by Nora Kane
“You want another one?”
“No, but I’ll get you that drink I owe you before I go.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Set Marv up with another shot and a beer and then get me the bill,” Margot said to the bartender.
“Sure thing,” he replied.
He gave Marv his drinks and her the bill. She handed it back along with a fifty-dollar bill.
“You want your change?”
“Nah, keep it as an apology for waving my gun around.”
“Shit, around here, waving a gun around is an every-other-night thing, except on the weekends where it’s more of a twice-a-night kind of deal.”
“I bought five drinks, it’s not even a great tip.”
He smiled. “Sadly, we get a lot more gun brandishing than excess tipping.”
Margot left Marv at the bar. She stepped out into the light. One of the guys from the bar was out front smoking a cigarette.
“You leaving already?”
“Yeah, I’m still working.”
“Too bad, I was hoping to buy you a drink.”
“Nice of you to offer, but I’m good.”
“I wouldn’t mind a woman who could have my back in a bar fight.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Margot told him as she made her way to her car.
“Wait,” he called as she opened her door.
Margot reached into her purse where the two weapons she had brandished inside were within reach, as well as a can of mace. Then she said, “I need to go.”
“I need to tell you something. I’m not going to hit on you either, this is something else.”
“Okay, tell me.”
“Is Marv’s brother a taller version of Marv? Only with less beard and maybe more tattoos?”
“Yeah, why?”
“He was here.”
“Looking for Marv?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t part of the conversation.”
“Who was?”
“Bartender, but not Vick. Sherry was working that night. Dan too, but he was talking to Sherry.”
“When did this happen?”
“Three days ago.”
“Is she working tonight?”
“I think so.”
Margot nodded.
“If she is,” the man added, “I’d suggest not hitting her with that fancy nightstick. She won’t go down as easy as Marv.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Chapter 7
Margot tried to contact Harry Lee, but he was a lot more elusive than Marv, so she ended up back at the hospital.
The television screen still had Radcliff’s status as ‘out of surgery, ICU.’
“Glad you made it back,” Ron told her as he joined her in front of the television screen. “I wish there was something to tell you.”
“No news is better than bad news,” Margot replied.
“Do you want to meet my parents and our sister?” Ron asked.
“I’m not usually the girl people introduce to their parents,” Margot said.
Her phone buzzed in her purse. She took it out and saw Harry must have gotten wind she was looking for him. He’d sent her a text asking to meet at Layla’s West, which was where Margot used to meet clients before she partnered up with Shaw. He wanted to meet in fifteen minutes, which was just about the time it would take Margot to get there from the hospital. Margot texted back and said she could get there in twenty.
“I’ve got work,” Margot told Ron. “Let me meet them when I have time to say more than hello before I run out the door.”
“You sure? It will only take a minute.”
“Yeah, I’ll be back though,” Margot said as she walked out.
Cranston and Driver were in the hall.
“You look like you’re in a hurry,” Driver said as she went past them, “you find something we should know about?”
“Not yet,” Margot answered without slowing down or looking back.
“Hey,” Cranston called to her, “we’re going to need to talk to you.”
“It’s going to have to be later,” Margot said. Again, she neither looked back nor slowed down.
Margot got lucky with traffic and the stoplights and ignored the posted speed limit so she made the drive to Layla’s West in just over ten minutes. She wanted to beat Harry there and sit up at a table where her back was against the wall.
However, Harry was already sitting at the spot against the wall when she walked in. His man Tommy was at the bar and Margot’s drink of choice was waiting for her at the table. She should have known she wouldn’t beat Harry there. He was probably already sitting at the high table in the back of the room when he messaged her.
Margot walked back and sat down. Stan, the bartender and owner, poured her a stiff drink as usual.
“Is this about Phoebe?” Harry asked as she sat down.
“Why would it be about Phoebe?” Margot shot back.
Harry looked like he might tell her but then he thought better of it and instead said, “You worked for her is all.”
“Worked being the keyword. Since the D.A. dropped the charges, she didn’t need my services any longer.”
Harry took a sip of the Martini sitting in front of him and then said, “You’re not here about the cops who got shot are you?”
“It just so happens I am.”
“You don’t actually think I had something to do with that? Killing police is always bad for business.”
“I don’t think it was you.”
“Then why are we here? I like you, Margot, but you’re not really someone I want to socialize with unless…”
“I’m not having sex with you, Harry.”
“It never hurts to try.”
“It could.”
Harry laughed. “I suppose in your case there’s some truth to that.”
“I need to find Mal.”
“You think he had something to do with your cop friends getting shot?”
“The cops think so.”
“You want to save him?”
“Not necessarily.”
“Why would I know?”
“He worked for you.”
“He doesn’t anymore.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t have an idea where he might be hiding.”
“He never had to hide during his brief time in my employ.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t know.”
“Even if he was working for me, I wouldn’t now. I tend to be a hands-off type of boss when it comes to such matters. Go over and ask Tommy, he’ll be honest with you. Actually, I think he kind of likes you.”
“Okay,” Margot replied. It was hard with a guy like Harry to tell if he was lying, but what he said had a ring of truth.
Harry drank some more before adding, “I suppose it was nice having a drink with you, Margot, but I can’t help you.”
“Maybe you can.”
“How’s that?”
“You said killing cops is bad for business.”
“Yes, it tends to get people fired up, and a fired-up police force can make things difficult for a man like me. Nice to see you were paying attention.”
“So, the sooner this is resolved, the better.”
“Yes.”
“Then put your ear to the ground for me.”
“You know what else is bad for business? Being a rat.”
“You’d be telling me not the police.”
Harry drank some and tapped his fingers on the table as he thought about it. Finally, he said, “I can’t make any promises, but if I hear something, I’ll pass it along. Just make sure this doesn’t come back to bite me, Margot.”
“It won’t.”
“Good,” Harry said. He finished his drink, stood up, and added, “See you around.”
Margot watched Harry and Tommy leave. She looked at her whiskey and thought the prudent thing to do would
be to leave it there mostly untouched. She’d already downed one today with Marv, and it would be easier to talk to the bartender over at He Just Left Bar And Grill if she was a paying customer.
Margot drank it anyway. She checked the time and decided Sherry’s shift would probably be starting by the time she got there.
Chapter 8
Things hadn’t really picked up much at He Just Left Bar and Grill from earlier. Despite the ‘grill’ in the name, this wasn’t the kind of place people ate if they didn’t have to, so Margot arrived about the time the day drinkers were calling it quits but before the nighttime crowd showed up.
Another pair was at the bar and another original gangster about Marv’s age was drinking alone at a table. Margot thought the place must get busy later because there were two people working behind the bar.
Margot figured the tall one with long jet black hair wearing a leather vest, that accentuated her breasts, was Sherry. Margot went to the side of the bar where she was cleaning glasses and took a seat.
“You sure this is where you want to drink?” Sherry asked. “We don’t really do white wine spritzers here.”
“I look like a white wine spritzer type of girl?”
Sherry stopped cleaning glasses and appraised Margot with a little more attention to detail.
“I suppose you don’t. I have a feeling this still isn’t your kind of place though.”
“I don’t look tough enough?”
“You look plenty tough. I was thinking you don’t look quite slutty enough.”
“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Actually, I want to talk to you.”
“Me?”
“If it helps, you can pour me a Maker’s on the rocks.”
“We don’t carry Maker’s. I told you this wasn’t your kind of place.”
“I never said it was. You had a bottle this afternoon, so go ahead and pour me one.”
Sherry looked Margot over again. “There’s something about you I don’t like.”
“Lucky for both of us, I don’t give a damn who you like or don’t like.”
Sherry went back, found the bottle of Maker’s, and poured it over a tumbler of ice. She set it down in front of Margot and said, “You don’t take a hint very well, do you?”
“No, I don’t. I want to know what you were talking to Mal about three nights ago.”
“Who?”
“The guy who looks like a taller thinner version of Marv, only with more tattoos.”
“Still not ringing a bell.”
Margot put a fifty on the bar. “We can play this a couple of ways. One of them is we can have a nice conversation and you can get your best tip of the night.”
“What’s the other?”
“I find that one is better if I don’t explain it first. I can tell you the third way is someone with a badge shows up and starts asking the same questions I have. I’m guessing the management frowns on employees talking to the cops.”
“That kind of thing could get me killed.”
“Then talk to me now. It’s not like Mal is a Devil Racer. Last I checked, they wanted him dead.”
“What’s Mal to you?”
“He’s my ex.”
Sherry thought about that for a second before she said, “You could do better.”
“I’d like to think I am…or I was. That’s kind of irrelevant right now.”
“What do you want from him?”
“I’d prefer to keep that between the two of us.”
“You’re not after Cassie too, are you?”
Hearing that name stunned Margot. It took her a second to ask, “Cassie? Do you mean Cassie Cole? The YouTube girl?”
“Yeah.”
“Mal was asking you about her?”
Sherry was silent.
“This is the part where you talk and I hand you fifty dollars.”
“Yeah, he was asking about her. It kind of pissed me off, to tell the truth. I thought he liked me, and instead he was just looking for information on another girl.”
“How do you know Cassie?”
“Why do you care?”
Margot supposed she didn’t really care, so instead she asked, “Did you tell him how to find her?”
“Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I gave him a place, but it was somewhere I knew she just left. He wouldn’t say why he was looking for her and even though there was no reason to think he wasn’t just trying to hook up, he was putting off a bad vibe. Among other things, he’s too old for her.”
“Why not just make a place up?”
“Mal doesn’t seem like a nice guy. I didn’t want him to think I lied to him. I figured that way he doesn’t find her, and he’s not mad at me either.”
“Except he was a detective. You pointed him in the right direction, and he’s more than capable of figuring out the rest.”
Sherry wasn’t sure what to say about that.
Margot took out a business card and slid it across the bar.
After Sherry picked it up, Margot said, “She’s in danger. You might want to warn her. While you’re at it, tell her I’m here and I’d like to talk to her.”
“Holy shit,” Sherry exclaimed. “She talked about you on her show. I should have recognized you.”
“You going to call or not?”
Sherry took her phone out of her back pocket and punched in a number. She stepped away so Margot couldn’t hear the conversation. It wasn’t long before she returned.
“She says the last time she gave you her location, someone showed up and tried to kill her.”
“That’s because her hiding place was lame. She ought to know the same person tried the same trick on me, twice, and she isn’t breathing anymore because of it.”
“Are you saying you killed someone?”
