until she was startled by her daughter coming into her office one evening after dinner.

She fiddled with one of the silver rings on her hand.

“Mom?”

“Mmm-hmm?”

“Why did you and Dad break up?”

Toni’s head jerked up from the Spring Fling sample packs she was packing into her tote bag to take to a Spring Fling makeup party. Toni didn’t do a lot of home parties anymore but she liked to keep her hand in.

“What brings this on, Tiff? You haven’t asked about your dad for a while.”

Tiffany hadn’t inquired about her father for probably two years. How creepy that she would ask about him today, only a few days after Toni had received a call from Deadbeat Dwayne.

“I don’t know.” Today Tiffany had chosen to embrace spring and its colorful palette by wearing more black than usual. “Most of my friends who have divorced parents still see their dads. I feel like a freak.”

Toni couldn’t stop herself from smoothing a loving hand down her daughter’s back. “We were way too young to get married. I wasn’t much older than you are now. And Dwayne, well, he certainly wasn’t ready to settle down. He lit out when you were a baby and I haven’t seen him since.”

“But he’s older now. Maybe he wants to see me. Maybe he feels like you’re keeping me from him.”

“Has he contacted you?” The words were out before she could contain them. Her tone sounded sharp even to her own ears.

“See? There you go acting all control freaky. What if he has? Doesn’t a man have a right to see his own child?”

Feeling as though a giant fist were squeezing her heart, she said, “Of course he does. I’m surprised he’d want to get in touch after all these years, that’s all.”

“I’m old enough to know the truth,” Tiffany said, looking achingly young and lost in a way Toni knew she could never fix.

“I’ve always told you the truth.”

“Have you?” And before she could answer, Tiffany’s cell made a tone that indicated a text was coming in and she was gone.

Toni did not believe her daughter’s sudden interest in her father was a coincidence. She also understood that Tiffany was a lot like she herself had been at sixteen. Stubborn, convinced she knew about life. Naive as hell.

If only she knew how to protect her daughter from her own father.

Luke Marciano was ass-deep in a murder investigation. Not that you needed to be much of a detective to solve this case. Two neighbors had exchanged angry words and insults over the placement of a fence. A fence, for chrissake. Half the neighborhood had witnessed the altercation. Then, a day later one of the two was found in his backyard with a couple of bullets in him. The other neighbor had a cabinet full of guns and one was missing. Luke sometimes felt like everyone in his adopted state solved their problems with guns.

When his cell rang and he glanced at the incoming number, he wondered whether his day was about to get better, or worse. With Toni you never knew.

“Marciano,” he said.

“Honey, you know it’s me. Why do you always bark out your name? You think I might have forgotten it?” She had the sexiest voice. He sometimes wondered if that’s why she was such a successful saleswoman. But he doubted it. More likely it was because she was so pushy.

“Force of habit,” he said.

“Am I interrupting anything?”

“Murder investigation.”

She sighed. “Don’t people in this state ever do anything but kill each other?”

Her words so mirrored his own thoughts that he had to smile. “Texans like to do everything bigger.” He glanced around, making sure no one could hear him. “Speaking of which, you still coming over to my place later?”

He and Toni had an interesting relationship. Having met on a murder investigation where her smarts — well hidden, in Luke’s opinion, under more makeup and diamonds than any woman needed — had almost got her killed. Since then they’d become, he wasn’t really sure what. Friends with benefits maybe came closest.

Between their two insane work schedules and her teenaged daughter, they didn’t see a lot of each other. Usually they got together at his place for an evening. They’d order take-out or one of them would cook, they’d talk, they’d have sex. She’d go home. With the divorce rate in his profession so high — and he’d already struck out once — he knew how difficult it was to sustain a relationship. He suspected Toni was equally skittish of anything resembling permanence.

“I sure am. And good news. Tiffany’s sleeping over at a friend’s. I can stay the night.”

He felt his day getting better by the second. “That is very good news.”

“I’ll see you later.”

When she arrived at his place later, he kissed her. And then he kissed her again and they discovered they weren’t that hungry. Not for food.

Sometime later, he found himself lying naked in bed, a satisfied smile on his face and Toni’s head on his chest.

When her breath had returned to normal, she said, “Oh, I really needed that.”

He turned to grin at her. “Best stress reliever there is.”

She played her hand idly across his belly and the reflection of five tiny diamonds winked at him. “Tiffany’s going through something.”

“Tiffany’s always going through something,” he reminded her.

“I know, but this is different. It’s about her dad.”

“What about her dad?”

“I think he contacted her. He called me out of the blue trying to get some money out of me, if you can believe it. He saw that article in Texas Today. He doesn’t even live in Texas. Somebody must have sent him a copy.”

Toni never talked about her ex, and what little he’d gleaned did not sound impressive. “The guy who ran out on you and left you with a baby is hitting you up for a loan?”

She nodded, her curls tickling his chest. “I think he might have contacted Tiffany, as well.”

He knew how much she protected her daughter. Too much, in his opinion, but he didn’t have kids so he kept his feelings to himself. “She’s sixteen. What harm do you think he can do her?”