Ink Flamingos

Chapter 53

So maybe I hadn’t been so off on my original assessment that Ace had something to do with all this. He had access to me and my appointment book. He knew Daisy, how she’d only come to me for a tattoo. Except when she’d gone to Sylvia. Had he known about that, too? Is that why that stencil was tacked up to the wall at Murder Ink?

The question was why. And how was Terri caught up in it? Had he coerced her to do the things she did? Had he romanced her into it?

But why would he kill Daisy? Why would he kill Sherman Potter?

“He’s involved somehow,” Jeff said softly. “I’m sorry.”

I was sorry, too. “He quit, you know.”

Jeff’s head moved so fast, I thought he’d get whiplash. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Said the shop was impeding his creativity. Wants to get his paintings in a gallery.”

“He won’t sell those paintings,” Jeff said. “They’re weird.”

“But galleries like weird,” I countered. I knew that for a fact. From my college days, when I shopped my work around and was told it was too conventional, I should branch out more, experiment a little. That’s when I hooked up with Mickey over at the Ink Spot and started tattooing.

Jeff’s cell phone rang, and he plucked it out of his pocket. “Hello?” he asked, then listened. Finally, he said, “Okay,” and hung up.

“That was Joel. Ann hasn’t left the apartment. He said she’s cleaning it out, bringing stuff down to the Dumpster in the back.”

“So she’s clearing out her sister’s stuff,” I mused. “I wonder if I’ve been wrong about her from the start.”

“But she was with Sherman Potter in that hotel room,” Jeff argued. “And then he was dead. I don’t think she’s completely off the hook.”

It was all too much all of a sudden. My brain flashed on bits and pieces from the last couple of days, and I sank down to the ground, crossing my legs, my head in my hands. I felt Jeff Coleman’s fingers massaging my neck. I didn’t push him away.

“This is a touching scene.”

I lifted my head; Tim was walking toward us. I indicated Terri and Ace, who were now sitting on the edge of a chaise lounge down at the pool, facing away from us. Tim’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Ace?” he asked.

I nodded, wishing fervently it wasn’t so, but with it right there in front of me, I couldn’t deny it.

I scrambled back to my feet. “So what now?” I asked Tim.

“You really think Ace is involved?” he asked, his voice laced with doubt.

I sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t want him involved. But the whole thing about clients saying I was canceling appointments, well, he has access to that.”

“He quit,” Jeff said.

Tim frowned. “What?”

I told him how Ace had quit, his reason.

“Those paintings are awful,” Tim said.

Everyone’s a critic.

I don’t know why, but I felt the need to defend Ace’s work. “He’s sold some,” I said.

Ace and Terri got up then. I could sense Tim and Jeff tense up.

“You’re sure that’s the girl you saw at Cleopatra’s Barge?” Tim asked Jeff. So far Terri and Ace were merely standing poolside.

“She came out of the ladies’ room like that. She had to be the one who was dolled up like Brett.”

He said my first name. I stared at him, but he just frowned back at me, like he didn’t realize.

The world was totally spinning in the wrong direction.

Tim took a step forward. “Stay back here,” he instructed. “I’m going to pretend I ran into them by accident. See what they’ve got to say for themselves.” He looked around. “You might want to hang out by those trees over there.”

Jeff and I sauntered over where he’d indicated as Tim went down to the pool. He approached Ace and Terri, who were clearly surprised to see him. He was good, though; his expression was just as surprised, his face animated with a grin as he shook Ace’s hand like guys tend to do sometimes and listened as Ace introduced him to Terri.

“When this is all over, what do you say, Kavanaugh?” Jeff asked, distracting me.

“About what?”

“You and me. Our thing.”

“We do not have a thing.”

“You’re back to that? That wasn’t just a peck on the cheek back there.”

“You said it was a ruse.”

“Ruse or not, well…” His voice trailed off.

“You caught me by surprise.” I hoped he couldn’t sense that I’d blushed.

“You caught me by surprise,” he whispered, moving closer.

I totally did not have time for this right now. I let my eyes drop, and when I lifted them, I meant to tell him that I wasn’t ready for this. That I didn’t know if I wanted a thing.

Instead, I heard a splash, and we both looked over to the pool. Ace and Terri were dashing toward us; Tim was flailing in the pool. Oops.

Jeff stepped out in front of Ace and Terri, who knocked him to the side, and he fell with an “oomph” at my feet. There was no time to say anything, though, before he jumped up and took off after them.

I stood still, uncertain which way to go. Should I go see how Tim was, or should I go with Jeff after Ace and Terri?

My instinct told me to go after Jeff and Ace. That was where the answers lay.

But I’d hesitated too long.

I felt a hand wrap itself around my arm.

“Fancy meeting you here.”