5 Highball Exit (6 page)

CHAPTER 14

I sat on a stone bench in the shade, happy to shake free of Aunt Kay and her plans so I could make some calls. Driving her around was going to work fine. I could take her where she wanted to go and while she played detective, I could run the Sunset.

I pulled my phone out and caught up, straightening out some scheduling problems and calling my wine merchant.

I still had some calls to make, but the air smelled of jasmine.

Somewhere near my head a bee buzzed . . . wind chimes tinkled gently . . . Not even worry could stop my head from drooping. I closed my eyes, letting the sleepless night catch up. My cell played “Dixie” and I jerked awake. “You are not going to frigging believe this,” a voice said.

“These days I could believe anything, including, ‘The end is nigh.’ I can really believe that one.”

“Parrots,” Gwen Morrison said. “The palms outside the diningroom windows are full of parrots. People are coming upstairs just to get a better look at them.”

“And this is good because . . . ?”

“Because, Oh Thick One, these people may stay for lunch. I’ve called the radio station and the newspaper. It’s been on the radio already.”

Parrots don’t belong in Florida. We have a big problem here with exotic species running loose, from boa constrictors eating alligators to chimps terrorizing whole neighborhoods up in Tampa. Down in the Everglades they’ve even opened a hunting season for pythons. Tens of thousands of pythons are slithering about the Everglades eating the native birds and mammals. At over twenty feet long and up to two hundred pounds, a snake that can both climb and swim . . . well, let’s just say camping in the reeds isn’t going to be my kind of fun anytime soon. But a whole lot of crazy men I know think it sounds like a high old time to go down there and have a go at snake hunting. They’ve already applied for licenses. Those guys will probably kill more hunters than pythons.

“Can you imagine? Parrots! Isn’t that great?” Gwen said.

“Great hardly covers it! We don’t want them flying away until at least after the dinner hour. How can we keep the little buggers there, nail them to the branches?”

“The humane society may frown on that tactic.”

“Okay, cover the branches with peanut butter.”

“The Chamber of Commerce may frown on that.”

“Screw them. They aren’t running a restaurant and trying to stay alive in this economy.”

“Well, let’s just hope these birds hang around for a day or two, with or without any help from you. In the meantime, I’ll spread some peanuts under the trees and pretend it was one more stupid tourist who did it. Man, how do people get by without tourists to blame things on?”

“Blame it on staff like I’m going to if this goes wrong.”

“You better get your ass back here. I don’t want to call in extra servers.”

“I’ll be there soon. By the way, do you remember Holly Mitchell?”

“Of course. Flighty, pretty little thing, who was going to be inmovies and was only at the Sunset while she waited for her big break. The worst waitress we ever had.”

“That’s her.”

I told Gwen that Holly had committed suicide. She said, “I can’t believe it. It just doesn’t seem possible.”

Sitting there, looking at a little garden of sand and rocks with miniature stone temples, I agreed—it wasn’t feasible. “Do you remember anything else about her?”

“Only that Zach Maguire became our best customer when she was here.”

“Zach?”

“Yeah, you remember. He always sat right by the waitress’s station, where they pick up the drink orders, and talked to Holly. I remember you were about to toss his ass out of there because he slowed her down, but she dumped him before you got around to it.”

“That’s right. He works at my bank. I think he’s the loan manager or something because he called about my overdraft. I should have tossed him out while I had the chance. Do you know that the Bank of America in Jacaranda frowns on you not paying something on your overdraft every month?”

“How mean-spirited of them!”

“I wonder if Zach has any discretion on when they call in my loan.”

“If he does, I suggest you put on one of your Sherri-the-Slut outfits and go make nice with Zach.”

“I’ll wear red heels. Not a man alive can say no to a woman wearing red stilettos.”

“They’re susceptible to those as well,” she agreed.

“You realize, of course, that this goes strictly against Clay’s advice on how to do business.”

“Yeah? Well, you and I both know how the real business is done. And would you rather drown wearing red stilettos or sensible pumps?”

“Wearing red all the way . . . Of course, if this thing I’m working on turns out, I won’t need to worry about the bank.”

“Is this ‘thing’ legal?”

Before I could answer, Gwen said, “Scratch that question. I don’t want to know.”

“Wise, very wise.”

I saw the woman in the long sweater walk Aunt Kay to the door. “Gotta go.” I stood up and walked away, not wanting the woman to ask what I was still doing there. I waited out of sight for Aunt Kay. She was red-faced and puffing when she joined me.

“Slow down,” I cautioned, suddenly remembering her heart condition. “Better still, wait right here and I’ll bring the truck.” She shook her head. “Just give me your arm.”

“This weather can’t be good for you.”

“It isn’t the temperature; it’s any exertion. I’m fine.” She leaned on me and we ambled at tortoise speed to the truck with heat shimmering off the pavement like we were walking through fire and breathing air that smelled scorched and dusty.

“It was very interesting.” Aunt Kay stopped so she could talk and still breathe. “She did know Holly.”

“Wait ’til we’re in the truck.” I didn’t want her dying right there on the pavement.

At the passenger door we did another undignified heft of her behind to get her inside. She said, “If this intimate handling of my person goes on I expect you to at least buy me lunch.”

“And I expect you to pay for my chiropractor.”

She sat on the passenger seat, huffing and puffing, while I went around to the driver’s side, which faced the sun. I cautiously tested the door handle. It was sizzling enough to sear a steak, so I bunched up my tee and used it to protect my hand. When I slipped behind the wheel, Aunt Kay had a little dollar-store fan out and was working it furiously. It took her some time before she was able to say, “Bella’s little apartment was the cleanest home I ever saw. It was barren, it was so clean. No signs of living at all. It smelled like it had been disinfected.”

I turned on the engine and rolled down the windows while I checked out Aunt Kay’s color. She wasn’t too pale anymore.

She stopped talking and sucked in several deep breaths, blowing air out slowly between pursed lips.

“I told her that I woke up this morning thinking of Holly and decided I’d take a chance on finding her in. I could see she was worried about how to tell me Holly was gone.”

This was going to be a long story. I rolled my shoulders, stretched my neck from side to side and fought for patience.

“I felt badly about lying to her.”

I reached in back of the passenger seat and took two bottles of water from my cooler.

“Did Bella know Holly?” I asked, thinking this might save about an hour and a half.

“Not really. Bella only knew Holly in the most casual way, said they talked while Bella cleaned the laundry room and Holly did her laundry.” Aunt Kay’s stories have a way of rambling. I unscrewed the top and handed her a bottle of water.

Aunt Kay held the bottle to the inside of her wrist. “Apparently people aren’t supposed to just leave their laundry and go back upstairs.”

“Just like they’re not supposed to let strangers into the building.”

“Yes, dear.” She switched the bottle to her right wrist. “She madetea. On a day where we’ve already broken a record for morning temperature, she put the kettle on. People think that’s what old ladies drink and that’s what you do in a time of crisis. She told me Holly obeyed the rules, always stayed right there ’til her laundry was done.

Knowing Holly, it was probably more in the hopes of having company rather than respect for the rules. Holly hated being alone, never could play on her own.” She turned her head to look at me. “Bella told me something else.”

Aunt Kay took a tissue out of her purse and dabbed at the sweat on her face and neck. “Bella saw bruises on Holly’s arms and even her upper chest, but her legs and the inside of her thighs had the heaviest marks.” The tissue was worked into a small ball in Aunt Kay’s fingers. “Seems Holly was beaten over a long period of time.”

I cursed and then said, “Sorry.”

“She didn’t ask how Holly got them but I think Bella was hoping I’d tell her.”

I took a deep breath and dived in. “Look, there are some things I have to tell you.”

She turned to face me, already knowing she wasn’t going to like what was coming.

“Holly was working for an escort service.” I closed the windows and let the air conditioning take over. “I went online last night and searched through Sarasota escort services until I found her.”

I studied Aunt Kay to see how she was taking this. “There are pictures of girls there, disgusting, and they tell . . . well, kinda what they’re willing to do.”

She nodded her head, looking worried but not shocked. “So that explains how she could afford that apartment.”

“I don’t think so.” I studied the honey-colored wall I was parked in front of. “The prices were listed. She wouldn’t make enough even as an escort.”

Aunt Kay asked, “How do you explain the apartment?”

“I can’t.”

“And the bruising?”

“Maybe that was what Holly was willing to do.”

“Oh.”

“Has Bella seen the baby?”

“She didn’t know anything about a baby. It’s an adults-only building and in all the months Holly’s been there, Bella didn’t think Holly even had anyone visit with a baby. She said, ‘Someone with a baby wouldn’t be Holly’s sort of friend,’ then she remembered who she was talking to and snapped her mouth closed pretty quick. It was as if she were holding back all kinds of things an aunt might not want to hear.” Aunt Kay’s voice was filled with regret. “And Bella didn’t know anyone named Denny or Danny and never saw a man in uniform in the building. I didn’t say it was a man in a police uniform I was interested in.”

“Did you get Bella’s social security number?”

She turned to me, wide-eyed with surprise, “Why would I want that?”

I grinned. “I don’t know, but it seems you got everything else.”

“She did say she let the officer in on Saturday night.”

“So Dan didn’t have a key.”

“Or he was too smart to use it. I told Bella that I was a little worried about Holly’s finances; seeing the building and all . . . told her I was concerned Holly might be falling behind in her rent.”

“What did Bella say to that?”

“She said most people pay directly from their bank or with postdated checks. The super doesn’t do the collecting now like they did when I lived in an apartment. So I asked if I could just wait in Holly’s apartment until Holly came home.”

“You were wasted on childcare. You should have been a cop.”

“They’re much the same thing some days. Bella told me Hollywas away.”

“If the baby has never been here, I don’t suppose there’s much to be gained by going into her apartment. Dan looked around and he didn’t find anything.”

“But he wasn’t looking for signs of Angel. I thought I might find an address or a name, anything to tell us where the baby might be.” Her hand curled into fists. “Where is Angel now and is she safe? That’s what I keep asking myself.”

“What are you going to do if we find the baby?”

She shrugged. “I just want to know that she is fine and then I’ll let it go. I owe Holly that much.”

But would she? Did Aunt Kay have some secret wish to have Angel for her own? Surely Aunt Kay was too old and too wise to daydream along those lines for long.

“What if the baby isn’t fine?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” She looked away. “You don’t think Holly would sell her child, do you Sherri?”

“Lord . . . where did that come from?”

“Holly was impractical and easily led.” She turned back to me. “I believe she might convince herself that it was for the best and she was doing the right thing, even the best thing for Angel.”

“But still . . .”

“This place says wealth,” Aunt Kay said. “What else did she have to sell besides herself and her baby?”

“Evil never surprises you, does it?”

“It’s just like any other human trait, like jealousy or hate or love.” Aunt Kay waved a hand to the exit. “Let’s see where Holly lived before she came here.”

“Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“What? Is it past my bedtime?”

“Okay, I was only asking.” I backed out.

She pulled down the seat belt. “We need to find someone Holly talked to; she wouldn’t be able to keep all of this to herself.”