"And that isn't in every way fucked up. That's stupid." In no way was this making any sense to me. Was he playing chicken with me in some twisted way?
"I can't really offer much insight into how Riley's mind works. I doubt he knows."
"This whole thing sucks," I said, feeling a need to punish Julian for how stupid this all was. What had I expected, for Julian to come running in my defense? Here was the guy who ruled the roost in terms of inappropriate behavior, sleeping with half the staff from what I'd heard—at work.
* * *
Chapter 9:
* * *
I got my period and the world instantly seemed brighter. I felt I was more ready to handle things today, but I was wrong. Just seeing his fucking face and all that cloying hate came back, tightening my throat. I'd just changed into my uniform, which smelled of grease. This was shit enough without Riley giving me a hard time, which he looked ready to do.
I could see him opening his mouth, some form of nastiness ready to spew out. Before I knew what I was doing, I drew my fist back and swung, getting him right in the crotch. Eyes wide, he choked and doubled over in pain.
Right back at ya, I thought as he crumpled to the floor. If he wanted to act inappropriately, I could as well. Wyatt just stared, his mouth hanging open and the spatula in his hand.
"Hiya," I said and kept walking, feeling so much better.
There was no discernable change in Matilda from day to day. There was no variation in her routine, in her dress, in her hair. God knows what goes on in her head, because the unsettling thing was that she didn't have moods.
She turned to me. "Julian has gone out and he's left me in charge." So he didn't see my little act of violent rebellion. I almost felt sorry for that. If he was ready to forgive Riley's inappropriate behavior, he could forgive mine as well. Double-edged sword, bitch.
"Okay," I said, not quite sure why I needed to know this.
"After the dinner rush, I want you to tidy the dry store."
"Uh, okay," I said. Tidying the dry store wasn't usually my job and I don't know why she couldn't do it herself—she liked tidying, a lot. A suspicion snuck in that she just wanted to boss me around. Whatever, I thought.
"They should get rid of Julian," she said. "He's a terrible manager. I am a much better manager. It's me that runs this place. He just gets the credit."
"Credit with who?"
"Corporate," she said as if I was dense.
"Oh," I said, hoping this conversation would stop now. Admittedly Julian had some real short comings as a manager, but I didn't dare think what a workplace would be like under Matilda. Probably like when the Ministry takes over at Hogwarts—cutting detention quills and all that.
Mia appeared at the other register. "What's that crazy bitch on about now?" she asked, when Matilda was out of earshot.
"Planning her takeover."
"Usual stuff then?"
"She's done this before?"
"She's always wanted to be the manager here. Started the very first day she came."
*
A string of customers came and went, and I looked up when one pushed in front of the line, a woman. Normally only crazy people cut the line, but this lady looked normal. "There's a girl not feeling well in the bathroom," she said, blinking several times and then smiling weakly.
"Okay," I said. It better not be throw up. That was the worst, and the rule was that the first person to see it, or be informed of it, had to deal with it. Why couldn't the woman have picked some other line to cut?
There was a bunch of people waiting and I had to tell them I was closing the line. One of them actually swore at me. It was unfortunate, but walking into throw up was actually a worse challenge to customer satisfaction than a closing register.
Grabbing the mop and bucket, I walked into the women’s bathroom. It was empty and so far, no puke anywhere, but there was someone on the floor in the third stall. "Shit," I said and put the bucket down. "You okay?" I called, but there was no response. Unfortunately, we didn't have the stalls you could open from the outside, a cost saving decision by corporate, no doubt. I knocked, but again there was no response. What the hell was I supposed to do? I had to see if she was okay. She obviously wasn't; she was lying on the floor. "I'm coming in."
Getting down on my stomach, I had to slide into the tiny stall, which really didn't have enough room for two. It was awkward and I had to squash her leg in the process. Again, no response and the bad feeling in my gut only got worse. She was frickin blue; I saw now as I kneeled beside her. Her lips were blue and her eyes glassy, a needle stuck in her arm. Shit. It was the girl I'd seen a few days ago. She was even wearing the same outfit, cut-off jeans and stripy tights.
What the hell do I do? CPR? I patted her on the face, but she was cold. She'd been here a long time and only now did someone come and tell us. What the hell was wrong with people? There was no point in doing CPR, obviously. She was gone, by a mile too.
I unlocked the stall door and this girl was walking into the toilet. "Sorry, the toilet's closed," I said.
"Then you need to put a sign up," she said tartly, giving me the finger before leaving.
I didn't know what to do for a minute, but settled on pulling the cleaning in progress sign out of the storage cupboard and putting it outside. Julian wasn't friggin here. I had to tell him.
Running into the back, I went into his little office, looking up his mobile number on the contact sheet and called him. My hands were shaking.
"What?" he said with annoyance.
"Uh, it's Pepper," I said, uncertainty making my voice thin and high-pitched.
"What's up, Pepper?"
"There's a body in the women’s toilet."
He was silent for a moment. "I'll be right there," he said with resignation. "Lock the door. The keys are on the desk."
"Okay," I said and hung up before grabbing the key ring and going back to the bathroom, which I checked was clear. I could partially see the girl’s body under the stall barrier. It was eerily silent in there. Closing the door, I had to try every damned key on the ring before I found the one that actually locked it.
It felt wrong. Maybe I should be in there with her. She was all alone. What a shit way to die.
Ella popped into my mind. She knew these people, at least the guy this girl was with before. I spotted her in the seating area.
"Ella," I said.
"Wha?" she said with annoyance.
I walked closer, crossing my arms awkwardly. "You remember that guy you said you knew, the junkie?"
"Yeah."
"His girlfriend's dead in the bathroom."
"Shit," Ella said. "Does Julian know?"
"I called him."
"That sucks." She looked past me to the bathroom, which was hard to see because there were so many people in the line now.
"Do we ask people to leave?"
"Wait until Julian comes back," Ella said and rubbed my arm.
"I guess I better… " I didn't know what to do. "Should I serve customers like nothing's happened?"
"I think so."
Guardedly I walked back to my register. "I locked the women’s," I told Mia and Matilda quietly. "There is a dead girl in there. Julian is on his way."
"You called Julian?" Matilda said sharply. "That wasn't your place."
"Julian had to know," I said incredulously.
"I am in charge. You should have told me."
"I'm sure in a case like this, Julian had to be informed."
Matilda narrowed her eyes. "It was not your job to tell him."
"There's a dead girl in the bathroom," I said, my voice rising. "I'm not going to quibble over command and control procedure with you." Matilda snorted and turned sharply. "What the hell does it matter who calls him? We're not launching a fucking nuclear warheads here."
"The bathroom is locked," a customer said sourly, a lady with a younger girl, maybe five. "My kid needs to go to the bathroom and the door is locked. What the hell?"
/> "I'm sorry, the women’s toilet is unavailable. Could you perhaps use the men’s?"
"With every pedo in the country? I don't think so. Unlock the bathroom."
"I'm sorry, I can't just at the moment."
"Don't you people understand anything about customer service? You can't just shut off the bathroom. People need to go to the bathroom."
"I'm sorry," was all I could say.
"I demand to speak to the manager," she said, her eyes sharp and glossy with rage. "I want to hear an explanation for this."
"I'm in charge. There's a dead person in there," Matilda said, leaning over. "But don't worry; it's just a drug addict, not someone who died of a heart attack or anything related to patronage of Coast Burger." Matilda smiled brightly.
I looked over disbelievingly at her. The irate customer stopped short, then threw us dirty looks before bundling the child away. There was a customer who was never coming back. "I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to inform customers. Respect for the deceased."
"If they wanted respect, they wouldn't shoot up here, would they?" she said, bitingly. "Not to mention how inconsiderate it is to everyone enjoying their evenings here."
I saw Julian walk past from the back, going into the women’s toilet and coming out again. "I've called the city. We will keep it closed until then. No one goes in there," he said and went back to his office.
I still felt so bad for that girl, in there all by herself, locked away like something unsightly. That unease stayed with me throughout the rest of the evening. Things slowed down, but still no one came for the girl. This girl had family, parents who were currently going about their lives, not knowing this utter devastation was about to hit, that their girl was dead and they didn't even know. It was awful.
Finally, I walked back to Julian's office. "No one's come for her," I said, twisting the edge of my shirt.
"Nope," he said. "They will come, eventually." He shuffled some paper, a pen between his teeth.
"What about the customers?"
"Not much we can do about it."
"Will they take her through the back? The customers are all going to see her." Again, I felt horrible thinking of all the people staring at her.
"No. We're a commercial kitchen. It's generally frowned upon dragging a corpse through it." He sighed. "There is nothing we can do until the medical examiners come and takes her away."
"Okay," I said and left, feeling like utter shit. The whole place felt subdued. Not even Riley was being a dick. He barely even looked at me. Or maybe that was because I rearranged his tackle.
* * *
Chapter 10:
* * *
Ella clicked the lock on the outer doors, looking back at me. No one had come for her. Crap. Matilda locked her register and grabbed her keys from under the counter.
"See you tomorrow," she said brightly and walked into the back, her ponytail swinging from the gap in the back of her cap.
"She's still in there," I said almost in a whisper to Ella who wasn't standing far away. "Why isn't anyone coming for her?"
Ella shrugged.
"What do we do?"
"Technically, it's Julian's problem. He's the manager."
I looked past all the equipment and saw that the door to his office was open.
Both of us just stood there. Was Matilda right to leave as if nothing was wrong?
The cleaning sign was still outside the women’s door, bright yellow in the otherwise dark seating area.
Wyatt came out front and leaned on the counter, crossing his arms. "Julian says he has to wait."
"For how long?" I asked and Wyatt shrugged. "They can't just leave a body lying around forever."
"Julian says they'll come at some point. It can take time, particularly if something… messy has happened somewhere else. It's not like she's going anywhere. So someone has to wait here. Julian says he will wait for them."
"It would be totally creepy here at night, all alone with a body." Ella shivered.
"Do you think we should stay with him?" I asked.
"I'm supposed to see Brandon tonight," Ella said.
"Can't miss a date with your boyfriend," Riley said, coming out from the back. "He might trade you in for a younger model."
Ella glared daggers at him.
"I'm gonna stay," I said. There wasn't any reason I couldn't. I could sleep all day if I had to. I just felt so bad leaving her and going on with my life, like she was nothing. It felt wrong.
"Then I'm staying too," Ella said.
"Why not?" Wyatt said. "Not sure I'd sleep tonight anyway. What does she look like?"
I wasn't sure whether it was an insensitive question or not. I mean, it was, but… "Blue," I said, remembering the glassy eyes and blue lips. Now it was my turn to shiver.
I saw the lights of Deseree's car drive away. Unlike Matilda, Deseree wasn't uncaring; she just didn't have the time to stay. Her life only held together if nothing went wrong.
The dining area did look quite sketchy at night and that cleaning sign sat there accusingly. "I'm gonna go to the lunch room," I said and walked back where it was still brightly lit, continuing to my locker to get out a candy bar. I wasn't really hungry, just needed the comfort chocolate always gave. If everything went wrong, there was always chocolate. Like my mom, I was known for being a bit of a comfort eater when I had to be. Not nut-job stuffing my face, but a bit of candy goodness was called for once in a while, particularly when boy problems arose, or one found a body.
"Good idea," Ella said, appearing at the door to the lunch room and then disappearing again. She came back with an ice cream, smothered in fudge. "I am so going to have to work this off tomorrow." There was nothing to work off; there wasn't an ounce of spare fat on her.
"Did you tell Brandon you weren't coming?"
"Yeah," she said, shifting a bit uncomfortably.
"You can go if you want to," I said. "There's no need for both of us to be here."
She didn't answer for a moment. "Is it bad that I don't trust him around other girls?"
I didn't know what to say. "Like has he given you reason not to?" It sounded thin when I said it, because even though I'd never met him, he sounded like a total ass as far as I was concerned.
"What are you still doing here?" Julian asked, walking into the lunch room.
"We'd thought we'd wait with you," Ella said. "Cause the creepiness factor and all."
Julian sat down and leaned back in the chair. "You don't have to. Yes, it's shit, but the manager is responsible for stuff like this."
"Has it happened before, that someone's died here?"
"Yep," Julian said. "Not often, but it does happen. No births yet, but we had this woman whose water broke once. We've also had a few carted off to the psych ward. There was a guy living in the Dumpster for a while."
"It stinks," Ella said, scrunching her nose.
"He liked it. He wasn't so bad. Not all there, but harmless. Missing quite a few of his fingers. You meet all sorts in a place like this."
Mia appeared in the doorway; she'd gotten out of her uniform. "I probably should go," she said. "Sucks about the girl. Are you all staying?"
Our answer was interrupted by the sound of the back door opening and Wyatt's distinct laugh. Riley returned, out of his uniform, wearing jeans and an army surplus jacket. He carried a large bottle of sparkling wine in his hand, while Wyatt carried a bag of corn chips. The supermarket across the parking lot was a twenty four-seven thing, so there were provisions if we needed them.
There wasn't room for them at the table, so the boys sat on the floor along the edge and Riley twisted the top off the bottle. "To leaving too early," he said as a toast and took a swig.
He held the bottle out and we stared at him for a moment. "What the hell," Julian said and took it. "Ugh, this is awful," he said.
"It was on sale and I'm broke."
"You're always broke," Ella said with disapproval.
"You don't love me for my money, honey."
>
"I don't love you at all."
"Ouch. Mean girls. I love it. I'd get hard, but I'm too sore," he said, giving me a pointed look. My look in return showed exactly how sympathetic I was.
Ella took the bottle and drank some before handing it to me. I considered whether I should go get a paper cup, but no one else seemed bothered about sharing a bottle. Matilda popped into my mind and I took a swig.
"You know Matilda wants your job?" I said to Julian after a while.
"I know. She'll probably succeed one day."
"The day I quit," Wyatt said. "Who's going to work for Matilda? How desperate would you have to be? Do you think she'll have a discipline dungeon in the back somewhere? Whips and chains and shit."
"Well, she could probably operate the entire restaurant on her own anyway," Julian said and took the bottle again. "But luckily for the rest of us mortals, she had grander ambitions."
Again, I wanted to know why he kept her around, but I had asked that question before. Did I have the right to work here anymore than she did, or anyone else for that matter? Technically she wouldn't be as lax a manager as Julian was. Every regulation, protocol and best practice would be followed to the tee.
Mia sat down close to the boys, crossing her ankles on the floor and leaning back. She wore a crop top and had blue eyeliner under her eyes. It made her eyes look huge. She was pretty—not Ella pretty, but cute. We didn't click outright. She was alright, but we didn't really talk much, which was funny because I suspected I'd have more in common with her than Ella.
I guessed she wasn't going home after all.
Wyatt's phone rang. "No, Mom, I'm staying at work a bit longer. There is just something that needs doing. Yes, I'll be home later. Why are you still up? Go to bed." He listened for a while, and we all listened with him, a small voice coming from his phone in a mumbled string of sound. "Yeah, I know, Mom. Don't worry; I'll take care of it when I get home. I don't know. Okay, just go to sleep."
Ella raised her eyebrows as if saying: I told you so.
Wyatt looked a little embarrassed when he hung up.
Done Burger Page 5
