The next morning I exercised my options and phoned a friend.
“I’m calling in a favor, Maddie,” I said.
“Big one or little one?”
“Not sure yet.”
“It’s gonna cost ya.”
“How about a girls’ night out?” I said. “Just the two of us; I’ll pick up the tab.”
“Throw in a weekend in Las Vegas, and you’ve got yourself a deal. Although, I should ask what I’m getting myself into.”
“I just got a new case, and it’s a bit on the unusual side.”
“My favorite kind.”
The phone made a distinct cracking noise. At first I blamed it on a bad connection until I recognized the sound of Maddie chomping away on a piece of gum like a cow chewing its cud.
“Did you hear about the skiing accident at Wildwood a couple days ago?” I said.
“Nope.”
I filled her in on the details.
She popped a bubble into the phone. At times it was hard to believe her IQ far exceeded mine.
“Do you believe what your client’s saying?” Maddie said. “It sounds kind of far out, you know?”
“I believe she wants it to be true, and there’s a disgruntled ex-fiancé, so I have a good place to start.”
Maddie laughed. “Isn’t there always?”
“Can I count on you to help me out then?”
“What do you need, and how soon do you need it?”
“They’ve transferred the victim’s body to the funeral home. Your team can do the autopsy there.”
“Didn’t the ME order one?”
“He did and so did she, but no one knows when the results will come back, and let’s just say weeks don’t register in Audrey Halliwell’s vocabulary.”
“Not the patient type, eh?”
“Not in the least,” I said.
“You two should get along famously then.”
“I figure I’ll poke around and see if I come up with anything to back up her suspicions, and if I don’t find anything, at least she’ll have some closure.”
“Did they find anything on the victim’s body?”
“Right now, it looks like an accident,” I said. “The funeral is in two days.”
“We’ll work it in, no worries.”
“You’re the best, Maddie.”
She popped another bubble into the phone.
“Don’t I know it?”
“Listen, I need to run, but let me know what you find,” I said.
“Will do. And give Mr. Studly a big kiss for me.”