Dead and Gone

by Tina Glasneck

  17

  The bar stank, I wasn’t going to lie. A soon as Dante popped the top off the sealant lid, I got lightheaded and asthmatic. I put Twinkles on a lead, and we went for a walk. The doors were propped open, letting the air and sunlight in. Joe was back on the job, sterilizing the prep room and tut-tutting as he held up the barware I had cleaned, polishing away the imagined smudges I had left. The fumes didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Hopefully, the warm breeze would clear everything out before tomorrow.

  Twinkles and I went to sit at the park across from the police station, where Twinkles liked to hang with the squirrels. It was indeed a beautiful day.

  You should text Kay right about now, I texted Terrance.

  Terrance: Am I forgetting a birthday? Anniversary?

  Me: You’re forgetting how good you two are together.

  Terrance: I most certainly am not. I love Kay. Just not ready to give her a ring.

  Me: Hmm

  Terrance: Why should I be texting Kay?

  Me: Because I’m a busybody who sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong.

  Terrance: Really? Shit. Understood.

  At least he was quick on the uptake.

  I was feeling a weird mishmash of loyalty/disloyalty. Who was I to interfere? Maybe I should’ve just let Kay ride the Dante wave and see where it took her. Mm, no. It didn’t feel right to me. I loved Kay; I wanted the very best for her. I thought maybe her vision was clouded. “Dante is talented. I’ll give him that,” I told Twinkles. Twinkles rolled over to sun his belly. He didn’t seem to have an opinion.

  I waited for Kay to text that Dante was finished sealing things up.

  Kay: We need to head out now to get this done in time for me to get back to work. I packed a lunch to eat in the office later. Can you follow in your car and take me back?

  Me: Sure. What’s the address?

  Kay: 2224 Whiticom Crt. Just put it in your phone. Call me if you have trouble.

  I didn’t need to map it—I had a friend who used to live just off Whiticom Court when we were in high school.

  Me: Heading back now, see you at the house in a few minutes.

  No mention of Terrance. Hmmm.

  I pulled up to a 1940s-style craftsman house in an older section of town. It was a lovely neighborhood with big trees and green lawns. The one at 2224 was meticulous. I didn’t think I’d ever seen grass that green. I stopped to consider the house before I got out. It was obviously owned by someone artistic—the way the flower beds were laid out, the choices of color—it looked like a painting. An interesting modern sculpture stood out against the traditional lines of the architecture. It didn’t clash, though; it kind of read as interesting, like wearing a pair of bright aqua pumps with a little black dress. It was all very tasteful. Kay’s taste.

  Something that Terrance had said by text—I’m not ready to give her a ring—juxtaposed with another conversation I’d had with Kay—the one about Connor and Ashley. “There’s nothing wrong with an old pair of comfortable jammies to pull on at the end of the day. Better than being alone.” What if the comfy jammies were packed up and flying from city to city? Then wouldn’t you consider buying a new pair of jammies? A pair that had not just a house, but a home to live in? I frowned at the house. I wanted Kay to be happy. And Kay had always been happiest when she and Terrance were together. He was the yin to her yang.

  Maybe I was being shortsighted. Maybe my unease with this situation was my own shit bubbling up and needing somewhere for me to project. Maybe I needed to go for a long walk and have a good think about what I wanted out of my relationships. Both Dick and Peter were putting out relationship vibes, like they wanted more from me than I had been offering. I had told them the deal from the beginning. They had both bought a ticket for the ride I was willing to give them. I hadn’t led anyone along. I was just…tired. Confused. Overwhelmed. In a bad place. Getting my period. Needing chocolate. Lots of chocolate, and some starchy carbs.

  For now, though, I could slap on a happy face, sit back, and let Kay steer the boat. I let Twinkles out of the car. “Sometimes I wish I drank,” I told him, reaching for his lead. He took off running for the oak tree, lifted his leg, and marked the territory. MINE!

  I expected him to run straight back to me, but his nose lifted into the air. Sniff, sniff, sniff. He followed the wind current around the side of the house, and I jogged after him. He ended up in Dante’s back garden. I hoped to God this was Dante’s back garden, and I hadn’t made a mistake with my navigation, or I’d be explaining my presence to a cop. Hmmm…I thought, as a smile spread across my face.

  Twinkles was being an ass. I was just going to call a spade a spade. I didn’t know what got into him, but there we were, in the tranquility of Dante’s backyard, and Twinkles was sniffing the ground like he was a paid truffle pig in France. Every time I reached for his lead to pull him away, he bared his teeth and growled. This doubled in strength when Dante showed up at the back door.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, wisely keeping the screen door shut between us.

  I threw my hands in the air. “I have no idea,” I said earnestly. “Just give me a second.”

  Kay pushed around him and came out to help me. She had a drink in her hand. I looked at it. “What is that?”

  “Lemonade made with lavender simple syrup—it’s delicious. Just breathing in the lavender is so relaxing.”

  I leaned over and sniffed her drink. It smelled like lemons and lavender. It would make a nice scented candle for a bathroom. Kay bent and patted her thigh. “Twinkle Bell, come see Auntie Kay,” she crooned, in her I’m-gonna-rub-your-belly voice. It usually made Twinkles drop whatever he was doing and come running. I’ve even seen him drop a meat bone for that invitation. But today, not so much.

  Kay looked at me and shrugged.

  Twinkles started digging. Turf and dirt were flying.

  “Hey, hey, hey!” Dante yelled from behind the screen door.

  I lunged for the lead, wrapped it around my wrist, slung it over my shoulder, hunkered down, and towed Twinkles like a sack of bricks toward the car. He was barking his head off. I was sure the neighbors were busy quick-dialing animal control. Twinkles hadn’t been himself for days now. I thought I might have read something about that in some pet magazine while I waited at the vet’s, something about suddenly weird-acting pets… I tried to calculate when he’d last had his rabies shots. I was pretty sure they were up to date. Vets usually didn’t let things like that lapse.

  “I’m taking you home, and I’m calling the vet,” I said, shoving his furry body into the back seat. I felt that had Twinkles not loved me as much as he did, he might have bitten my head off. If he was a girl dog, I’d think maybe he was premenstrual, too.

  I patted over my coat pocket for my phone. No phone. Duh, I left it on my desk back when I stopped in to talk to Joe and make sure the front door was locked so the perv or another sobbing Daphne relative couldn’t meander in. Tuesday couldn’t come soon enough. I had texted Terrance to start coming up with a goodbye party and that’s when I put it down. I thought. I hoped. Yeah, that was the last time I remembered using it… Maybe.

  18

  I pulled up at the front door, cracked the windows and told Twinkles to sit tight. I was exhausted from my tug of war with him. Sweaty. Rumpled. He could just stay put for a hot second. As I walked around the car, Georgie walked out of his father’s restaurant. He was carrying one of the vases he’d made for the tables. He lifted his free hand about three inches and waved at me.

  “Hey ho, Georgie,” I said, sliding my key into the lock and swinging the door open.

  “I made this for you, BJ.”

  “You did?” I accepted the vase. “That is so nice of you. Thank you. Can I put this on my desk so I can enjoy them?”

  Georgie nodded.

  I went to my office grabbed my (thank God!) phone and put the pretty aster lilies next to the lamp. I leaned out the door to tell Georgie I didn’t have time to play bal
l with him.

  “You changed Chloe’s dress,” Georgie said, pointing his finger.

  I stopped dead in my tracks.

  “What did you say, Georgie?” My heart was pounding so hard I could hardly hear myself talk.

  “You changed Chloe’s dress.”

  “I did. Yes, I did.” I swallowed hard to get my saliva past the lump in my throat. “You’re calling her Chloe?” How could he possibly know that name? Could Kay have said something to him? It wasn’t Dishwasher-Joe. Joe had been gone when Mary was here. I was spooked, I wasn’t going to lie.

  “She looks just like Chloe.”

  “How do you know Chloe?”

  “Oh, she’s the nice lady on the bus. Chloe and the man. I missed my stop. I missed the red house where I was supposed to get off, and they walked me back to Dr. Baker’s house to work on my speech.”

  This seemed wrong. “You were on a bus by yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  Yeah, that was really wrong. Georgie should never be on a bus by himself. “Where was your dad? Why wasn’t he on the bus with you?”

  “Pop has a friend who is an alphabet man. He needed to talk to Pop about Hooch.”

  “An alphabet man? An ABC man?”

  “Yes.”

  “But this was a long time ago?”

  “Last year. A year…” He looked up. “Yes, my last birthday. Dad said I was old enough to go on the bus to the red house on my own. Watch out the window, then get off the bus and walk in the door. Only I didn’t see the red house, and I got scared.”

  “And that’s when Chloe helped you?”

  “Yes. She was going to school. She was studying books. Her friend wasn’t going to school—he had a job. Like my job is putting the flowers together.”

  “Do you remember what his job was?”

  “Taking pictures of things. He takes pictures. Do you want to play ball?” He pulled a baseball from his pocket.

  “I’m so sorry. I have Twinkles in the car. I came in to get my phone.” I held it up and wiggled it. “Can we play another time?”

  “Yup,” he said, and went out the door.

  I got in my car and cranked the engine. Nope. First, I needed to let Dick know what was going on and ask him if he’d gotten anything back on the fingerprints yet.

  First, I sent a girlfriend check-in text to Kay—Snickerdoodles

  I waited.

  Gr8 133m3r5—great leemers (great lemurs). It was from a stupid inside joke we had in middle school, but we used it as code. Snickerdoodles was the “Are you okay, do I need to save you from a bad date/situation?” And great lemurs was the “A-OK, good buddy” reply. No action needed.

  She was doing just fine. Good. No reason to rush back. I had time to drop Twinkles at home. I’d call the vet for an appointment on the way to pick Kay up and take her back to work. I’d just have to do the plaster thingy another day, or never. It was probably enough that Kay could describe it to Connor and the cops. I can’t say that I was overly disappointed. Besides, I had other things weighing on me besides plaster of Paris on my face.

  Okay, now for Dick: Are you around? Georgie was just over at the bar and called Daphne “Chloe.” How weird is that? Call me, plz.

  I looked down at my phone, willing it to ring. Instead, there was a knock on my window. I turned my head and saw the perv with a bouquet of grocery store flowers in his hands. I screamed my bloody head off.

  It was just the shock of not seeing his approach and tightly strung nerves, I told myself.

  Lyle went white as a ghost, his eyes stretched wide. I rolled down my window a couple inches. “Sorry about that, you startled me.”

  Lyle cleared his throat. “Ma’am,” he said. His eyes darted everywhere, and I could tell he was having problems looking at me. I could understand that. Not so easy to look someone in the eye once that someone’s listened to you during your happy time. He blinked awkwardly.

  “Can I help you, Lyle?”

  “You remember my name?” he asked.

  “After last night, I don’t think I could forget.” No matter how hard I tried.

  He nodded, then thrust the bouquet toward my window. “I came by to bring these to you.”

  I considered him for a minute, then looked back at Twinkles lying on the back seat of the car, blinking at us with his tongue hanging out. I pushed my door open, and left it open, so Twinkles could come to my rescue if perv got pervy. But I was pretty sure he was here just to apologize; I mean, his future was kind of in my hands. I decided to push forward, with or without Dick’s information. I gave my phone readout another glance. Nope. Nada.

  Lyle handed me the bouquet of yellow carnations. “Yellow stands for friendship, you know. After last night, and my…embarrassment, I wanted to thank you and make a friendly gesture for not pressing charges.”

  “You realize I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

  Lyle’s Adam’s apple bobbled.

  “I’m going to need you to be honest with me. I have some questions that need answers.”

  He cleared his throat. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “I mean, I need you to be ‘swear on the holy book’ honest.”

  “Okay. This is about Rosebud, right?”

  I tipped my head. “That’s what you call the mannequin I named Daphne?”

  He bobbed his head.

  “I have a feeling that we met before, or rather I interrupted a date that you and Rosebud were on.”

  He looked at his shoes. “Yes, I’d taken her out for a park picnic.” He looked back up to catch my gaze. “You see, there is something lovely about nature. The feel of the fresh grass; the sounds of nature, birds chirping, and we were having a good time, but then—”

  “Then you heard a car drive up?”

  “Yes, you were too close.” He looked back at his shoes. “I saw a cop pull up, and I ran away. I was going to come back to get her, but my mother called, and I couldn’t get her off the line. By the time I got to the park, you and your friend were tying Rosebud to the roof of your car.”

  “And you chased our car with a drone.”

  Pink rose up his cheeks until his ears turned crimson. “Yes. I know I scared you. I could see into your car with the camera. I watched you panic. I didn’t mean to scare you, I just meant to follow you so I could see where Rosebud was going. And then I lost her when you were at the hospital. I flew the drone back to me and went home.”

  “Why did you have a drone with you?”

  Lyle filled his cheeks with air until he was puffed out like a chipmunk carrying nuts back to its stash. When he released the air, he said, “The people in the high-rise apartments usually don’t shut their bedroom curtains. And I like to look in.”

  Ew. Note to self, always close the bedroom curtains. “But you lost us. How did you find Rosebud again?”

  “I’m in a group on social media–other people like me who enjoy doll-play. They were posting about her and Terrance.” He gestured toward the bar. “And Hooch’s.”

  I didn’t know what to say. So I played Dick—I just listened.

  “When I was younger, my older sister liked to dress me up, and she used to make me sit with her dolls. I felt safe with all of the others. They were lovely—exquisite, even. Over the years, whenever life got stressful, I’d find a doll that I could brush its hair, and that just naturally progressed. Have you ever seen something so beautiful and thought that you just had to have it—it was like life and death? Well, that was how it was for me with Rosebud. I collect mannequins, and I know to some that sounds strange, but for me, being with mannequins brings me back to my childhood. I feel calm and cared for. It’s almost prayerful.”

  Yeah, I had heard him screaming sweet Jesus, lord, have mercy, and a few oh god—oh gods last night, so I could vouch for the prayer part. “I get that she is personally important to you. But I need to know where you got her.” I crossed my arms over my stomach and leaned against my Mini Cooper.

  “Come again?”

&
nbsp; “She’s not a doll that you can just pick up from a storefront window or in a boutique. You must have acquired her somewhere.”

  The crimson on his ears turned an alarming shade of purple, he was blushing so hard. “I hate to tell you this. It makes everything so much worse. It’s terrible.” He shuffled his feet. “I’ve done something awful. Unforgiveable.”

  My heart was jackhammering. My blood pressure shot up so high I thought my ears would start to whistle. Had he done something to Chloe? This was my chance. I had leverage. I had to know. “Come on, Lyle, you can tell me.”

  He ducked his head down. “I stole her,” he whispered.

  The air blew out of my lungs like a balloon that had been popped. He stole her. Shit. I clapped a hand to my heart. “Where did you steal her from?”

  “From the neighborhood two blocks north of mine. I was taking a stroll around Halloween, and there she was on the porch, wearing a witch’s hat, sort of like Samantha on Be-Witched. She was outside, and there were others inside. They were in the window—like a display.”

  “I see, and you…”

  “Went home. But that night, in the middle of the night, I drove over, opened my trunk, put her in, and drove off. I stole her.” He bowed his head. “I’m going to jail. I understand you’ll need to tell the police. It’s my own fault. The weakness of my own flesh.”

  “Lyle, do you remember the address?” I asked gently, squeezing for all the information I could wring from him.

  “Of where I found Rosebud?”

  “Yes, please.” I suddenly needed to pee. My nerves were doing a number on me. Now my blood had turned to ice, giving me goose bumps, making me shake. Lyle didn’t seem to notice.