by Mary Malcolm
She stood and adjusted her skirt. Her long, perfect legs framed in designer fishnets and the exotic red heels she’d decided on last minute. “Wish me luck!”
“I wish you sanity,” I quipped as she teetered away.
Watching from where I sat, I couldn’t deny the guy was into her, who wouldn’t be? Ana was getting pretty recognizable with her billboards and magazine spreads, so any guy who wasn’t into her would have to be blind, happily married, gay, or a chubby chaser. The guy at the bar didn’t come across as any of the above.
She’d left her phone on the table and it rang. Bobby’s name popped up on caller ID. I hesitated for a moment, not sure if I should let it go, but decided last minute to answer. “Hello?”
“Lucy,” he said, not able to hide the surprise or lack of enthusiasm in his voice. “You weren’t who I expected to reach.”
Obviously. “How are you, Bobby?”
“Where is Ana?”
Straight to the chase, that’s fine. “She’s a little busy right now. Want me to tell her you called?”
“Busy doing what?”
Jealous much? “Look, do you want me to tell her you called or not?” I strummed my fingertips on the table, still impatient and angry with him after all this time. It wasn’t as if I was still in love with him or anything, more I thought of the guy as an immature child in a grown body, and I knew if given half the chance he would break Ana’s heart.
He sighed, long and suffering. “She’s been awful busy with you lately. I’ve hardly seen her at all since she’s been home. You’re not trying to sabotage us or anything, are you?”
“Oh, grow up,” I said, annoyed with this man who probably would never change. “You knew she was my friend when you decided to date her. I’m not going to talk bad about you to her, but you and I both know you’re using her. Someday she’ll figure it out, and when she does, I’ll be there to pick her up and dust her off. So don’t try to convince me you’re somehow the victim in some scheme of mine.”
“Relax,” he said, using his soothing son-of-a-senator voice. “Jesus Christ, you’re as dramatic as always. Look, have her give me a call. If she knows what’s best, she won’t ruin things by letting you get between us. I think she’s a smart enough girl she’ll be able to see what I can offer her.”
“Oh, like what?”
“That new contract starting up in November? Who do you think made the calls to make that possible? She hadn’t garnered any attention in Milan before me. Why do you think she’s going there now?”
Milan? Italy? November? She hadn’t told me any of this. My throat squeezed at the news. I glanced to the bar to see her still flirting with poker guy. “I’ll tell her you called. Do you need anything else?”
“No, Lucy. As always, it’s been a pleasure.”
I hung up the phone as Ana headed back in my direction.
Chapter Fourteen
Even talking about Bobby to someone made me angry. Officer Len scribbled notes on his yellow pad, and I picked at the cuticles around my nails, glad for a little break before continuing. It had been a very long night. I stifled a yawn. “Look, I know there is a lot more to tell you, but it’s so late already. Is there any way we can finish this tomorrow?”
He looked up from his paper. “No, I’m sorry, Ms. Carver. Captain Matheson wants this resolved tonight. Tell me what happened last Friday night, the night of the poker game.”
I leaned my head on my arms and started talking again. “Actually, things started in the morning.”
“Okay, go from there, but please, could you sit up so you’re not so muffled?”
****
We left the bar and headed back to Dee’s, but at first I didn’t tell Ana about Bobby calling. I thought we could deal with one thing at a time. We were both pretty tired, not unlike tonight, so after letting me know she’d definitely gotten the invite, we went to bed.
The next morning, I still couldn’t get what Bobby said out of my head. I wanted to ask her, find out why she hadn’t told me, but at the same time I didn’t want to know. My stomach hurt at the prospect. Not of her going, for that I was thrilled, but because Bobby was the one who set it up.
That meant he would also be the one pulling the strings. If she succeeded, he’d be behind it.
Refocusing, I decided it would be best to start with tonight. “John’s going to listen at his house so he can look up things on the computer as they’re said, and I’m going to listen in the car in case something happens.” We sat on our beds, still in our pajamas, and I, at least, felt like I had gargled with a dead possum sometime during the night. Not that we’d drank much, but it doesn’t always take much, either.
“Sounds good,” Ana absently replied. She plucked at a string on her comforter, and I wondered if she was thinking about Italy.
“Do you want out?” I asked, determined to go in myself, if necessary, no matter what she said.
“No, I will do this. I just hope it works.”
I flopped back onto the bed. “If it doesn’t, I have no idea what to do next.”
“Lucy, I need you to be prepared for something.”
It was time; she was going to tell me right now.
“If we don’t get the information we need, we might not be able to help Natalie. I don’t want you to think you didn’t try your hardest. I think in a lot of ways you’re trying harder than the cops.” At the last statement she made a stink face. “I mean, c’mon, how is it they didn’t come across the same information you’ve found?”
Maybe it was because they stopped looking. And I felt selfishly relieved she didn’t tell me about Milan. Kind of like a kid who knew the truth about Santa but didn’t tell her parents that she knew.
“All that matters is that we try,” I said, though I didn’t believe my own words. What mattered was finding out who the killer was. Not just for Natalie but also because my life depended on it. This guy tried to kill me, twice. Who’s to say, now that Natalie was up for murder, he wouldn’t come after me a third time, and possibly succeed? “We have to.”
At breakfast, I struggled not to tell Aunt Dolores the truth. I swished coffee around in my cup and barely nibbled on a bagel.
“Thinkin’ about your friend?” Dee asked, her brow folded inward like it did when I was seventeen and thought I had broken my arm. She’d had a lot of concern for me lately and held just as much back. It showed in the way she carried herself, more strained. Stiffening when I came into the room and withdrawing when I spoke. I hated that our relationship had changed and wished like hell I knew how to turn things around.
“Yes,” I said. In essence I had been.
She patted my hand. “Things will work out exactly like they’re supposed to. The most important thing is to keep yourself safe. I’m sure your friend Eli is lookin’ long and hard to find the guy who came after you, so you have nothin’ to worry about.”
I wished I could believe her. If I did, I wouldn’t have to strike out on my own. And I had yet to tell her Eli didn’t want to talk to me anymore.
“I know it’ll work out,” I said, slowly measuring my words. “I guess I’m a little more uncertain about these things than you.”
“Trust me. I’m old. I’ve seen plenty.”
“I have to go to work,” I said, my words catching in the back of my throat. What I couldn’t yet admit was I was scared shitless I’d never see her again. No matter what happened in my life, Aunt Dee loved me. Unconditionally. And I loved her. If something happened to me now, I didn’t know who would take care of her.
Moving around the table, I pulled her into a hug. “I love you, Aunt Dolores.”
She hesitated, then pulled me closer. “I love you too, Lucy. You are my Lucy in the sky. My star. You always will be,” she said with one final squeeze.
****
I went to HGR early so John and I could hammer out the last details of the plan. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“I have to. What will happen to Natalie if
I don’t?”
“She’ll have an attorney, they’ll prove her not guilty, and she’ll get off.”
“Or she’ll have a panel of lazy jurors prefer to get the trial over as fast as possible. Besides, she’s been in jail since her re-arrest. I couldn’t even get in to see her. She shouldn’t be in there.”
He looked past me. “Hey, Ben. Can you cover me for a few minutes?”
I turned to see his coworker, the one who was supposed to have told me John left on the night of the murder. I’d seen him a few times, but we’d never talked. I decided to introduce myself finally. “Hey, I’m Lucy.” I extended my hand.
“Ben.” He shook but held on for a moment too long. His eyes lingered at my chest. I pulled back and crossed my arms. What a creeper. The very first day I’d met him I didn’t like him, and to this day he remained the one person at HGR I’d want to avoid getting caught in an elevator with at all costs.
Looking up, Ben studied my face and smirked. He sat in the chair and checked some monitors. “So, how does it feel knowing you worked with a murderer?” he asked, a little more excitement in his voice than made me comfortable.
“Natalie isn’t a murderer,” I insisted, almost following up by saying how I planned to prove it. I held back, though. “They’ll find the real one soon enough. And whoever he is, he’ll be sorry he framed my friend.”
“Would have to be someone pretty smart to pull off something like that, you know, framing someone else?”
“I doubt he’s very smart at all,” I said, petulant. “Probably someone with inside knowledge and an axe to grind, though why they’d hurt Natalie is beyond me.”
He sat up straighter. “All I can say is good luck to your friend. She seems pretty guilty to me.”
John stepped in at that point and took my hand to lead me away.
“What is that guy’s problem?” I asked once out of earshot. We sat on a bench in the arboretum and watched the wind blow a few remaining leaves out of the trees.
“He had a thing for Natalie, and she turned him down. That was years ago, but I think he’s still a little pissed she picked Clive over him. He and Clive had been friends then. It was pretty territorial and dramatic.”
“Wow. Talk about needing to let things go.” I thought about Bobby and how much anger I held toward him despite having John. In a way I understood. But Bobby and I dated for a very long time. For Ben to feel so angry toward someone who never even said yes was a little crazy over-the-top-in my book.
“You know he’s not such a bad guy.” John put his arm around me and pulled me close. “He always come in to work for me when I need him and listens when I’m having problems. He’s pretty cool, I guess.” John paused. “You know, I don’t think his father’s such a great guy. I know Ben lives with him—his mother died a few years back—and he’s come to work a couple of times beat-up with black eyes. Before his mom died, he mentioned what a hard-ass his dad was, but now he doesn’t even talk about it.”
He still looked a little beat-up today, but I didn’t want to comment. “Well, anyway”—I said, ready to forget Ben, definitely not wanting to feel bad for the guy—“we’re all set for tonight. We don’t know anything about this game or who will be there. Ana is taking a throwaway cell phone along with her real one so that if they pick up phones for whatever reason, she can hand that over. She’s supposed to meet the guy, Tom, at eight thirty, and they’ll go to the game at nine. We need to be completely set up and in place when she meets him, just in case he says anything.”
John leaned in and kissed me. “Man, it’s sexy when you go all 007 on me. The way you’ve plotted…”
“And planned,” I said in the most seductive voice I could muster. It might be dorky, but I’d never had a guy I could be myself around. Even with Bobby I always held so much back. “Maybe when this is all over, you could play Bond and I’ll be the femme fatale.”
“Mmmm. Who will you be?”
“My name is Pussy Galore.”
He grinned ear-to-ear. “I must be dreaming.”
I laughed, loving that he knew Bond too, and settled back.
People were coming to work, and though there were others out here with us, for the most part we sat alone.
“Lucy, you have to be careful tonight,” he said, the quiet in his voice more from concern than a need to be secretive. “I know we’ve only known each other a few weeks, but I like you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’ll be careful,” I reassured him.
He leveled me under his gaze. “No. I mean if something seems like it’s about to go down, get out of there.”
“I won’t leave Ana behind.”
“Ana knows she’s taking a risk, that’s why I’m there. If something happens, I can call the police. But don’t stick around.”
I didn’t argue further. It was pointless trying to explain my and Ana’s close bond, so instead I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Thank you for being here through all this.”
In response he kissed the top of my head and squeezed my hand.
****
“How do I look?” Ana stepped out of the bathroom with the dramatic flair saved for those who possessed great confidence. She’d opted for a pair of designer blue jeans and a sparkly black and red va-va-voom top that did an amazing job of showing her cleavage. She’d curled her hair, clipped back a little bit, and wore a pair of sparkly red earrings.
“Total Bond Girl material,” I told her. “Bombshell all the way.”
“Good, that’s what I was going for.” She sat at the edge of her bed and pulled on a pair of patent leather black ballerina flats.
“No heels?” I asked.
“In the movies, the girl is always caught running in heels. One of them breaks, she stumbles, and is caught.”
“You won’t have to run,” I said, though the closer it drew to go time, the more I questioned our plan.
“Still,” she said, looking at me with an intensity I rarely saw from Ana. “Best to be prepared.”
“Do you want out?” John expressed his doubts earlier, and I certainly had mine. Ana would be crazy not to want to turn away at this point.
“Hell no, I don’t want out!”
Or not.
She stood in front of me, Rambo in lipstick, ready for war. “Look, my life is getting more and more complicated by the day. Between balancing modeling and my relationship with Bobby and my friendship with you—do you know I hardly see Bobby anymore?”
I did know, but I didn’t tell her as much.
“Who knows where I’ll be tomorrow, or next month even.”
Milan, I thought miserably.
“These adventures with you, I have to take them now or I might not have a chance. This is scary and dangerous, and I can’t remember the last time I felt this alive.”
“You ready, then?”
She took a breath and placed hands on her hips in a sexy pose. “I’m hot, right? I mean, we shouldn’t keep this poor chum waiting.”
“No we should not.”
I’d dressed up, too, but not as much. Black cowl-neck sweater, my only pair of designer blue jeans, Ugg boots. We had to make Aunt Dee believe we were going out. So even though I was basically running surveillance in my car, I still had to look decent. Hell, I even debated on a scarf but decided that would fool no one. I only owned one and never wore the sucker before in my life.
Downstairs, Aunt Dolores watched television in front of a blazing fire with a bowl of popcorn propped against her lap. “You girls headed out?” she asked, without glancing in our direction. “Make sure to take your coats. It’s supposed to get cold tonight.”
“Cold like sixty?” I asked, always amazed at how fast people ran for cover at the slightest drop in temperature. Being generally hot-blooded myself, I welcomed fall with open arms.
Now she looked. “No, we’re supposed to hit the low thirties tonight. They’re issuin’ an overnight freeze warnin’. Tomorrow isn’t supposed to get above forty, an
d it’ll be cold Sunday, too.”
We grabbed our coats from the stand by the door for good measure. “Love you,” she shouted from the couch.
I wanted to hug her again, but I didn’t want to draw suspicion. “We’ll be back later,” I assured her, hoping it was true.
The butterflies in my stomach spun and dove as if they belonged in Cirque de Soleil by the time we arrived at the bar. Ana and Tom were supposed to meet there before going off to the game. “You ready?” I asked as she straightened herself one last time.
“As I’ll ever be.” She dialed my number and I picked up. She dropped her phone into her pocket. “I’m going to go meet Tom. If you can’t hear me okay, you’ll have to let me know before we leave the bar. You have their number, call and ask for me.”
I hugged her neck, squeezing extra hard. “You are an amazing friend, you know that?”
She squeezed back. “I know.”
Laughing, I swatted her ass as she left the car. Then I drove to where I’d planned to spend my night, parked about a block from The Slotted Spoon. Ana’s sound check worked perfectly. I dialed John, remembering yesterday’s lesson he gave me on how to conference. “Can you hear us both okay?”
He paused for a second.
Ana ordered a drink in the background.
“Yeah,” he said, finally.
“Is everything else set up?” I asked, nervous energy making me shift back and forth in my seat.
“I have several search screens up, I’m energy-drink equipped, and I have my Bluetooth connected in case I have to pee.”
“Eww.” Although, now that he said it, I hadn’t thought about what I would do if the need arose. I looked around and saw a gas station not too far from where I parked. “Gross, but I’m glad you brought it up.”
He laughed. Through the phone, Ana greeted her date. She’d turned down the volume on her phone so they couldn’t hear us, but I heard them much more clearly than expected.
“You look beautiful,” Tom said in a voice part desperation part pure disbelief. He knew he’d won the lottery yet still thought he’d deserved it somehow. “Here, let me pay for your drink, and we’ll get out of here.”
