Diners, Dives & Dead Ends (13 page)

I nodded.  “Okay.”

“I just think Packard’s
weird behavior has something to do with Axton, that’s all.”

“Did the police ever talk to
Pack?”  According to Dane they had, but I wanted to hear it from Sheila.

“An officer called him and
asked a few questions.  That was about it.”

I sighed and looked out the
window.  “So, you think these phone calls have something to do with Ax?”  I
turned back to face her.

“I think so.” 

“Why don’t you look at
Packard’s phone and get me a list of the incoming numbers?”

She nibbled her lip and ran
her thumb over the rim of her cup lid.  “I don’t know.”

If she didn’t want to help
me, why did she call this little meeting?  “Look, Sheila, Axton is missing. 
The police don’t care and your husband has been acting strange.  You said
yourself he’s been on edge since Axton’s disappearance.”  I looked directly
into her brown eyes.  “Please?”

She was silent for a few
minutes.  “My husband is ambitious.  He wants to run for mayor.  He sees it as
a stepping stone for bigger things.”  She clutched her coffee cup.  “He’s
probably just under a lot of stress at work.” 

I reached out and touched
her wrist.  “I don’t care about your husband.  I don’t want to hurt him, I
really don’t.  I don’t care what Packard’s done, as long as it doesn’t involve
Axton.  Every time I’ve needed him, he’s been there for me.  He may be flaky in
some areas, but as a friend, he’s as steady as they come.  I need to find him.”

Finally, she looked up at
me.  “Okay.  I’ll check his phone tonight.”

I pushed my chair back to
leave.

“Rose, if he has been
talking to another woman?”

I waited.

“I want to know.”

I mulled over our
conversation on the way to my apartment.  I hoped the phone numbers would yield
some results, but I wasn’t holding my breath.  Ax and Pack weren’t close.  I
wasn’t even sure why Ax called his brother the night he disappeared.  It was odd.

As my mind wandered, I drove
past a strip mall that housed a tanning salon.  Something about it niggled at
the corner of my mind.  I had seen the name of that tanning salon before.

Making a U-turn, I drove
back and parked in front of a row of small shops.  I dug in my purse for the
list of businesses owned by NorthStar Inc., then looked up at the Sun Kissed Tanning
Salon with a big ass grin on my face.  Shoving the list in my purse, I got out
of the car and walked inside.

A girl in her early twenties
stood at the counter, rows of tanning products lined the glass shelves behind
her.  She smiled when I walked in.  “Hi,” she said, “how are you today?”  Her
skin—the color of a radioactive carrot—clashed with her purple tie-dyed
bikini. 

“I’m great, thanks, and
you?”

“I’m great, too.” She flipped
her bleached hair over her shoulder and continuously petted it with two hot
pink-tipped hands.  “You look like you’re in the right place.”

I raised my brows.  “I do?”

“Definitely.  You’re really
pale.” 

For some reason I thought
she was going to blurt out everything about NorthStar Inc. and how it was
connected to Axton.  All my questions would be answered.  Instead she just
wanted to orange me. 

“Are you interested in a
spray tan or the beds?”  She scrunched her nose.  “In your case, I would do
both.”  Not having tan must be a bummer in her world. 

“I’m not really here for the
tanning.”

And before I could whip out
my picture of Axton, she nodded.  “Oh, okay.  You’re here to see Manny.”

My hand froze inside my
purse.  “Yep.  I’m here to see Manny.”  My heart began to pound.  Could this
finally lead to a clue?  God, I hoped so.  I was so tired of chasing my own
tail.

“Well, come on.”  She
motioned for me to follow her down a short hallway behind the counter.  Unused
tanning beds stood in darkened rooms and posters of sunny beaches covered the
light blue walls. 

Skin Cancer Barbie opened
the last door on the left and stood aside so I could walk through.  “Someone to
see you, Manny.”

“Thanks, Tif.”  A round
short man with a Benjamin Franklin hairdo and a green Hawaiian shirt sat behind
a desk in the small office.  The walls were bare and a computer monitor stood
on his desk.  He gestured to a folding chair.  “Sit.”   

I smiled and did.  “Thanks.”

“What’s your name?”

Oh, crap.  I didn’t know he
was going to start with the hard questions.  “Sue,” I said.

“Pleased to meet you, Sue.” 
He picked up a gold pen and began twirling it between his fingers.  “Now, what
can I do you for?”  

I searched for a clue, but
there was nothing here.  No pictures, no decor, nothing.  Maybe he thought I
was here for a job.  My pale body could be the ‘before’ to Tif’s ‘after.’  “Oh,
just the usual,” I said. 

“There is no usual, really.”

“I’m just looking at the
basics.  I don’t want to get too creative.”

“Great.  That’s smart.”   He
tapped his noggin with the pen.  “You can screw yourself by getting too
creative.”

Kind of like what I was
doing at this very moment.  I nodded and smiled.

“I just need the name of
your referral and we’ll get started.”

Shit.  “I don’t really
remember.  I’m so bad with names.”  I laughed and tossed my hair over my
shoulder.

The smile dropped from his
face faster than a drunken girl’s bikini top on Spring break.  “Well, that’s a
shame.”

I smiled a real charmer.
“Can’t we just skip the referral?”

“No, we can’t.”

“Maybe you could make an
exception?”   

“We don’t make exceptions.” 
His voice was as cold as his pale blue eyes.  Manny Ben Franklin wasn’t buying
what I was selling. 

The vibe in the room shifted
from benign to dangerous in a second.  I didn’t know what they were doing here,
but I knew it wasn’t kosher.  Probably wasn’t legal, either.  I stood up and
smoothed my leg with one hand as I hoisted my purse up my shoulder with the
other.  “Sorry to have wasted your time.” 

I moved to the door, but
Manny jumped out of his chair and blocked my exit.  “You’re not going
anywhere.  Who told you about me?”

My breath caught in my
throat.  I gulped and blurted out the first name that popped into my head. 
“Packard Graystone.”  My pulse hammered against my throat and I audibly heard
my heartbeat.

“I don’t believe you.”  He
grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer.  He wore strong aftershave that made my
nose itch and little beads of sweat dotted his massive forehead. 

I yanked my wrist back, but
Manny’s hand tightened and pain shot from my wrist down my hand.  I struggled
against his grip, but he didn’t let go.  So I screamed.  One of those loud,
shrill screams that hurts the ear drums.  Then I belted him on the side of his
head with my fist and brought my knee up at the same time.  I didn’t make
contact with his crotch, because he brought up his own knee to block it, but he
loosened his grasp.

I took advantage and pulled
away, then shoved him as hard as I could with both hands.  When he stumbled
against the file cabinet, I yanked open the door and ran. 

Halfway down the hall, Tiff
stood in my way with wide eyes.  “What’s going—”

Not slowing down, I slammed
my shoulder into her arm.   

“Ow, that hurt.”  She spun
to the side as I ran past her and out of the building.

I jumped into my car, jammed
the key into the ignition, and without turning to look behind me, I thrust the
car into reverse and hauled ass out of the parking lot.

I pulled up to Jacks’ house just
before six.  After my run-in with Manny, I’d taken a long winding way home,
checking the rearview mirror more than the road in front of me.  My hands shook
so badly, I gripped the wheel until my fingers hurt.  I replayed the
conversation with him over and over.  I’d found out two things: the tanning
salon was a cover for something shady—no pun intended—and Manny knew Packard
Graystone.  But I didn’t know how either of these facts tied into Axton’s
disappearance.

I was still a nervous mess
as I got ready for the evening.  After babysitting Scotty, I was meeting Dane
and wanted to look nice.  Not that this was a date or anything.  We were just
trying to find Axton.  Together.  At a bar.  An un-date, that’s what it was. 

As I got out of the car, I adjusted
my dress—the nicest one I owned actually.  Black, not too short, showing a
little boobage, but not enough to be slutty.  I thought I looked pretty spiffy.

Then I saw Roxy. 

She wore a ruffled blouse
with a short black skirt over layers of stiff white petticoats.  She topped it
off with an enormous black bow attached to her blue sausage curls.

“You look very pretty,” I
said.

We walked up to the door and
stood on the lighted porch.  She glanced at me.  “What happened?  You run into
that BJ guy again?”  Her gaze moved over my face.  “You look as tense as shit.”

I had been going for casual
hot.  Apparently I had the holy-hell-I-got-the-crap-scared-out-of-me-by-a-Ben-Franklin-impersonator
look instead.  “I’ll tell you later.” 

The door flew open and I peered
down, saw Scotty, and grinned.  “Hey Sport.”

  “Aunt Rose!  We’re having
pizza tonight.  No salmon.”

“Yay!  I love pizza.”

He stepped back to let us
in.  His blue eyes widened as he took in Roxy from head to toe.  “You look like
a Bubble Guppy.”

She smiled.  “Thanks.”

My sister walked down the
stairs fixing her earring as she came.  She glanced over at Roxy and froze in
place.  “The two of you are too dressed up to spend the night babysitting.”

“I’m going out afterward,” I
said.

“Me, too.”

“Won’t it be kind of late?”

“It’s not a school night,
Mom,” I said.  Roxy snorted.  “Quit worrying about us, just go and have a good
time.”

Allen walked into the foyer
in a suit and tie.  “Hey, Rose,” he said, not looking at me but at Roxy.  His
brows made a trip north.  “Hello.”  He held out his hand.  “I don’t believe
we’ve met.  I’m Allen Smythe.”

“Roxy Block,” she said,
shaking his hand.

“That’s a very…unique outfit
you have on, Roxy.”

She smacked her gum and
nodded.  “Like I know, right?”

Jacks slipped a lightweight
coat out of the hall closet.  “We’ve already ordered the pizza, and the money is
on the kitchen counter with a coupon.  Scotty will try to talk you into letting
him stay up until nine, but bedtime’s eight-thirty.”  Allen helped her into her
coat.  “Don’t let him have sugar.  And we should be home between nine and
nine-thirty.”

“Scotty,” she called.  “Come
kiss me goodbye.”

He flew into the foyer and
slid across the marble floor.  “Bye Mommy.  Bye Daddy.”  He hugged my sister’s
leg and she leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. 

Allen ruffled his hair.  “Be
good for Aunt Rose, okay?”

“Kay,” he said before
running off.

“Where are you guys going
anyway?” I asked.

Allen frowned.  “To your
parents’ house, of course.”

I looked at Jacks, but she
wouldn’t meet my gaze.  “It’s a hospital thing.  You’d be so bored.”

Realization flitted across Allen’s
face as he stood next to Jacks with his mouth hanging open.  “Oh yes, bored. 
God, these things are so boring.  Wouldn’t be there unless we had to, right
Jacqueline?”

I forced a smile on my
face.  “Sure.”  I waved one hand.  “You two go on.”

My smile left as soon as
they did.  Fact is, I’d rather have my tooth drilled without anesthetic than go
to my parents’ house.  What did I have in common with a room full of doctors? 
Still, I knew I hadn’t been invited, not because I didn’t find talk of gallbladders
and golf games fascinating, but because my parents were ashamed of me.

“Wow,” Roxy said.  “That was
harsh.”

“No, it’s fine.  It’s all
fine.  Let’s go find Scotty.”

He was in the den watching
Sponge
Bob Square Pants
.  I found it annoying, but Roxy laughed just as hard as
Scotty did. 

When the pizza came, I
turned off the TV and we ate in the kitchen.  After he was done eating, Scotty
begged me for candy. 

“We have a whole new bag of
Snickers for the trick-or-treaters.”  He pointed to the cabinet above the
refrigerator.  “That’s where Mommy hides it.”

“How do you know where she
hides it, Sport?” I asked.

“Duh, because that’s where
she hides the cookies.”

“Well, maybe you can have a
piece after lunch tomorrow, because your mom said no sugar tonight.”