by Elaine Viets
With each word, Vito punched the air with thick pink fingers like hot dogs. He’d attack someone’s manhood to make a sale, but Helen didn’t work that way. Watching him shout, pace and punch made her more tired. She looked down at Vito’s desk, and saw the boiler-room employee roster for the week. Helen looked at the ninety names on the list. She only recognized sixty of them. That’s because there were only sixty desks in the phone room. Vito’s list had thirty phantom employees. What was he doing?
“What am I doing? I’m trying to get you to sell. Right, Helen?”
She looked up, startled and guilty. “Right, Vito,” she said.
When in doubt, always agree with the boss. Her eyes shifted back to the bloated roster. She checked the names again. No doubt about it. Vito had listed thirty people who didn’t exist.
“End of lecture,” he said. The effort left him red-faced, with sweat rings on his shirt. “Go get me some sales.”
Helen couldn’t sell beer at a frat party today. It was hopeless. She would not get upstairs to do survey work tonight, and she had to. How else could she search for more information about Hank Asporth? What if she went into a sales slump and got fired? She’d seen it happen before. She might never get up to the survey section again.
One minute to go, and no sales. The computer shut down.
Helen packed up her purse in defeat and headed for the time clock. Vito blocked her way. “You’re working survey duty tonight. If it was up to me, you’d be here. But the suits requested you.”
Helen knew the suits didn’t request her. She was working survey duty at the express wish of Henry Asporth’s lawyer.
Thank you, Mr. Asporth, she thought. I’ll use that time to nail you.
Helen did not see Margery when she came home for lunch.
She missed her landlady. She saw too little of her these days.
She missed her friend Peggy, too, and their companionable evenings sitting by the Coronado pool drinking wine. Now she spent too many evenings in the boiler room trying to make more money. For the hundredth time, she asked herself if this job was worth it. She still didn’t have an answer. She opened a can of tuna and dumped it on a slightly stale bun.
Thumbs, her cat, made a dramatic leap for her plate.
“Down, boy,” she said. He sat sulkily on the floor. Some lunch. She had to fight the cat for her food.
After a nap that left her groggy and muzzy-headed, Helen returned that evening to the hushed, expensive offices of Girdner Surveys.
“You’re still here?” Nellie asked. The night supervisor seemed surprised and relieved.
“Against all odds,” Helen said. “Penelope’s not happy about it. I don’t think I’d better waste any more time talking.”
Helen picked up the phone, so it looked like she was working. She typed in Henry Asporth’s number and stared at the computer screen, looking for some way to get to him. She reread his information and took notes: Name and address.
Phone. Cell phone. Vehicles. Income. Age. Hobbies. Pets.
Some unknown telemarketer had left a warning about his rotten temper. Interesting.
Wait. What was this? “Lives with #948782.” That note made sure the telemarketer didn’t pitch the same place twice.
Helen typed #948782. The entry was for Laredo Manson, a twenty-two-year-old woman with a year of junior college and an annual income of less than twenty thousand dollars.
Laredo did not smoke. She drank wine, liquor and beer. Her occupation was “actress/waitress.”
Reading between the lines, Helen saw a much younger woman living with an older, richer man. Virtue went cheap in Florida, when job choices were hauling plates, cleaning houses or working the phones.
Was Laredo the woman Hank killed? Twenty-two years old is so young.
Helen dialed Laredo’s second number. An answering machine said, “Hi, this is Laredo. You know the drill: Leave a message.” The voice was young, sweet and slightly country, with the hint of a giggle.
“This is Helen Hawthorne at Girdner Surveys. Please call me. I’m worried—”
A woman picked up the phone.
“Laredo?” Helen said, relief flooding her. She hadn’t heard a murder after all. The woman was safe. Hank Asporth was just a generous man who didn’t want to see her fired.
“Hello? Who’s this? Laredo’s not here. I’m her sister, Savannah.”
“Oh,” Helen said, disappointed. “I... I was just checking to see if she’s OK.”
“She hasn’t been home in a week. Do you know where she is?” Savannah was older, maybe Helen’s age. She had a deeper voice than her sister, tinged with a bit of country.
“I think she’s in trouble,” Helen said.
“What kind of trouble?” the voice demanded.
Helen didn’t know what to say. Should she tell the woman what she heard?
“Tell me. I have the right to know.”
“I think I heard her being killed. But no one believes me.”
As soon as Helen said those words, she wanted to take them back. She should have broken the news gently. She was talking to the woman’s sister. What was wrong with her?
She expected Savannah to scream, cry or deny. Instead the woman said, “I knew it. I felt it in my bones.”
Chapter 4
“I think we better get together,” Savannah said.
Helen realized she’d been holding her breath. “I thought you’d call the cops on me, the way I blurted that out.”
“I’ve got a good feel for people,” Savannah said. “I hear a lot of things besides words when they talk. I think you want to help me. Where do you live?”
“Right off Las Olas,” Helen said. “How about the Floridian?”
“Sure, it’s my favorite grease spot.”
They agreed to meet there a little after ten P.M., when Helen got off work.
A distracted Helen signed up two more people for the martini survey, but she couldn’t keep her mind on her work—or her eyes off the clock. Nellie, her supervisor, must have noticed, but she said nothing.
The black hands crawled around the clock face like they were crippled. After half an eternity, it was ten o’clock.
Helen walked up Las Olas with long, impatient strides, slowed by tourists fluttering around the chichi stores like moths around patio lights.
“Isn’t that cute!” she heard over and over. Helen wondered how everything from a spike heel to a cat statue could be cute.
The Floridian had resisted the yuppification of Las Olas.
There was no valet parking. The waitresses took no sass off anyone. The cashier took no checks or credit cards. In fact, a blond couple in impeccable unwrinkled linen was arguing with her now. Helen stood just inside the door and watched the drama.
“But we don’t carry cash,” the blond woman said.
“We got an ATM right here,” the cashier said, pointing to a pint-size money machine across from the cash register.
“Our credit cards don’t work in that one,” the blond man said, as if that settled it. He had the smooth face of someone who always got his way. A tiny wrinkle now marred the woman’s forehead. She glanced warily at the kitchen, as though afraid she might have to put her pale, perfect hands in dishwater.
“There’s a bigger ATM at the convenience store across the street,” the cashier said.
“OK, we’ll be right back,” the blond man said.
“You’re not going anywhere until you pay.”
“But I have to get the cash. Here—I’ll leave you my watch.” He started to remove a watch that cost as much as a small car.
“This isn’t a pawn shop,” the cashier said.
“How about my driver’s license?”
“How about your wife?” the cashier said.
“My wife?”
The blond woman looked frightened now. Was she going to be sold into white slavery for a waffle?
“You leave your wife here until you get back with the money.”
“I’ll be
back soon, honey, I promise.” The blond man looked amused. His wife did not.
“You’d better,” she said. She picked up a free paper from a rack by the door and pretended to read, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment.
“Your money or your wife. I like that,” said the woman standing next to Helen. Her white-blond hair was long, straight, and parted in the middle. Her black cowboy boots were scuffed and her jeans were worn at the knees. Her voice had a country lilt that Helen recognized right away.
“I’m Savannah Power.”
Helen stood six feet in her sandals, but Savannah was tall enough to look her in the eye. She shook Helen’s hand with a strong, callused grip. Savannah was about forty. Hard times were etched in her pale, freckled face and lean body.
“That guy didn’t mind leaving his wife hostage in a hash house,” Helen said.
“You could leave me here any time,” Savannah said. She was wearing a light, flowery perfume. Underneath it, Helen caught a curious sharp smell—bleach or some kind of household cleaner.
“Sit anywhere,” said a passing waitress, loaded with plates.
They found a table under a sign that read, DON’T STEAL... THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T LIKE COMPETITION.
On a street known for serious snobbery, The Floridian had a sense of humor. The menu offered a “fat-cat breakfast” of steak, eggs and Dom Perignon for two for $229.99. It also had a “not-so-fat-cat breakfast—same as above with a bottle of our finest el cheapo champagne” for $49.99.
Helen felt suddenly lonely. She wished she could laugh with a man and order cheap champagne for breakfast. But she’d sworn off men after her last disastrous romance.
“What can I get you?” the waitress said.
“Eggs, grits and a Bud,” Savannah said.
“You want a glass with that?”
“Bottle’s fine,” Savannah said.
A straightforward woman, Helen thought. She ordered coffee, ham and eggs.
“Savannah Power. Interesting name,” Helen said, when the waitress left.
“My momma had a rough time when she had me. She gave birth at home. She saw this name on her bedside dresser: Savannah Power. She kept concentrating on it to get her through the pain. She thought it was a message. It was. It was a shut-off notice from the light company, but Momma didn’t know that then. Anyway, Savannah Power’s my name.
“We’re all named after cities. My middle sister is Atlanta Power. Momma lived there next. She was in Texas when Laredo was born. She’s the baby.”
“Laredo has a different last name,” Helen said.
“Different daddy,” Savannah said. “Lester Power took off by then, and Momma hitched up with Woodbridge Manson.”
“Just the three girls?” Helen said.
“Yes, and that’s a good thing. With her third husband, Momma moved to Wood River, Illinois, which wasn’t a proper name for anyone. Atlanta lives in California now. I only see her every couple of years. But I’m real close to Laredo.”
Helen felt like she was in a Who’s on First routine. She was glad when the waitress returned with the butter-soaked platters of food.
“Why do you think something happened to your sister?”
Helen said, between bites.
“She disappeared a week ago. We share a double-wide. I got home from work and her things were gone. Every last stitch. Even my new red heels, which she’d borrowed.
Laredo loved red shoes, but she would never take my best heels. And she’d never leave without telling me. She knows I’d worry. She would have left a note, at least.”
Savannah rummaged in a floppy leather purse the size of a saddlebag. “Here’s a picture. Look at her. Does that look like a girl who’d just up and leave?”
She produced a washed-out snapshot of a curvy young woman with a street urchin’s grin and a mane of honeycolored hair, thicker and curlier than Savannah’s. She wore a white tank top, tight white shorts and red heels, and posed in a parody of a pinup. Laredo knew just how pretty she was.
She stood in front of a sagging green mobile home with a straggly palm tree. Laredo was laughing, vibrant, out of place in those hangdog surroundings.
Helen thought she looked exactly like someone who’d run away. She certainly would.
“That’s where we live,” Savannah said. “Would you pass me the salt? I called the police and filed a missing person report. They weren’t real interested, her being an adult and all.
But they went and talked to a waitress who worked with her at Gator Bill’s.”
“The restaurant owned by Bill Shannigan, the Gators football star?” Helen said.
“The very one. Right here on Las Olas. Laredo was a waitress there. Wore the cutest cheerleader costume. That was gone, too. This waitress, name of Debbie, told the police my sister was bored and wanted to hit the road. Said Laredo had talked about packing up everything and driving off into the sunset. Oh, I forgot, her car’s gone, too.”
“What kind of car?” Helen said. She’d eaten her way through a slab of ham and two eggs. She started on the butter-soaked toast.
“Little yellow Honda Civic. But that isn’t like her to up and leave. Besides, Laredo had a part in a real Shakespeare play. The director’s called twice looking for her. Laredo worked hard to get that part. She thought it was her big break. She’d be at the rehearsal come hell or high water.”
Savannah sounded more like a mother than a sister. Another reason for a young woman to suddenly leave home.
“Was she restless?” Helen said.
“She said she didn’t want to wind up like me: trailer trash working a bunch of lousy jobs, stuck with a mountain of debt.”
Helen winced. “That must have hurt.”
Savannah shrugged. “She was young. She didn’t mean it.”
Again, she was the protective momma.
“Laredo said she was going to make it big. She would live in a mansion, marry a rich man, wear pretty clothes and be part of Lauderdale society.”
“Did she say how she was going to do this?”
“No, that’s how young girls talk. I figured that’s why she took that part with the theater. She was hoping to make it as an actress. There’s a lot of movie roles here in South Florida, if an actress can get the right showcase. A Shakespeare play would have been a big step forward.”
Maybe, but Helen thought Laredo’s talk of a big score sounded like trouble. Her plate seemed to be empty. She must have eaten the whole mound of food. Savannah had a few bites of grits and eggs, but she let the waitress remove her nearly full plate.
Savannah took a long drink of beer. “I know something’s wrong. I told the police that, but no one believed me. I got this feeling Laredo’s dead. Then you called. It was the call I’d been dreading, but it was a relief, you know?” She started peeling the label off her beer bottle.
“But I don’t know,” Helen said. “All I know is I think I heard a woman strangled. The police disagree. They say it was a movie. But that was no movie. It was about the worst sound...” Helen stopped. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting she was your sister.”
“No, go ahead,” Savannah said. “Don’t spare me the details. What makes me crazy is everybody saying nothing is wrong. Just tell me what happened.”
“Your sister knew a guy named Henry Asporth, right?”
“He hung around the restaurant,” Savannah said. “Hank liked to flirt with the waitresses. There were a lot of guys like that. Men with more money than sense, trying to forget middle age was creeping up on them. Laredo went out with him for a while.” She pulled away another strip of label.
“Our survey files say she lived with him,” Helen said.
“She stayed over weekends sometimes, but she never moved in. That was more wishful thinking. She did that survey thing as a joke. She came home laughing about it. Hank was talking business with the boys one night, and Laredo was bored. Some survey taker called and asked boo-coo questions. Laredo made up a bunch of stuff about how she lived with Hank in t
hat big house and was an actress. She was always pretending to be somebody else, even when she was a little kid.”
Helen heard Laredo’s teasing voice again, like a forties movie star: “You’ve been a very bad boy, Hank. You’re just lucky I like bad boys.”
Another strip was gone. Savannah’s beer bottle was half-naked now.
“Laredo wanted Hank to marry her, but that was never going to happen. Hank never treated her right. She finally walked out on him. Had to, for her own self-respect. I was proud she did that. Takes courage for a girl to walk away from a man with money.
“Laredo told me all about it, why she finally pulled the plug. She was over at his house. She was all ready for a little lovin’ when he got a business call on his cell phone. He answered it. He kept talking on the phone while they were doing it. He finished up, still talking on the phone. He got out of bed and went into the living room. Didn’t say a word to her.”
“What a pig,” Helen said.
“Oh, yeah. He woulda been a prize swine at the state fair.
Hank’s call lasted for hours. Laredo could see him in the other room pacing around bare-naked, with the lights on so the neighbors could see him.”
Savannah hit a tough patch of label, but kept picking at it.
“Laredo said she read a magazine, then played around on his computer. She liked video poker. Hank never did come back to bed,” she said. “She was good and pissed. When he finally returned, Hank said he’d be tied up all night and sent her home in a cab. Laredo told me she never went out with him again. Said no man was going to treat her like that.”
Pick. Pick. The label was stubborn. But so was Savannah.
“Your sister told you all that?” Helen trusted her sister, Kathy, more than anyone in the world. But there were some hairy escapades in her past that even Kathy didn’t know about.
“Laredo knew I wouldn’t judge her. I know she kept stuff from me, but she told me most of her adventures. She was so mad at ol’ Hank, she had to tell somebody. I thought she might put sugar in his gas tank or something.” Pick. Pick.
“Did she have any particular plan for revenge?” Helen said.