Chapter 11
“Okay, that’s a wrap for the morning.” Selina spoke with suffocating authority. She held up her hand. “Hang on a minute, though. I have an announcement from the pageant board. The judges have agreed to allow Bella Colton to remain in the contest since she and I are not related at all, and you all can no doubt already ascertain that I’d never give anyone an unfair advantage. You’re all on the same level playing field here.”
Several murmurs and a snide glance from Becky played out. Bella remained still, refusing to give in to Becky’s emotional immaturity.
Selina clapped her hands together as if applauding herself. “That’s that. You have forty-five minutes for lunch, ladies. May I remind you that there are only two weeks until you walk across this stage for the last time, with one of you garnering the crown of Ms. Mustang Valley. Ask yourself if the extra carbs are worth it, my friends.”
If Bella had a coconut cream pie in hand she’d plant it on Selina’s face. Bella could ignore that the woman was bossing her way around, shoving the choreographer to the side so that she could run the show, so to speak. But the admonishment to basically starve themselves was over the top. Was this how it all started, with a committee member basically telling the pageant contestants not to eat?
“I’m hungry. How about you, Marcie?”
Marcie blinked. “I’m always hungry. But you heard Selina. No pain, there will be a lot of gain.” The petite woman looked down woefully at her rounded figure. “If I even look at a slice of bread I gain weight.”
“That’s not true, Marcie. We all need good nutrition. We’re burning a ton of calories with all of this prancing around. C’mon.”
Marcie’s shorter legs hurried to keep up with Bella, who headed for the staff room. She had her heart set on devouring the turkey on rye she’d packed at zero-dark-thirty this morning.
“Mind if I join you?” Delilah, a willowy platinum blonde, fell into step behind them. “There are some scary ladies in this crowd, let me tell you.”
“How do you know we’re not two of them?” Bella couldn’t help but wonder why the stunning woman who’d given the best reason for needing the scholarship would be intimidated by any other contestant.
“Trust me—I’ve competed against almost everyone here at one time or another. The nicest people can become ugly when so much money is at stake.” Bella admired Delilah’s composure and pragmatism. She’d given a heartrending speech about having survived cancer as a child, and needing the scholarship so that she could become a pediatric oncology nurse, her dream job. She’d not been able to attend college right after high school as her family needed her to go to work right away when her father became one-hundred-percent disabled in a mining accident.
“Tell me something, ladies. Does this pageant always encourage its contestants to starve?” Bella had to take this chance to get some answers.
Marcie shook her head. “I don’t think they’re telling us to starve.”
“All pageants suggest eating healthy food, getting rid of the processed.” Delilah shrugged. “It’s not unique to Ms. Mustang Valley.”
“Huh.” Bella tried to appear mollified but her mind was doing cartwheels. This added credence to her thoughts that while she was certain Ms. Mustang Valley hadn’t helped Gio in anyway, it might not be factual to state that this particular pageant had caused Gio’s illness. As with all investigative reporting, she had to accept what appeared to be truth, not bend the facts to her opinion. It didn’t make it easy, for sure. Not when Gio had suffered so much.
The other two women took Bella’s silence as a sign the conversation was over and they all agreed to take their lunches to the school cafeteria and eat together at one of the long metal tables. A few of the other contestants were there, too, but sat separately and far enough away that conversations couldn’t be overheard.
Bella saw Holden from the corner of her eye as he first walked around the cafeteria, checked the exterior doors to make sure they were locked and then lingered in the k
itchen area which was visible through the various windows for different food services. It made her feel safe but also concerned her. What if the killer went after someone else while Holden’s attention was on her?
“We know one another and have been through what, Marcie, five or six pageants together?” Delilah opened her bag to reveal a huge bowl of lettuce and not a lot else. Looking at the rabbit feast made Bella’s stomach rumble.
“Seven if you count the Ms. Mustang Valley Holiday short pageant last year.”
Delilah laughed. “When you decorated sugar cookies as your talent.”
Marcie groaned and looked at Bella. “It was a total disaster. I thought it’d be easy-peasy. I bought several premade, plain cookies that were shaped like cacti. My plan was to paint them green for Christmas and blue and white for Chanukah, then add appropriately colored sprinkles.”
“And?” Bella sipped her water.
“And she didn’t realize that someone had put her frosting in the freezer the night before.”
“Why would they do that?”
“So that I couldn’t spread the frosting quickly, as you can imagine I needed to when we only have three minutes for our talent portion. It was awful. The cookies crumbled under the globs of sticky frosting that behaved more like a big, marshmallowy mess.” Marcie’s distress was still evident in the downturn of her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Marcie. It’s hard doing the talent, I take it.”
“It’s not about the talent part, or that I failed miserably. What still makes my blood boil is that someone sabotaged me. I’ve never done anything to keep another contestant from doing her best. It’s not my style.” Marcie’s cheeks were pink and her eyes sparkled. “If I ever figure out who it was, they’ll be sorry.”
Bella’s hand froze over the bag of potato chips she’d brought as a side dish to her sandwich. “What do you mean?”