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.Back in the newsroom, Lacey ran searches on the Web,called the Philadelphia police again, and finally put togetherenough information to find an Eric O Neil.He worked for acomputer repair company called Cyber Rescue Squad onChestnut Street in Philadelphia, but she couldn t get pasttheir voice-mail hell.Apparently her call was very importantto them, but all available technicians were busy assistingother customers, and the first available Cyber Rescue Spe-cialist would be with her shortly.Business seemed to bebooming. ARMED AND GLAMOROUS 233She finally drilled through the voice menus to EricO Neil s mailbox and left a message for him to call herback.She said she was writing a story about Nina Vickers.She assumed mentioning an unsolved murder for which hemight have been a suspect would get his attention.It wasn ta complete lie, she thought.She didn t know what she waswriting about yet, so a Nina Vickers story was a remote pos-sibility.Lacey didn t mention Willow Raynor or CecilyAshton.Now what? Lacey hated this part of the journalist s job,racing to make a call based on some hot new lead and thenwaiting and waiting for a call back.In the meantime, some-thing at the salon bothered her, something about the ornatelittle jeweled skeleton key Stella wore around her neck, thebauble that Willow had reached for and Nigel had fondled.It was an unusual key and it looked like real gold, not just anantique brass key someone had polished.The fluted edges,the precious stones stayed with her.The key reminded her ofsomething.It tickled her brain.It drove her crazy.She dug out from her files the picture of Cecily s vintageRita Hayworth makeup case that had run with her feature ar-ticle.The ornamental brass plate around the key hole hadfluted edges and a pattern set in what looked like the sameprecious stones.The ornate head of Stella s key looked likea match.Had Nigel given Stella the key to the Louis Vuittonmakeup case? Or a key very much like it? Just how had hegotten his hands on such a thing? Lacey s eyes went verywide.Did Nigel steal the case and give Stella the key? That weasel! She yelled out loud.Felicity looked overat her. Weasel? I don t have any recipes for weasel. Sorry, talking to myself.Working on a story.You know. Me too.I m so confused. Felicity returned her gaze toher own screen.Lacy looked over and saw a Web page filledwith elaborate wedding cakes.Poor Stella.She thought she was going to get a weddingcake out of Nigel.And a ring.Surely Nigel knew where thatkey really came from, and Lacey suspected it wasn t from 234 Ellen Byerrumsome little antique shop somewhere.What kind of game washe playing? There was only one thing for Lacey to do.Talkto the weasel.Ewwww! She took a deep breath and calledStella at the salon.They must be back from lunch by now. Hi Stella, listen, I need to talk to Nigel. Oh you missed him, he just left.He s driving to Rich-mond again.Is it important? Good question.Telling Stella anything about this was toodangerous.She would certainly jump to the wrong conclu-sion, and Lacey didn t even know what the right conclusionwas.She wasn t about to tell Stella about the key, not with-out the full story.If Nigel was responsible for the burglaryin some way, or even just fencing the stolen goods, Laceymight need backup herself. Not really.I just wanted to ask him, ah, if he s heardanything new.Or if anything from the burglary has, youknow, turned up? Far as I know, zip.You wanna call him on the road? Callhis cell, Lace.He told me not to give out this number, but foryou it s totally okay, cause you re gonna prove he s inno-cent, right? So did you check out my blog yet? Right.The blog. Yeah, that s some blog.Stellariffic.Gotta go, Stel. Lacey called Griffin s secret number.Shegot his voice mail and left a message telling him to call herback.She knew he wouldn t. Lacey Smithsonian sFASHION BITESIShopping Safari: Hunting forthe Elusive Little Black DressAll you really need is one great Little Black Dress.You ve heard that one before, haven t you? The perfectLBD will take you anywhere.That s another fine fashionfib, a style stumper, a clothing conundrum.The LBD is a thing of myth, the stuff of urban legend.The perfect little black dress is one you can wear any-where and everywhere, to dinner, to a cocktail party, fora visit with your grandparents, for a company recep-tion, for a first date with a new guy, for a Big Date withyour serious boyfriend, for a wedding
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