Skin and Blond

by V. J. Chambers

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, get real, Crane. This is the O’Shaunessys. They’re richer than Satan. This would go nowhere. If it even made it to trial, their lawyers would rip it to shreds. No one likes me, you know. I don’t exactly have an exemplary character.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with your character,” he said. “Just because you sleep around a little bit—”

  “Oh, let’s face it, I’m out of control. I have ethics, you know, and I’ve sworn never to get it on with a client. Admittedly, I never thought this would happen, but I knew it was a bad idea. I knew all of that, and I did it anyway. Something’s fucking wrong with me.”

  He looked down into his own drink and didn’t say anything.

  I turned my glass around on the table. I hadn’t brought the coaster I’d gotten from the bar, and it was leaving a ring of condensation on the wooden surface.

  “Listen, everybody’s got something wrong with them,” said Crane, taking a thoughtful puff on his e-cigarette. “Trust me, I know that I’m not anything close to normal here. But the thing is, no one’s normal. Everyone’s got something screwy going on—sometimes it’s physical, sometimes it’s psychological, sometimes it’s both.”

  “Doesn’t mean that people don’t judge me. They think I’m a slut, and they aren’t wrong.”

  “It’s why they judge you,” he said. “What’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with them, and that makes them feel better. They say to themselves, ‘Well, I might be fantasizing about having sex with chickens, but I don’t do that.’”

  I laughed a little.

  He gave me a wry smile.

  I laid a hand on his leg. “Hey, how are you doing, anyway? The last time I saw you…”

  He laughed, looking embarrassed. “Well, you were right. I stopped taking my meds. So, I started taking them again, and it’s already better. It’ll take a while before they build up to full strength, though.”

  “Why’d you stop?”

  He shrugged. “Why’d you sleep with your client?”

  I nodded. “It’s like that, huh?”

  “Sometimes, I just do stupid things. I might have reasons at the time, but they almost never make any sense in retrospect. Like I routinely lose my ability to think things through.”

  I laughed. “Well, I know how that goes.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re doing it right now. That Colin guy is bad news, and I think you need to tell the authorities. You could get a restraining order or something, right?”

  I sighed. “Crane, drop it. It’s over. I got away. I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

  “Yeah, and what if he shows up at your office tomorrow with a gun and blows your head off?”

  I toyed with the straw in my drink. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  I didn’t respond.

  It was quiet between us for several minutes.

  I sucked my drink through the tiny stirrer straw.

  Crane sighed heavily. “Fine. I need another drink. You want something?”

  * * *

  There was someone waiting for me at the office the next day when I got there, but it wasn’t Colin Pugliano. Instead, it was Brian, the restaurant manager. He was pacing in the waiting room area, drumming his fingers against his thigh.

  “He’s been here since I opened the doors,” said Brigit. “But if you need a couple minutes to get yourself together—”

  “No, it’s fine,” I said. I raised my voice. “Brian? You want to come back to my office?”

  He turned to look at me and nodded.

  I gestured for him to follow me, and he did. Once inside the inner office, I sat down behind my desk and got out my legal pad. “Have a seat.”

  “No, that’s all right,” he said. “I don’t have a lot to say anyway.”

  “I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me,” I said.

  He glared down at me. “I didn’t. But I didn’t want you coming back to the restaurant and bothering me again and again, like you were threatening to do.”

  “I wasn’t threatening you. I only want to ask a few questions.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He rubbed his chin. “Look, Madison Webb was a good worker, but I didn’t know much about her. I was surprised when she stopped showing up for work, but I didn’t think that anything had happened to her. In our business, we have a pretty high turnover rate, so I just chalked it up to typical attrition and moved on. She was one of over thirty employees, and nothing about her really stood out.”

  Then why are you so nervous? But what I said instead was, “What about this drug test you were making her take?”

  “We order employees to take random drug tests,” he said. “I don’t remember ordering Madison to take one, but I might have. I get a notice that I’m supposed to pick someone, and so I do.”

  “So, it was random. You didn’t suspect Madison of doing drugs?”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “Look, everyone in that restaurant is partaking of something on the illegal side after hours. Honestly, I don’t really care about what they do with their free time as long as it’s not affecting their performances.”

  “And Madison’s performance wasn’t affected?”

  “No, she was fine. Or at least, I don’t remember much about her, so there must not have been a problem.”

  “I see.”

  “Is that all, then? Can I go? You won’t come by the restaurant again?”

  “Well, I can’t promise that, of course. I’m still working on an active investigation into Madison’s death. If I need to come back to the restaurant, then I will. I might even need to talk to you again.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “You leave me out of this. I got nothing to do with this. I’m a good guy, Ms. Stern. I don’t hurt women.”

  “I didn’t say that you did.” I knitted my brows together. Why was he being so defensive?

  “You won’t leave me alone, though. You’re coming by and asking about me all the time, and you want to talk to me about Madison. Well, if something happened to her, I didn’t do it.”

  “We don’t know that anything happened to her. She could have run away.”

  “You think she ran away?” He gave me a terrified look, and then he plopped down in the chair opposite me. “You don’t think someone hurt her?”

  I leaned forward. “Do you think someone hurt her?”

  “No, I… I don’t know. I don’t know anything.” He took a deep breath. “I thought that you were accusing me of something.”

  “I’m not. I’m only looking for information.” But you’ve just moved to the top of my suspect list now that you’re acting so weird.

  “I just thought…” He fidgeted, staring at his fingers. “Well, um, well, that’s good. Because I’m not the kind of guy that would hurt a girl, and I don’t want you to think that about me.”

  “What makes you think that Madison was hurt?”

  “Well, why would someone be investigating if she wasn’t?”

  “Because we don’t know where she is,” I said. “It’s fairly rare to jump to the conclusion this is a homicide case without some evidence. A body, for instance. Until then, Madison is just a missing person, and there’s only so much the police can do for a concerned loved one. That’s why Madison’s brother reached out to me.”

  “Her brother?” Brian shook his head. “Of course he thinks something bad happened to her. He’s the type to think the worst.”

  “You know her brother?”

  “He came into the restaurant once looking for her. They had an argument. He didn’t like her working as a waitress or something.”

  “You remember that? I thought you didn’t remember much of anything about Madison.”

  He leaped to his feet, pointing at me. “See? You are accusing me of something, aren’t you? You’re not just taking me at my word. You’re trying to twist me up and make me mess up or something. Well, forget about it. I’m not talking to you anymore.”

>   “Hold on a second. I only wanted to—”

  He stormed out of my office, throwing open the door.

  I got up and went after him.

  But he was determined, and he ignored me when I called after him.

  I sighed. I wasn’t going to pursue him out of the building. If he didn’t want to talk to me, I couldn’t force him. But I wondered what was going on with that guy. Why was he so paranoid?

  “I think that guy was on something,” said Brigit.

  “On something?” I said. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. Some kind of speed, maybe. He was wired.”

  Huh. Did Brian do drugs? If Brian did drugs, why would be be on Madison’s case about taking a drug test? Of course, maybe he was telling the truth about the tests truly being random. I couldn’t be sure.

  I needed some time to think about Brian, because I wasn’t sure how he might fit.

  I turned to Brigit. “Speaking of drugs, you think you could get me in touch with Cori Donovan again?”

  “Um, probably,” said Brigit. “But why? I thought that she wasn’t giving anything up.”

  “Well, I found out some stuff about her yesterday, and I think she knows more than she’s letting on.”

  “What exactly happened yesterday? Why didn’t you come back to the office?”

  I made a face. “Brigit, trust me, you don’t want to know.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  “You again.” Cori Donovan was in the library on campus at Keene College. Brigit had told me just where to find her. She had friends who knew these kinds of things, apparently.

  “Hi.” I gave her a little wave.

  Cori got up from the computer where she’d been sitting. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “I know that,” I said. “You made that pretty clear when you lied to me the last time I talked to you.”

  “I didn’t lie. You accused me of illegal activity. I was offended.” Cori moved the mouse and clicked a few things, logging off the computer. Then she turned and walked away.

  I went after her.

  We waded through the computers, which were set up in little pods throughout this room in the library—labeled Media Center.

  “I know you sell drugs, Cori. I know because I overheard a conversation at Shamrock’s about you.”

  She walked faster, moving out of the media center and into the stacks of books.

  I caught her by the shoulder. “You know someone who calls himself Pumbaa?”

  She turned around. “Leave me alone.”

  “How about…” What had Pumbaa called him? “Chase. An ex-boyfriend of yours.” I was really proud of myself for recalling this conversation in such detail, especially considering I’d been terrified at the time. Apparently, I’d really honed my investigative instincts. I was kind of awesome.

  Her eyes widened. “You been talking to Chase?”

  “I may have… contacts within the O’Shaunessy family.” Total lie, of course, but she’d started it.

  She folded her arms over her chest and looked one way and then the other. Then she yanked me down one of the aisles of books. “Look, I’m not working with the O’Shaunessys.”

  “No, so I understand. You’ve got some other supplier, and you’ve poached their territory and customers. They’re kind of mad.”

  She paled. “What were you saying about Pumbaa?”

  “I’ll tell you more if you tell me what you know about Madison. You sold her drugs, right?”

  “No, I never did. Madison was just a friend. We met at a party, and we hung out a few times. I sold some X to her other friends, but never Madison. She wasn’t into it.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “So Madison didn’t do drugs? I find that hard to believe, considering I’ve had other people tell me that she did.”

  “I didn’t say she was straight-edge, did I? No, she liked to partake, but X wasn’t her thing.”

  “So, she did drugs, just not ecstasy.”

  “Do you have to keep saying ‘drugs’?”

  I laughed. “What would you like me to call them instead? Candy?”

  “Sure. Fine.” Cori looked around again, clearly nervous.

  “What was Madison into?”

  “Maybe coke,” said Cori. “Maybe some other amphetamines. Pills. Ritalin, maybe.”

  “Ritalin? The stuff they prescribe to little kids?”

  Cori nodded. “Yeah, people love that shit. It wakes you up and focuses you. It’s especially popular on college campuses. Lets you party all night and still concentrate enough to take an exam the next morning.”

  “Madison had already graduated.”

  “Right, but she was looking for stuff to help her get through the day at the restaurant. She’d be up all night, trying to hang the way she did when she was still in school, and then she’d have to go to work, and she’d feel like hell. She was taking stuff to help her perform at work. That way, she could have it both ways. Party hard and work hard.”

  I guessed that made sense. I still hadn’t quite gotten that balanced out, in fact. I knew I drank too much. But I forced myself not to think about that. I was focusing on Cori and Madison right now, not the train wreck of my life.

  “So,” I said, “she was buying stuff to keep her awake.”

  “Yeah,” said Cori.

  “But not from you.” I wasn’t sure I believed this.

  “No, not from me.”

  “You know I’m not a cop, right? You know I can’t bust you for dealing.”

  “I’m not lying about this.” Cori sighed. “Look, I got a hookup for product, but it’s only X, it’s nothing else. That’s all I provide to anyone. Besides, I’m not really down with stuff as hard as cocaine and the prescription stuff.”

  I snorted. “Ecstasy’s somehow better. Shit kills people. I read about it.”

  “Shit kills people when they mix it with stuff.” Cori glared at me. “I sell pure molly from a good source. It’s safe, and it’s harmless. It only makes you feel good. It makes people like themselves, and it makes them like other people, and it makes the world a big love bubble. There’s nothing bad about that. I don’t care what people like you say. You don’t get it.”

  “Fine,” I said. I had no interest in having a druggie debate with Cori. I wouldn’t be able to hold back my opinions. Some whack jobs had shot both my parents dead when I was a teenager, and they were whacked out because of whatever drugs they’d been taking, so I didn’t think that drugs were all rainbows and love beads. But I didn’t need to get into that with Cori. She could think what she wanted.

  “It’s not fine, though,” she said. “I see you judging me—”

  “Everyone’s judging everyone else,” I said. “Get over it.” Wasn’t that what Crane had told me yesterday? “Listen, Cori, if you weren’t selling her this stuff, then tell me who was.”

  “I don’t know. I never saw her buy it,” said Cori. “But I bet it had to be the O’Shaunessys. They’re the only game in town that would have that kind of product.”

  “Maybe she bought them from your ex?”

  “Chase? No, Chase was swinging X, not anything else. At least not that he told me. But there are all kinds of different businesses going on with that family, you know?”

  I did know. “So, you have no idea who was selling it to her?”

  “Well, I know she’d go out of town to get it. She wouldn’t just buy it at a party or something. She was a habitual user, and she’d go regular to her dealer. That was somebody in Renmawr, some O’Shaunessy, but I don’t know who.”

  “You were dating an O’Shaunessy—”

  “It’s a big family. Besides, I thought you had contacts there.”

  Damn it. The problem with a lie was that it was so easy to get caught in it. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do my own digging if you really don’t know anything.”

  “Do you know anything? What you were saying about Pumbaa?”

  “That Chase of yours sounds like a real prince. He said he didn’t want y
ou hurt. Well, not hurt bad.”

  Cori blanched even whiter. “Do you, um, know when? Where?”

  I shook my head, feeling sorry for her.

  “Shit,” she muttered. “Look, I really need to go. I need to deal with this.”

  “Did Madison ever indicate to you that there was any kind of problem with her dealer?”

  “No. She paid on time. She was a regular.” Cori dragged a hand over her face. “But with the O’Shaunessys, who can be sure? They tend to change their minds pretty quick. Maybe there was bad blood there, and I just didn’t know about it.”

  “Well,” I said, “if you can’t tell me anything else…”

  She shook her head. “No, that’s all I know. Look, I hope you find her. I hope she’s okay.”

  It wasn’t looking good, but I didn’t say that. I just agreed with her and let her go. Truth be told, Cori Donovan and I weren’t in situations that different. We both had bad dealings with an O’Shaunessy, and we were both apprehensive. I knew how she felt. I hoped things went better for her.

  Of course, she could probably stop this entire problem by simply not selling drugs.

  I couldn’t feel too sorry for her, I guessed.

  But it was true what Crane said. People tended to demonize the weaknesses in other people that we didn’t struggle with. I didn’t know what kind of issues Cori had. But acting as if I was as pure as the driven snow was misrepresenting myself. I had my own issues.

  * * *

  “You didn’t tell me you got a new assistant,” said Eden, beaming at Brigit.

  Brigit beamed back. “Hi there.”

  Inwardly, I groaned. Eden and Brigit were both way too cheerful, weren’t they? I didn’t want to think about how insufferable they’d be if I let the two of them interact for too long. By themselves, they were manageable. Together, I might murder them both.

  “You got the laptop for me or what?” I asked Eden.

  Eden offered Brigit her hand. “I’m Eden. I do computer stuff.”

  Brigit shook her hand. “I’m Brigit. I just started recently. It’s such an exciting job, you know?”

  “Oh, definitely,” said Eden. “Just don’t let Ivy here grump you to death. She’s always in a bad mood.”