Gemma Halliday - Fearless in High Heels

“So, she would have needed help. Someone bigger and stronger,” Dana said, following my train of thought.

“Right. But who?” I asked.

But before Dana could answer, a voice piped up from the trailer door. “What about the boyfriend?”

Both of our heads snapped up to find Ava standing in the doorway, wearing a slinky red dress and popping a wad of bubble gum (watermelon if I wasn’t mistaken) between ruby red lips that said she’d already done her stint in make-up that morning.

Dana narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?” she asked.

Ava shrugged her shoulders, all wide-eyed innocence. “Nothing. I was just walking by and heard you guys talking about the murder. Ricky told me all about it.”

“I’ll bet he did,” Dana said under her breath.

“Anyway, I was just saying, if you’re looking for who killed her, what about the boyfriend?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think she was seeing anyone.”

“Uh, yeah,” Ava argued. “She totally was.”

I paused. “Wait – you knew Alexa?”

Ava nodded. “Sure. We did a toothpaste commercial together a couple years ago. I mean, that was back when I was just starting out, so we’re not like, close-close anymore or anything, but we’re Facebook friends.”

Mental forehead smack.

“And she told you she had a boyfriend?”

Ava shrugged. “Well her status has been ‘in a relationship’ for the past six months.”

I suddenly felt like an amateur. Every CSI junkie knew that the boyfriend was the first place to look for your killer. But with all the vampire stuff, I’d been so distracted that I’d never even thought to find out if she’d been seeing someone. “Do you happen to know the boyfriend’s name?” I asked, mentally crossing my fingers.

Ava scrunched up her nose, her eyes going to the ceiling as if looking for the answer there. “Um, Devin or Darin or something. Not sure. But I know he works at this new club on Sunset.”

And I knew him, too, I realized. Darwin. The bartender at Crush the night Alexa died.

“Wait,” Dana said holding up a hand. “Are you telling me that Alexa’s boyfriend was at the club the night that she died?”

Ava gave her a blank look. “I dunno. All I know is the boyfriend is always the first suspect, right?”

Sadly, the ditz had a point. They were. And considering that “opportunity” had just cropped up for the bartender, we definitely needed to investigate both means and motive.

* * *

Half an hour later (which would have been only twenty minutes if I hadn’t had to stop to pee at a gas station on La Brea along the way) we were back at Crush. Once inside, we made a bee-line for the bar, where Darwin was busy slicing limes. He glanced up as we entered, and I could have sworn I saw irritation flit cross his features before his “boss’s girlfriend” face slipped on.

“What can I do for you ladies today?” he asked, a fake smile showing off a set of unnaturally white teeth.

“You can tell us the truth,” Dana said, going all no-nonsense on him.

Darwin paused, raised an eyebrow her way. “The truth? I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

“About your relationship with Alexa,” I prompted. “You didn’t tell us you were dating the dead girl.”

His “on” face slipped again, eyes pinging from Dana and back to me again before answering with, “I didn’t lie. You didn’t ask, I didn’t tell.”

“A lie of omission,” Dana pointed out.

He shrugged. “Not really. As of that night, we were no longer dating. So there wasn’t any relationship to talk about.”

“Wait, you two broke up the night she died?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. Motive-ville here we come!

He nodded. “That’s right. So what?”

“So… who broke up with whom?”

He shifted, no longer slicing citrus but, I noticed, still holding the knife in a tight clutch in his right hand. “If you want to know, I broke up with her.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I was tired of seeing her with other guys,” he said, his eyes flashing in away that told me he meant it.

“What other guys?”

“Those vampire freaks.”

“That she met at the parties she worked?” I prodded.

“That’s right. I mean, who gets paid to hang out with old dudes? Hookers, that’s who.”

“So Alexa was sleeping with the men from the parties.”

Darwin paused. “I don’t know for sure. I mean, she said she wasn’t, but who knows what goes on up there, you know? Bunch of weirdos.”

“So, I take it you weren’t into the vampire scene?” I asked.

“Hell, no. What do I look like some kind of freak?”

I glanced at his pierced eyebrow, eyelid, nose, and lower lip. Probably best not to answer that question.

“Alexa knew you didn’t like her doing the parties?” Dana jumped in.

Darwin nodded again. “Yeah. We fought about it all the time. In fact, last week she promised she was leaving the scene.”

My spidey senses started tingling. “Did she say why?”

“Said she didn’t need the money anymore. Said she was getting a big payday and would quit the vampire gig.”

“But if she said she was going to quit, why did you break up with her over it the night she died?”

His face screwed up into a snarl. “Because she lied.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“I saw her that night with one of those freaks. Clearly she’d just been playin’ me about quitting. So, I told her it was over.”

“And how did she take that?” Dana asked.

He shrugged. “What did I care? I’d wasted enough time on her.”

His compassion for the dead girl was overwhelming. Not for the first time, I found myself kinda feeling sorry for Alexa. “You said you saw her with someone,” I said, jumping on that nugget of info. “Who was it?”

“Hell if I know.”

“But you knew it was someone from the vampire parties?”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “All dressed in goth black and had a pair of fangs in.”

Which could have fit any one of the people we’d seen at the vampire party.

“Anything else you can tell us about him?” I asked, grasping.

He bit his lip, sucking a black stud into his mouth. “Yeah. The guy had these weird eyes. Like, super pale looking, you know?”

I did know.

Sebastian.

* * *

“So, Becca and Alexa are into something,” I said, thinking out loud as we hopped back into Dana’s Mustang. “Blackmail maybe. But something goes wrong, and Becca decides to kill Alexa. Only she needs help to stage it like a vampire murder.”

“And she gets Sebastian to do it?” Dana asked.

“Or Darwin,” I answered, playing devil’s advocate. “I mean, we only have his word for it that Sebastian was even there.”

“True,” Dana nodded.

“Either way,” I said, remembering what Goldstein had said about Becca being nervous, “the accomplice suddenly has the power, and now Becca is on the run.”

“We’ve got to find her,” Dana said.

I nodded. And quickly. Before the accomplice did.

“Well, the last place anyone saw her was in North Hollywood where Goldstein dropped her two nights ago.”

“Let’s check it out.”

* * *

We stopped at a Jack-in-the-Box for a couple of sandwiches first (Okay, I had a couple of sandwiches, and Dana grilled the woman behind the counter to see if there was anything on the menu without trans fats and “hormone pumped meats”, finally settling on a side salad sans dressing.), then we headed toward No Ho to look for Becca.

North Hollywood is not my favorite of places. First off, its name is deceiving. While Hollywood is known for glamour, glitz, and stars, North Hollywood is known for used cars (with or without pink slips), liquor stores, and porn studios. Bad place to drive at night, but a great place to hide out if you’re on the run after killing your best friend.

We slowly drove down Victory, passing several sad storefronts and a couple of houses with tilting porches and chain link fences around the yards, until we hit Lankershim.

Dana pulled the Mustang in the lot of a strip mall featuring a discount cigarette shop, a check cashing place with bars on all the windows, and a pawn shop, and we took stock of the corner. Across from us was a furniture warehouse. On the opposite corner, a square cinderblock of cheap housing where a couple of guys in jeans that were just barely hanging onto their butts were engaging in pharmaceutical trade in the front entrance. Across the street from that sat a fast food place that served both Chinese and Mexican buffets all night long.

“Okay, so where do we think Becca is hiding out?” Dana asked, her eyes doing the same sweep as mine.

I shrugged. “The housing project?”

Dana nodded. “Likely place to start.” She paused. “You wanna go in?”

I looked across at the Baggy Pants Dealers. I shook my head. “Not really.”

“Yeah. Me neither.”

We sat there for a beat, holding onto our chickenhood, watching the transaction complete across the street.

“Maybe we should drive around the back,” Dana suggested. “Maybe just peek around. You know, with the windows up and the doors locked.”

“Fabulous idea,” I agreed.

We pulled back out onto the street, rounding Victory until we hit the back of the building. A small service alley separated it from the next block of houses behind it, the length of it filled with covered parking spots holding dented Chevy’s, supped up Impalas, and a couple of vehicles so rusted they were beyond brand recognition. The pavement was coming up in chunks, the dumpsters overflowing, and the windows all covered in sheets and dirty blinds, shut tight against prying eyes.

Dana eased us down the length of the alley, passing by an emaciated looking dog and a group of boys with guilt written all over their faces. (I didn’t even want to know why.) In the center of the building, the parking slots gave way to a small courtyard, punctuated with overgrown bushes and a couple of faded folding lawn chairs. An elderly man sat in one smoking a cigar in his boxers.