“You’re right.”
“The magic words. Now teach my boyfriend how to pronounce them.”
When she left again, I said, “Even if Enid’s renting, she probably pays for some utilities under her own name.”
He groaned. “So damn obvious — too late to call the power companies, I’ll try in the morning.” Pizza vanished down his gullet, washed down with the second whiskey and iced tea. “Any other wisdom you’d care to share? Pick your topic — including my horoscope.”
“You feeling out of cosmic alignment?”
“The oracle in the paper says it’s my month to be charming and sociable but I ain’t feeling it.”
I smiled, though I wasn’t feeling it, either. Plagued by the intrusive thought I couldn’t shake.
No matter what had happened to three women, an eleven-year-old boy was out there somewhere.
One way or the other.
I finished the lousy beer, augmented with water because I’d be drinking wine with Robin. Lots of it.
Chapter 28
My head still throbbed and my eyes were gritty when my private line rang at eleven twenty-five the following morning.
Milo said, “No dice. She pays for gas, electric, and water in Bel Air, but nowhere in the desert. On the off chance she goes through Loach, I did call the assistant. Guess what: Britnee’s not working there anymore and her replacement’s a temp who came across brain-dead.”
I said, “Too chatty and the boss found out?”
“I’m definitely going to connect with her. I also talked to Lorrie about an Alicia — Imelda romance thing. She says no way, Imelda was religious and conservative. But you never know. Bottom line: Enid made up a story and it’s bothering me more than it did yesterday. She wasn’t a suspect. Why lie?”
“People overreach when they’re nervous.”
“Exactly and I’m also liking your idea about liability. Her level of money could cause someone to do all sorts of things.”
“Covering her assets.”
He laughed. “In terms of a loony lurker, before I got to the office, I did a drive-by on St. Denis and neighboring streets, talked to a few residents and maids walking froufrou dogs. Everyone’s happy in 90077. One guy even thanked me for doing my job. Just to make sure, I combed through a year’s worth of incident reports in the entire old Bel Air area. A few burglaries but nothing psycho and the only prowler complaint was a bogus call from a spurned wife when her husband showed up to get his golf clubs.”
“Busy morning.” I popped my third Advil.
“The best kind,” he said. “I also located Britnee. Axed, disgruntled, and saying so on Facebook. I sent her a like on her rant, asked if she’d talk to me. She answered right away with a whole bunch of happy emoticons. She lives in the Fairfax area, likes modern dance and Thai food. Can’t do anything about the former but I found a place on Melrose. Couple of hours. That work for you?”
Britnee Leah Fauve was twenty-five, tall, leggy, blond with pink streaks, alluring in body-hugging black.
“Asshole,” she said, chopsticking a nugget of shrimp into a perfectly glossed mouth. “I didn’t deserve that.”
Milo said, “Mr. Loach.”
“Mr. Roach. He is a damn bug. Kept looking at my butt when he thought I couldn’t see but barely spoke to me. It’s like I was... decoration. I never got why he even needed an assistant, he’s in the office like once a week and doesn’t do much when he is there. I figured it would happen soon.”
“Getting fired?”
“Getting hit on. Didn’t have to deal with that on the job I had before. Then she died. My first boss.”
“Also a law firm?”
“No way, dental office. Dr. Regina Korovnick, DDS, old Russian lady, never smiled but all business. I started working for her right out of the U., was there for two years. Not exactly what I wanted for a career, I was a theater arts major. But if you don’t have a trust fund... Dr. Korovnick gave me responsibility. I ran her entire front office and if I worked late one day, she’d give me time off for an audition when I needed it.”
“Nice setup.”
“Then she had a stroke and the office closed down and I had nothing for four straight months, then I got stuck with him. His HR assholes put me on sixty days probation at sixty percent pay, no health plan. On day fifty-nine — three days ago — they ditched me. It’s a scam. You get peons to work cheap then ditch ’em. My boyfriend’s pre-law, he says I should sue.”
She looked at us for confirmation.
I said, “Did Loach give a reason for letting you go?”
“Loach never said anything, it came through the damn HR. Email. At night when they knew I wouldn’t see it until morning. Don’t come in tomorrow, we’ll be sending you a severance check for one week. Which so far they haven’t.”
“Not nice,” said Milo.
“You think?” She sipped water. “Looking back maybe I should’ve expected it. Something happened the week before. I didn’t think it would come back and bite me but obviously it did.”
She picked at her food.
Milo said, “What happened, Britnee?”
Putting her chopsticks down, she gave a theatrical sigh and aimed deep-blue eyes at us. “It was kind of gross. Not that they shouldn’t be able to do it, I don’t discriminate against anyone. But be discreet, okay?”
“They being...”
“Old people. As a group, I’ve got no problem with them. I respected Dr. Korovnick. I respected and loved my nana, she was awesome. I’m just saying... you want me to go into it? Maybe it’d help with a lawsuit?”
Milo said, “We kinda need to know what you’re referring to.”
“Okay. Here’s the deal. Last week, I got a call from downstairs to pick up a whole bunch of papers Loach had requested, Xerox and collate and staple and bring them back. Tons of paper, boring stuff — real estate laws, I think. As usual, he wasn’t in the office, I’d been doing my typical sit around and wait. So why would I assume? It took a while, the first copy machine had a jam, but I finally finished and brought the stuff back up and knocked on his office door and went in. Expecting no one, a formality, you know?”
Her smile was sudden, sly. “Unfortunately... oh, man, that was some scene.”
“Loach was there...”
“Him and a woman,” said Britnee Fauve. “An old woman, maybe even older than him. And they — you really want to hear this? Hey, why not?” She licked her lips. “What I see when I go in is him standing in front of his desk and she’s down on her knees in front of him. His face turns red and he makes this little squawky noise and she gets up real quick. I dropped the papers on the floor and bailed.”
Milo said, “Caught in the act. Talk about awkward.”
“It’s crazy, right? You’re in the mood for some head, why wouldn’t you lock the door? Sean — my boyfriend — says that’s contributory negligence, I have a solid case.”
I said, “Loach sure put you in a tough situation.”
“It’s always that way, right? You catch someone at something and they end up blaming you because they feel crappy about it. That’s how it was with my boyfriend before Sean.” She pondered. “Sean’s different.”
Milo said, “Catching someone being naughty and getting blamed for it. Kinda sounds like police work, Britnee.”
“Yeah, I guess so... I was grossed out and went to Starbucks and didn’t come back the rest of the day. They’re probably using that against me. Can you blame me for not wanting to be around when he finally came out of the office? Hi, boss, enjoy getting your knob polished by some GILF in Chanel? I mean, yuck, gross.”
“Had you seen the woman before?”