The Cold Nowhere

40

‘I got a head start,’ Brooke told Maggie, holding up a glass of white wine that was nearly empty. ‘This is my second glass. I’m already a little buzzed.’

Maggie slid into the booth beside her. ‘I’ll catch up.’

They were at Black Woods on the north end of London Road. It was Brooke’s favorite spot. Maggie found her eyes drawn to an empty table for two near the window. She knew from her investigation that it was the table where Kim Dehne had spent Saturday evening with Cat. Her last evening.

‘Bad day?’ Brooke asked, watching the frown on Maggie’s face.

‘I have an uncanny knack for screwing up my life.’

Brooke pushed her straight blonde hair back behind her ear. ‘Don’t we all?’

The waitress brought Maggie a matching glass of Pinot Grigio, and Maggie finished half the glass with her first swallow. ‘I started the day by accusing my boss of murder.’

Brooke choked on a slice of pepper-seared ahi. ‘What?’

‘I saw a video of one of Cat’s sessions with Roslak,’ Maggie said. ‘He tried to bring her back to the night her parents were killed. She made it sound like someone was there when Marty killed Michaela. That Marty didn’t necessarily pull the trigger on himself.’

‘That’s crazy.’

‘Yeah, well, I let my mouth get ahead of my brain and asked Stride whether he did it. Stupid. Mostly, I’m just pissed off at him. Plus, Serena’s back in town. That doesn’t help.’

‘Big surprise,’ Brooke said. ‘You had to see that coming.’

‘I know. It shouldn’t bug me, but it does. I’m letting it get in the way of my new thing, too.’

‘Yes, I hear you’re dating a cop,’ Brooke said, but when she saw Maggie slam down her glass of wine, she blanched. ‘I’m sorry, babe, is that supposed to be a secret? Because everyone knows.’

‘Damn that Guppo,’ Maggie said. ‘Do you remember Ken McCarty?’

‘Sure.’

‘He and I have been hooking up.’

Brooke’s face registered her disapproval. ‘I’m not trying to interfere, but you don’t exactly have a winning track record with men.’

‘No, you’re right.’ Maggie finished her wine just as the waitress brought a second glass. ‘Listen, I need your help on something. We’re hearing about an upper-crust prostitution ring in the city. Guys with money. Kind of like the Nice Guys ring in Minneapolis a few years back. You know, lawyers and execs who are willing to pay for high-end girls.’

‘Not too many high-end girls at my place,’ Brooke said.

‘I’m thinking about college girls who need the money,’ Maggie told her. ‘Anyone like that drop in for an STD test?’

‘Sure, but most of them don’t give us a name.’

Maggie frowned. ‘How about Lowball Lenny? Any rumors about him paying for upscale girls?’

‘Lenny?’ Brooke seemed genuinely shocked. ‘Where did you hear his name?’

‘He hosted a party on the Frederick. Cat was there, along with some other girls. Paid companionship.’

‘Yeah, I knew about the party. The girls were talking about it last week. I didn’t hear Lenny’s name. I can’t believe he’d risk getting caught up in a scandal like that.’

‘The cock wants what the cock wants,’ Maggie said.

‘Why the interest?’ Brooke asked. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Margot Huizenfelt may have been digging into this prostitution ring when she disappeared.’

‘And you think she got too close?’

‘Maybe. Except now we have a new problem.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Dory Mateo,’ Maggie said.

Brooke put her glass down, and her brow furrowed with concern. ‘Dory? What about her?’

‘I found a knife in her room that was used in one of the murders last weekend.’

Brooke’s long, slim fingers covered her mouth. ‘Oh, my God, no.’

‘She was also one of the last people to see Margot alive.’

‘Dory’s not a murderer,’ Brooke said.

‘Then why is she running? She left the Seaway in a big hurry. No one’s seen her since.’

‘I–I saw Dory last night. She was scared. She thought someone was coming after her.’

Maggie scowled at Brooke. ‘Why the hell didn’t you call me?’

‘She was strung out. I didn’t believe her. She wasn’t making any sense.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She heard about Margot disappearing. She was afraid she was next.’

‘Next? Why?’

Brooke hesitated. ‘I can’t — I can’t say. Dory’s my friend.’

Maggie curled her fingers tightly around Brooke’s wrist. The woman’s skin was warm, and her pulse raced. ‘Brooke, if you think you’re protecting Dory, you’re not. You’re just making it worse.’

‘I’m telling you, she was paranoid because of the drugs. She had it in her head that Margot disappeared because of something Dory told her. I told Dory she was wrong. There was no connection. There couldn’t be, not after all this time.’

‘What did Dory tell Margot?’ she asked.

‘I shouldn’t say anything. It’s not my place. You need to ask her about it.’

‘Goddamn it, Brooke, I’m asking you. What did Dory tell Margot?’

Brooke stared at the table. Her pretty face was beet red. ‘It was years ago. It has nothing to do with today. Dory hated herself for it.’

‘Tell me.’

‘It was just before her sister was killed,’ Brooke said. ‘Dory needed money for drugs. She was desperate. He knew she’d do anything for cash, so he — he paid her for sex. She never forgave herself.’

‘Who? Who paid her?’

‘Marty,’ Brooke said. ‘It was Marty. Dory slept with him.’

*

The footsteps led away from her window. Where they ended, Cat saw Dory in the middle of the lawn. She held a cigarette in one hand, and her other hand was wrapped around her stomach. The smoke from the cigarette mingled with the steam she exhaled into the cold air.

Cat squirmed out of the bedroom window and dropped to the ground. The snow was slick under the rubber soles of her slippers. She slid like a skier across the lawn to her aunt and threw her arms around her.

‘Dory! I’m so glad you’re okay!’

Dory hugged her back limply, and Cat saw that her aunt’s face was as pale as the snow, with tears making icy streaks on her cheeks. Dory’s eyes were bloodshot. Her entire body trembled.

‘Oh, my God, what’s wrong?’ Cat asked.

Dory’s lips had trouble forming the words. Her voice slurred. ‘I had to talk to you.’

‘You’re freezing, come inside.’

‘No! I’m going away. It’s better for you if I leave town for good.’

‘Are you kidding? Don’t talk like that, Dory.’

Dory put her bare hands on Cat’s cheeks, and her fingers were cold and wet. A sad, crooked smile played on her aunt’s face. ‘I wanted to see you before I left.’

‘Please come inside. Let me help you.’

‘No. I can’t.’

Cat’s heart filled with worry. ‘Dory, you didn’t do something bad, did you? Tell me you didn’t. They found a knife in your room. It was covered in blood.’

‘A knife? In my room?’

‘It was the knife that killed the woman I was with. Did you — did you hurt her?’

‘I didn’t! Cat, how could you think that?’

Dory held out her hands to embrace her, but Cat recoiled. All she could see in her head was the image of the knife. And blood. Blood everywhere. Blood making a spider on the floor. It was so vivid that her stomach churned, as if she were about to be sick.

‘You have to believe me, I didn’t!’ Dory insisted. ‘I would never put you in danger. You know that. The only thing I’ve ever wanted is to protect you. To rescue you. That’s what Michaela would want.’

‘But Dory, the knife-’

‘Someone put it there! Someone was in my room waiting for me. That’s why I ran.’

Cat wanted to believe her. She’d sworn to Stride and Serena that Dory was innocent, but she would have said that even if it weren’t true. Dory was her only family. You didn’t betray family. If they needed your life, you gave it to them.

‘If you didn’t do anything, then tell Stride what happened,’ Cat said. ‘If you run, he’ll think you’re guilty.’

‘It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks. I just want to get as far from this place as I can. Somewhere warm. Somewhere where the past doesn’t exist anymore.’

‘What about me?’ Cat asked. ‘You’d leave me alone? What would I do without you?’

Dory held out a hand. ‘Come with me.’

‘What?’

‘Come with me. Listen to me, Catalina. The two of us, we can go together. We’ll be safe. No one will ever find us. Can’t you see it, you and me starting over? It would be like nothing ever happened before. We can forget all the people who have hurt us. Forget them! Like they never existed!’

Go away. Escape for ever.

Cat wanted to say yes. A fresh start, a new life, sounded like paradise. She wanted to leave now, without another thought. They could live in a place where William Green didn’t matter. Where Vincent didn’t matter. Where the things she had done didn’t matter.

The trouble was, she knew there was no such place.

She also knew that she had a new life already. Inside her.

‘Dory, I can’t leave. I need to stay here. I’m pregnant. I’m going to have a baby.’

Her aunt’s mouth fell open, half in shock, half in fear. Cat had no illusions about Dory. She wasn’t strong. For something like this, she was little more than a butterfly in a hurricane.

‘Well, I could help you,’ Dory said without a glimmer of conviction.

‘I know you could,’ Cat lied, ‘but this is my choice, not yours. I have to do this myself.’

She could see relief in her aunt’s face. ‘If that’s what you want.’

‘It is, but I wish you’d stay. I want you close.’

Dory shook her head. ‘No, you’re better off without me. Especially now. I just came here to tell you something.’

‘What is it?’

Dory’s fists squeezed open and shut. She looked as if she were trying to drag words out of her chest. ‘It’s about your father,’ she said. ‘He was shit. He was nothing but shit. I know you don’t like me to talk like that, but I’m sorry, it’s true.’

Cat’s face clouded over. ‘Stop it, Dory.’

‘No! No, you have to hear this. I have to tell you. Marty always said I was the one who turned Michaela against him. He said I was poison. He loved it when the drugs took over my life. When I dropped out, when everything went to hell, he’d come by to laugh and tell me how worthless I was.’

Cat said nothing.

‘That winter, that last winter, Marty came by in the night. I was at the end of my rope, Catalina. No money. No food. I was curled up in a ball like a little baby, and all I could think about was how was I going to get more drugs. That was the only thing I cared about. He stood there and he called me names. He said I was the most pathetic person on the planet, and I was. I was. He said he would give me money. Five hundred dollars! Cash! I needed that money, bonita, you have to understand, I needed it. All I had — all I had to do …’

Dory crushed her hands against the sides of her temples, as if she could squeeze the memory out of her brain.

‘He made me … I mean, I had to let him … I had to let him …’

‘You whored yourself with my father.’

‘I’m so sorry! God, Catalina, I’ve carried it with me all these years like a knife in my chest. And then to lose Michaela, to have him do that to her. I always thought … I always imagined he told her about it as he was killing her. He would have told her what I did, so it was the last thing she ever heard, the last thing in her heart as she died.’

No no no no … oh God … oh God …

Please … I’m dying … I’m dying …

‘He didn’t,’ Cat said. ‘He didn’t say anything about you.’

‘You remember?’ Dory asked.

‘Some things. It’s been coming back to me for days. I wish it would stay away.’

‘Can you ever forgive me, Catalina?’

Cat opened her mouth, but she didn’t have time to say a word. The cold night broke apart into the pieces of a kaleidoscope spinning in her brain. She was conscious of a car on the street, of a window opening. It was a black car, a death car. Dory took two steps toward her, spreading her arms wide for an embrace the way an angel spreads its wings. She didn’t see the car behind her. She didn’t see the mortal danger looming from a gun in the open window. Cat began to shout a warning, but it was too late.

She saw the desperate plea that lingered in Dory’s face — forgive me — and in the next instant, the light snapped off in her eyes, turning them black. Her forehead exploded, showering Cat with blood and brain. Cat heard a scream gurgle out of her own throat, simultaneous with the blast of the gun. Dory spilled forward, crumpling against her body, taking them backward onto the cold ground.

Covering her. Protecting her.

The blasts went on, again, again, again, again, again. Snow and earth erupted around her. She screamed until she had no breath. When the bullets finally stopped, when the engine roared and the car vanished, Cat couldn’t get up. She clung to Dory, who was motionless in her arms. No matter how hard she shook her, no matter how many times she called her name, Dory lay atop her like a dead weight. The remnants of her aunt’s life were splattered on Cat’s face. Dory’s blood was warm on her skin, but in the frigid air it had already begun to cool.