I nodded. “You were just sitting with Gar’s family. Did anyone indicate they knew her?”
“Uh-uh. They weren’t talking much. Pretending like it didn’t happen, you know? Gar’s dad did go on a bit about how much it cost and now look what happened, and Gar’s sister — the married one — was saying she was pissed she couldn’t bring her kids but now turned out that was a blessing.”
We waited.
Leanza Cardell said, “That’s it, really.”
I said, “Did Amanda have anything to say?”
“Her? The freak? She reads,” said Leanza Cardell. “Brears warned me about her.”
“Warned you about what?”
“Her being a psycho freak. Autistic like, what do they call it, spectral? You just met her, she’s weird, right? Brears didn’t want to invite her to the bachelorette in Vegas but she had to. Thank God she didn’t come. Said she had a test. Wasn’t nice about it.”
“Rude.”
“Not answering the e-vite, not answering Brears’s calls. Finally, the day of she emails, like, ‘got a test.’ Every time I’ve seen her, she’s reading. I mean come on.”
I said, “Speaking of the bachelorette, anything interesting happen?”
She flushed scarlet. “No, it was great.” Loss of volume on the last two words. Her eyes slid to the right and back.
Milo said, “Lee, if there’s something that could relate to this murder, we need to know.”
Fingers knotted around flame-colored hair. Pale knuckles.
“Lee?”
“No, no, nothing like that, it was — the usual.”
I smiled. “Never been to a bachelorette so don’t know what the usual is.”
She squirmed. Satin squeaked. “You know. We ate and drank and had... you know, male dancers.”
“Any conflict — fights among the girls?”
“No, we were — it was all about the party.”
White knuckles as her lips moved. Again, she glanced to the side.
I said, “Did Brears do anything that might’ve gotten her into trouble with someone?”
Leanza Cardell’s head dipped toward her satin lap. “I really don’t want to talk about this. It’s not fair.”
“To who?”
“Brears. She’s entitled to her... time on the runway.”
“Stardom.”
“Yeah, it was supposed to be her big day.”
I said, “So what, the party was an intro to the big day?”
“Well...” Grimace. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Milo said, “Someone was murdered, Lee. If you know anything—”
“I don’t. It had nothing to do with it.”
“What’s it, Lee?”
“Nothing.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” she repeated. “Dancers are nothing to anyone, they’re like... they’re... no one even knew anyone’s name, okay? It’s not like the two of them had an affair, just a quickie—”
She clamped her hand over her lips. “Omigod I’m such a...” Wet eyes.
Milo said, “There was some fooling around. A dancer and Brears.”
“You never heard that from me. It’s not important!” She began crying.
I said, “We’re not here to judge.” One of the baldest lies I’ve ever told.
“I’ve messed up everything!”
“You haven’t, Lee. Really.” I placed a hand on hers. Warm, slightly moist flesh. A body maintained on simmer.
She looked at me. “Really? You’ll forget about it?”
“If there really was nothing more than some fooling around.”
“There really wasn’t, sir — Alex. I swear to you. We don’t even know their names, everyone wears masks, no one knows anybody or anything.” She looked around, panicked. Lowered her head again and said something inaudible.
“What’s that, Lee?”
“Ma fau.”
“Your fault?”
Mournful nod.
“For...”
“Not stopping it. He asked me first, picked me out and said I was hot, it would be fun. I said no way.”
“You opted out. Nothing wrong with that, Lee.”
“That’s what I thought!” Squeezing my fingers.
I said, “Brears thought differently.”
“It was supposed... I thought... I figured it would just be—” She stroked air. Placed a hand behind her head and pushed down. “I should’ve done it to save her. I just wanted to stay classy!”
I said, “You took care of yourself, Lee. Nothing to be ashamed of, just the opposite.”
“But I should’ve protected her. She already had drank way way too much, she had these cocktails... I should’ve, I mean I tried, told her don’t do it but she laughed and then she’s getting up pulling her dress down so her you-knows are all exposed and then he’s taking her hand...” More tears. “They actually did it. I couldn’t believe it, they did it. And everyone’s cheering.”
“Then it was over,” I said.
“Don’t judge her. Please. That’s how she is.”
“Determined.”
She sniffed. “Yeah. She always gets her way. Always.”
Milo produced a tissue and Leanza dabbed her eyes. We questioned her gently, going over the same ground, probing for new info. She said, “Uh-uh, I swear that’s everything. And no way the party is important.”
I said, “How many girls were there?”
“Why? You’re not going to talk to them — please, I don’t want them to know I told!”
Milo looked at me. If we needed to find out, we could.
He said, “Sure. Big party?”
“No, just girls who’re close. Four, okay? But no one would ever tell. Because... some of them also.” Looking down. “Actually, everyone got into it. It was crazy. Except me.” Looking down. “I had my period. Also, I didn’t want to.”
She ruffled her hair. “Totally crazy, we had masks. No one was themselves. Except me. And I was the one who felt weird.”
She tottered as she stood. Milo said, “How’re you getting home?”
“Uber.”
“Okay, be careful.”
“I will, sir.”
Staggering off.
Milo rubbed his face. “Girls gone wild with a bunch of hired studs. The groom finds out, I can see an excellent motive for strangling the bride but not some third party. And there’s no indication the groom did find out. From what I’ve seen he’s still basking in the glow of oblivious love.”
He laughed. “Poor sap. Probably happens more often than we think.”
I said, “His family doesn’t know, either. If they did, they’d have tried to stop the wedding.”
“Mean Amanda would’ve loved that narrative.”
“Amanda attending the bachelorette would probably have kept things tame.”
“Chastity belt on legs?” He laughed. “I guess I could talk to the other girls at the party but if it turns out not to be relevant, I’ve made things even worse for these poor kids and their families.”
“Agreed,” I said. “At this point, best to be discreet.”
He laughed. “Put otherwise, I remain stuck at ground zero.”
We left the building and stepped out into cool night air soured by gasoline and garbage.
I said, “How long since this place was a strip club?”
“Back to the dancer thing?”
“She’s a good-looking young woman who knew where the upstairs bathroom was.”
“Or like Leanza she just had bladder issues, went looking, and lucked out.”