Full House Read Online Free Page B

minute."
    "This is breaking and entering!"
    Deedee waved her red nails. "Nick won't mind. He's always telling me I should be more resourceful. He'll be proud of me."
    "Do I hear dogs?"
    "Oh, my God, I forgot about the dogs!" Deedee pulled Billie inside the house and slammed the patio door shut just as a pack of assorted dogs came bounding through the patch of evergreens.
    "Terrific," Billie shouted over the alarm. "First the alarm goes off, then a herd of attack dogs descends on us. Not only that, there's a madman running loose, or should I say
kid,
who plays with explosives. What next?"
    Deedee clacked across the terracotta tile floor of the solarium and looked out a front window. "Oh, crud, it's the police. I swear, you'd think they were watching the place." She shrugged. "Probably worried that Max will go off the deep end." She turned on her heel and started up a broad central staircase. "You explain all this to them while I get my necklace."
    Billie stared at the flashing lights. Don't panic, she told herself, at the same time wondering how they'd managed to arrive on the scene so quickly. She felt as if she were right smack in the middle of a bad dream, only her eyes were wide open. She licked her dry lips. She'd never been arrested. She'd never had a traffic ticket. She'd led an exemplary life. And now she was going to have to explain to the police that her friend was upstairs breaking into a safe.
    She opened the front door and gave a tentative wave to the inhabitants of three squad cars. Deedee had gone too far this time. Billie only hoped their prison wardrobe came in orange because Deedee had claimed she looked hideous in that color.
    "This is all a mistake," Billie said, knowing it would never fly.
    "Hands in the air, lady," an officer shouted, aiming his gun at her.
    Her stomach took a nosedive. Billie immediately raised her hands over her head. "Please let me explain," she called back loudly, trying to make herself heard over the noisy alarm. "I'm not a real burglar. See, Deedee, Mr. Kaharchek's cousin, needed her Stargio. It's some kind of jewelry designed specifically for one of her evening gowns," she added in case the officers wondered what she was talking about.
    One of them rolled his eyes. "Deedee Holt, the ditsy redhead?"
    Billie nodded and expelled the air that had been trapped in her lungs. It gushed out like a hot furnace. "Deedee insists her shoes and jewelry match her clothes. I personally don't care about such things."
    The officer came forward. "You can put your hands down."
    Billie almost wept her relief. They knew Deedee. It was going to be okay.
    He punched a code into the small wall computer and silenced the alarm. "This isn't her car," he said, pointing to Billie's minivan.
    "It's mine," Billie said.
    "Don't ever let her drive it."
    Deedee clattered down the stairs in her heels and squeezed through the doorway, next to Billie. A collective gasp issued from the police while Deedee, resplendent in her bejeweled cleavage, preened and smiled for them. "Well, hello, gentlemen. I hope I didn't cause another little ruckus."
    "Where's Mr. Kaharchek?"
    Deedee grimaced. "In Upperville looking at some dumb horse, where else?"
    Frankie's limo pulled around the circular driveway and he got out. "I saw the note," he called out as he closed the distance between the limo and the officer. "Deedee had to get her necklace," he explained to the uniform at the foot of the porch stairs. "She can't wear that dress without her Stargio."
    The officer just looked at Deedee. "Have you ever considered asking your cousin for a key?"
    "She has trouble keeping up with keys," Frankie answered for her. "Don't worry, I'll pay for any damage."
    Deedee jiggled to the limo and slid in, exposing a healthy length of leg to the observant eyes of the law. "Thanks, honey," she called to Billie. "Don't wait up." Frankie followed.
    The officer standing in front of Billie shook his head. "She's something else, isn't she?"
    "Uh-huh."
    "Is