No More Birthdays (Carol Ann Baker Crime)

by Pelzer,Lissa

  Bobby came out wiping his hands. He stopped, pressed his weight into his hip and waited for her to speak.

  ‘I missed my bus,’ she said with a smile. ‘But then I figured, that it was no big deal. I’d just come along to the party, this VIP after-party with celebrities that you were talking about, and get the card off you now instead. You know, buy my own ticket.’

  ‘Missed your bus, my ass. Did you miss that bus before or after the movie, huh? I saw you there, showing up at the door and not being able to snake your way in –’

  ‘So what? I’m at the party.’

  ‘This isn’t the party.’ Bobby drew a circle in the air. ‘This is the doctor’s waiting room. And I don’t have your credit card here. Why the hell would I? Now, what’s your plan?’

  ‘I’ll come upstairs and see what’s going on, talk to some guys. I guess I’ll have to because I’ll need to find some bus fare home somehow.’

  ‘And if that card is sitting back at the hotel and this little performance is just turning out to be the last straw?’

  ‘I just…’ She waited while a girl passed between them. ‘I just didn’t get the impression that you understood how badly I needed that money.’

  ‘And did you not get the impression that I need to earn the money if you’re going to take it off me? You’re being here doesn’t help that. Why would I give someone money who’s being a pain in the ass?’

  Lilly put her glass down. He had no right to be the one pissed off. She took all the shit and still he thought it was his right to be offended. ‘Because,’ Lilly hissed, ‘This pain in the ass has been followed around all weekend by a cop, and she’s been all over this pain in the ass’s ass and she hasn’t snitched on you yet. So doesn’t that deserves a little respect?’

  Bobby grabbed her by the neck and hauled her through the open door to the bathroom.

  ‘Talk,’ he growled as her head hit the wall.‘ What cop?’

  Lilly screwed her eyes shut, but could feel him over her, the weight of his shoulders pressed down around her neck, the pressure tightening until it stung in her ears. She opened her mouth to gag, but nothing happened.

  ‘What cop!’ he demanded.

  Lilly pulled at his hand and he loosened his grip.

  ‘Davis…’ she said once her tonsils had realigned. ‘Who do you think?’

  Bobby blinked. ‘What did she say? What does she want?’

  Lilly could have told him Davis knew her name was Lilly, that she knew she’d been at Sea Island, but that would be the final nail. There was no going back from that. ‘I don’t think she knows much. She’s just sniffing around…someone must have told her you were going to be here…’

  ‘And who would that be?’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t me!’

  Bobby grimaced, his lips cracking where they met his skin. ‘She knows about Sea Island.’

  ‘You’re talking crazy.’

  ‘Didn’t I tell you?’

  ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘She knows your name, that you go by Lilly Lessard.’

  ‘So what if she knows my name? But ask yourself another question – who told her my name?’

  ‘Your ID!’ His mind was off elsewhere. He was raving. ‘She followed you up here. You must have bought your bus ticket with that credit card. Probably got one in advance, didn’t you? That old dog got someone to hack your account.’ He stroked his mouth. ‘Davis. Are you sure it was Davis?’

  ‘You think I forgot what she looks like? And she didn’t follow me up here. She followed you… and Cassandra. Remember Cassandra, her friend Cassandra…’

  ‘What did she say to you?’

  ‘What’s it worth?’

  He snatched her shoulder again. ‘Don’t test me.’

  ‘She said you owed me! And she’s right.’

  ‘Skip it, Miss Lilly. What did she say about Sea Island?’

  ‘She didn’t say anything…’ It was the truth, but it didn’t mean a thing. ‘She’s been going on about my being used. Davis only cares about you sending us out to work and not giving us what we’re owed.’

  ‘Is that the line she fed you?’ He gave her shoulder a shake and let go. Took a step back and turned around. His hand was on his chin now, looking like he was trying to hide how big it was, but he was just rattled. She should have thought of something, some way to argue that Davis didn’t know about their trip to Georgia.

  Lilly bent over, pick up her purse and brushed it off. The floor was clean, but she didn’t want to look at him. Telling him Davis was here, was meant to scare him, meant to show him that he better be grateful that she hadn’t snitched and that he better play fair unless he wanted to force her into it.

  ‘She’s not come half way across the country to chase one old guy selling pussy,’ Bobby said. ‘Her department doesn’t have that much ready cash… And her chief wouldn’t be the bringer of his own demise. She’s gone rogue.’ Bobby lifted an eyebrow at her. ‘She’s trying to get at me through the back door, through a murder rap, through you.’

  ‘Well, boo for you. She’s here anyway. And she said she’d come on her own money anyway. She’s on vacation.’

  His bottom lips went slack. ‘She said that? She’s on her own money.’ He was nodding. ‘You’ve got to be pretty damn sure of something to come all this way on your own time and your own dollar.’

  ‘That’s what I’m telling you. It’s time you took me seriously and stopped putting me off thinking I’ll just conveniently go away.’

  He stepped towards her, his hand out and he pressed her into the upholstered chair so hard that her shoe came off against the carpet. ‘Did you do a deal with her? Did she say if you testified against me, she’ll put in a good word?’

  ‘I didn’t do any deal.’

  ‘That would explain you wanting to work again so bad. Line me up for running girls and then get yourself some leeway for The Judge.’

  ‘I don’t want to work and I don’t need to do deals with judges. I’m not a murderer.’

  And Bobby’s eyebrows lowered. His eyes shifted from her purse to her chest. He came one step closer. ‘I’m no murderer Lilly,’ he spoke slowly and clearly. ‘Do you think I murdered that man? I didn’t. He was dead when I got there.’

  ‘You can drop it,’ she hissed. ‘I’m not wearing a wire. You’ve been watching too many movies.’

  And he reached out. His hand was like a clamp and she stood still while he embedded his fingers between her ribs. ‘Damn lucky for you that you’re not. I tell you, Lilly…’

  ‘You tell me what?’ She pushed her face up towards his.

  ‘I’m telling you, we’re through!’ And he stepped back. ‘Do you hear me? Don’t come to me again!’ He reached for the door and opened it.

  Lilly rushed him. She’d wrap her legs around his if she had to, but with one shove, he pushed her so hard she hit the floor like a china doll. She heard a crack and took her hand up in the other and squeezed it tight. The pain shot up into her elbow and wrist and nothing could compel her to get up and chase him. The pain was sharp and she hissed. For a minute, she had to just wait it out. And she did until it began to dim, until she knew it wasn’t broken, that she wasn’t going to cry. Gingerly she turned her hand in circles. She saw the lumps and bones moving like machinery under the skin.

  ‘Get up!’ she told herself and reached for her shoe just as someone opened the door, a young guy in sparkling tennis whites.

  ‘Oh,’ he said, with his bottom lip coming out. He gazed back over his shoulder. ‘Oh!’

  ‘Fuck you.’ Lilly got up. ‘Just fuck you.’ And she pressed him aside gently, didn’t want to look desperate like that old man had run out without paying her for services provided. She pushed past the crowd of people still standing at the banister, still watching that guy McCoy exercise his jaw and headed to the stairs where the Big Guy was, where Bobby had gone.

  ‘No.’ He held out a hand.

  ‘This is getting embarrassing. People are looking.’
<
br />   ‘So stop pushing.’

  Lilly stopped. She took a step back.

  A hand came out and braced itself against her and she spun around. ‘Relax, will you, I’m not going to step on you.’

  The girl raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Sandra!’ The name came out of her just like air.

  Cassandra stepped passed her and the Big Guy. She turned around, her hand rested on the handrail. And Lilly remembered a hundred things she had forgotten, the way her hair felt, thick and silky between her finger while she curled it, the smell of the sweaters she kept in a box, but never wore, and the way she described tiny circles on tables with her little finger nail instead of saying anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

  ‘Lilly,’ Cassandra said in that same sharp, southern tone that echoed in her skull at night.

  ‘Hey,’ she said back, waiting like an idiot for her to come down again, but she didn’t come back down.

  She smiled slowly, her eyes closing under the weight of her smoky makeup. ‘Don’t make a scene,’ Cassandra said. ‘You owe me that much.’ And she turned her back and started up the stairs again.

  Lilly took a step closer and got an arm in the chest. ‘Hey, what’s the deal?’ she asked the Big Guy

  He took a big breath. ‘Don’t take it personally.’

  ‘I’m not. Only why does she get to go in and I don’t.’

  ‘I said, don’t take it personally.’

  ‘What has she got that I haven’t?’

  He rolled his eyes up into his head. ‘All I know is that some people go in and some don’t and she’s already been in and come out, so she goes back in. Okay?’

  And she opened her mouth to say something else but thought better of it. Standing this close to the guy, she kind of knew he wasn’t like other guys. That offering him a blowjob would be a bit like offering a cop a cigarette after they’ve found them on you. She took a step back towards the banister, where the crowd had swelled and parted.

  ‘Shit.’

  To add to it all Gary was coming up the stairs now with the director, both of them in half-open shirts and no jackets. Some people were making way for them and some weren’t. People crowded around her trying to get a glimpse and she was pushed about like a piece of driftwood on the sea. She was back by the stairs. The Big Guy braced her and she was just standing there when Gary saw her. He had that look on his face like she was in for it. And that was the end of that. She was about to get thrown out.

  ‘Terence!’ he said not even looking at the other guy. ‘This is that girl, that sweet girl I was telling you all about.’

  And Lilly felt the carpet turn to sponge under her feet.

  Terence McCoy was looking at her now, and three-quarters of the room were looking at him looking at her. It was a stare she’d had from guys before, calculating, literally adding together the sum of your parts, her face, her legs, her hair. He came towards her, his skin thick as leather, polished up to a shine. His hand went out.

  ‘What’s your name sweetheart?’

  And under her skin her muscles shifted and squirmed, but her mouth still moved.

  ‘Lilly.’

  Gary’s face went up on one side. He was nodding, looking really pleased with himself.

  ‘What a pretty name.’

  Gary made like he was going to reach out to touch her, but changed his mind. ‘Lilly’s a real firecracker! Not just a pretty face. You don’t get many of her type anymore.’

  And she wondered what the hell had happened last night. Maybe nothing. Maybe a firecracker was a girl who made raping her a challenge, but one who ultimately just passed out and let you get on with it. She put her injured hand to her stomach and held it tight. Thinking for the first time, whatever had happened, he hadn’t used a rubber.

  ‘I bet she is a firecracker…’ Terence took her hand and Lilly winced. She could see the redness, but he couldn’t. He turned it over, looking at her fingers and nails as if they were the seams and buttons of a coat in a shop.

  She got it. She got what was going on, what the role was Gary was on about and she wasn’t into it. She was done with that world, but Terence McCoy held his hand out towards the stairs.

  ‘Shall we go upstairs?’

  And imagining the look on Bobby’s face when she walked into the VIP area with the host of the party, probably the person he dreamed of doing business with, well it didn’t matter at all.

  The Big Guy didn’t blink, but she felt his eyes following her as they started up the stairs, walking unnecessarily slowly towards the dimly lit landing above. Terence was guiding her up, speaking into the air over her head.

  ‘Are there more girls waiting to meet me, Gary?’

  ‘None you want to see.’

  ‘Oh look,’ Terence said. ‘There’s the redhead.’

  And then Cassandra was there on the corner watching her, a champagne glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

  ‘Pity about her…this is my room isn’t it, Gary?’ He pushed open a paneled door.

  ‘It’s your private lounge, Terence. All yours.’

  ‘Well, let’s go on inside and get ourselves acquainted.’

  The door opened and Lilly saw the room, two couches either side of a table, champagne in a bucket with vodka and juice, just like they had in clubs, and a big, flat screen TV.

  ‘Will you excuse me for a moment?’ She rested her hand gently on the doorframe. ‘I need to go and visit the little girls’ room.’

  ‘Well aren’t you polite but we’ve got everything you need right here. No need to do it in private. I’ve seen it all.’

  ‘No, really, I just need to visit the bathroom…the ladies, but I’ll be right back.’

  ‘Do you need someone to go with you?’ Gary asked, all friendly.

  ‘To the ladies?’ She pushed past him, twisting her shoulder through the space. ‘That’s kind, but no.’

  Gary held the door open for her, but just barely enough. ‘Don’t get lost.’ His voice was all cheery as he took her by the arm. ‘And don’t take all day. There are a hundred girls waiting to take your place. You get what I mean?’

  ‘I’m sure there are,’ she whispered pulling herself free. ‘I will be back.’ And she would be as soon as she got Bobby to follow her this way and witness her achievement.

  Chapter 14

  She moved quickly. Cassandra was gone from the landing, but there were plenty of doors leading off the corridor. Wherever she was, she’d find her and Cassandra would find Bobby. Lilly went towards one door, resting her fingertips on the frame she glanced inside. The outline of a man bent over the table with a woman’s knees in front of his face greeted her. She went to the next door and gently pushed it open. A group of kids was watching a film around a laptop.

  ‘Can I help you?’ a guy with kind, soft brown eyes asked.

  ‘I’m looking for the ladies.’

  ‘Well, it’s not here.’

  And he closed the door in her face but when she turned her head Cassandra was there, staring at her.

  She said, ‘you must think I’m a first rate fool.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  And Cassandra tipped her chin towards the closed door where Gary had stood just a few seconds ago. ‘You let me walk away from you down there, knowing you’d get the chance to rub my nose in it.’

  And Lilly remembered now Terence’s comment. Cassandra had already been introduced and obviously declined. A sharp bolt of electricity shot into her hands. She had nothing to do with that, but it made it look like she had lived up to her threat. She had already fucked up her and Bobby’s plans.

  ‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. I’m not interested in him, in that, in anything like that.’

  ‘Bobby said you were at the party. He said you’d come to blackmail him. You’ve surprised me. You play the little innocent blonde act so well, but you’re smarter that you look.’

  She could take it as an insult or as a compliment. ‘I didn’t c
ome to blackmail him…’

  ‘And you’ve got a good memory. One little bit of information and you’ve done the rest yourself. Got yourself here, put yourself in place.’ She took a hard hit off her cigarette. ‘If it hadn’t been at my expense, I’d say I was impressed. I’m just wonder…what the hell did I ever do to you, to deserve this?’

  Cassandra was all too willing to talk to her now she had a grievance to air. But Lilly knew her attention was short and she had to get the words out before Cassandra stopped listening.

  ‘I’m not here for that. I came here to find Bobby…’ Lilly said. ‘He owes me money.’

  Cassandra let out a laugh just as if someone had stepped on her toe.

  ‘I’m not kidding. Don’t look at me like that. I’m just hanging around Terence McCoy so that Bobby gets the hint that he better pay me. I’m not here for any other reason. I just want to get what I’m owed and to go home.’

  ‘Oh, bless you.’ Cassandra’s tongue came out to wet her lips and the tip stayed there like a cat’s. ‘It’s good to know my own misfortunes are just the bi-product of your attempts to get blood from a stone. And there I was thinking you’d followed us out here to land your meal ticket, your big fish!’

  Lilly glanced back over her shoulder. She had the feeling that Gary would come out in a moment, looking for her and didn’t want to be right here when he did. ‘I didn’t come for that. I’m done with that, all that.’

  ‘Good for you,’ Cassandra purred. ‘That’s what I’d say if I believed you. But don’t treat me like a fool. I’m not Bobby. Why would you be here, in that man’s room if you didn’t want to be the next million-dollar payoff? Talk about throwing back the fish and keeping the worm.’

  ‘A million dollars?’

  ‘A million dollars?’ She was mocking her.

  Lilly closed her eyes. ‘Whatever.’ She had no appetite for this kind of talk, the things guys said to girls to get them to do what they wanted. ‘That’s bullshit. That’s not like you to buy his crap. You never did before. It was you that called bullshit on him for saying he’d set up a trust for us.’