Ink Flamingos

by Karen E. Olson

  Right. That kiss had driven me crazy.

  He wasn’t my type. And he was too old. He had to be at least ten years older than me. He smoked. Or at least he had smoked. His lungs must be black from all that smoking. His nose was a little off-kilter, as though it had been broken at some point, his smile crooked, his eyes a bright blue. So maybe I’d noticed his eyes. How kind they could be. How they flashed when he was angry. How intense they’d been when I’d given him that tattoo under his bullet scar.

  His fingers snapped in front of my face.

  “I know I swept you off your feet, Kavanaugh, but you’ve got to stay with the program here.”

  I made a face at him and swatted his hand away. “Get over yourself,” I said sharply, surprising myself—and him.

  Something akin to hurt flooded those blue eyes, but they quickly cleared and he said, “Look over there.”

  I looked where he was pointing, and my heart fell.

  Terri was giving Ace a kiss on the cheek.

  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.”

  Chapter 54

  I looked up to see Harry standing over me, a grin spread across his face.

  I stammered something like, “Hi, hello, I’ve got to go,” but he held tight on my arm, and I couldn’t leave.

  “I was coming over here to meet up with Ace, but I see him taking off with Terri, and then I see you standing here.” The smile was, despite him holding my arm, infectious. I found myself smiling back.

  Sad thing was, despite how Jeff’s kiss had made my toes curl, Harry was more my type. At least what I’d always thought my type was. And I remembered his kisses, too, although they were different than Jeff’s.

  I shook off my thoughts. I couldn’t be standing here analyzing kisses from two men while Jeff was off chasing Ace and the girl who was impersonating me.

  “She pretended to be me,” I explained, then had another thought. “How do you know her name?”

  Harry’s eyebrows rose. “She pretended to be you?”

  “Yeah, Jeff met her at Cleopatra’s Barge, you know, the night you and I. . .” My voice trailed off, and I was back to those kisses again.

  “She doesn’t look anything like you,” Harry said.

  “I know, but she had some sort of disguise, and she left it in the ladies’ room, and I found it the next day.” It all sounded rather ridiculous.

  “Where did they go?”

  We whirled around to see a sopping wet Tim standing next to us. Harry finally dropped his hand.

  “That way,�
�� I said, pointing.

  Tim lingered for a second, staring at Harry.

  “This is Harry Desmond,” I said, “and this is my brother, Tim.”

  Tim nodded, no handshake this time. “I recognize him,” he said, and I knew he meant from the pictures on the blog. More blushing on my part, but I was sure no one could see. I hoped.

  “Watch her, okay?” Tim asked Harry. “I’ll be back.” And he took off after Ace, Terri, and Jeff.

  “Nice to have the brother’s permission,” Harry said jovially.

  “No,” I said, “that’s not what he meant.” Was I going to have to deal with another guy who thought we had a thing? I had to change the subject. “Why were you meeting with Ace? Are you doing another tattoo party?”

  “You know about those?” Harry asked, and while I couldn’t see his expression because of the darkness, his tone was more serious now.

  “You could’ve told me,” I said. “Why didn’t you? You let us all think you were out of work.”

  “I didn’t want you to think I was competition or anything.”

  “That wouldn’t be competition,” I said. “You don’t have a shop.”

  “Ace said I should ask you for a job. You’ve got an open room now that he’s gone.”

  “Is that why you encouraged him to quit? You wanted a job?” I didn’t point out that I had four rooms total, and even with Ace, only three tattooists, leaving one open. He didn’t need anyone to quit.

  “It’s good for him,” Harry said lightly. “He can concentrate on his art.”

  I found myself looking past the fountain with the flamingos toward the building, wondering where everyone had gone.

  Harry indicated the wedding chapel entrance. “We can go in through there and get to the casino. It’s a short cut, if you want to catch up with them. I’ll show you.”

  The last time I’d been to a wedding chapel had been with Jeff under false pretenses. It felt like bad karma to go into another one with another guy I had no intentions of having a relationship with. But he looked so earnest, now that he’d stepped under the light from a lamppost.

  I hated that I was missing something, so I nodded. “Sure, Harry. That would be fine.” I didn’t have my phone to check in with Jeff or Tim, but I saw Harry’s phone clipped to his belt. I could use that if we didn’t find them inside.

  We crossed the lawn and went toward the chapel, but the door was locked. Great. Harry indicated we could go down to the pool and through the pool entrance just a little ways away.

  “We could just go back through the gardens,” I suggested.

  “We’re already over here,” he said, and he had a point. I allowed him to lead me down the steps and then through the doors inside.

  The area was crowded with resort guests. I’d started to feel a little nervous with Harry—I wasn’t trusting much of anyone these days—but when the casino came into sight, I breathed a sigh of relief, even though I didn’t see anyone I recognized anywhere.

  “Do you know that they tore down Bugsy Siegel’s suite when they did the renovations here?” Harry said, turning into tour guide.

  I nodded.

  “Do you know all the windows were bulletproof in his suite?”

  Okay, that was semi-interesting.

  “And that even though there was only one way in, there were five ways out?”

  Even more interesting. “Too bad they tore it down,” I said. “It would be such a cool tourist thing now.”

  “Too bad Bugsy didn’t do those things at his house in L.A., where he got gunned down,” Harry said. “He would’ve been safe here.” He turned to me. “You’re safe here, you know that?”

  I nodded, even though I hadn’t felt safe in days. I just wanted to find Tim and Jeff and hope that they’d caught up with Ace and Terri.

  “Who’s Terri?” I asked, trying to make lighter conversation. “How do you know her?”

  “She’s my wife.”

  Chapter 55

  I stopped short. This was not what I expected. “Your wife? What do you mean?”

  Harry took my arm and pulled me along. “This way,” he said without answering my questions.

  My head was spinning, and I felt my heart begin to pound. Something wasn’t right, and it didn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure that out. I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of Tim or Jeff or both, but I didn’t see either of them anywhere in the sea of the casino that spread out before us. I tried to shake off Harry’s hand, but he gripped me tighter as we sidestepped the gaming tables, the slot machines. The ding-ding of the machines rang in my head, the wheels turning to show no one was winning any jackpots. I certainly was a big loser today.

  “What’s your angle?” I asked Harry, but either he didn’t hear me above the din or he chose not to answer. Probably the latter. I frantically tried to figure out how to get away.

  As we went up the steps, that bronze flamingo in front of us, I yanked quickly on my arm, hoping to break free.

  No dice. He merely gazed down at me, a smile on his face.

  “Trust me,” he said. “I’m taking you somewhere safe.”

  I screamed. At the top of my lungs. Harry’s hand was so tight I wondered if I would lose circulation.

  “Shut up,” he hissed. “What is wrong with you?”

  I continued to scream as I swung around with the arm he wasn’t holding, and my fist slammed into his face.

  I hadn’t even noticed he’d let go of me.

  “You’re crazy, you know that?” Harry asked as he turned around and ran down the hallway, past the little shops. I’d stopped screaming now but began hyperventilating. Out of nowhere, Tim and a security guard appeared, and then Tim’s arms were around me as I heard him explaining to the security guard that he was my brother.

  I couldn’t speak to tell him to go after Harry; had he even seen Harry? I struggled to catch my breath, taking in air in large gulps and then hiccupping.

  I was a total mess.

  “What’s wrong, Brett?” Tim was asking over and over.

  I willed myself to calm down, to take a few long, slow breaths until my heart began to settle down. Finally, I said, “Harry.”

  Tim frowned. “What?”

  “Harry Desmond. He had my arm. He wouldn’t let me go. I punched him, he took off, and then you showed up.”

  “Where did he go?” Tim’s face was etched with concern.

  I pointed down the hall. “Down there.”

  He started in the direction I’d indicated, but I grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t leave me alone here.”

  The security guard who was still standing mute must have felt as though he were the proverbial chopped liver, but I wasn’t trusting anyone I didn’t know right now. Heck, I knew Harry, and he’d been up to no good.

  Hadn’t he?

  Doubts began to settle in. Harry had said to trust him, but then he wouldn’t let go of me. He said he was taking me somewhere safe. But my instincts had screamed louder than I had.

  He’d said the woman with Ace was his wife.

  His wife. Right.

  I told Tim what he’d said.

  “Did you find her?” I asked. “And Ace? Where’s Jeff?”

  “You shouldn’t worry about anything right now. You need to stay calm, and you need to go someplace safe.”

  Again I was reminded of Harry, but I pushed the thought away. “Where?” I asked. “Can we go home?”

  “I can’t go right now, but maybe Jeff can take you. He can stay until I get there.” Tim must have seen the look on my face, the one that was saying, I’m not sure I want to deal with Jeff alone right now, so he added, “Or Bitsy can come stay with you, or you can go back to Bitsy’s. It’s up to you.”

  I wished Joel were there. Joel was a lot bigger than Bitsy, and while I loved Bitsy and she was one of my best friends, she was a little person, and I needed someone who might be able to protect me if I needed protecting. Although I had punched out Harry, hadn’t I?

  I rubbed my
knuckles, which were red and smarting from said punch. I hated it that I needed any sort of protecting at all. I’d always been able to take care of myself just fine, thank you very much, and this was so lame.

  “How about your shop?” Tim suggested then. “I can pick you up there in an hour or two.”

  That sounded like a plan. But I asked again, “What happened to Jeff?”

  Tim shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Jeff had been following Terri and Ace, and now all three were missing. Great.

  “Joel’s still hanging out at Ainsley’s apartment building, watching her sister, Ann,” I said. “At least I think so.”

  “He called me,” Tim said. “I sent a cruiser over there. That’s where I’m heading, actually. To see exactly what her story is.”

  “Let me come along,” I said. “I won’t be a bother.”

  He didn’t give me an answer, and I realized he was still wet from the pool.

  “You need some dry clothes,” I said, indicating one of the shops.

  We found him a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, both with the Flamingo logo on them. I made a mental note to throw them in the garbage after he was done with them. I didn’t want anything reminding me of any of this after it was all over.

  “You look like a tourist,” I teased as we went out to the parking garage to his Chevy Impala.

  He rolled his eyes at me, and we got in the car.

  The whole ride over I replayed the scene with Harry. The last thing he’d said was that I was crazy. Had I imagined that he was up to no good? I’d been a tad paranoid the last few days, so maybe I had imagined it. But what was the whole thing with him having a wife?

  I figured that Tim would take me to the shop and he’d head off to Ainsley’s, but now I noticed that he was taking me along with him. I decided not to say anything, because he could change his mind.

  “It’s safer if you’re with me,” he explained as we pulled into the apartment house’s parking lot.

  A cruiser was waiting for us, and a uniform climbed out to escort us to Ainsley’s apartment.

  “Where’s Joel?” I asked the uniform. “My friend.”

  “The big guy? He took a cab.”