Rick walked me up to my apartment, and I fidgeted with the key in the lock. “I really had a good time tonight.”
He leaned against the wall, forcing me to look at him. “Do you know how hard it is to find a girl who loves Vampire Witches?”
“I guess.” I was worried I wasn’t going to see him again. I know it’s a high school fear, that a guy won’t see me again if I didn’t put out, but I could count on one hand the relationships I’d been in, and none of them had ended with a happily ever after.
Rick ruined my gloom by kissing me again. His lips were becoming an addiction. If things continued the way they were, I’d have to join a twelve step program. “I liked the preview, Emily. I’ve got to work tomorrow but I’ll see you in class, right? Save a seat for me. I’ll explain things to Dizz. He won’t take it personally.”
“Tell him I’m crazy about him.”
He smiled. “He’s crazy about you, too.”
I went on the balcony and watched as he walked out of the building and went to his car. “Good night.” I called down to him.
He smiled up at me and gave me a wave. “Sweet dreams, Emily.”
That wouldn’t be a problem. Rick was giving me a lot to dream about.
Chapter Sixteen
I was too excited telling Dennis and Craig about my date to really pay attention to the grapefruit in front of me. “We went dancing at The Coliseum. Did you know that place isn’t just for old people? There were a lot of them there, but there were some young people, too. They had one of those Glenn Millery type bands and we danced.”
Dennis was doing the crossword puzzle. “Sounds like you had a good time.”
Craig shook his head. “Go on, Emily. He wouldn’t know romance if it bit him in the ass.”
“There was this one song, a singer, and they were playing Come Rain or Come Shine, and he started singing it to me.” I couldn’t help but giggle.
Dennis looked up. “For the record, I like this guy, but that’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What would you know about romance?” Craig snorted as he leaned closer to me. “Tell me more. You were dancing; he was singing. What happened next?”
I could feel my cheeks flush. “We went back to his place.” Dennis arched an eyebrow and looked up at me for a moment. I rushed to get the words out so they wouldn’t think I was a slut for one second longer than necessary. “He loves Vampire Witches of Salem. We watched the movie and kissed a little.” I paused and grabbed Craig’s hand. “Actually we kissed a lot.”
Dennis spoke above our squeals of glee. “I thought you were the only person in the world who loved that movie.”
Craig was concerned with more important matters. “I think you did more than kiss. Did you?” He hit Dennis on the shoulder. “She made out with him.”
Dennis shook his head. “I don’t want to hear any more.”
Craig took a sip of his coffee. “Honey, I want to hear everything.”
Dennis was listening, too. He was acting cool and disinterested, but I could tell he was hanging on my every word. “Well, we started kissing and then…” I really didn’t want to get into the actual pawing of flesh that occurred. A girl has to have her secrets. “He said his dog Dizz wanted me to spend the night.”
In possibly one of the dramatic and gayest gestures I have ever seen, Craig gasped and threw himself in his chair nearly toppling himself over backwards. Dennis’s mouth was wide open, making it possible to see the two fillings in his back teeth.
“I didn’t do it.”
Dennis actually raised his voice. “Why not?”
Craig excused himself. “I need a drink.”
“I wasn’t ready.” I couldn’t believe I had to explain to Dennis, of all people, that I was a woman of virtue. “It was only our third date.”
“Don’t give me that goody, goody Girl Scout crap.” Dennis moaned.
“The time wasn’t right,” I protested. “I don’t know him that well.”
“Please. You have to wipe slobber off your chin every time you talk about him. And if you don’t know him, it’s your fault. Besides go to class, what does he do? Does he have a job?”
“I can’t ask him about his job, because then he’ll ask about mine, and I’m not ready for that. Besides, he works nights, he’s good-looking, and he seems bartendery to me. I think he’s a bartender.”
“I think he’s a stripper. I’d shove a few bills in his g-string.” Craig had rejoined us with another cup of coffee, and noticed Dennis’s glare. “Oh, like you wouldn’t.”
Dennis arched one eyebrow. “Hey, maybe he’s Batman. He works at night.”
Craig smiled. “Now that’s hot. Imagine all the fun you could have with the toys he has in his utility belt.” He grabbed my hand. “The time’s now. He wants you now. I say you do it now.”
I could lie. I could come up with some female-related issue that would completely repulse them, but Dennis knew about most of my female-related issues, and he could tell when I was lying. “I didn’t want him to see me in my underwear.”
Craig look startled. “You wore dirty underwear on a date? Emily, good God!”
“They weren’t dirty.” I hissed. “They’re just… big. Probably bigger than he’s accustomed to.”
“He wanted to see you out of your underwear. Your panties weren’t an issue.”
Craig touched Dennis’s arm. “Maybe we’re assuming things. Maybe she doesn’t know.” He turned to me and spoke slowly. “Darling, when he said Dizz wanted you to spend the night, what he meant was he wanted you to spend the night. That means he likes you.”
Dennis shook his head. “She knew what he meant.”
“She’s right here.” I started stuffing things in my purse. “And she’s leaving. I have to go see Wonder Woman, then I’m going shopping.”
“Getting new underwear?” Dennis smirked.
“No.” I made sure my tone was harsh so he knew I wasn’t amused.
“Emmie, I know what the problem is, and I think he likes you. He knows what you look like already, he’s attracted to you.” He punctuated his words. “All of you. If it was too early, fine, but if it was because…”
Oh great, now Dennis was going to talk about my fat right in front of Craig. I didn’t like my chub being up for public debate.
“…you were afraid he was going to see something he didn’t want to see, I don’t think that’ll happen. Don’t blow this because you’re afraid. I don’t think there’s anything to be frightened of.”
“I’ve got to do some detective work.” I gave them both a kiss on the cheek. I didn’t want them to think I was storming off in a huff, which had been my original plan. “I’ll see you later.”
Wonder Woman, or Robin Cutler, as she was known to the rest of the world, lived a fifteen-minute walk from Le Bel Age, and only about five minutes from my apartment. Of course, her place was far more stylish than my own. After all, the complex was called Paradise, and she was a superhero.
It was a new condominium complex designed to look like a small Spanish village. It reminded me of a movie set. Robin lived in Tower Tewo, and frankly, the stairs to her place were dangerous. Sure, tiles looked nice and festive, but for the grace-challenged like me, they were a safety hazard. One slip and that would be all she wrote. Robin Cutler really was Wonder Woman if she could navigate these stairs in stilettos.
I paused for a moment outside her door. I was never going to look like Wonder Woman, but I could at least look neat when she answered. If she answered. I smoothed down my shirt, knocked, thought Nancy Drew thoughts, and prayed for her to answer.
“Can I help you?” It was her in all her super-hero-ness.
“Robin Cutler?”
“Yes.” She looked at me for a moment. “You look familiar.”
“I live in the neighborhood, and you might also remember me from Jim Alexander’s funeral. We sat close to each other, in the back.” I thought it was good to make it sound like we were comrades of a so
rt. “I was hoping I could talk to you about Jim. My name’s Emily Winters.”
“I don’t really know a lot about Jim.” She started to close the door.
“You know enough that you went to his funeral. It’ll only take a minute. Please, Robin, I need your help.”
She paused for a second to size me up, then opened the door. “I was just making some tea. Why don’t you come in for a glass?”
“That would be real nice.”
Her apartment was just like everything else about Robin. Perfect. She led me into a cheerful kitchen, grabbed two glasses, and sat across from me at a kitchen table that had a big basket of lemons as a centerpiece. I love lemons.
“So how did you know Jim?”
She gave an odd half smile. “He was a client. I saw him at least once a week, sometimes twice.”
“A client? Were you his accountant or something?”
She tossed her head back, laughing. I amused her.
“An accountant? That’s cute. I thought you knew. I’m an escort, honey. Jim and I would meet at hotels and have a little fun.”
I didn’t really think that she was an accountant. I thought she was a mistress, the-plain-old-seeing-a-married-man kind, not the pay-me-and-I’ll-hurt-you-kind. I figured Jim might be paying for all this lemony fresh goodness, and with the conductor of the gravy train dead, Robin might be lured into spilling some juicy details.
“An escort?” I tried my best to sound pleasantly interested and not completely shocked.
“That’s right. He paid me two hundred dollars for the first hour, and a hundred and fifty for every hour after that. I’m pricey, but I’m very good.” She smiled at me. “How much were you charging him?”
“Two dollars a minute!” Next to Robin, I was cheap.
Robin was the one stunned then. “I just said that because people can get pretty judgmental. I didn’t think you were… Two dollars a minute?”
“Phone.”
She gave me a genuine smile. “Are you Peyton? He told me about you. He liked you a lot.”
“I don’t know how true that is.”
Sometimes I forgot I work in the sex industry. It wasn’t like I see anyone. They didn’t touch me, and there was no goo to clean up when I was done. It was like working at the call center for Home Shopping Network, only naughty. Robin was a reminder. It was easy to open up to her, and that’s exactly what I did. I told her everything, including how I’d met Jim, and how he tried to blackmail me into performing any number of depraved maneuvers like some sort of trained seal.
“That surprises me. You don’t look like his type.”
I nodded. “He made a point of telling me that. I’m too fat.”
“That’s not what I meant. He likes his girls a little trashy. You’re too fresh-faced for him.”
“You don’t look trashy.”
“I did when I met with him. Did he tell you about Kaz? Now she was a piece of work. If you really want to know what he liked, check her out. Kaz was his dream girl. Well, besides me.”
“Did you get to know him well?”
“Yeah. I liked Jim. He was easy. He’d book two hours, and we used about ten minutes. I’m sure you know how he was: Mr. Speedy. The rest of the time, we’d order room service and we’d talk. Well, he’d talk and I’d listen.”
“So what did you talk about?” I tried to be nonchalant about the whole thing.
“Why are you asking?”
“I’m going to find out who killed him.”
“Emily, I don’t know you, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.” She sighed “He had a lot of enemies; Kaz is just one of many.”
“What happened with her?”
“They had a little fling. He told me that he and his wife hadn’t had sex in years. Last summer, she packed up the kids and went to visit her family in Texas for a few weeks. I guess one day when he and Kaz were both home, things happened. It lasted until Rachel-Ann came back. He was happy. Kaz was happy. Only they’d made a video, and Jim had it loaded onto his computer. Rachel-Ann found it and sent it to Kaz’s husband. After that, things got nasty for Kaz at home. I think her husband kicked her out the second he saw it.”
“Jim kept it on his computer?” How stupid was he?
“Yup.” Robin shook her head. “He didn’t care if he got caught. In fact, I think he wanted to get caught. Think about it. He used his credit card for me, and I’ll bet for you, too. How long before Rachel-Ann got nosy and looked through the bills and found those charges?”
Robin might be right. Maybe Jim wanted to get caught. “Maybe he wanted to force her hand. If he was caught, Rachel-Ann would probably want a divorce. He might lose everything, but he’d be free.”
“Kaz had signed a pretty tight pre-nup. Her husband filed for divorce, and she didn’t get a thing. She was married to a millionaire. Have you heard of Montgomery Davis?”
I shook my head “no.” The Bay Area had more than its share of millionaires, and I knew none of them.
“Davis was her husband. She got next to nothing. I’m sure she wasn’t happy with Jim. He told me she showed up at his office screaming obscenities. Security guards had to drag her off.”
It sounded like Kaz and I had something in common.
“Having a woman show up and throw a fit in his office didn’t exactly help his cause at work. He was on the chopping block.” She took a sip of her tea and sighed. “He told me that’s why he liked to pay for it: things never got messy.”
“So Kaz lost everything? Now there’s a motive if I ever heard one.”
Robin smiled. “She’s not the only one who was out to get Jim. There was Damon, his assistant. He was definitely gunning for Jim’s job. Jim suspected Damon was trying to sabotage him at the office. He was pretty convinced Damon was the cause of all his trouble at work.”
Damon McCormick: Good looking guy who’d tried to ply me with booze at his boss’s funeral. A girl doesn’t forget a man like that.
“Did Jim know any gangsters?”
She looked at me for a moment “You really are a cutie. I’m from New York, I assume everyone who works in construction is in bed with gangsters. And for all its fancy names, that’s what Jim did. Construction.”
She reached across the table and took my hand. “Listen, you don’t really know what you’re dealing with. Whoever killed Jim won’t mind hurting you. Leave this to the police. You do know the cops are going to find us, right? They’re probably checking all his credit cards right now, and it’s only a matter of time before they talk to both of us. I think you should go to the police and tell them everything. Do it now, before you get hurt.”
“I can’t do that.” I begin to explain about Rick.
Robin interrupted. “You’ve got something to prove. I think this guy you‘re dating would want you to be safe.”
“It’s not just about him,” I said, although I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince. It was hard to explain that finding Jim's killer was going to give me a whole new life.
“Are you sure?” She asked.
I got up. “It’s more than that.” I looked at the door. “I have to go. I’ve got some detecting to do.”
I scribbled down my phone number. “Robin, thanks. I appreciate your help. If you think of anything else, let me know, okay?”
Robin led me to the door. “Just be careful, Emily.”
Chapter Seventeen
Calling my boss was my next step. I should’ve done it earlier, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to tell her that one of her best customers was dead and I’d shared a few drinks with him on the night he was murdered. She wasn’t going to be happy to hear that I could’ve been the last person who saw him — except for his killer.
She picked up the phone immediately. “Peyton?”
Leena knew my real name; she just didn’t use it. I was Peyton so far as she was concerned.
“Yeah, it’s me. Listen, I’ve got something I need to tell you.” I wanted to get it out in one big breath.
<
br /> She interrupted me. “So what the hell is going on with you and Jim? He hasn’t called you in a couple of days. Doesn’t he go into convulsions if you guys don’t chat every day? Did you two have a fight? I told you never get personal with customers. Never let them know too much, and don’t talk politics. It happens all the time. Send him an e-mail. Let him know you want to make up. You have his e-mail address, right?” She was machine gunning questions at me, and I wasn’t sure I could hold up under the rapid fire.
“I do.” Thank God I’d never used it. The cops would be beating down my door even sooner than I expected. I decided to just blurt it all out and get it over with. “Jim isn’t going to be calling me anymore.”
“Of course he is. He loves you. Send him an e-mail. He’ll fall in love with you all over again. Everything will be fine, trust me. Just remember no more personal stuff, okay?”
“Leena, Jim’s never going to call me again. He’s never going to call anyone again. He’s dead. Murdered.”
Nothing.
Finally she spoke. “It wasn’t you, was it?”
“NO!” I was shocked she could even think such a thing. “Why would I kill him?”
“I was teasing.” She reconsidered. “Nothing happened between you guys ,did it? You never met him, did you?”
“I ran into him. It was a complete accident. I was out, and I recognized his voice, and he recognized my voice. Leena, he threatened me. He said he was going to ruin your business if I didn’t…” I whispered the next part. It was still hard for me to say it outloud. “…have sex with him. It was the night he died.”
“Geesh Pey, keep that to yourself. Although, Phone Kitten Kills Client would make a good movie.” She sighed heavily. “He’s really dead?”
“I went to the funeral.”
“You what?"
“I might’ve seen the killer. I wanted to see if there was anyone at the funeral who I recognized. Leena, everyone hated him, including his family. There are suspects out the whazoo.”
“What? Suspects? Did you go to the police? I don’t believe this.”
“No, I haven’t gone to the police; I want to have this solved before I talk to them.”
Phone Kitten: A Cozy, Romantic, and Highly Humorous Mystery Page 12
