“Hold still,”
Heather was going a bit mad. With pins stuck in her mouth, she jumped around Nancy, fussing with every strap and ruffle and stitch you could possibly imagine. Measuring, pinning, snipping, sewing, stretching, tearing, and stitching every little detail. Two hours into their session she started muttering incoherently to her self, and she hadn’t stopped since. Nancy’s sympathy for Heather was starting to wear thin.
“I said HOLD STILL,”
“Fine, fine,”
“Look, I know it’s been a few hours, but the show is only two weeks away…”
Nancy breathed out. “I understand,”
But Heather was hardly listening to her.
“Uuuhhhgg… no. No. I was wrong,” Heather tore off a chunk of fabric, “ All wrong,” stomped out of the room, banging her head for ideas.
Making sure that she was out of sight, Nancy crept off the pedestal and picked up her phone.
“That’s weird…” she mumbled to herself.
Heather popped her head back into the room “Nancy! What did I say about looking at your phone?”
“ I have fifteen missed calls from Dieter,”
Heather’s face went white.
“ Wait, what do you know?”
Nancy’s phone went off again.
“It’s Dieter,”
“Don’t pick up,” Heather begged
Nancy glared at Heather defiantly and pressed accept.
“Hello Dieter,”
“NANCYYOUGOTMINETTEARRESTEDHOWCOULDYOU-
“De-”
“NOWYOURUINEDHERCAREERANDSHEHASNOTHING-”
“Wai-”
“A B S O L U T E L Y. N O T H I N G. ” he took a deep breath.
“Dieter, listen-”
“AND WHAT ARE YOU? SOME SILLY AMERICAN GIRL WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN RUIN PEOPLE’S LIVES? SHE WAS ONE OF THE MOST TALENTED DESIGNERS IN HISTORY! BUT NOW, NOW, SHE WILL FOREVER BE KNOWN AS SOME CRIMINAL BECAUSE OF ONE STUPID TEENAGER-”
“Plea-”
“-YOU PLANNED THIS DIDN’T YOU? YOU AND HEATHER?”
“What? N-”
“OOOOOH DON’T LIE TO ME. I KNOW SHE WASN’T THE KINDEST BOSS IN THE WORLD- BUT TO FRAME HER LIKE THAT WAS DESPICABLE. JUST DESPICABLE,”
“DIETER,” Nancy screamed
“What?” He spat
“ She did this to herself,”
“Oh, don’t tell me that-”
“SHE decided to work with criminals. SHE decided to plant bugs into the First Lady’s dress. SHE decided to attack me when I found out,”
“ Oh, plea-”
“And SHE is the one that ended your relationship. It was her. It wasn’t any of this. So get over yourself, Dieter. Move on,”
There was a long pause, then he hung up.
“Well,” Nancy stated matter of factly, “That’s that,”
She glanced over at Heather, who was on the verge of tears.
“Are you okay?”
“ Oh- I just.. well, I’m the one who told him she got arrested. I just thought, if he knew what she did… maybe…”
“ Oh, Heather,” Nancy sat down, “That’s not how its works,”
“I know…” she sniffed “ I know I shouldn’t have done it… I mean, my gosh, I have this show to design! I can’t get distracted. I don’t know what I was thinking…”
“ It’s okay Heather,”
“I know,”
“We’ve all been there,”
“ You ruined your dress,” Heather muttered
“What!?” Nancy exclaimed. Sitting down ripped open a few seams. “Oh, no, Heather, I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay. My brain’s fried today anyway. You can go home. We’ll work on it tomorrow,”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,”
Nancy sighed with relief, and pulled herself free.
“Thanks,”
Nancy walked out of the Moulin and took the metro to JJ’s apartment.
“Back so early?” JJ remarked as Nancy came in. She had flour in her hair and cooking supplies scattered around their kitchen.
“It doesn’t feel so early,” Nancy admitted, picking up a cookie.
“ I know that feeling. Luckily I don’t have to deal with that anymore,”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m quitting,”
“Really? I thought you were under a strict modeling contract,”
“ Well, that contract isn’t really valid now that Minette’s in jail, is it?”
“But Heather-”
“Oh, I don’t really think Heather wants me. She has her own style. She’ll be fine,”
“She isn’t that fine right now,”
“She’s not going to cancel the show, is she?” JJ tested a bit of dough.
“No, no. She’s still hung up on Dieter,”
“Poor girl. Personally, I don’t get the appeal of him. Way too misogynistic. You wouldn’t believe the things he’s said to me during a modeling session! Plus he actually has a pet snake- I told you about that, right?”
Nancy nodded, “ He’s even worse now that Minette’s in jail,”
“I can imagine,”
“So what are you going to do now?” Nancy asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, work for Hugo Butterly,”
Nancy spit out her cookie.
“WHAT?”
JJ giggled. “No, no. I’m kidding. I’m going to back to school,”
Nancy lit up. “ Really? For what?”
“ Electrical engineering,”
“ Oh! That explains the books you have in the pantry!” Nancy pointed to the back of the kitchen.
“You found those, huh?”
“ I thought you were trying to bomb Minette,” Nancy said seriously
“What?” JJ laughed
“ Somebody put a bomb in her office… I couldn’t count anybody out as a suspect,”
JJ rolled her eyes. “Fine, detective, what ever you say,”
“Who did you think did it?” Nancy asked curiously.
“What do mean?”
“Who did you think sent all those messages to Minette and set up the bomb?”
“Honestly? Jean Michèle,”
“Really? Why?”
“I’m fairly sure he’s been involved in some shady things for a long time… and if he knew that Minette found out what he was doing…” JJ looked down “well, I wouldn’t put it past him to threaten her,”
“What shady things?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe they’re just rumors,”
“Tell me,” Nancy’s demanded
“Well… okay. Jean Michèle is a pretty well-respected critic. I know a countless number of models who really expanded their career with his help…”
“And?”
“I just heard from some people that some of those models… weren’t exactly modeling when they knew him,”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it,”
Nancy’s eyes grew wide, “Nooo,”
“Mmmm-hmmm,” JJ nodded
“He’s a pimp?” Nancy asked incredulously
“Bingo,”
“… I guess that makes sense. Oh my god, it does! His clothes, the fact that he’s always on a cell phone-”
“I know,”
“And he was so nice to me when we first met…ew, no, he wasn’t trying to see if-”
“Welcome to the world of coo-ture,” JJ muttered bitterly.
——————————————-
“BARNES,” the guard bellowed
Minette ignored him, tearing aggressively into her chicken nuggets. Normally she wouldn’t stoop to such low food, but there wasn’t much variety in jail. At least there weren’t any critics leering at her. Critics that she could see in front of her, anyway.
“TAMMY BARNES,” the guard yelled exasperated.
She just kept eating.
“I see you Barnes,”
“I told you, my name’s Minette,”
she muttered.
“Not in here, it isn’t,” he retorted, “Here,”
he threw her a stack of mail.
She mouthed f-you once he had his back turned, and snatched up her letters.
The first one was from Dieter.
Minette,
I should have told you this a long time ago. I love y-
Minette tore up the letter. She glanced down. Who else would write to her? Her family had disowned her. Most of the design world had cut their ties with her. She turned the letter over.
Emily Griffen? Why did that sound vaguely familiar?
Dear Miss Minette,
I sent you a letter on the emails a little while ago. I recently caught wind that somebody stuck you in jail. I just wanta say that is plain rotten. I myself was thrown in jail by some goody two shoes called Nancy Drew. And I didn’t hurt nobody! I just was trying to open up something for sale. Taking your talent from the world is the true crime. That’s just what I wanted to say. I hope you get out soon.
Sincerely,
Emily Griffin
Minette read the leader over.
“Interesting,” she mused, “Very interesting,”
