Tom looked at Sandy as she sat the plate in front of him. “You’ve eaten already?”
“Not yet.” Sandy said pouring him a glass of water.
“Get your plate. I’ll wait on you.” Tom picked up the glass of water and drank it. “I’m going out to look this afternoon.” He wiped water from his chin as he refilled the glass. “I’d appreciate your help.”
Colton shrugged. “Why not? I’m not doing anything this afternoon. You really think you’re going to find any more?”
“I don’t know.” Tom looked at Sandy as she came out of the kitchen with her plate. “I’m surprised we found these two.”
“Why’s that?” Colton asked, sitting his empty beer can on the counter in front of Mitch.
Mildred quickly removed it, throwing it in the trash.
“I figured they’d left town,” Tom answered, as Sandy sat beside him filling his water glass. He turned in his chair, looking at Glen, who was sitting with his wife. “I don’t know why you bothered to clean up. You’re just going to get dirty again.”
“I like to be clean when I eat.”
Seven
Tom stepped out of the shower and hurried into the bedroom. “Baby I’m freezing,” he exclaimed, hopping into bed. He pulled Sandy up next to him.
“God Tom, you’re like ice!”
“You feel nice and warm.”
“I was.” Sandy moved Tom’s hand up to her side.
“It’s cold outside.”
“We’re not outside, and I don’t need a cold butt.”
“You always have a hot ass. Ask any guy in town.”
“Thanks.” Sandy kissed him resting her head against him as he held her. “You didn’t find Lucy this afternoon?”
“I looked until I had to get cleaned up for the night shift, but no, we didn’t find any more. And hopefully there aren’t any.”
“You have to be exhausted, digging all day out in that heat and working half the night.”
“I am. But I still have time for you.” He noticed she wasn’t as playful as she normally was. “What’s wrong, babe? I can’t read your mind, but I know when something’s bothering you.”
Sandy ran her fingers through the hair on his chest. “I’m thinking about quitting.”
“Quitting? Quitting work?”
“Yeah.”
Tom shook his head. “Honey, I know you don’t make much, but -.”
“It’s not the money. It’s Colton. He’s always criticizing me. Then today he made a rude remark about me in front of everyone.”
“What kind of rude remark?”
“He asked me if we were making good tips from the hunters coming in. I told him we were doing all right, so he pipes up and says…” Sandy swallowed. “He said that the strippers would make good tips to if they had tits like me.”
Tom wasn’t sure what to say. “They probably would,” he finally said.
“Tom!” Sandy started getting out of the bed.
“Honey, you’re letting the cold in,” Tom said, pulling her back to him. “He probably didn’t mean for it to sound like it did. You know Colton. He’s -.”
“It’s not the first time, Tom. He’s always rude to me in front of people.”
“I’ll admit, his public relations aren’t the best, but -.”
“He doesn’t have public relations, he has public arrogance. And he doesn’t like me.”
“He’s never said he doesn’t like you.”
“He doesn’t have too. Everything he does and what he says to me, says he doesn’t like me.”
“Give a man power and he gets stupid.”
“Arrogant and stupid.”
“We’ve dealt with it before.”
“I know. But he could show a little respect for the people who work for him. I’m thinking about… Tory’s wife Gina, she’s going to be opening the theatre. I’ve been talking to her about working there and -.”
Tom shook his head.
“But honey, why not?”
“It went belly up the last time someone tried to run it. What makes you think it’ll stay open this time?”
“I don’t know. But if this town can support a strip joint why can’t it support a theatre?”
Tom took her hand. “There aren’t very many intellectual people around here, if you haven’t noticed. That’s the reason the bookstore and library didn’t make it.”
“Tom… I just… I’m tired of Colton’s insults and having to take it because we need the money.”
“I know you are.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her. “I’ll talk to him. Just, don’t do anything ill-rational.”
“Gina said it’ll be a couple of months before she’s ready to open.”
“You know the problem?” Tom said, as he moved on top of her.
“What’s that?”
“Colton’s just jealous because he doesn’t have a wife like you.”
“Colton doesn’t have a wife because he’s a jerk,” Sandy replied, rubbing his back.
“So you want the other news?”
“What’s that?”
“I got a letter from Diane.”
“A letter?” Sandy swallowed. “Why didn’t she call?”
“So she wouldn’t have to listen to me blow up.”
“That’s why you’re on top of me telling me this? So I don’t blow up?”
“You might have a little bit of an Irish temper -.”
“I’ve never got mad at you.”
“Yes you have.”
Sandy shook her head. “Irritated, not mad.” Running her fingers up through the back of his hair, she kissed him. “Tom, we really can’t afford any more lawyer bills, you know -.”
“We’re not going too. Not this time, anyway,” Tom said moving beside her.
“What can Diane want that doesn’t take a lawyer?”
“She wants us to take Kaylah and that, kid she had.”
Sandy swallowed. “What’d you tell her?”
“I told her no. If Diane wants to support her and that kid, that’s fine. But I’ve paid her all I’m going too.”
“She can’t take you to court over this?”
“Hell no she can’t. And I gave Kaylah some good advice.”
“You think she’s going to listen to you? Kaylah hasn’t talked to you in what, eleven years?”
“Unless she wants something,” Tom replied. “I told her she needed to give that kid up for adoption and get a job.”
“I bet she liked that.”
“She didn’t, and she’s isn’t. But we work our butts off to make it, and we’re not supporting her and that kid. If we’re going to support a kid it’s going to be ours.”
“Really.” Sandy kissed him, moving on top of him. “You’re thinking about something you’re not telling me?”
“No, I’m not.” Tom brushed her hair back from her face. “We’ve had this discussion before.”
“I know,” Sandy replied and kissed his chest.
“We can’t afford kids. We barely afford us.”
“It’s not quite that bad.”
“Almost.” Tom rolled her over beside him and kissed her. “If you had a kid tomorrow, you know how old we’d be when it graduated high school?”
“I know.” Sandy ran her finger along his cheek down to his lips. “We’re doin’ all right, just the two of us.”
“That’s right, we are.” Tom kissed her. “Now are we going to screw or sleep?”
* * * *
“Colton invited us out to his place for dinner this evening,” Glen said, sitting the coffee mug in the sink. He turned from the sink and looked at Kelly. “He’s grilling some of that elk he shot last week, it ought a be pretty good.”
Kelly rinsed out his coffee cup and sat it back in the sink. “I don’t know. I told you what he said to Sandy,” she said, picking up their dirty plates from the table. “I don’t know if I want to get to be that good of
friends with him, Glen. He really isn’t a very likeable person.” She sat the dishes in the sink.
Glen shrugged, “We’re new in town. We need to mingle with the locals. And Colton’s the most notable person around here.”
Kelly leaned against the counter. “Just because he’s the great white hunter around here and owns half the town doesn’t mean we have to associate with him, does it?”
“I guess not, but -.”
“I know we have to be sociable, but I think it’d be a mistake; getting to be too good of friends with him. There’s good people in this town we can socialize with them besides him.”
“You have someone else in mind?” Glen asked, taking his thermos from beside the sink.
“Sheriff Moratelli and his wife. You’ve been working with him for three months now and we don’t socialize with them any.” She noticed him look inside the thermos.
“Yes we have!”
“It’s clean, I washed it. We haven’t much.”
“We’ve been out to dinner them a few times. The problem is;” he said filling the thermos from the coffee pot, “to go out, we have to drive a hundred miles, unless we’re eating at Colton’s Place. And it really isn’t that good.”
“I could buy some steaks. We could grill out and invite them over.”
Glen nodded as he screwed the top of the thermos on. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“You don’t have coffee at the sheriff’s office?”
“Tom makes to strong.”
“He’s from Chicago.”
“And I’m from New York.”
“Mildred says they’re more like a couple dating then a married couple,” Kelly said looking out the window.
Glen put his arms around her. “Maybe they could teach us something. I told you what Tom said.”
“Yeah.” Kelly turned and looked at him. “Change positions. You really think that’s going to work?”
Glen smiled. “I don’t know, but it sounds like fun trying it. And you never know -.”
“I doubt it. They don’t have any kids.”
“Tom has kids from his first marriage, so they don’t want any more. And I could see what you’d say if I didn’t get you anything for Christmas.”
“What?”
“So what are we going to do about Colton’s offer?”
Kelly frowned. “I suppose dinner can’t hurt anything, as long as we don’t make it a habit.”
“We ought to be thanking him.”
“For what?”
“Giving you a job.” Glen kissed her. “At least we’re a two income family now, which is more than a lot of people can say these days.”
“We’ll survive the depression,” Kelly said, straightening his shirt collar.
“It’s a recession,” he said, kissing her.
“Fancy modernized word for depression.” She looked at the clock. “You’re going to be late for work if you don’t get going.”
“It’s pretty lenient around here compared to Brooklyn.” Glen kissed her neck. “And I think -.”
“It’s totally dead around here compared to Brooklyn. Glen,” she pulled back from him. “We don’t have time for that.”
“We could take a little time. I don’t think Tom would mind if I’m a few minutes late.”
Kelly turned him around and pushed him toward the door. “Will you go? I have work around here to do.”
“I’m going, I’m going!” Glen stopped at the door. “Are you working today?”
“Katie’s working. Now will you go?”
“Yeah. I’ll see ya later.” Shaking his head, Glen walked out the door.
Eight
Glen opened his car door as Tom pulled up. “I was,” he motioned down the road, “on my way in.”
Tom shrugged, “I don’t know that there’s any hurry.”
“That’s’ what I kind of thought, but -.”
“You better stop by that stripper’s place and tell her we found her friend. Ask her if she knows how to contact the family of her and that other one we found?”
“You’re talking about Marla Brewer?”
“Whatever the hell her name is.” Tom looked in the mirror, checking his hair. “And when you talk to her,” he handed him a couple of Polaroid pictures, “ask her who the other one it is.”
Glen looked at the pictures. “I figured you knew all of them, since you’ve arrested all them.”
Tom shrugged, “I don’t know’em, and I don’t plan on getting to know’em. They’re nothing but trouble around here. Sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be.” He put the car in gear. “When you open the office, call the mayor and tell him we didn’t find the Handling girl.”
“When I open the office?”
“I’m on my way to Santa Rosa to talk to the medical examiner and pick up my truck.”
“About the girls we found?”
“Why else would I go a hundred miles to talk to the medical examiner?”
Glen shrugged. “When do you think you’ll be back?”
“In time to pick Sandy up from work.”
“You’re going to be gone all day?”
Tom nodded, “I want to get Sandy something for her birthday. And don’t forget, you’re on this weekend.”
“I remember.”
Tom drove off, rolling up the window as Glen looked after him.
“Today and all weekend,” Glen grumbled, getting in his car. “But then again, what else do I have to do around here? I don’t hunt and Kelly isn’t interested in pro-creation. Not right now anyway.”
* * * *
An old two-story hotel sat on the edge of town. A popular place during the 1800’s, it had been painted white at one time, but now, like most the buildings in town, was bare wood. Red lettering on a sign, barely visible, hung on a steel pipe from the side. The worn lettering read Stagecoach Inn.
Glen pulled up in front of the hotel and looked at it. Over to the side was a long, flat roofed building, painted light yellow with white shutters and a white metal roof, the name on the front of it simply read, ‘The Club’. Beside it, was a small, square house where Frank and Nicole Zingg lived. Painted with the same light, yellow paint with white shutters, it had a white shingled roof.
As a young woman with short, blonde hair came out of one of the down stairs rooms of the old Stagecoach Inn, and started toward The Club, Glen opened the car door. “Excuse me.” He stepped from the car. “I’m looking for Marla Brewer.”
The young woman smiled at him. “I’m Candy. I can help you if you need something.”
“Thanks, but I’m here to talk to Marla about her room-mate, Chila Herendez.”
“Oh, sure.” Candy pointed up at the balcony. “She lives upstairs, room twenty. The numbers are a little hard to read, but it’s the one at the end.”
“Thanks.” Glen watched her walk away then went up to the second floor. Walking to the end he noticed, like the girl said, the numbers were barely visible. He knocked on the door.
“Just a minute,” Marla yelled from inside. A few seconds later the door opened and she stood in front of him dressed in a red robe. “Glen!” Marla expressed surprised. “You found Chila?”
“Yeah, we found her.”
Marla looked past him, out onto the balcony. “Where is she?”
“She… Chila, she was one of the girls we dug up yesterday. I’m sorry, I -.”
“I knew it!” Marla turned away from the door. “I just knew something happened to her.”
Entering the room, Glen looked around. Although the bed was unmade, it was a neatly kept. “I stopped by to see if you have an address for her family, so I can get in touch with them?”
“Family. What family?”
“I don’t know,” Glen shrugged as he closed the door. “I figure she has family somewhere.”
Marla sat on the bed. “Yeah, but I don’t know where they live. I don’t know anything about them. Chila did
n’t talk about them. Not much, anyway.”
“You don’t know their names?”
“I don’t recall her ever saying what their names were. She was ashamed of what she did for a living, being a stripper, and she didn’t want them to know.”
Glen nodded, “I can understand that, but we really need to contact them and let them know she’s dead. Would you look through her things and see if you can find a name or address of someone to contact?”
“Yeah, sure. I can do that.”
Glen reached into his pocket and pulled out the pictures. He put the picture of Chila Herendez on the bottom. “I need to show you this. It isn’t a very pleasant thing to look at but… I need to know if you know this girl. She’s the other one we found.”
Marla swallowed, looking at the pictures in his hand. “How many did you find?”
“Just two.”
She shook her head, “I don’t want to look at it. Just… Can you, just tell me what she looks like and I’ll tell you if I know who she is.”
Glen nodded. He didn’t have to look at it. He could remember what the girl looked like when he helped pull her out of the shallow grave. “She looks like she’s in her late teens, maybe early twenties, brown hair, about five-four, she has a heart tattoo on her right shoulder and there appears to be some discoloration of her skin -.”
“On her forehead, just above her left eye,” Marla said. “She has long bangs so that it’s hard to see.”
Glen nodded. “Yeah.”
“Her name’s Karen. Karen Schuck. I didn’t know her very well. She lived on the lower level. She was from Oklahoma, I think. You can talk to Denise, she’s the bartender. Karen and her shared the same room.”
“Which room?”
“Six.”
“Out of curiosity,” Glen slid the pictures in his pocket, “how is it that you ended up out here, in the middle of nowhere?”
Marla shrugged, “Probably not much different than you. I answered an ad in a paper. Nicole was looking for dancers. When I called and talked to her she made it sound like I would be working in some elegant club. She said it had plush floors and chandeliers. What she didn’t say was the plush floors were sawdust and the chandeliers were made from elk horn.
“Nicole even offered to pay my expenses to get me here and for my first month’s rent.” Marla smiled. “It didn’t sound so bad over the phone.”
“So after the first month, you have to pay for this?”
“Three hundred a month, can you believe it?” Marla motioned around the room. “Not exactly the Holiday Inn, you think? That’s every dollar I make in that hell hole!”
“What about your other expenses, like food and -.”