The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen - A Dix Dodd Mystery

  Chapter 14

  Eventually, Mrs. Presley did return my clothing. Washed, ironed (people still did that?), folded perfectly and smelling of Tide. My underwear had never been so soft. Mrs. P brought them to me herself, just after Dylan left. Which was good, because as I’d discovered when I searched the bag Dylan brought me, he’d packed the be-tasseled glow-in-the-dark abomination my mother had given me for my birthday. Could I be any more humiliated?

  I’m sure Dylan hadn’t planned to grab this set, especially. Yes, it was the only matched set of underwear I owned, but I doubt if that factored into it. I couldn’t see him rummaging around in my underwear drawer until he found a match. No, he probably just grabbed the first things he saw, which in the dimness of my unlit bedroom, would be the glow-in-the-dark green nestled there among... oh, shit, among my granny panty collection!

  To think I’d thought I’d bottomed out on the humiliation scale. Argh!

  But Dylan Foreman had seen more than just my underwear as of late I reminded myself. And that thought was causing me a little more consternation than I wanted to acknowledge.

  I barely slept that night. Tossed and turned, tangled the sheets up good all by myself. Thinking of... thinking of everything. The Flashing Fashion Queen. Dylan’s kiss that still lingered on my lips. No wonder the mattress was half off the bed when I awoke.

  It was not yet dawn. The curtains were not tightly drawn and I watched the sky. I found myself staring into the stars as I waited for my bedside phone to ring with the 4:45 am wake up call I’d requested. I no longer needed the call to awaken me, but I did need it. I needed it to cue me into getting a move on... getting ready for today’s criminal offense.

  But that wake up call came in the form of a petite woman in blue suede shoes, knocking softly on the door, and tiptoeing her way into Room 111 where she’d hidden me.