Nick was dead, Bob was looking to kill me, Destiny was playing me for a sucker, and Tanya seemed to think I was a horn dog sniffing after her friend. To top it off I had no idea who killed Nick, and in the next couple of days I was going to have to face my mother. I’d been avoiding that situation for a couple of months now, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for the confrontation.
I stripped off my clothes and hung them, along with the towel, over the back of the chair. Under normal circumstances I would have slept in my boxers, but everything was wet. Since I didn’t have a change of clothing with me I decided to make the best of the situation. After I climbed into bed I heard the toilet flush at the other end of the house, a chatter of female voices, and the rough closing of a door. A few minutes later I drifted off to sleep.
The ghost of fifteen-year-old Celine Stewart often haunts my dreams. She should have been having pajama parties and dating and going to proms. Instead, because of a mistake on my part, she was dead.
That night I saw her sitting in a field of daisies. She was dressed in the same jeans and sweatshirt she’d been wearing on the day she’d been kidnapped. Heat lightning lit the sky and she tilted her face upward and stared at me. There was fear in her eyes, and sadness, and when I called to her she turned and vanished, and I began to cry.
I opened my eyes to sunshine, filtered through the folds of the curtains. Dust motes danced in the air and the scent of frying bacon permeated the room. I looked at my watch and was surprised to discover I had slept past ten.
Jumping out of bed, I stretched before slipping into my still damp clothing. It was uncomfortable, and I felt a foul mood descending upon me again. I reminded myself this case had gone about as bad as it could.
That was before I turned my attention to the dresser. Both the stack of twenty-five hundred dollar bills I’d set out to dry before going to bed, and Bob’s revolver, were gone.
Chapter 8
I clenched my teeth until my jaw hurt, but it was an unsuccessful attempt to control my anger. Someone was moving around in the kitchen. I was willing to bet my missing twenty-five hundred dollars it wasn’t Destiny.
There was a part of me that wanted to climb back into bed, curl up, and sleep all my troubles away. I had not wanted to take this case. Now, I’d have to face my mother with the fact that I’d lost the entire fee. Come to think of it, what I wanted was to find Destiny, take her over my knee and give her a good spanking. I figured the second choice would be more satisfying, so I put on a fake smile and headed for the kitchen.
Tanya looked up from the stove when I stopped in the kitchen doorway. Despite my bad mood, I couldn’t help but notice she looked damn good even though she was wearing an old pair of gray shorts and a ragged Alvin’s t-shirt. I should have been ecstatic to wake up and find a beautiful woman fixing me breakfast. Loosing twenty-five hundred dollars of company money made my stomach churn and started my mind whirling. I did not want to think about what this was going to do to my already strained relationship with my mother. She was upset enough about Nick, without adding this to her troubles. The agency was successful, but I knew a twenty-five hundred dollar loss would put a bite on the budget.
“Where’s Destiny?” I asked.
Tanya’s face clouded. “I went out and got you a toothbrush this morning,” she said, ignoring my question. “And there’s a new disposable razor and some shaving cream on the sink if you want to shave. If you want to take a shower, towels are in the closet next to the sink. Breakfast will be ready by the time you finish.”
I slammed the flat of my hand against the wall near where I was standing, “I asked you, where’s Destiny?”
Tanya jumped when my hand connected with the wall, but she ignored me and began taking pieces of bacon out of the pan.
“Are you going to tell me where she is or not?”
“I don’t know where she is,” Tanya said. “She told me she was going out for a couple of hours. She promised to be back by the time you got up. And you could be a little more courteous, you are my guest after all.”
“Damn.” I stomped over to the table.
My move startled her and Tanya dropped her spatula into the pan. She looked like she was going to cry. I felt a little tug of remorse, but I gave her a dirty look and stood there, arms folded in front of me, waiting for her to say something
“You’re putting me into the position of choosing sides and I don’t think it’s fair of you,” she said after awhile. “Gail’s been my friend since junior high school. I’ve only known you for less than two months. It’s not my job to keep you posted on her comings and goings. Besides, let’s not forget you’re my guest. I’d appreciate it if you would act accordingly.”
She was right of course. I felt myself flush, and shifted my gaze to the table. There were three plates set out. It was obvious she was expecting three of us for breakfast. I forced myself to calm down. “I don’t think we can count on Destiny being here for breakfast.”
Tanya raised her eyebrows and waited for me to continue.
“She stole twenty-five hundred dollars from me before she left.”
“Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me,” she said.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t want to be in the middle of this.”
“I need to find her.”
Tanya picked up the plate of bacon, set it on the table, and gave it an angry spin before shoving it toward me. “I’m pissed at her because she took off and left me to take the heat from you. I’m telling you though, Wes, if you keep pushing I’m going to get just as pissed at you. I don’t think you want that-do you?”
I slumped into the nearest chair and let out a deep breath. “No.”
“Good.” She nodded toward a covered yellow bowl in the center of the table. “Eggs are in the bowl. I hope you like scrambled.”
“Scrambled is fine.” I took four strips of bacon, slid them onto my plate and when I reached for the eggs I chose my words with care. “I’m not the person you should be worried about protecting Destiny from. In fact, I may be the only thing standing between her and a bullet.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her troubles are related to the case I’m working on for my mother. It turns out she stole something from the guy who hired us. It’s possible this guy had Nick killed too.”
“That’s worse than I thought,” she said. “Although I don’t doubt she stole something from you, and from him. She’s always liked the idea of easy money. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“No,” I said. “The less you know the better for you.”
She looked at me as if trying to decide whether I was serious or not. Finally, she gave in. “Gail and I argued when she took off this morning. I told her she should stick around until you got up. She refused. She swore she was going out to take care of the trouble she’d gotten herself into. She said she didn’t want to involve you anymore. I didn’t know anything about your money. Why were you carrying twenty-five hundred dollars in cash anyway?”
I shook my head and let out a sigh. “It’s a long story. I guess I should be glad all she took was the money and the gun. At least she left my wallet and credit cards.”
“I think I have a right to know what the hell’s going on between you and Gail. And I want to know why she thinks she needs a gun.”
I wasn’t quite sure what I should tell her, but if I was going to have any chance of finding Destiny, I needed her help. I decided the best way to get her on my side was to scare the hell out of her about her friend’s situation. So I laid it all out to her. I told her about the stolen diamonds, Frank Szymanski, and Bob and Willie. When I finished, I shut up and waited for her response.
Refusing to meet my gaze, she picked up her coffee cup and walked over to the window. She stood there for several minutes staring outside, then she moved back to the sink, picked up a half-empty coffee pot and asked, “You want coffee?”
I nodded and she grabbed an empty cup, filled
it, and carried it over to the table. When she sat down she handed the cup over to me and spoke so softly I was forced to lean forward to hear her. “I guess nothing Gail does surprises me anymore. She’s always been involved with one wild scheme after another. To hear her talk, every one of them was going to make her rich.”
She picked up a piece of toast, tore it in half, but tossed it back onto her plate without taking a bite. “To tell you the truth, it doesn’t surprise me she got involved with gangsters. But I would have thought she was smart enough not to steal from them. She’s a member of Mensa. She even won a scholarship to Michigan State University.”
“She acts and speaks like a ditz.”
Tanya laughed. “She’s been using that shtick on men since she was fourteen.
“Still, she wasn’t smart enough to keep from being expelled for prostitution,” I said.
Tanya blew on her coffee. “It was an escort service. All she did was arrange for some of her fellow students to have a date with good-looking women. She may be a stripper, but it doesn’t make her a whore.”
“It’s a matter of semantics, isn’t it? She was charged with prostitution.”
Tanya nodded. “True. I guess I want to believe the best of her. Like I said, we grew up together.”
“Were the two of you close?”
“When we were teenagers.”
“Tell me about her.” I leaned back in my chair. “The better I understand her, the better chance I have of finding her again. I’m a little surprised she doesn’t seem concerned about a killer wandering around out there looking for her. Probably one or two others I haven’t met yet.”
“Do you think they’d hurt her?”
“Hell yes,” I said. “I’m afraid of Frankie Szymanski right now, and I didn’t steal any diamonds from him. All I did was make it a little harder for him to get them back.”
“Great.” Tanya jumped up and carried her cup over to the sink. “I’m gonna need another hit of caffeine.”
She let the water run for a minute, rinsed out the pot, and filled it before taking a bag of coffee from the cupboard. She ground the fresh beans and there was a gentle rhythm in the way she moved that made me feel at home.
Maybe it was the rich smell of the coffee. Maybe it was the sense of shared danger. Maybe it was only my imagination, but I think we both felt comfortable with the other’s presence. It was a quiet moment and neither of us spoke until she switched on the coffee maker and leaned back against the counter.
“Way before ‘Alvin’s’,” she began. “Dad was part owner in a strip club. Gail’s mother, Shelly, was a dancer at the club and Dad fell in love with her. He moved her and Gail into the house here. For the two years they lived with us, Gail and I were as close as sisters.”
“Did you keep in touch when she went away to school?”
Tanya shook her head. “No. We had a falling out after she and Shelly left and we didn’t talk much to each other afterward. I heard about what happened at Michigan State by word of mouth. Key West is still a small town and the gossip spread fast. I’ll admit I was a little surprised when I learned she was dancing.”
“Why’s that?”
“She hated the fact that her mother was a stripper. She once told me she’d rather be dead than take her clothes off in front of a bunch of drunks.”
“You guys seem buddy-buddy now,” I said. “She didn’t think twice about calling you at three in the morning when she needed a place to spend the night.”
The coffee pot made its final gurgles and Tanya rinsed her cup under the faucet, picked up the pot, and carried them to the table. She poured us both a fresh cup and settled back into her chair.
“Gail started coming into the bar about a month or so ago. She hooked up with Billy, and while he was playing we got reacquainted. I think she was lonely, and we go back a long way. What difference does it make?”
“I don’t know if it makes a difference. But I’d like you to help me understand her.”
“And why’s that Wes? You figure if you understand her you can find her? Then what? You get your money back. You get the diamonds and your ass isn’t hanging out there waiting to have someone chew on it. What about Gail? If she doesn’t get killed does she continue stripping? Do you even care?”
I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose with my thumb. This woman sitting across the table intrigued me. One minute we seemed to be in sync, the next we were at each other’s throats. She appeared to be smart and caring, but also a little bit naive.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Tanya. I want my money back. And I don’t want to take a bullet because Gail did something stupid. If I can find her and get the diamonds into Frankie’s hands, we should be able to put this whole thing to rest. I’m pretty sure he wants those diamonds more than he wants her dead.”
“You don’t think she’s going to turn over the diamonds, do you?”
I stared across the table and let her think about things for a moment before asking, “Am I wrong?”
She shook her head. “Gail believes she’s smarter than you, or Frank Szymanski, or these other guys you’ve been telling me about. I told you, she’s always liked the idea of easy money. I’m sure it’s why she started dancing.”
“So will you help me find her?”
Tanya picked up her cup and blew on the coffee again. Not because it was hot, I suspected, but because it bought her a few seconds to think. Finally, she let out a sigh. “I’ll help if you promise to do everything you can to keep her alive.”
“I planned on that all along,” I said. “Even without your help.”
She smiled for the first time. “For some reason, I believe you. So now what?”
I reached out and touched her hand and was glad when she didn’t pull it away. I let my hand linger for a heartbeat, and then stood. “I guess I’d better go talk to Elvis.”
Tanya began to chew on her lip. I knew something was on her mind, so I waited for her to find the right words. When she looked up, she focused her eyes on mine. “Would you stop back here after you talk to him? I mean if Gail decides she made a mistake, this is where she’ll look for you.”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “If it’s not too late after I talk to Elvis, I’ll stop back here. Otherwise, I’ll catch you at the bar and fill you in on what’s happening. I promise I’ll do everything I can to make sure this turns out all right for her-if she’ll let me.”
Chapter 9
My phone rang while I was standing on the porch. The day had started off on a sour note, and I groaned when I looked at the number. It was my mother, and I didn’t think now was the right time to tell her about the stolen money.
My first inclination was to ignore the call. Subconsciously, I reached into my pants pocket where I used to keep a roll of Tums. They weren’t there because I hadn’t needed them since moving to paradise, at least not until a couple of days ago. A good deal of the stress I’d experienced as a P.I. had been the result of working for my mother. She’d made demands on me she never would have made on another operative, and she was much less forgiving of my mistakes.
Unfortunately, I’d agreed to pick her up at the airport when she arrived. The last thing I needed was for her to be hanging around while Frankie and his goons chased after me. With a sigh, I plopped down on the top step of the porch and flipped the phone open.
“Hello Mother.”
“I got a call from Frank Szymanski this morning,” she said. “He said you screwed up the meeting with the girl. He wants his fee back. Are you doing this on purpose?”
A middle-aged couple dressed in matching white shorts and gaudy shirts rode by on bicycles and waved when they saw me. I didn’t know them and they didn’t know me, but in Key West that didn’t matter.
I waved back. “I didn’t screw anything up, Mother. Szymanski’s man was waiting for her with a gun. He didn’t leave me a choice.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. She stole something from him. He wants it back. It�
�s a no-brainer, Wes. We were hired to find her. You did your job, you found her. I would think you’d be more concerned about who killed Nick.”
“So you knew all along that this wasn’t about unrequited love?”
“Not until he called this morning.”
“It seems to me Frankie Szymanski should be our number one suspect.” I said.
“What would he have to gain by killing Nick?”
“I don’t know.”
“Nick could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I believe it was you and Nick who taught me not to believe in coincidence,” I said.
“I know. But shit does happen, and sometimes it is only a coincidence. You need to keep an open mind.”
“This really doesn’t have anything to do with Nick,” I said. “I couldn’t let them hurt the girl.”
“She’s a thief Wes. Not to mention the fact that she’s a stripper and a whore. She put her own tits in the wringer and it’s not up to you to pull ‘em out. You’re not screwing her, are you Wes?”
“This isn’t about sex, Mother. I reacted to a situation and did what I thought was right.”
“Maybe I should have left you tending bar and handled this myself.”
“Maybe you should have.” My words shut her up for about thirty seconds. I could almost see her reaching for her cigarettes when she let out a loud sigh.
“This isn’t about the stripper, is it?” she said. “This is about the other girl.”
“The other girl has a name. And this has nothing to do with Celine or what happened to her.” Even while the words sprang from my mouth I knew she was probably right. It wasn’t only in my dreams that I thought about Celine Stewart.
In June of the previous year, Myron Stewart, of the Stewart department store chain, hired us to install a new, state-of-the-art security system for his house to replace the inadequate one installed when the house was built. Before we could complete the job, his daughter was kidnapped.
Key Lime Blues Page 6
