I said, “Marjorie said he was pretty direct, just came out and asked.”
“At first, I thought it was gross. Like, are you kidding? But the way he did it made it not gross.”
“How so?”
“Not pushy, kind of… friendly. Des made it all real friendly.”
Her foot rested on mine. Pressure just short of pain. I slid away. She smiled.
“Was it a onetime thing, or did-”
“Seven times for me. Lucky seven.”
Bettina Sanfelice gasped.
“I know I told you three, Teen. Didn’t want to freak you out but it was seven. Now you’re gonna ask why wasn’t it eight? I don’t know, it just kind of stopped. Like he’d become my brother or something.”
I said, “Too friendly.”
“Yup.”
“Did Des take you anywhere in particular?”
“Coffee,” she said. “Sometimes food.” Back to caressing my shoe with her sneaker. “Afterward.”
“Was there a particular place for before?”
She faced me. “You really are personal. No, there wasn’t any one place. He took me to sites.”
“Building sites?”
“He just called them sites. Like unfinished buildings, or sometimes there was just dirt, sometimes parts of buildings. When there was just dirt, he had a blanket in his car. Basically, he got off doing it outdoors. A lot of people do.”
I said, “Where were these sites?”
“I don’t know the street, it was dark… they were all in the Valley-is that where he got killed? In the Valley?”
“No,” I said.
“Well, with me it was always in the Valley. He’d pick me up at my apartment, say he had a new site.”
Bettina Sanfelice mumbled unintelligibly.
Sheryl Passant said, “Now you can tell them about Des and you.”
I said, “I think we know enough.”
“You said it was two, Teen. Remember what I said when you told me that? Two for the road. You said he took you to sites, also.”
Sanfelice whimpered.
I said, “We’re fine, Tina-”
Passant reached across the table for her friend’s hand. “Chill, Teen, no one’s going to tell your mom. They don’t care about us, they care about who killed Des.”
“Any ideas about that?”
Both women shook their heads.
I said, “Marjorie Holman told us she and Des had a one-night stand. Do you think that’s true?”
Passant said, “Could be, she’s old and baggy.”
“How did you guys come to be discussing Des?”
“We all had been drinking, you drink, you talk.”
“It wasn’t a business meeting?”
“That’s what she called it. The Notz. Guess it was, because there wasn’t any business-it wasn’t like a real job, you know?”
“No assignments.”
“We just came in every day and mostly sat around except when the Nazi wanted to talk about stuff no one understood. One day, she came in and said, ‘There’s no coherence, we need coherence.’”
Sanfelice said, “Cohesiveness. ‘There’s no cohesiveness.’”
“Means the same, Teen. Anyway, Helga-notz said we need to have something social to get co-hesiveness, so we went out for drinks.”
“Just the women,” I said.
“Girls’ night out. Gerrrrls’ niyett ote. Like it had been something she’d heard in a chick movie or something, like she had been trying to be American, you know? But what the hey, she’s paying, why not? She found a place near the airport, you heard planes coming in, they served these humongous margaritas. Remember those glasses, like for a plant, Teen?” Rubbing my leg for emphasis.
“How’d the topic turn to Des Backer?”
“It had just kinda happened. You remember how, Teen?”
Head shake.
Passant said, “I guess we had been talking about stuff and that started it to talking about guys. And that started it to talking about it being a girls’ night out. And that started to someone saying I wonder how Des would have liked this, being with all these girls.”
“Who said that?”
Bettina Sanfelice said, “Sheryl.”
“I did?”
“Yes.”
Passant grinned. “If she says I said it, then I said it. I was pretty much happy-time happy. I don’t worry about what people think, anyway, always just say what’s in my head.”
I said, “So you brought up Des and-”
“And everyone piled on. Like Truth or Dare without the dare.”
“Everyone piled on except Helga.”
“Everyone with a beating heart.”
I said, “What did Helga do during the discussion?”
“Sat back and listened. I started and told them about Des and me and then Tina broke in and said, ‘I was with him, too.’ Now, that had freaked me out because Tina had always been the shy one and she’d never told me nothing.” To her friend: “Nothing like four margaritas to get truth past the dare, huh? Go, girl.”
Sanfelice stared at the table.
I said, “So Marjorie Holman spoke last.”
“It was almost like she had been feeling left out, you know? Wanted to be young. Like us, younger and hotter and doing it with Des.”
“Still, she was your boss. That was pretty uninhibited.”
“She drank more than anyone and she wasn’t the real boss, anyway. Helga was. And the way she said it-Marjorie-was weird. Not coming out, more like a… something weird.”
Bettina Sanfelice said, “She said, ‘That experience is common to yours truly, as well.’ When I figured it out, it really shocked me, Ms. Holman always seemed so stern.”
Passant said, “Stern with her legs wide open. And she even got into more details.” Winking. “She said he did her standing up behind a trailer. Facing her, it was real friendly, almost like they were having a conversation, except they weren’t.”
Bettina Sanfelice said, “She made it sound like his being inside her was a surprise.”
The three of us stared at her.
She burst into tears. Retched and slapped her hand to her mouth and motioned frantically with the other. Milo scooted out and she ran to the bathroom.
Sheryl Passant said, “She always had a bad stomach.”
I said, “She said the same about you.”
“Me? No way. I’ve liked chili and spicy my whole life.”
“After Marjorie told you about Des, what else did she say?”
“Nothing. She just shut up and drank some more. We had to sit there a long time until she could drive. Helga left first, me and Tina and Ms. Holman sat there looking at each other, like no one had anything to say anymore. There was CSI: Miami on a big plasma and we just watched then we all drove home.”
“What happened the next day?”
“What do you mean?”
“No mention of the discussion?”
“Nope.” Her hand dropped to fool with her napkin, again. This time she lingered at my crotch.
I shifted away. “I’m going to make sure Bettina’s okay.”
“Don’t bother, she’s okay-all right, fine, but she’s really okay.”
It took nine minutes for Sanfelice to emerge from the ladies’ room. Her steps were wobbly and her eyes were raw. When she saw me, she gasped.
“You all right?”
“I’m terrible,” she said. “That was terrible.”
“Sorry. I didn’t intend for it to get that detailed-”
“With Sheryl it would have to. She likes to show off. Her dad’s a drunk and he beat her mom all the time, Sheryl never did well in school and her mom died a few years ago. My mom says she’s a slut but she’s had it hard.”
Glancing toward the booth. “You won’t tell my mom, right?”
CHAPTER 8
Passant and Milo weren’t talking. Passant looked bored.
When Bettina Sanfelice settled back in, Milo said, “A woman died with Des-”
“Omigod-”
“-and I’ve got a picture of her. It’s not disgusting or bloody, but it was taken after death. Can you handle looking at it?”