The Missing Ink: A Tattoo Shop Mystery

by Karen E. Olson

  She snorted. “Dear, you’re a six-foot-tall woman. You don’t want a five-foot-two man on your arm. Let me do something more appropriate.”

  I didn’t want to argue the issue. I wasn’t in the mood. I let her reel off the possibilities as I wondered why Kelly Masters would need a gun.

  “I’m going to close up the shop now, dear,” Sylvia was saying as we stood in front of Murder Ink. She unhooked her arm. “Thank you for walking with me. You’re a nice girl.”

  “How’s Jeff?”

  “He’s fine. I’m sure you’ll hear from him soon.”

  I was sure of it, too. He’d become my new best friend. Well, except for Sylvia.

  I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, her skin thin and transparent, her wrinkles rippling across her cheeks. Her face was the only place that wasn’t inked.

  I glanced back at the shop when I reached my car and watched Sylvia pull open the door.

  I was concentrating so much on her that I didn’t see it until it swerved into the Bright Lights Motel lot. The Dakota spun around my car faster than I could move, blocking me from the door so I was trapped.

  Chapter 59

  I just couldn’t deal with road rage right now. If it was that guy I’d stopped earlier, I might as well just throw my hands up and surrender.

  “Brett Kavanaugh?”

  I didn’t think that guy knew my name. And, anyway, it wasn’t a guy. It was a woman’s voice that came out of the truck.

  I walked around the massive hood, noticing the scratches on the roof. This was the Dakota that had chased me in the Versailles garage.

  The window was rolled down, and she stuck her head out.

  Elise Lyon. Elise? She was the one driving the Dakota?

  Her eyes skipped all around me before landing on my face.

  “Get in,” she said.

  I sighed. “Listen, Elise, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not. Why don’t you get out and we can talk here?”

  A gun barrel peeked out beneath her face.

  “It’s not an option.”

  Kidnapped twice in one day. Go figure.

  I walked back around the truck and opened the door, climbing up inside. A blast of cold air hit me in the face and I shivered, welcoming it. I’d been outside long enough so I’d almost gotten used to the heat.

  I shut the door after me and turned in my seat to see Elise Lyon still holding the gun on me.

  “You know, people have been looking for you. Where have you been?” I asked.

  “There are a lot of places to stay in Vegas, and not just on the Strip.” Her expression changed slightly. “We’re going to your shop,” she said, although she seemed perplexed as to how she’d drive and still manage the gun.

  I shook my head. “It’s too late.”

  The gun whipped up and the barrel rested on my forehead. My heart missed a couple of beats.

  “What do you mean?” she demanded.

  “I found it. The ring. And I gave it to my brother.”

  “Your brother?” She was confused a second, then, “The cop?”

  I nodded. “I didn’t want it. He said Manning said you stole it.”

  The gun moved off my forehead and circled up toward the ceiling. “What? I can’t believe it. Chip gave it to me. It was my engagement ring. It was mine.”

  “That’s what I said.” I hoped that by offering some sort of support she’d feel kindly toward me and stop waving that gun around. “But he wanted it anyway. He’s my brother. What was I supposed to do?” I had no idea whether she had siblings, but I took a shot that she’d know what I was talking about.

  She lowered the gun and put it on the console between us. I felt my heartbeat going back to normal.

  I was about to ask her why she was following me around when suddenly she floored the accelerator and we were flying out of the parking lot, going down Las Vegas Boulevard toward the Strip.

  “We’re going to your shop,” she said again.

  “But it’s not there.”

  “I don’t care. You’re going to give me that tattoo.”

  “Huh?”

  “If the ring’s gone, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll figure out something. But I want that tattoo. I need it. I need it to get me through this. To give me courage.” She was babbling, but I understood the basics of what she was saying. I’d do the ink and she’d leave town, leave everything behind and move on. It was her rite of passage.

  I nodded. “Okay. I can do that. But just tell me: Are you the one who’s been chasing me all over town?”

  “You didn’t have to go so fast in that garage.”

  “Why have you been chasing me?”

  “I needed to know if you found the ring. Or if it was still at your shop.”

  “Why couldn’t you just call and be straight with me? Then we wouldn’t have gone through all this.”

  “I couldn’t risk that. Everyone’s looking for me. Bruce Manning thinks I’m a thief and would throw me in jail, and it’s my word against his.”

  I remembered how Manning had treated me at Versailles, gripping me so hard but making it look like we were just having a casual conversation. Elise and I were in the same boat: Who would believe us when one of the richest men in the world gave his version of reality?

  Elise was still talking. “I couldn’t risk going to your shop; someone might see me. Simon said he’d get it tonight, when he saw you.”

  “You told him about it?” So that was why he wanted to meet me at The Painted Lady. He wanted to feel up my orchid.

  Elise’s eyes left the road for a second as she gave me a long look. “Of course. He and Mattie are the only two people I can trust.”

  I didn’t want to remind her that Matt Powell was dead. That she was talking about him in the present tense.

  “Simon lent me the truck,” Elise said.

  Nice of him, I thought. Chivalrous as usual. I wondered if he knew she used it to follow me.

  “How did you know Kelly Masters?” I asked, changing the subject.

  Again with a look, then she was staring straight at the road, her jaw tense. “Chip. Chip was having an affair with her. She called me. She wanted to meet me, and when I came out here, she told me she was pregnant.”

  I let that digest a little as we stopped at the light next to the World’s Largest Gift Shop. I’d never been in there. I’d never needed any Large Gifts.

  I took a shot. “Chip said you had an affair, and you told him it was over.”

  She snorted. It was not attractive. “He thought Simon and I hooked up again. He was so wrong.” The light turned green. “Simon likes the chase, you know, but he’s not a long-term sort of guy.” She glanced at me as she pressed down on the gas. “Be careful.”

  “I think I can take care of myself.” I bristled.

  Elise chuckled. “Every woman thinks she can change him.”

  I didn’t want to change him. I wasn’t sure what I wanted.

  She kept talking. “He thinks you’re exotic, you know, all those tattoos. Like Kelly.”

  I didn’t much like being compared to Kelly. And he’d talked about me with Elise? This was just getting stranger and stranger.

  We were quiet a few minutes, and finally she reached the Venetian, pulling into the valet parking lane.

  “I hate that garage,” she tossed at me as she scrambled out of the truck.

  I was close on her heels, realizing I had absolutely no idea what was going on except that I had an unexpected client. Before long I was leading the way, since I could get around the Venetian with my eyes closed. We followed the canal to the shop, a gondola just ahead of us.

  The Painted Lady had been imprisoned behind the gate. I unlocked the glass doors, leaned down and unlocked the gate, and lifted it up, letting it rise over our heads, disappearing into the ceiling.

  I led Elise into my room, where I set up my inks. I took a disposable razor out of a package and wet a washcloth.

  “Where do you want it?�
�� I asked automatically, although I already knew.

  Without any ceremony, Elise pulled her shirt over her head to reveal a lacy pink bra that barely covered her nipples. She pointed to a spot just above her left breast. “Here.”

  The hair on her skin was fine, but I’d still have to shave it. My hands were shaking slightly, though; the day’s events and an ever-lowering blood sugar level weren’t good for tattooing. I still had the stencil I’d made in the staff room, so I told Elise to wait in the chair while I got it, stalling for a few minutes.

  I found half a meatball sub in the fridge, and I picked out one of the meatballs and chewed it whole as I rummaged through the files, finally finding the stencil in a folder marked Kelly Masters.

  While I wasn’t keen on devotion tats, this was a memorial. Not unlike the kid who had Jesus on his back.

  I grabbed a handful of disposable needles, still in their packages, from a box in the closet. The meatball had erased my shakes. I was running through the whole process in my head, my own little ritual, so when I finally started back to my room, it didn’t register for a moment.

  But when I heard him say, “Trust me,” and I heard the whirring of the tattoo machine, my first thought was that I should’ve put that gate down and locked it after us.

  Chapter 60

  My second thought was, How did Chip Manning learn how to use a tattoo machine? Because, as I peered around the corner into my room, I saw he was drawing a heart on Elise Lyon’s bared breast.

  His back was to me, and the machine was loud enough so he didn’t hear me approach. Elise saw me, though, since she was facing the door, and she opened her mouth, but I put my finger over my lips to silence her. She shut her mouth and looked at Chip’s hands. He hadn’t even put on a pair of gloves.

  Scratcher.

  “Did you really believe that I would love her more than you?” Chip was asking. “Did you think I’d marry that slut instead of you? You should’ve just stayed home, and we would’ve been married right now.”

  “I couldn’t marry you.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Matt was the love of your life. I thought he was being a good friend, offering to come out here to find you, and the next thing I know you’re getting a tattoo with his name on it.”

  “That’s—”

  I crinkled the needle package in my hand by mistake. The machine stopped.

  “Is she coming back?”

  I couldn’t risk peering around the door again.

  “Maybe she’s in the bathroom,” Elise suggested.

  The machine started again.

  “Owwww. Watch it.”

  “Did you think it wouldn’t hurt, Elise?” I wondered if he was talking about the tat or about Matt Powell. “Finding out that my best friend was my fiancée’s secret lover?” Okay, question answered. “What did you think I was going to do? Sit around and watch him take you from me?”

  “You had Kelly.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

  “She meant nothing. That’s why I did what I did, to show you that she was nothing. She was to me what Chase was to you. We had it all, Elise, and you destroyed it.”

  “I didn’t kill Simon, though. But you killed her. I was glad she told me about you, how you met in L.A. and couldn’t keep your hands off each other. She was pregnant, Chip.” Desperation laced Elise’s voice.

  He didn’t seem to notice. “With her out of the way, you and I can get married. Anyway, I found out it wasn’t my baby. It was her ex-husband’s. I got lucky that she had his gun. Now everyone thinks he killed her.”

  “But without Kelly, I wouldn’t—” She stopped suddenly. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to put my name in this heart. That way you’ll never forget your promises to me.”

  “It’s too late, Chip.”

  “My father will fix it. He fixes everything.”

  “Did he fix Matt? Was that him, or was that you?” I heard a catch in her voice. “Matt was innocent, Chip.”

  I didn’t wait around to hear his answer, figuring that the machine’s noise would mask my footsteps. I heard more talking, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Simon Chase’s phone was in my bag on the light table. I took it out and saw that the screen was blank. Uh-oh. Guess it hadn’t been charged in a while. We didn’t have a landline extension back here, since someone, usually Bitsy, was always in the front of the shop to answer the phone.

  It might not be that hard getting out of the shop. Chip was one guy. He wasn’t nearly as big as Matthew, and I’d managed to slip past him—well, it wasn’t easy, but I did it.

  I opened one of the packages I’d set down, sliding the long, silver needle out of its casing. While I hoped I didn’t have any use for it, I had to have something, and Elise had left that gun in the truck.

  I walked as quietly as I could, stopping just outside the room again.

  “Tell me where the diamond is,” Chip was saying.

  “The police have it.” Elise’s voice was stronger now, anger weaving through her words.

  I peeked around the door to see Chip finishing up the heart; it was rough around the edges. Elise’s voice had been firm, but her eyes were laced with tears. It was possible she’d been too jittery, moving too much.

  Elise caught my eye, shaking her head slightly.

  Before I could duck back, the machine cut off and Chip swung around in the chair. I turned to get away, but he was fast. He grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me into the room as he held the machine over my face.

  “Have you ever tattooed someone’s eyeballs?” he hissed.

  He fell onto me then and I twisted my head slightly, the needle in the machine raking me just behind my ear, sliding on my hair. After a second, I realized what had happened: Elise had lunged toward him, and they both ended up on the floor, the impact knocking the machine out of Chip’s hand.

  I stood over them, hesitating for a second.

  It was too long. Chip threw Elise off him, grabbed the machine again, and plunged it into my thigh, but its design kept it from going in too deep.

  The needle in my hand, however, had no restrictions. I swung it around and stabbed Chip’s shoulder. The needle went in the front and stuck out the back. Sort of like a live shish kebab.

  He made a yowling sound, dropping the tattoo machine—but not before it slid across my calf, drawing a crooked black line—his hand reaching around to pull the needle out of his shoulder. He screamed as blood spurted across his chest.

  I grabbed Elise’s hand and pulled her out the door, to the front of the shop, toward the doors. I glanced back to see Chip holding the needle, chasing us.

  I reached for the front door handle when everything got dark.

  Matthew Masters stood on the other side of the glass, glowering with anger. He pulled the door open and stepped inside. But to my surprise, he pushed us aside and went after Chip, who’d stopped suddenly. Matthew grabbed the shoulder I’d stabbed, causing Chip to scream again and drop the needle.

  Matthew turned and looked at me, studying my face for a second before his eyes moved to Elise. I saw what he saw: Elise’s bare torso, the bra hanging open, exposing her breasts, the beads of blood slipping down over the black outline of the heart and the start of the “C” that Chip had drawn.

  “Are you okay?”

  His voice wasn’t what I remembered from our earlier encounter. While it still had its gravelly tone, the roughness was replaced with a gentleness. His eyes matched his voice as he gazed at her, and Elise began to sob, reaching her arms out to him.

  He shook his head, but I saw a glint in his eye, too, a tear in the corner that he blinked away as he yanked harder on Chip’s shoulder.

  “You,” he said loudly to me. “You—call the cops.”

  Before I could move, though, the door swung open and Simon Chase came into the shop.

  Chapter 61

  He took one look at Matthew and Chip and muttered, “I may have to find another job.” He the
n looked at me, at Elise and put his arm around her. She clung to him, the sobs more audible now. “Brett, can you call the police?” he asked, his eyes again moving to mine.

  Everything started falling into place. I’d seen it in Matthew’s expression when he looked at Elise, when she reached out to him.

  He was her Matthew.

  When I’d seen her with him at Viva Las Vegas, she wasn’t afraid of him—she was afraid of me finding her. It all made sense now.

  I went to the phone on the desk and dialed Tim’s number.

  “You have to come to my shop,” I said when he answered.

  “Why aren’t you at home?” he demanded.

  “Let’s just say I got sidetracked.” I paused, looking at Matthew, who was still clutching Chip’s shoulder. “Your murderer is here, if you want him.”

  “What?”

  “It’s Chip. Chip Manning. He killed Kelly Masters. He might have killed Matt Powell, too.”

  I told Tim the rest as quickly as I could, and he finally interrupted me to tell me he’d be right over with the cavalry. I hung up and looked at Matthew Masters.

  “Who killed Matt Powell?”

  “Kelly did,” he said quietly.

  Everyone stared at him. It was possible no one else had known this until just now, from their expressions.

  Matthew sighed. “He threatened to tell Chip about the baby. How it wasn’t Chip’s. Kelly couldn’t let him do that. Her plan was to tell Elise about her and Chip, the baby.”

  “And she thought Chip would marry her?” I looked at Elise.

  “She thought that if I knew, I would break it off. And then she would get Chip because she was pregnant.”

  Seemed like a simple plan, but what went wrong?

  “I wanted to meet her, see if she really was pregnant. Kelly was all for it; she even sent me her ID so I could get an airline ticket under her name, because I didn’t want anyone knowing where I was going. I figured I’d be back the next day. I went to D.C., because I didn’t want to run the risk of anyone seeing me in Philly at the airport. Matthew picked me up here at McCarran, and we got to talking. He told me everything Kelly said was true. By the time we got to the hotel and met up with Kelly, I was so done with Chip.”