Snared (Elemental Assassin #16)(54)
Jo-Jo went over to the fridge, pulled out a pitcher of sweet iced tea, and poured herself a tall glass. She offered me some, but I held up my hand, declining.
She took a long drink of her tea before setting it aside and staring at me with her clear, almost colorless eyes. “What’s up, darling? What can I help you with? Does it have something to do with that poor missing girl? Sophia told me all about it when she came home from the police station last night.”
“Yeah. I found something that I want you to take a look at.”
I filled her in on everything that had happened, including the mysterious shadow lurking behind the Dumpster and the obvious clue that he’d left behind. I placed the lipstick on the butcher-block table between us.
“I figured that if anyone knew about this kind of makeup, it would be you. Have you ever heard of Glo-Glo lipstick? Do you know where they might sell it in Ashland?”
“Sure, I’ve heard of it,” Jo-Jo replied. “It’s a makeup company out of Bigtime, New York. They make good products. Lots of bright, vibrant colors at reasonable prices.”
I tapped my finger on top of the lipstick. “All this gold doesn’t look very reasonable to me. But of course, I’m no expert, which is why I came to the best.”
Jo-Jo winked at me. “Well, you certainly did that.”
She picked up the tube and examined it from all angles before pulling off the cap and examining the lipstick. She even went so far as to sniff the lipstick itself. After several seconds, she set the open tube back down on the table and held up her finger.
“Give me one minute. I’ll be right back.”
Jo-Jo left the kitchen and headed back into the salon. The second she was gone, Rosco crept even closer to me. The basset hound plopped down on the floor at my feet, let out a plaintive whine, and stared up at me with his big brown eyes. And he kept right on whining and wagging his tail, slapping it up against the side of my boot.
“All right, all right,” I grumbled. “You win. You know a softhearted sucker when you see one, don’t you, boy?”
Rosco woofed his agreement.
I plucked the lid off a large blue and white container shaped like a dog bone. The bright color and fun style reminded me of that chocolate cake cookie jar that Elissa had given to Jade. And just like that, my light mood vanished. I grabbed a dog biscuit out of the container and tossed it down to Rosco to munch on.
“Here we go,” Jo-Jo said, coming back into the kitchen. “I thought that I’d seen that fancy gold tube before.”
She put an open catalog down on the table and tapped her finger on a product on one of the pages. “Heartbreaker lipstick. A special anniversary product from Glo-Glo. Apparently, it was the very first color the company ever produced. They’ve been selling it for years in regular, cheaper packaging, but for the anniversary, they decided to dress it up in that gold case. It’s a nice red, and I thought about ordering a few tubes to resell to my clients, but the price is a little too steep for my tastes.”
I blinked at the information on the page. “Five hundred dollars? For a tube of lipstick?”
“Like I said, a little too steep for my tastes, especially since you can still get the exact same color in the regular packaging for fifteen bucks a pop.” She shrugged. “But we both know that there are a lot of folks out there with more money than common sense, especially in this town.”
“So who would sell something like this? Where would you get it in Ashland?”
“Well, given the price, it’s not the sort of thing that you can get just anywhere,” Jo-Jo said. “The only place I know of that has been selling it is the Posh boutique in Northtown.”
“How do you know that?”
“Several of the women who work at the boutique get their hair done here. One of them came in earlier this week, bragging about how she’d gotten her latest sugar daddy to buy her a tube of it.”
I nodded. “Thanks for your help.”
“You’re quite welcome.” She tilted her head to the side, looking at me. “So what are you going to do now?”
“Call Finn. He knows some of the folks who work at Posh. He should be able to get a list of everyone who’s bought a tube of this lipstick in the last six months. After that, we’ll see if anyone’s name jumps out at us.”
Jo-Jo nodded. She reached out and put the cap back on the lipstick, but she didn’t give it to me. Instead, she started turning the gold tube around and around in her hands, and the pins-and-needles sensation of her Air magic gusted through the kitchen, pricking my skin with its sharp, sudden intensity. My spider rune scars itched and burned at the uncomfortable sensation of her magic, which was the complete opposite of my own Ice and Stone power.
In an instant, her eyes took on a bright, intense, milky-white glow. She might be staring at the lipstick, but she wasn’t really seeing it anymore. She raised her eerie gaze to mine.
“Be careful, darling,” Jo-Jo murmured. “I’m seeing storm clouds ahead for you. Some very dark, nasty ones. Swirling around and around, trying to consume you, trying to drown out all your light . . .”
In addition to healing people and smoothing out wrinkles with her Air magic, Jo-Jo’s power also gave her glimpses of the future. I waited for her to elaborate, to be more specific, but she didn’t say anything else. After a minute, the prickly feel of her Air magic vanished, and her eyes returned to their normal clear color.