Part 14 (1/2)
Chapter Fifteen.
”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 relations.h.i.+p 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 relations.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+fted, 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 flas.h.i.+ng 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.
”h.e.l.l, 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 compa.s.sion 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?”
”h.e.l.l 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.”