Prompt: Lipstick, mascara, nail polish

The Lieutenant called out instructions to Trixie.  “Belden! You inventory the cosmetics.  Be sure you identify them by name, use, color and where they were found at the crime scene. See if there are any lipsticks that match the note.”

Trixie shot a startled look to Captain Molinson, a look that clearly said, “Are you kidding me?”  In her thoughts she shuddered, thinking, “Have you ever known me to willingly wear cosmetics?”

However, the Captain only smirked at her, so she knew there was no help from that quarter.

Trixie looked at the pile of cosmetics and medications on the table.  She used a pencil to gently sort the foundations, powders, eye-shadows, mascaras, and lipsticks into categories.  Trixie considered pulling out her cell-phone to call Moms.

“I bet Moms could help.   I love her, but unfortunately for her, fairies must have left me under the bush by the porch.  She always wanted a girly girl that she could play make-up with, but she got me instead.  She would be able to walk me through this land-mine mess of cosmetics but no, I can’t do that.  It would be foolish to bring a civilian into a police investigation.”

Trixie continued to mutter to herself, “Look at all these bottles of nail polish.  There are pinks, basic reds, peaches, white and clear.  Even I know that most of these look like polishes that would be more appropriate for a ‘tween’.  But then there are the bright or dark greens, blues and purples, bright or dark pinks and reds that should only be worn by someone with the sophistication to carry off the boldness of the colors.”

Trixie laughed under her breath, “Ok, most of these seem to be China Glaze products.  There is one bottle each and the names are really weird.  Colors like I’m with the lifeguard green, Hang Ten-Toes pink, Flirty Tankini orange, Love’s a Beach pink, Ride the Waves blue and Beach Cruise-r purple.  No, make that violet.  Oh heck,  I don’t have a built in color wheel.  I imagine that Diana could tell me the name of the actual color. Gleeps!  What was with this lady?  Did she have a Beach Boys obsession?”  

Trixie continued to search through the pile and looked closely at the lipsticks.  She made marks of each lipstick on evidence cards and listed the brand, lipstick name, and color number.  She grimaced when her fist smudged one of the marks.  She started to make a new evidence card, but stopped suddenly.

Trixie called over to her superior.  “Hey Lieutenant?   Can I look at that note again?” She put on plastic evidence gloves and took the note out of the bag. She held the note up to the light, and then laid it flat on her palm so she could look across the flat plane of the page. Finally, she brought the page close to her face.  Without touching her nose to the paper, she sniffed once and then again.

“Sir, I don’t want to mess up the evidence on the note, but are we sure that is a lipstick print?  There is no scent to the lipstick mark like is on the evidence cards.  All the lipsticks on the vanity have some sort of fruity, sweet scent.  And if you look at the flat plane of these evidence cards, you can see that the lipstick marks leave a three dimensional residue that doesn’t show up on the note.  And since the note was originally folded, it would have smudged if it were real lipstick. I think that the note actually used a lipstick font instead of the real thing.  In fact, now that I look at it again,  I think the writing may be in that Comic Sans-serif font, especially since there is no scent but printer ink, or copier chemical.

She continued, “And didn’t you say that her missing shoe hasn’t been found? There are too many bottles of nail polish here.  I don't think this lady used a professional to do her mani-pedi’s. We need to look for the  friends that she hung out with that encouraged this nail polish behavior.  They will likely know more about her relationships than just about any other witness.  The big clue is,

when I looked at the body, the toenails looked like they were freshly painted, and that doesn’t make sense because she has ‘Dr. Scholl’s Ingrown Toenail Pain Reliever’ on the vanity.

I have a couple of friends who are really into getting mani-pedi’s and to them, it is all about making themselves feel good. If either one of them ever had an ingrown toenail, I would lay odds that they would stop with the pedicures until the toe was healed.  So I don’t think the victim would be painting her toe-nails if she was fighting an ingrown toenail infection.  

I would lay you odds that, the perp has a shoe or foot fetish, and after he or she committed murder, they took the shoe and left the fake suicide note to throw us off the trail.”

Thanks to jstar8 for editing. However, any errors are and always will be, mine.

Also thanks to McRuth for letting me take the words out of her mouth.

Celebrate

It had been a long, hot, muggy, yet extremely fun day. The three generations of family which consisted of the senior citizens, the Bob-Whites, and the next generation had all enjoyed celebrating the Fourth of July with gossip, swimming, and food.   Now, the three generations were settling in at Sleepyside City Park on blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the fireworks.

“Daddy, what are fireworks?” asked Joseph.  

Mart replied, “Fireworks are the result of pyrotechnics, which is the science of using materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound.”

Aunt Trixie interrupted Mart.  “Joseph, never mind your Daddy’s windbag explanation.  Fireworks are beautiful lights that are set off, sort of like when Daddy lights the bar-b-cue by flicking a lighter to light the fire to cook the meat.  But the lights of the fireworks are all different colors of the rainbow and all different designs like starbursts, streaks of light, and colored lightning.  Sometimes they sizzle like water on a hot skillet. Sometimes they dance along to the music that is played by the town band, and other times they boom like thunder to sound just like the noise the cannon on the courthouse square used to make.

Brian turned to Joseph.  “Joey, we celebrate the 4th of July because it is the anniversary of the day that the Declaration of Independence was signed back in 1776.”

Mart broke in saying, “Joe.  The most recognizable words from the Declaration of Independence are, We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Trixie added, “The fireworks are are always there to remind us of how hard we had to fight for our independence and freedom.

“Some of those same battles are still being fought today by men and women like your Uncle Brian, Uncle Dan, and your cousin, Hallie.  They guard our nation, and we honor them by celebrating our freedoms.”

Trixie stopped her narrative and pensively began rocking her daughter in her arms.  It had been many weeks since she had heard from Danny.  The last letter she had received had talked about some of the mysteries they had worked on when they were kids.  He didn’t have anything to say about the secret code they had found when the Bob-Whites were working on the antique show, but he had decorated the pages with the code characters around the border of the letter so that it looked like a funny kind of stationery.   Even though she herself had a high security clearance from working with the FBI, she knew that the censors still had to be careful about what information was left intact in letters home.  She still wasn’t sure whether she should be more worried about the fact that Daniel had circumvented the censors or about the mission about which he could give no information.  

Most letters from her husband were cut up like the old cards from player pianos.  But this last letter...it had very few cuts and was certainly homey and loving, but it was just different.  Maybe that is why she thought of trying to translate that old code.

The stick figures decorating the page borders had told a different story.  Without giving away any secrets, Danny had told her not to send anymore care packages for a while because he was going on a temporary duty assignment.  There was some risk involved, but it was necessary for the safety of the troops.

That was back just before Memorial Day.  Then, Flag Day on June 14 had come and gone and there were still no new letters.

When Hallie Belden had arrived on her doorstep last week, Trixie had nearly fainted in fear that she was about to receive notice that her husband was missing in action or dead.  Trixie could chuckle now about her greeting to her cousin.  “Hallie Belden, I don’t care if you are a chaplain.  You turn right around and go do your duty to some other family.  Don’t you come here and tell me that my husband won’t be coming home to me.”  

Trixie breathed a deep sigh.  It did take a while, but Hallie was finally able to convince me that she was on a normal leave and not here to make an announcement of loss.

Both Hallie and Brian had tried to use their connections as chaplain and doctor with the Red Cross, but they were unable to get access to any information about Daniel.

Trixie looked up to the skies and saw that it was finally dark enough for the fireworks, so she shifted Nellie Bean to make sure the two-year-old was awake enough to watch the show.  

The first display was an outline of the American flag, complete with a blue field of white stars and attached red and white stripes.

Hallie got Joe’s attention and said, “Did you know that the red, white and blue of the flag have special meanings?  Red is for valor and zeal.  White is for hope and cleanliness or life.  Blue -- the color of heaven -- is for reverence and loyalty.   I think the meanings behind the colors make our flag even more special than just as a symbol of our country.”

The family continued to watch the display and make frequent comments.

“Beautiful.”

“Oooo.”

“Aahhh.”

“Look at those reds and blues.  They are gorgeous!”

The family around her became very quiet as the show wound down to get ready for the grand finale. Trixie looked down at her daughter.  “Nellie Bean, don’t you think the fireworks are pretty?”

Daniella, a little sleepily, turned to her mommy and dutifully responded,  “Yes, Mommy.  They are buffalo.”  Then she lifted her arms to someone behind them.  Trixie didn’t give much thought to handing her daughter to a nearby relative until she heard a familiar chuckle that turned into an appreciative laugh.

Just as the town symphony began to play the William Tell Overture in tandem with the grand finale, Daniel, with his daughter in his arms, leaned over Trixie’s chair and, giving them both a big hug, said,  “Yes, Nellie Bean,  they are buffalo,  but not as buffalo as you and your mommy.  Happy Fourth of July!”

*buffalo was the way my own two year old daughter tried to say beautiful.