“That’s Meredith Assawaroj! The clerk at the Ace High! I saw her photo in one of the newspaper accounts of the shooting!”
“She’s a naughty girl,” Sandy said. “Not to mention, we had to pay twenty bucks to get this site up, and I’ll be getting porn spam for the next year on this computer. I hope it’s worth it.”
“It’s disgusting. Look at that!”
“I wish Willis hadn’t.”
“Did Wish say anything else?”
“He just said to have a look. He interviewed her and he was following up.” Meredith had her hands full with the dog.
“She still works at the Ace High,” Sandy said. “You have court at three.”
“What’s the weather prediction?”
“Eighteen inches of snow.”
“I wish Bob were home. He’d be excited. Did you send the copies of the tape and the napkin to Mick?”
“He wants five hundred dollars to grant you his wisdom.”
“Grr. Fine. I’ll make out the check.”
The plows were out, but the boulevard still had several inches of fresh powder and the snow kept coming, straight down on this windless dark day. Though it was only noon, Christmas lights strung merry colors along the way. Few cars were out.
Meredith sat in the overheated motel office, reading a Thai newspaper. The lipstick was still red. She had a complicated arrangement of piercings in her ears and a pointed chin. She jumped to her feet and said, “Welcome to the Ace High. How may we serve you?”
Nina gave her a business card. Her face closed.
“I can’t talk now. I’m on duty.”
“When someone comes in, I’ll stop.”
“I already talked to your boy.” She meant Wish. “I don’t know anything.”
“Are you still posing for porn photos?” Nina said. Meredith’s eyes veiled and her expression hardened.
“So what?” she said. “You want to buy one? You can’t blackmail me. It’s totally legal. My lawyer said so.”
“Does Mr. Bova know about it?”
Meredith laughed. “He loves them. Why are you here, bugging me? Go away.”
Nina stood her ground. She was five feet three, but Meredith was at least three inches shorter and quite a bit younger. It was nice to have a physical advantage for once, but Meredith wasn’t the kind of girl who responds well to pressure. “Okay,” Nina said, “I can’t put any pressure on you. I didn’t mean to sound accusatory.”
“Brittney” folded her arms. “You’re damn straight.”
“How about if I buy you lunch?”
“Why? You don’t care about me. Nobody does.”
“I won’t ask you any questions. Let’s just have lunch.”
“You’ll just hassle me.”
Nina shrugged. “I’m hungry, and I want to eat well, and I don’t have anyone to eat with.” Meredith didn’t buy that, but she seemed to like the idea of having lunch bought for her.
“Where?” she said.
“You pick.”
“It’s snowing.”
“The heater in my truck works fine. I’ll drop you back here.”
“You’re buying?”
“Damn straight,” Nina said with a smile.
Meredith said, “You want to buy me lunch at the Summit restaurant, I’ll go.”
“Why not?” Nina said.
“I have to set up the answering service.” She did that, and put on a furry coat. She wore black leggings and ankle boots. She kept casting sideways glances at Nina that said, You’re a fool.
It was a long shot, a whim really, but Nina had a feeling.
“I don’t really have a lawyer,” Meredith said over her halibut. She drank some wine and dabbed at her lips. “I always wanted to come to this place.”
“Mind if I ask how old you are?” Nina said.
“Twenty-six.”
“Were you raised in the mountains?”
“You know I wasn’t. You know I still have an accent. I was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand.”
“Oh,” Nina said. “I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place.”
“No snow there. I can’t believe how hard it’s snowing. It scares me. But we’ll have so much business from the snowboarders. We get a lot of people from England and France and Germany.”
Nina added some olive oil to her salad.
“What are those little green balls on your salad?”
“Capers. They’re-you know, I’m not sure what they are.”
“So do you despise me? Because of the photos on the Web? You don’t think I really gave permission for those things to be in every bedroom in America, do you?”
“Is that why you’re eating lunch with me?” Nina said. “Because you need a lawyer to help you get those photos off the Web?”
“What are my chances? The creep is my ex-boyfriend, of course. He’s in Bangkok.”
“Did he take the photos?” Nina asked.
“Every one. He set it up. He brought the dog. My boss-Mr. Bova-doesn’t really know.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“It wasn’t like that. It was a joke at the time.”
“When did he post the photos?”
“Over a year ago.”
“Did he use your real name anywhere?”
“No, he used the Brittney name.”
“We found the site by Googling your real name.”
“God damn it!” For such a small girl, she spoke with a lot of force.
Nina stabbed a small tomato and said, “I’m sorry, Meredith. If he were in California, even somewhere in the U.S., maybe I could do something.”
Meredith finished her wine. “I think I’ll tell my cousin back home. I’m mad enough to confess to him. My cousin will take care of it. This is good food. Could I see a dessert menu?”
She chose crème brûlée with a drizzle of raspberry syrup. “It upsets my stomach, but so what.” Nina watched her eat, drank her coffee, and let her talk. Snow fell from the sky, and another day in her life was passing. Meredith wasn’t going to solve the case for her. She relaxed and started thinking about the two cords of wood due to be delivered on Saturday, and that it would take her days to stack it without Bob.
“I have to get back.”
Nina got out her credit card.
“I still don’t know why you did this,” Meredith said when they were back in the Bronco with the heater on, compacting snow with the studded snow tires as they moved slowly down the street on their way back to the Ace High. “I told you I wouldn’t say anything.”
“It’s all right,” Nina said. “You already told the truth. No need to make you tell it over and over.”
Meredith pulled down the visor and applied lipstick. “I like my job. I need it.”
Nina kept her eyes on the road, nodded.
“You’re making me feel bad.”
“Why?”
“There is something I didn’t tell, because I’ll lose my job.”
Nina stopped the Bronco right in front of the office.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?”
Nina said, “Yes. But I have no way of finding out, except if you decide to tell me.”
Meredith grabbed her purse. “Well, I can’t!”
“Suit yourself. Door’s unlocked.”
The girl flung it open and snow immediately drifted in. Jumping down, she said, “Bye.”
And then she paused.
“I owe you now. You were nice to me. I’m really not what you think I am.”
“It’s all right.”
Meredith leaned her head back into the cab and said, “When I heard the shots, I ran out of the cafe, across the lot, and around the corner to the vending machine by the office. The husband was halfway down the stairs, yelling. I didn’t see the robber. But I did pick up something. Stay here.”
She ran into the office and a minute later came out with a plastic grocery bag. The Bronco door on her side was still wide open. She set the bag on Nina’s seat and said, “So look. I didn’t know the lady had been shot or I never would have taken it. I couldn’t sell it when I learned she was dead.”
Nina opened the bag and saw a blue-steel revolver.
“No lecture,” Meredith said with a warning tone in her voice. She had the sullen, frightened look of a child about to be spanked.