three different bars at the same time. Different shifts, different days. If they decide to drop one, they just do it. Sometimes without telling anyone.”
“What do you mean by not so much in a place like this?” I said.
“This is more of a neighborhood place. Quieter. You don’t have to yell over the bass music just to take an order. The girls actually like to work here to take a break from those places. At least you can talk to the customers here.”
“Was Suzy friendly with any specific customers?” Richards asked, pulling the conversation back on line.
“Not that I know of. A couple of guys asked where she went but they’re our regulars. They get uncomfortable if things change. It’s like a routine for them.”
“So you don’t know if anyone tried to pick her up?”
Laurie smiled.
“Honey, they’re always trying. But Suzy was pretty shy. Kinda quiet. Some of the bartenders get into the girl talk thing. Even know each other’s last names. But mostly they hang out with each other and do the other bars together, but they don’t get that personal.
“They’ll say ‘whoa, check out gin and tonic down at the end’ or they’ll describe some date they had with the big tipper who went dutch over at Coyote’s. You know, typical stuff. You were there.”
This last comment was directed at Richards, who tried to look surprised.
“Yeah. I heard about you working some shifts over at Runyon’s and Guppy’s,” Laurie said. “Gossip like that gets around.”
“Not that it did any good,” Richards said, looking away, the first time I’d seen her lose that hard edge of hers in public.
“Well, it did scare the shit out of everybody,” Laurie said. “The girls started being more careful. They did this little half-serious game of picking out the killer in each shift.”
“Yeah? And did they come up with any consensus?” Richards asked, digging right back in.
“Sure. Carmine. That creepy little delivery boy from the Italian place who is under age and is always trying to schmooze a drink.”
She laughed at some mental image of Carmine. Richards was not amused.
“So, what? It’s a joke and everything goes back to normal?”
“Almost,” Laurie said, tightening her mouth back up. “But not until Josie, this girl who worked three different places and then dropped out of sight and nobody knew where.”
Richards got out a notebook from her jeans pocket to write something down.
“Three weeks later she comes waltzing back in here one night with a big rock on her finger telling everybody how the Chivas Regal guy and her eloped to Vegas,” Laurie said, again looking straight at Richards. “Then everything went back to normal.”
The table went quiet for a couple of moments.
“Anyone else here close to Suzy we could talk to?” I said, making an obvious motion to the girl working behind the bar who I had been watching in the mirrored wall next to us. It may have just been her curiosity, but somebody she had more than a customer relationship with had bolted out of here when Richards came in and the bartender noticed it, and now she was way too twitchy watching her boss talk to us.
“No. Not really. Marci only worked weekends and didn’t come on full until a few weeks ago. They never even met,” Laurie said. “Carla worked with her. I think she tried to get Suzy to share rent on an apartment. But like I said, she was kinda shy. Had a place of her own.
“Carla’s got the Sunday shift this week. But you’re not going to get the girls all scared again, are you?”
Richards put her notebook away and pushed the folder one inch back to the other side of the table.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she stood. “But maybe they ought to be scared.”
I followed Richards outside and stayed a step behind as she walked down the sidewalk toward the street that ran behind the shopping plaza. She didn’t turn or say a word and I was just about to say fuck it and reverse myself and head back to my truck when she stopped at the trunk of a two-door convertible and leaned her butt against the back fender and looked up at me.
“New ride?” I said, trying to cut the tension.
“What do you have for me, Max?” she said, folding her arms in front of her. The paring lights high above put an unnatural shine to her tight blonde hair and a slick paleness to the planes of her face. She looked years older