If it Bleeds, it Leads (An Avery Shaw Mystery)

by Amanda M. Lee

  I considered ducking back out the door for a split second – but then realized that would be really immature. I then considered bumping into their table as I moved past them just hard enough to dump a drink on Eliot’s blonde friend’s lap. That seemed like a viable option and not even remotely immature.

  As I made my way to the back of the room, I took a look at Eliot’s date. She was really tall, really thin and really tan. She also had huge boobs. Like Pamela Anderson boobs. I couldn’t compete with any of that. I was never going to have that malnourished look that men found so attractive and my boobs – while a solid C-cup – weren’t going to win any ‘Baywatch’ awards anytime soon.

  As I started to move towards Marvin’s table, I saw Eliot’s gaze slide up and meet mine. “Avery.” He nodded warmly, which took me by surprise for a second. Then I realized he was probably getting off on rubbing his hot date in my face.

  I ignored him and kept moving towards Marvin. I fought the urge to kick Eliot’s date as I angled past them. I figured if that’s the kind of girl he was attracted to then I didn’t want to have anything to do with him anyway. Just because I could think for myself and my chest couldn’t be used as a flotation device in case of a water landing, well if that was who he was attracted to then who needs him? I was so involved in my rambling inner diatribe Marvin had to grab my arm or I would have kept right on walking into the bathroom hallway. That would have been embarrassing and I wasn’t used to embarrassing myself. Who am I kidding? I always embarrass myself. It’s my super power.

  I sat down next to Marvin and fixed a fake smile on my face to greet Tina. She wasn’t even looking at me – which gave me a chance to look her over. Pretty much what I expected. Tina had dirty brown hair, sallow skin and sunken eyes. The drug addiction was clearly catching up to her even though she was only in her late 20s or early 30s. Even though Marvin was 50, he always dated the young ones. He liked a certain lack of maturity – which is probably why we were friends.

  While Marvin wasn’t exactly what I would call gorgeous, he was still okay to look at and he had a good job and was genuinely interesting – if you could put up with his weird personality ticks, that is. Still, I thought he could do better than Tina. I wouldn’t wish Tina on my worst enemy. Not even Duncan. Okay, maybe Duncan.

  “Hi, I’m Avery.” I stuck my hand out in what I hoped was a warm greeting, but Tina didn’t seem to notice.

  I raised my eyebrows to Marvin who just shrugged his shoulders in response.

  Good grief. Maybe I needed something shiny to get her attention.

  “Hey!” I waved my hands in front of her face in an exaggerated effort to get her to finally notice me. She slowly shifted her attention up to me. She seemed nonplussed to meet me, too.

  “What?”

  Well, she’s delightful.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself. I couldn’t be sure my irritation was all about her and not about Eliot as well, so I tried to temper my aggravation. Otherwise I might have to shake her into submission before the night was over. As it was, I already felt like I’d spent too much time with her.

  “I was just trying to introduce myself. I’m Avery.” I stuck out my hand again.

  Tina looked at it like I had the plague – or Marvin’s flesh-eating bacteria. “I know who you are. Marvin has told me all about you.”

  Oh, well, that probably explained her disinterest.

  “So, how are you?” I felt at a loss as to how to talk to her. She wasn’t exactly what you would call giving in this information exchange.

  “How do you think I am?”

  Was that a trick question? “Umm, good?”

  “Not really.”

  Let’s try this again. “Bad?”

  “I’ve been worse.”

  I felt a sudden urge to smack the shit out of Tina. I don’t know why. Oh, wait, yes I do. I’d now met her.

  I decided this conversation was going to be as short as possible. Not only was I annoyed by Tina’s apparent melancholy, but also I was becoming acutely aware of the fact that Eliot was sitting only a few feet away from me. God I hated him. He looked good, though. He was wearing a bright green T-shirt and it made his skin practically glow. Crap. What was I saying?

  “So, Tina, without putting you on the spot I had a few questions.” I figured I better just take control of this conversation. Otherwise, we’d never leave here and I couldn’t sit here and pretend not to notice Eliot and his date forever. I figured I only had about 20 minutes before I did something monumentally stupid where he was concerned anyway.

  I sat down and signaled the bartender for a beer. I had a feeling I’d need six of these if this conversation didn’t get a little better.

  Tina looked uncomfortable as she shifted her position. “Marvin told me what you want. I don’t know that I can help you, but he’s promised you won’t put me in the paper.”

  “I have no interest in putting you in the paper,” I soothed. “I just want to know a few things about . . . “ I was lost here. How do you question a complete stranger about being addicted to Oxy?

  “I do Oxy.” Tina was matter-of-fact.

  Okay. I guess it was easier than I thought.

  “Yeah, umm, here’s the thing. I’m working on a story and it has led me in the direction of other people who do Oxy,” I started the conversation carefully. I didn’t think telling her that they manufactured it and sold it, too, was the right way to go. “I was wondering if you might know them?”

  “Everyone who does Oxy doesn’t hang out in a group. That’s like asking everyone who is black if they know each other.”

  I really didn’t like Tina. Just getting that out of the way. It’s probably pretty obvious, though. “I understand that. But from what I understand, Oxy users are kind of an insular group.”

  “I don’t know what that means.” Yeah, I hated her.

  “I mean that you guys travel in a lot of the same circles.”

  “So?”

  “So, I was wondering if you knew a guy named Kevin Walker. He lives in Detroit, but I was just hoping maybe . . .” Might as well just go for broke.

  “I don’t know him.”

  She answered that a little too quickly for my taste. She was also averting her eyes from my gaze. Can you say liar?

  “Are you sure?” I prodded.

  “I’m not stupid.”

  All signs pointed to the contrary of that. “I know you’re not stupid, I was just wondering if you had any idea about people that might know him.”

  Tina fixed her gaze behind me and shook her head. I turned to see what she was looking at and realized it was Eliot. Well, he was good-looking and I was obviously making her uncomfortable.

  Eliot had his head bent close to his willowy blonde. He did look up and see us looking at him. He smiled engagingly. I was starting to hate him, too. I wouldn’t mind seeing him hit by a truck, just as long as he was naked when it happened. Whoa, where did that thought come from?

  I turned back to Marvin and Tina. “If you think of something, can you give me a call?”

  “Sure.” I knew from the way she said it I’d probably never see Tina again. That was no great loss. She wasn’t exactly a witty conversationalist.

  Marvin and Tina got to their feet. It was obvious this meeting was over. We started moving past Eliot’s table. I was not going to meet his gaze; I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  Of course, given my karma, refusing to look up and watch where I was going caused me to trip over the back of Eliot’s date’s chair. Instead of hitting the ground, though, I careened to the right and bounced off Eliot.

  Eliot’s quick reflexes were a blessing -- in this case at least -- as he somehow managed to swiftly get to his feet, absorb my body weight and control me from bouncing off him and falling backwards onto the floor with one fluid motion. For a brief second he pulled me close to him and I could feel his solid chest flex as he stopped my forward movement.

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to think about that (at l
east not until I was far away from this place and this absurd situation). I pulled away from him a little too quickly, almost stumbling again in the process.

  “S-s-s-orry,” I stammered. “It’s dark in here.” I offered lamely.

  Eliot’s date got to her feet and moved towards me.

  “Honey, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Well that looks like it hurt,” the girl offered. She was even prettier up close. Ugh.

  “I’m fine. It happens all the time.” Sadly, it does.

  Eliot chuckled. “Sadly it does.”

  I glowered at him. He smiled when he saw my glare.

  “Ah, Avery, this is Sunshine. This is Avery Shaw. She’s a reporter for The Monitor.”

  Sunshine? Sunshine? What kind of a name is that? Wait, I don’t care.

  “What kind of a name is Sunshine?” Marvin doesn’t have a filter and I could tell he liked the blonde in front of him. He was in no hurry to leave all of a sudden.

  “It’s my stage name.”

  Ah, well that explained it.

  “You’re an actress?” Marvin loves actresses, but he’s woefully obtuse sometimes.

  “No, I’m a stripper.” Sunshine said it with absolutely no guile.

  My glare in Eliot’s direction only hardened. He really was a pig.

  “Is Sunshine your real name?” Marvin was obviously enamored. He loved strippers and he loved strip clubs. Give him an Amaretto on the rocks, a plate full of chicken strips and a room full of dirty strippers and he was in heaven.

  “Of course not.” Whoops, I probably shouldn’t have answered for her.

  Sunshine smiled at me. “No, that’s not my real name. It’s just what I go by. My real name is Dani.”

  “Dani,” Marvin breathed, stepping forward and extending his hand. “I’m Marvin.”

  “I’m going to puke.” Did I just say that out loud?

  I noticed that Tina didn’t look any happier with the situation. She was giving Sunshine a dirty look. If I couldn’t compete with Sunshine, though, Tina was definitely out of her league.

  “So, you’re dating strippers now?” I didn’t mean to say it so loud, but it came out like a question for the group.

  Eliot smiled in response, before slowly shaking his head. “No, Sunshine is a client. She’s having a problem with her ex-husband. He’s stalking her.”

  Now I felt a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry.” I could feel the color flooding to my cheeks. Luckily it was dark in here.

  “It’s okay, I never should have married him.” Probably not. “My mama told me that marrying Kevin Walker would bring me nothing but pain, and she was right.”

  Wait, did she say Kevin Walker?

  “Did you say Kevin Walker?”

  “Yeah, he’s a real loser, though. I’m sure someone like you wouldn’t know him. He lives in Detroit anyway.”

  Might as well go for broke here. I couldn’t lose any more face than I already had. “He’s not a drug dealer by any chance is he?”

  Sunshine froze. “Who told you that?”

  “Wait, that’s not true is it?” Eliot looked concerned.

  “It’s true,” Sunshine acknowledged stiffly. She didn’t seem as friendly all of a sudden. She was watching me warily, like I was some kind of witch or something.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that?” Eliot seemed angry. I was a little giddy that I clearly was more up-to-date than he was on his own case. Serves him right.

  “I didn’t think it was important.”

  “You didn’t think it was important that the guy stalking you is a dealer?” Eliot was incredulous.

  “He’s more than just a dealer.” I was relishing my power. “He’s a manufacturer.”

  Eliot looked nonplussed. “Well, that’s just great.”

  Sunshine had the good grace to look embarrassed. “I didn’t know he was a dealer when I met him. I just thought he was a nice guy who liked to buy me things.” Like all good sugar daddies should be.

  “What did you think he did for a living?”

  “I thought he worked at one of the auto plants.” I couldn’t tell if she was lying. If she was, she was good at it. I’d met plenty of decent liars, though. It would be no surprise – given what she did for a living – if she was one of them. “When I found out, that’s when I left.”

  “Well, from what I understand about Kevin and his temper, I’m surprised he didn’t come after you sooner.”

  “I don’t think he could find me. I moved to New Orleans for a while. I needed a break.”

  “Why did you come back?”

  “My mom got sick. She needed help.” I hated feeling sympathy for this woman. She had those boobs; she didn’t need me to feel bad for her.

  “How long after you got back did you start having problems with Kevin?”

  “I got back about six months ago and he found me within a month.” That was either lucky or ambitious.

  Eliot was shaking his head in disbelief. That’s what he got for falling for her sob story just because she was hot.

  “You must have been terrified.” Marvin was rubbing Sunshine’s shoulder in sympathy. I felt like tearing one of his arms off and beating him to death with it.

  “Did you call the police?”

  “And tell them what? That the guy I was married to for five seconds is stalking me? I’m a stripper. They won’t believe me. They just think I’m a dirty whore.”

  Sadly, that was probably true.

  “You didn’t have anything to do with his production did you?” Eliot seemed to be trying to stop himself from blowing up.

  “No. I left him as soon as I found out.”

  Wait, what was that? Sunshine and Tina seemed to share some sort of look. I stared between them for a second. Did they know each other? How could that be? They didn’t exactly look like they ran in the same circles.

  Sunshine caught me looking and immediately averted her gaze from Tina. It happened so fast, I almost thought I might have imagined it. I didn’t believe that for a second, though.

  “Alright, we’ve got some more talking to do,” Eliot said to Sunshine. “Why don’t we take this to my place? So we can talk without an audience.” He gave me a pointed look.

  “Why don’t you do that?” I turned on my heel to stalk out. My righteous indignation had made a roaring comeback. Screw him.

  Eliot was two paces behind me when he grabbed my arm and swung me back around. “I’m sorry, “ he said. “I just promise my clients confidentiality and you’re obviously working on this and you can’t promise that.”

  I turned and faced Eliot, my jaw set. “Oh, please Eliot, I’m not stupid. You take your little stripper friend to your apartment and do what you need to do. Don’t let me stand in your way.”

  “Why are you being like this?”

  “Like what?”

  “A pain in the ass.”

  “I’m a pain in the ass? You’re the pain the ass.”

  “Not everything I do is about you, you know?” Eliot’s rage was barely contained.

  “You’re not the first person to tell me that and I doubt you’ll be the last.” Asshole.

  I stalked away from Eliot, not even glancing back to see if Marvin was following. I doubted, given his infatuation with Sunshine, that would be happening any time soon.

  Well, screw them both.

  Nine

  When I woke up the next morning, I felt like I had a hangover – even though I hadn’t even finished one beer the night before. I guess it was more like an emotional hangover. Men make me crazy – especially stupid ones. Okay, they all act stupid from time to time – but the ones in my life seem to be especially stupid on a regular basis.

  I staggered out of bed, pulling up my Kermit the Frog fuzzy sleeping pants as I went. Remembering my run-in with Eliot and his little stripper friend last night was giving me a migraine and I needed comfortable clothes and comfort food.

  I tossed a breakfast sandwich into the microwave
(not as good as McDonald’s, but better than oatmeal) and poured myself a glass of tomato juice to drink while I was waiting. I saw that my phone was flashing red – which meant I had email (or a Facebook message). I don’t know what people did before smart phones. I felt lost without mine. It was like another appendage. Now if I could just figure out how to eliminate getting those lame game requests on Facebook, life would be perfect. Or this morning would at least be better.

  I had three messages waiting for me. Amazon was having a sale on Kindle books – I’d have to check that out later -- my latest shipment from my favorite ‘Star Wars’ website was on its way and Fish had emailed to tell me that Jake was having a press conference about Darby’s shooting in an hour. Great.

  I ate my breakfast sandwich quickly and jumped in the shower. Since I didn’t have time to blow dry my hair and get to the sheriff’s department on time, I tied my hair up in two messy low side buns (I felt like Princess Leia) and quickly took off for the sheriff’s department.

  On my way to Mount Clemens, I ran my conversation with Sunshine over in my head a couple of times. I wasn’t sure if she knew anything about Kevin’s extracurricular activities – but she definitely knew more than she was saying. I was also fairly certain that she and Tina knew each other – but neither wanted to acknowledge it. Of course, I wouldn’t want to admit being friends with Tina either. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to admit being friends with Sunshine – mostly because she was so much hotter than I was.

  When I got to the sheriff’s department, I went in through the main door and stopped at the protective bubble where the clerical staff worked. I flashed my press pass and waited for them to buzz me in. I had been through the drill before. I noticed no one seemed glad to see me. I didn’t take it personally, I wasn’t glad to see them either. Cops give me the willies.