Part 7 (2/2)
”I know I told you three, Teen. Didn't want to freak you out but it was seven. Now you're gonna ask why wasn't it eight? I don't know, it just kind of stopped. Like he'd become my brother or something.”
I said, ”Too friendly.”
”Yup.”
”Did Des take you anywhere in particular?”
”Coffee,” she said. ”Sometimes food.” Back to caressing my shoe with her sneaker. ”Afterward.”
”Was there a particular place for before?”
She faced me. ”You really are personal. No, there wasn't any one place. He took me to sites.”
”Building sites?”
”He just called them sites. Like unfinished buildings, or sometimes there was just dirt, sometimes parts of buildings. When there was just dirt, he had a blanket in his car. Basically, he got off doing it outdoors. A lot of people do.”
I said, ”Where were these sites?”
”I don't know the street, it was dark ... they were all in the Valley-is that where he got killed? In the Valley?”
”No,” I said.
”Well, with me it was always in the Valley. He'd pick me up at my apartment, say he had a new site.”
Bettina Sanfelice mumbled unintelligibly.
Sheryl Pa.s.sant said, ”Now you can tell them about Des and you.”
I said, ”I think we know enough.”
”You said it was two, Teen. Remember what I said when you told me that? Two for the road. You said he took you to sites, also.”
Sanfelice whimpered.
I said, ”We're fine, Tina-”
Pa.s.sant reached across the table for her friend's hand. ”Chill, Teen, no one's going to tell your mom. They don't care about us, they care about who killed Des.”
”Any ideas about that?”
Both women shook their heads.
I said, ”Marjorie Holman told us she and Des had a one-night stand. Do you think that's true?”
Pa.s.sant said, ”Could be, she's old and baggy.”
”How did you guys come to be discussing Des?”
”We all had been drinking, you drink, you talk.”
”It wasn't a business meeting?”
”That's what she called it. The Notz. Guess it was, because there wasn't any business-it wasn't like a real job, you know?”
”No a.s.signments.”
”We just came in every day and mostly sat around except when the n.a.z.i wanted to talk about stuff no one understood. One day, she came in and said, 'There's no coherence, we need coherence.'”
Sanfelice said, ”Cohesiveness. 'There's no cohesiveness.'”
”Means the same, Teen. Anyway, Helga-notz said we need to have something social to get co-hesiveness, so we went out for drinks.”
”Just the women,” I said.
”Girls' night out. Gerrrrls' niyett ote. Like it had been something she'd heard in a chick movie or something, like she had been trying to be American, you know? But what the hey, she's paying, why not? She found a place near the airport, you heard planes coming in, they served these humongous margaritas. Remember those gla.s.ses, like for a plant, Teen?” Rubbing my leg for emphasis.
”How'd the topic turn to Des Backer?”
”It had just kinda happened. You remember how, Teen?”
Head shake.
Pa.s.sant said, ”I guess we had been talking about stuff and that started it to talking about guys. And that started it to talking about it being a girls' night out. And that started to someone saying I wonder how Des would have liked this, being with all these girls.”
”Who said that?”
Bettina Sanfelice said, ”Sheryl.”
”I did?”
”Yes.”
Pa.s.sant grinned. ”If she says I said it, then I said it. I was pretty much happy-time happy. I don't worry about what people think, anyway, always just say what's in my head.”
I said, ”So you brought up Des and-”
”And everyone piled on. Like Truth or Dare without the dare.”
”Everyone piled on except Helga.”
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