“Hi…Katie…” she mumbles in slight confusion. Did Katie really think she wouldn’t show up?
“Good! You found the alcohol! Let me handle this!” She approaches the bartender, a five dollar bill held crisp in her manicured hand. “Jack, can you be a dear and make my friend and me two white gummy bear shots? Then after that, we’d each like a prickly pear spritzer.”
“Sure thing, ma’am.” The bartender smiles and begins pouring various liquors and juices into a shaker.
“What’s a prickly pear spritzer?” Rayna asks, feeling a little dumb that she doesn’t know.
Katie laughs. “Prickly pear is the food of the gods. It’s a plant that grows on a cactus in somewhere like Arizona I think… Anyways, it’s Jacks specialty.” She smiles and winks at the bartender in a flirtatious way that makes Rayna wonder just how well she knows this bartender. As if realizing how that sounds, Katie quickly elaborates. “Jack is Hugh’s permanent bartender. He’s here for all the parties, and Hugh throws them about once a month.”
“Once a month?” Rayna asks, wide eyed.
Katie nods. “Yep. He works from home, so I think he gets bored not seeing people on the reg. Plus, why have a massive house like this if you can’t show it off all the time?”
“What does Hugh do?” Rayna asks as a shot glass is placed in her right hand.
“He’s some sort of software engineer.” Katie motions to the shot glass in Rayna’s hand. “Bottoms up.”
Rayna tosses back the shot, tasting the familiar sweetness of pineapple juice along with the burn of vodka. She hasn’t taken a shot in years, and it instantly warms her stomach and reminds her of the party days of her past.
Before she knows it, the empty shot glass is removed from her hand and a frosty glass filled with a bubbly purple liquid is placed in it instead. She holds it up to the light and inspects the way the drink seems to sparkle.
“That’s the secret,” Katie whispers. “No one knows just how he gets them to sparkle like that.”
Rayna looks over her shoulder at Jack, who’s cleaning a glass. He winks at her.
“Come on.” Katie pulls Rayna’s arm. “Let me introduce you to everyone.”
She pulls her back toward the kitchen and begins pointing people out and saying their names. She’s going so fast, Rayna can hardly keep up, much less remember the names she’s tossing towards her. Various people stand as they’re pointed out, and make eye contact or nod politely at Rayna. She tries to nod politely in return.
“And this,” Katie turns to a man standing by the side, “is Roger.” The man is tall, towering over six feet. He’s slim, with tan skin and a hard jaw line. He has light brown hair that doesn’t quite match his dark skin tone. Katie reaches over and whispers something in his ear. A smile spreads across his face.
“Why Rayna, it is a pleasure to meet you. I must say, you must’ve charmed miss Katie here, as this is the first time she has brought a guest to one of Hugh’s parties.”
Rayna’s brow furrows. “You don’t bring Mark?” she asks.
Katie shakes her head. “These are my friends, and, well, Mark isn’t really into partying.”
She nods in pretend understanding, sipping at the drink in her hand. Katie is right, it is delicious.
“So Rayna, what do you do?” Roger asks politely, taking a drink from the bottle of Corona in his big hand.
“I’m actually between jobs right now, but I used to be a server.” She takes another nervous drink from the glass in her hand. Roger makes eye contact with Katie and snickers.
What is that about?
“A server, what restaurant? Maybe I’ve seen you there before.”
Rayna mentions the name of the steakhouse, observing suspiciously as Katie and Roger seem to have a silent conversation. What’s going on here? Before she can ponder it further, she finds another shot glass in her hand.
She turns and sees a smiling woman. “Hi, I’m Melanie, Hugh is my husband. Welcome to our house.” Melanie clinks her own shot glass with Rayna’s as Roger and Katie hold up theirs as well.
Why are they giving us shots? Rayna wonders as she tosses her second shot back. She’s going to need to slow down. She won’t be able to explain to Zeki why she came home drunk from work.
Conversation flows easily as the three women make their way around the room. Katie seems much more at ease than she was at dinner. Rayna wonders if it’s due to her being around her friends, or if it’s the influence of alcohol.
She continues to sip her drink as Katie jokes with Melanie about something that happened a few months ago. Rayna feels really out of place. It doesn’t seem like Katie really needs her there, and she wonders why she was invited in the first place.
“So, Rayna, what do you and Zeki like to do for fun?” Melanie asks, obviously trying to keep her engaged in the conversation.
“Uh,” Rayna realizes she doesn’t actually have much of answer. She scrambles quickly to think of what would be a normal activity for a couple to do. “We like to go…out…” She mentally winces at how dumb that sounds.
If Melanie notices, she doesn’t show it. “Nice, anywhere in particular? Hugh and I are a fan of Crocodile downtown.”
She takes another nervous sip of her drink. Her glass is already almost empty; that isn’t good.
Katie seems to notice her predicament and quickly interjects, telling Melanie about their night out as a group. Rayna inspects the bottom of her glass. It’s been awhile since she’s had much to drink, and she can already feel her senses becoming a bit fuzzy.
“Did you like the Prickly Pear Spritzer?” Melanie asks.
Rayna nods. “It was different, I’ve never had anything like it before.”
“Jack and I spent a long time perfecting the recipe. Now it’s top secret information.” She winks.
Another shot is placed in Rayna’s hand. Katie has one in her hand as well. “Cheers!” Katie calls out, clinking her glass with Rayna’s.
Instead of drinking it as she did the past two, Rayna discreetly dumps the shot into her already empty glass, then places it down on the table next to some other seemingly empty glasses.
Katie seems to immediately notice the lack of drink in Rayna’s hands. “Let’s get you a beverage.” She pulls Rayna toward the bar, her grin a little lopsided. “Jack, can you be a doll and make us some more shots? Oh, and a margarita.” She leans on Rayna’s arm and stares at Jack in a way that leads Rayna to believe Katie is becoming quite intoxicated.
Jack makes eye contact with her. She mouths ‘no shot,’ to which he nods briefly before beginning to add liquor to his shaker.
A moment later he hands her a salt-rimmed margarita, complete with a mini umbrella. Katie picks up her drinks, downing the shot almost immediately and setting the glass back down.
“C’mon Rayna, let’s go meet my friendssss.”
Katie is definitely drunk now. Rayna smiles and nods, following her back to the kitchen.
“Hey everyone!” Katie says as she walks into the kitchen. Everyone seems to be involved in their own side conversations and no one acknowledges her. This doesn’t faze Katie, she simply walks over to the island and grabs a fork from next to the food spread. She bangs her fork on her margarita glass unceremoniously. “Hey!” she yells again.
This time she gets a response, at least from the group of people standing in a small circle near the island. “Yes, Katie?” asks a guy whose name Rayna can’t remember.
“Let’s go to the hot tub!” She’s speaking in a much louder than normal voice, but doesn’t seem to notice.
“Sure, let me go turn it on,” Melanie pipes up from the other side of the room.
Rayna can feel herself start to get nervous again, and she leans in close to her friend’s ear. “I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” she says quietly.
Katie doesn’t seem fazed. “That’s okay, just go in naked, after all, you do porn.”
The room falls silent at Katie’s last word. All eyes are on Rayna. She can feel t
he heat creeping up her neck.
“I…uhh…” She doesn’t know what to say. Her hands start to shake.
“Oh, come on, I’m sure everyone here would like to see,” Katie continues, too drunk to see the distress she’s causing.
Luckily, Melanie notices Rayna’s predicament. “Alright everyone, there’re two bathrooms down the hall if you need to change for the hot tub, or feel free to use the guest room to the left! Katie, can you and Rayna come to the bathroom with me?”
It isn’t the best save, but it’s as good as she’s going to get. Rayna quickly grabs Katie’s hand and follows Melanie up the stairs. Katie stumbles multiple times. Rayna is practically carrying her by the top.
“I love you guys sooooooo much,” Katie gushes as they pause in front of what Rayna assumes is Melanie’s door. Rayna looks between to two women in front of her.
“Maybe I better take Katie home,” Rayna suggests as Melanie opens the door and leads them into a beautifully decorated beach-themed master bedroom. Katie sighs and lies down, face first, on the bed.
Melanie nods. “That might be best. I’m sorry to see you leave so early, though.”
Rayna shrugs. “I think it’s better if I do leave, I uh…already caused enough drama.” She motions to the door. Although she’s embarrassed, she’s relieved to notice she doesn’t feel the same shame she did at dinner weeks before.
“You really don’t have to, trust me, no one here is going to judge you.” Melanie smiles sweetly. “Lots of us have had unique jobs at some point. A job doesn’t make a person.”
“Thanks.” She debates staying at the party longer, but one look at Katie and she knows her friend needs to get home. “I appreciate the invite, but I’d really better get Katie home. How did she get here?”
“Her husband always drops her off.”
Rayna nods and crosses the room to tap Katie on the shoulder. A muffled “hmf?” comes from her nearly limp form.
“Katie, can you dial Mark on your phone? It’s time for us to leave,” Rayna presses sweetly. She isn’t used to being the motherly type in these situations. Usually she’s the one passed out on the bed. In fact, she was always the one passed out on the bed, until today.
“Okay.” Katie pops her head off the comforter and clumsily pulls her phone out of her bra. She begins to repeatedly try to type in the password, but she keeps getting it wrong. Rayna sighs and takes the phone from her hand.
“What’s the password?”
Katie giggles. “Seven, seven, seven, one.”
Rayna doesn’t see anything funny with that, but she types it in and begins looking through her contacts to find Mark. Melanie steps into the bathroom, presumably to change into her bathing suit.
She finds Mark’s name and presses dial. The phone is picked up on the third ring. “Hey, babe.”
Now Rayna feels awkward again. “Hi Mark, this is actually Rayna, I’m at the party with Katie and she needs to be picked up.”
“Oh, she okay?” His demeanor changes immediately.
“Yes, she’s fine, just a bit intoxicated.” She hears the sound of keys jingling in the background.
“I’m on my way.” The line goes dead.
Rayna takes a deep breath and sits on the bed. She was right, this party was such a bad idea.
Melanie steps back out of the bathroom, clad in a cute yellow bow tie bikini. Rayna feels immediately envious of her flat stomach and visible six pack. She thinks briefly of her body’s current state and admits she needs to get back into shape. She isn’t fat by any means, but the weeks of sitting on the couch are definitely starting to show.
“I’m going to head out back, can you guys find your way out okay?” Melanie asks.
“Of course.” Rayna smiles. Even though the party isn’t her thing, she really does like Melanie.
“Good. It was great meeting you. I really hope you’ll come to another party.”
“I’ll try,” she replies, but deep down she knows she probably won’t be at another party of any sort any time soon.
Melanie waves and turns to head down the stairs. Rayna pulls out her own phone and pulls up her text message conversation with her sister. She hasn’t responded in weeks.
Rayna: Hey. Sorry I didn’t get back to you. Miss you tons.
She types out the message and looks it over. It doesn’t sound like her, that’s for sure, but at this point she isn’t even sure what does sound like her anymore. She presses send. She pulls up a word game on her phone to play while she waits for a response.
Remi usually responds to texts very quickly, so Rayna is surprised when her phone still hasn’t buzzed ten minutes later. It’s then that she notices the time. It’s past midnight, Remi will already be in bed.
Well, at least I tried, she thinks.
“Hello? Rayna?” calls a male voice from downstairs.
Katie doesn’t show signs of moving, and her breathing is even. She’s probably asleep.
“Up here!” Rayna calls, hoping he’ll know what that means.
A disheveled Mark appears in the doorway. It looks as if he tossed his clothes on in a hurry, his jeans wrinkled and his polo shirt only half tucked in. His hair is askew. Rayna is a bit taken aback; it looks like he’s been drinking as well, though it didn’t sound like it on the phone.
“Thanks for calling me, Rayna.” He starts walking toward the bed. His steps are slow and deliberate, making Rayna nervous.
“Uh, yeah, she was having a great time, then she uh, just passed out, er—” Rayna is cut off as Mark reaches the bed and leans in over her. Rayna tries to scoot back, but instead ends up laying on her back with Mark looming over her. He leans in to her ear, effectively trapping her below his body as he breathes his alcohol-tinged breath in her face.
“You know, Zeki is a real nice guy. Think he would let me take you on a date?” He smells putrid.
“I don’t think so,” she rasps out as she tries to get as far away from his foul-smelling breath as possible. “I don’t think Katie would like it either.”
“Psh.” The way he says the sound sends spit flying into Rayna’s face. She reaches her hand up to wipe it off, but finds there’s barely any room, as Mark is now just inches from her face. “Katie doesn’t mind sharing me.”
“Uh, are you sure?” Rayna asks, trying to buy time to figure her way out of this mess.
“Uh-huh.” Mark hiccups and falls to the side, allowing Rayna to finally sit up straight.
She stands to try and put as much distance between her and Mark, but before she knows what’s happening he grabs her hand and pulls her into a kiss.
Rayna nearly retches at the smell of him so close to her nose, and quickly pulls back from his embrace. As she does, her eyes come into contact with the wide open eyes of Katie.
And she is not happy.
“I need to leave,” Rayna stutters as she wrenches her arm from Mark’s vice-like grip. She turns and runs from the room. She nearly trips on the top step of the double wide staircase, cringing as she catches herself on the banister. It takes her a minute to pull open the massive door and duck out into the night. She runs down the driveway to the gate, still hearing the sounds of laughter coming from the backyard.
PART TWO
DETECTIVE GRADY
NOW
She bursts into the briefing room, slightly embarrassed that she’s late, but she has a good reason. All eyes are on her.
“Sorry everyone, what’ve we got?”
Detective Leary, the head detective on the case, shakes his head. “That’s what we were just saying, we’ve got basically nothing.”
“Nothing?” she questions, sliding into a chair next to her partner Brown.
“Nothing. We caught the boyfriend of the twin, Zeki, a few hours ago trying to board a plane to Mexico. Brought him in for questioning. Turns out, he had no idea Remi was even missing, he was fleeing purely based on the drug dealer confession to the girlfriend.”
“Are you sure?” Grady knows she sounds combat
ive, but feels it necessary to ask.
“Very. Had an alibi for all of the hours since she’s been missing. Turns out he spent the night at a party, dealing. Everyone there accounted for him. After the fight with the girlfriend, he headed straight to the bank to withdraw money, then to the airport. All accounted for. Lawyered up pretty fast, so we didn’t get many details.”
“Why flee then?” It’s Brown who speaks up this time.
Leary shrugs. “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but my guess is, he expected the girlfriend to turn him in. Honestly didn’t seem like much love lost there—considering he confessed, then immediately prepared to jump ship.”
Grady makes notes on her iPad. It seems Zeki and Rayna haven’t been on the same page with their relationship. She makes a mental note to ask about it later.
“And the roommate, Daisy,” Leary continues, “she’s in the wind, and it’s a fake name, fake previous address. And all the numbers she filled out for references are no longer in service.”
“That’s why I was late, actually,” Grady interjects. “I just spoke to the boyfriend of the victim, John, and he said that in the last few weeks a lot of things have gone missing from the apartment.”
“Such as?” Brown asks from beside her.
She flips her iPad to the notes she just took. “Looks like a stack of plates, a coffee maker, and some other small kitchen appliances.”
“That’s odd,” says one of the other officers from where he leans on the wall.
“Very,” Leary agrees, “but let’s take it as a clue. Brown, do me a favor and look into past reports of petty theft. I don’t know why small kitchen appliances could ever be worth anything, but I’ve been surprised before.”
Before Now Page 13