Blood Defense

TWENTY-SIX

Alex dropped me off at the Tower Bar at ten o’clock, and I got a table by the window. It was a cool, clear night, and the view of the city was downright transporting. I stared out at the sparkling lights and thought about all the ugliness that lay under the cover of darkness.

After the waiter took my order for club soda and lime, I thought about Tonya-the way she’d looked in the group photo and the depth of her grief when she’d spoken about Paige. I had a feeling I knew what her story was.

Fifteen minutes later, Tonya showed up, in jeans and a black sweater, her long, dark hair now down around her shoulders. She ordered a glass of chardonnay. I offered to buy her dinner, but she shook her head. “I ate at the restaurant. I’m good.”

We chatted about Majesty-what the tips were like (really good), what Bernard was like (really douchey)-and then I got down to business. “So I get that you and Paige were pretty close.”

“Um… kind of, yeah.”

It was a quiet night, just four or five occupied tables. The waiter was back with her wine in less than a minute. Tonya took a sip.

“You met her on the job?”

Tonya nodded. “She helped me get hired.”

I was going to wait for her to get a little more lubricated before I played out my hunch. But if she was the type who had a hollow leg, I could be waiting all night. I decided to go for it.

“And you needed her help because you’re underage, aren’t you?” Her eyes widened. She said nothing. “It’s okay. I’m not the cops. You can tell me. How’d you get the fake ID?”

“Paige. She was there when the manager interviewed me. I told him my purse got stolen and I’d lost my ID. He said he couldn’t hire me until I replaced it. I would’ve given up. But Paige caught me on the way out the door and told me she could help.”

When that hunch played out, I knew I was right about the rest of it. “So you’re what, seventeen?”

“I’ll be eighteen in June.” She gave me a rebellious smile as she took another sip of wine.

“Where’d you run from, Tonya?”

She froze. “I d-didn’t. Why are you saying that?”

“Was it your stepdad? Your uncle? Your dad?”

Tonya stared at me for a long moment. Her eyes, wide and frightened, darted around the room. When they came full circle, she looked down at the table and whispered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. And it’s okay. You’re safe.” I waited for her to make eye contact. When she finally did, I continued. “I get what you’ve been through. Don’t worry, this stays between us.” Tonya slowly nodded. “So who was it?”

“My stepbrother.”

I had to fight down the burning flash of anger. I wanted to kill that son of a bitch with my bare hands. Tonya looked down at her wineglass. After a few seconds, she glanced up at me. “So how did you know? Were you-”

“Sorry. Just a sec.” The waiter had arrived. I’d waved him down thinking Tonya had better start drinking some water before she got back in her car. Now I decided I could use a drink myself. I had to calm myself down and refocus. No one realizes how common this shit is. Or how serious the damage. I ordered a glass of pinot noir and a glass of water for Tonya. When he left, I asked, “Did Paige know?”

“Not at first. I never meant to tell her, but one night after we’d been partying, I got pretty wasted and… messed up. It just came out.”

“Were you at Paige’s place?”

“We were that night, but we didn’t hang there much.”

“Did you ever see Dale there?”

“That’s the… cop?” I nodded. “No.”

“Where did you guys hang out?”

“Clubs, like Greystone or Lure. And restaurants. We came here a few times.”

Those were some pricey clubs. And Tower wasn’t exactly a cheap date, either. “Who paid?”

“Paige.” She twisted the stem of her wineglass.

“Did you ever hear her talk about a guy she called Mr. Perfect?”

“Mr. Perfect? No. But I heard that the others told you about the guy on the motorcycle. I saw him drop her off at work a couple of times. She didn’t talk about him much, just said he was an ex but they were kind of still friends.”

But if an ex doesn’t want to be an ex anymore… I’d been focused on Mr. Perfect, but an ex-boyfriend could work just as well. “Do you know his name?” Tonya shook her head. “Can you describe him?”

She gave virtually the same description as the one I’d gotten at the restaurant-right down to the helmet with the flames on the sides. Except she added, “He’s really cute.”

“Did Paige tell you what he did? Was he an actor?” But Tonya didn’t know, and she couldn’t tell me anything else about him.

I took another tack. “You said you hung out at her place sometimes?” She nodded. “Did you ever happen to see her jewelry?”

She shrugged. “Probably, but I don’t remember anything in particular.”

I pulled out the photos of the jewelry that’d been stolen. “By any chance, did you ever see jewelry that looked like this?”

She looked at the photos and her face brightened. “Oh yeah. I had to borrow a T-shirt, and I saw the pieces in her drawer. Seemed weird that she kept them there, buried under everything.”

I’d been right. The jewelry was Paige’s. “Maybe because it was such expensive stuff.”

Tonya’s eyes got huge. “You mean they’re real?”

“Seems so. Did she say where she got them?”

“Just said they were gifts.”

“But not who gave them to her?” Tonya shook her head. We talked a while longer, but I’d gotten all the information she had to give. I motioned for the waiter to bring the check. “Tonya, would you mind showing me your ID?”

“Why?”

“Trust me, okay?”

She took the ID out of her wallet and handed it to me with a wary look.

I studied it with my cell-phone flashlight, then handed it back to her. “This is not a good fake. I don’t know how it fooled your manager.” Though having met that dim-witted prune, I supposed I did. “But trust me, a cop will spot it in ten seconds. Have they talked to you about Paige yet?”

“The cops?”

I nodded.

She shook her head. “They came to the restaurant on my day off.”

“They probably won’t come back, but if they do, stay away.” They’d send her back to the hell she’d run from in a fast second.

Tonya hugged her body and leaned forward. “What if they do get to me?”

I pulled out my card. “Then you call me. You don’t talk to them; you don’t tell them anything. The only thing you say is that you want your lawyer. I don’t care what time it is or where they take you, I’ll be there. Got it?”

Tears sprang into her eyes. She nodded and looked at my card. “Thank you, Ms. Brinkman.”

I leaned in and looked at the card. “Doesn’t it say Samantha on there?”

She gave a little smile and wiped the tears away. “Yeah.”

I slipped her a couple of twenties. “For the ride home.” She started to protest. “Don’t argue with your elders.”

When she’d left, I called Alex. He was my ride.

He answered the phone without preamble. “How’d it go? She give us anything good?”

“A little. Are you close?”

“You might say that.”

I looked up to see Alex walking into the bar. We hung up. “You waited in the other lounge?” He nodded. I told him what I’d learned-about Tonya as well as Paige.

He shook his head. “What a fucked-up world we live in. But now we know for sure what’s up with that jewelry. And Chloe reported it stolen because Paige didn’t want the cops asking her questions about who’d given it to her. You were right.”

“Try not to sound so surprised about that.” Alex gave me a sheepish look. “Anyway, we definitely have to get a line on that motorcycle friend of hers.”

Alex had a confident smile. “Someone’s going to give it to us.”

His confidence made me smile back. “That book of yours say so?”

“Sometimes I just know things.”

“That so?”

He nodded. “I knew you’d take my case. And I knew you’d get me a deal.”

I pushed away my glass of wine, flagged down the waiter, and ordered a real drink.