"It's okay," he said. His warm brown eyes looked hurt but then he shook his head and said, "It has to be the answer you want to give. I know you're working through some stuff. I'll wait."

Mel felt her throat get tight. She could not love Joe DeLaura any more than she did at this moment. She wondered if she should just say yes, but then, the what-ifs swamped her and she couldn't bear it. She knew it was stupid to think that keeping their relationship less than it could be would make losing him any easier, but the thought of throwing herself into marriage, a lifetime commitment, made her positively queasy.

"Come on," he said. "I'll walk you up."

He took her hand in his and led her out the back door, which she paused to lock, and up to her apartment. He waited while she opened the door. Captain Jack, the cat they had co-parented since Mel found him abandoned in a Dumpster, leapt at Joe as if he were his long-lost love.

"Somebody has missed his kitty daddy," Mel said.

Joe scooped up Captain Jack and held him so they were face-to-face, then they both leaned forward and butted heads. Mel looked at her two boys and felt her insides get squishy all over again.

"Do you want to come in?" she offered.

Joe snuggled with Captain Jack for a moment before he handed him over. "It's late. I'd better not."

"Oh, okay," she said.

Joe kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep well."

"You, too," she said. Mel watched him walk down the stairs. He waved at the bottom and she returned it, feeling a bit forlorn.

As Joe turned the corner around the building, she wondered if he was going to be able to wait as long as it took for her to get her head together. She couldn't really blame him if he didn't.

"I'm messed up, aren't I?" she asked Captain Jack as she went into her apartment and locked the door.

He gave a long and pitiful meow and then pressed his head under her chin as if he understood. It made her feel slightly better. Maybe her brother was right. Maybe it wasn't just her soul-deep grief over her father's death that made her think she couldn't handle losing Joe after a lifetime together.

Maybe it was all of the freaking dead bodies that kept cropping up in her life. Honestly, how often was a girl supposed to stare death in the face, literally, before she started thinking that everyone she loved could die at any moment? It just wasn't normal.

The cupcake tower was located in a different part of the lobby and there was no cloth draping the table. Mel wondered if the hotel staff were afraid another body might get stuffed under it and were avoiding the possibility by leaving it bare. She couldn't blame them.

The white cupcakes covered in shimmering butterflies were a huge hit and even though she'd had to get up well before the sun, the effort was worth it.

"Now that's perfect," Cici Hastings said as she approached the table. "That will drive away thoughts of murder."

"You think?" Mel asked.

"Definitely," Ginny said as she joined them. "Hey there, handsome."

Mel looked over her shoulder at Oz, who was arranging the last of the cupcakes. He was looking pretty spiffy with his hair slicked back and his piercings toned down. He'd even removed the big silver skull rings he usually wore on his middle fingers.

Oz looked at Ginny in horror and Mel could tell he desperately wanted to shake loose his slicked-back hair and hide under his black fringe. She gave him a small shake of her head and he sighed.

Mel glanced around the lobby. Despite what Cici and Ginny said, there was a somber air that seemed to pervade the place and no amount of cute-shaped fondant was going to get rid of it.

"It is unfortunate about Mariel, but I'm sure the police will figure out who did it. If you think about it, this is actually a marvelous test for our contestants to see how they handle pressure." Cici patted her curls into place and tugged on the lapels of her bright pink jacket.

Mel stared at her. She thought Cici might be joking, but no. The woman was as serious as a heart attack.

"I guess you could look at it that way," Mel said. "You know, if you were completely coldhearted and compartmentalized about it."

"Exactly," Cici said. "Some of the things Miss Sweet Tiara will have to do, like visiting the poor, the sick, the elderly, well, it can be pretty brutal and she will have to smile through it all."

Mel nodded. Cici's heartlessness made a little more sense now.

"I used to cry," Ginny said.

Cici and Mel both turned to look at her. Cici looked disapproving.

"Oh, not in front of them," Ginny said. "But sometimes it was just hard, you know? I remember I was visiting a day-care center on the west side and I was reading to the children. The place was small and dirty, the playground was rusty and had razor wire running along the top of the chain-link fence. I felt like I was visiting a prison, but there I was in my poufy pink dress and tiara. When it was time to go, a little girl, no more than two, with the biggest blue eyes I've ever seen, hugged me and wouldn't let go."

Mel saw the faraway look in Ginny's eyes and knew she was reliving the memory.

"She kept crying and saying, 'You no leave me,'" Ginny said. "It was so sad. Finally, the day-care worker had to pry her off of me. I sat in the car and cried for an hour."

Cici reached out and patted Ginny's arm, which seemed to snap her out of her trance.

"Just think, for a brief shining moment, you gave that little girl a glimpse into a world bigger than the one she lived in," Cici said.

Mel would have pointed out that Ginny also left the girl in the midst of horrific poverty, teaching her at a very young age that some people just lived better lives than others, but she didn't want to be mean.

"Now, we're finishing up the bathing suit competition today," Cici said. "Also, the contestants will be submitting their recipes to you-"

"We most certainly will not!"

Mel turned to see Brittany Richards approaching with Destiny in tow. Brittany was once again wearing a see-through cover-up-a fashion oxymoron-over a string bikini. Today, the cover-up was white while the bikini beneath was neon green, which matched her stiletto sandals. Destiny trailed behind her, looking miserable, in a pink robe that covered her from knee to neck. Both of them wore an excessive amount of makeup and had the really big hair thing going.

"Excuse me?" Cici raised her finely plucked eyebrows.

"This person," Brittany said as she pointed a boney finger at Mel, "is supporting that Loopy girl."

"Lupe," Oz growled. "Her name in Guadalupe Guzman."

Brittany glared at him. "I'm sorry, did it look like I was talking to you?" Oz opened his mouth to answer but Brittany cut him off. "Because I was not."

"Rude!" Ginny snapped.

Brittany glared at her. "Drunk!"

Ginny gasped and looked like she was going to take a swing at Brittany. Mel snatched a cupcake off of the table and shoved it under Ginny's nose.

"See how the wings sparkle?" she asked.

"Oh, shiny," Ginny said.

If there was one thing Mel liked about her mother's best friend, it was her ability to be distracted like a toddler by anything that sparkled.

"Why don't you go find Mom?" Mel suggested and she gave Ginny a gentle push in the opposite direction.

As Ginny toodled off, Brittany made a derisive snort. "If that one wasn't as rich as a small oil-loaded nation, she'd be utterly worthless."

Mel clenched her teeth. Ginny might be a little drunk and a little crazy but she was also the person who had kept Joyce from collapsing completely into her grief when her husband, Mel's father, had died. For that, Mel would forever be indebted to Ginny, and she certainly wasn't going to stand here and listen to some rotten cow belittle her.

"At least she knows what it's like to wear a tiara," Mel said. The acid in her voice could have left burn marks. "You don't, do you?"

Oz let out a low whistle like a grenade being deployed, and then he made a blowing-up noise. If looks could do that, Mel was sure Brittany's glare would have left her picking shrapnel out of her eyebrows.

Nineteen.

"You will not be baking my daughter's cupcakes!" Brittany hissed, and Mel knew her words had been a direct hit.

She tried not to smile. A glance over Brittany's shoulder and she saw Destiny looking as if she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. As much as Mel disliked Brittany, she would never do anything to sabotage Destiny's chance of winning.

"You're being ridiculous," Cici said. "Mel is a professional."

"Ha!" Brittany scoffed. "Either hire someone else or I'll file a complaint that might go as far as a lawsuit."

"Confections might be a good option," Oz said. He looked at Cici and explained, "The owner hates Mel."

Mel gave him an outraged look. He was sending work Olivia's way?

"Excellent!" Brittany said. "We'll take her as our baker."

"Fine," Cici snapped. "Anka Holland has taken over the position of lead judge in Mariel's place. I will apprise her of the situation. If this Confections person agrees, we'll divide the competitors amongst the two of you and make sure the recipes are anonymous, assuring that there is no advantage given."

"That will do," Brittany said. Without another word, she turned on her heel and strode away. Destiny followed her mother like a submissive shadow. Mel had never been more grateful for her own mother than she was at that moment.

"You know, it's actually a good idea," Mel said.

Honestly, she was relieved, mostly because now she wouldn't have to bake a million lousy-tasting cupcakes. She could only imagine what a teen girl would put in a cupcake. Artificial sweetener? Bleck. Mountain Dew? Gross. Pixy Stix? Gag. The possibilities were endlessly horrifying.

"Who is Anka Holland?" Oz asked.

"Second runner-up to Mariel Mars her entire pageant career," Cici said. "I was lucky that she happened to be in town and available to take Mariel's place."

"She just happened to be in town?" Mel asked.

"Well, she was hoping to be involved in the Miss Sweet Tiara seventy-fifth anniversary event, but as a runner-up, we really didn't need her until-well, until now," Cici said. "She lives in Los Angeles, but was in Scottsdale to attend the Barrett Jackson car auction with her husband and do some charity work for underprivileged children."

Oz and Mel exchanged a look and Mel knew he was thinking the same thing she was-that it was awfully convenient for this Anka person to be here just when they needed her most. It felt almost as if it had been planned.

Mel wanted to ask Cici about it, but she was unclear as to how to go about that without it sounding as if she were accusing Anka the runner-up of being a murderess.

"Well, I'd better go contact this Confections person," Cici said. She glanced sourly after Brittany and Destiny. "Are you sure she'll be willing to do it?"

"Oh, mention my name and you can bet your sparkly tiara on it," Mel said.

"Huh." Cici gave an unladylike snort before she strode off in the direction of the pageant headquarters.

"Why do I get the feeling Cici isn't telling us everything?" Mel asked Oz.

"'That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets,'" he replied.

Mel glanced at him and frowned. "Oh, I know it, don't help me."

Oz watched her as Mel tried to pull the movie he had just quoted from her memory banks. Mel pressed her fingertips to her temples and concentrated. She could see it, but it was just out of reach.

"What's wrong with her?" a male voice asked Oz. "She looks like she's trying to blow things up with her mind."

"Movie quote," Oz muttered out of the corner of his mouth. "I think I've stumped her. A first."

"Shhh," Mel hushed them. "I almost have it."

"What was it?" the male voice whispered, and Mel realized it was Manny, which made her even more flustered, although she told herself that was ridiculous.

Oz repeated his big hair with secrets line.

"Oh, that's easy," Manny said. Mel held up her hand to stop him but it was too late. "Mean Girls."

Mel opened her eyes and glared at them. "I knew that!"

Manny and Oz were watching her with matching doleful expressions.

"Sure you did," Manny said. He winked at her and Mel felt her cheeks grow warm.

How did he do that? The man had magnetism coming out his ears, but she would not succumb to it. She was barely managing her whatever with Joe. She was not going to add the handsome detective into the mix.

A group of pageant attendees approached the cupcake tower and Oz nodded at Mel, letting her know he was on it.

"I did too know it," Mel said as they moved aside, giving Oz more room to work.

"Uh-huh," he said.

"So, what's going on with the investigation?" she asked. "Any leads?"

"None that you want to hear about," he said.

Mel stiffened. She heard the cautionary tone of his voice and she knew that it meant Lupe was far from being off the suspect list.

"She didn't do it," Mel said.