Liar Liar - James Patterson Page 0,37

partner was, too. Aging biker chicks.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as the bartender retreated. The woman’s fingers were ringed with big stainless-steel ornaments, a wolf head and a skull vomiting another skull. Tattoos on her right knuckles read KAZZ.

“These bartenders,” Kazz said. “They get bored. Same people every day in this place. They see a new person come in, they get all nosy.”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded.

Her friend still hadn’t looked up from her phone screen. I knew women like this from the job. These ladies had probably been the busty, dangerous, trash-mouthed girlfriends of drug-dealing bikers back in the day. Now they were old, traded out for younger, fresher models after a few decades of loyal service. Exchanged for women who didn’t know so much about their partner’s crimes.

The women’s food arrived, two chicken schnitzels with mashed potato and peas. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Kazz poured gravy all over her food. My stomach growled. But I didn’t have time to hang around, stuffing my face. I needed a ride out of here, needed get to Narooma and Melina as fast as I could. I glanced around the bar for a potential ride.

“Help yourself, honey,” Kazz said, shoving a bowl of chips toward me. “Gammy and me, we always order too much.”

I hesitated, and Kazz nudged Gammy, who nodded enthusiastically and licked her lips in response. I saw that she’d had her tongue surgically forked, and recently, too. The tips were red and swollen, the procedure probably done by a backyard body modifier.

“Thanks,” I said again, and relented, thinking I’d have a couple of chips and no more. Soon I was shoving handfuls into my mouth. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d had hot food. My whole body seemed tensed with hunger, my fingers trembling as I grabbed at the food.

“Jeez, you’re like the stray puppy come in from the rain.” Kazz laughed, pouring gravy on the chips for me. “Eat up, girl. There’s plenty to go around.” I hardly noticed how closely Kazz and Gammy were watching me eat. I was checking the back of the bar, where Stan was talking to his friends. He seemed to be describing where and how he had found me. I had to get a ride and get out of here. The guys by the door looked friendly. I turned and drained my drink, balking as the bartender placed another one in front of me.

“On me.” Kazz grinned, making a smiley-face tattoo on her cheekbone wink. “You look like you need it.”

“Thanks, really.” I drained the drink in one gulp. “I’ve got to get going, though. I don’t suppose either of you are heading Narooma way?”

“We could be, we could be.” Kazz nodded, thinking. “What do you think, Gam? Should help the pretty puppy get where she’s going?”

I looked to Gam for an answer, but I couldn’t see her face through a gray haze floating thickly through the bar. I shook my head, blinked, but the gray cloud was creeping in at the corners of my vision now, making a tunnel. Kazz and Gam had started talking in sounds rather than words, bumbling tones like a soft trumpet playing with a pillow crammed in its end. I gripped the bar as the fog cleared momentarily, everything zapping back into perfect clarity. I gulped a breath before I could sink back under the influence of the cloud.

“Oh, shit,” I managed to say. “Oh…No…”

I got off my stool, hanging on to the bar for support, and turned toward the men near the door. My eyelids were heavy. The fog was creeping back. When I tried to speak, my mind screamed the words I’ve been drugged!

Not a sound made it past my lips.

Chapter 46

I’D HEARD THIS story a hundred times.

I was having a good time. We hadn’t been at the bar very long. Everything seemed fine. I was talking to some friendly guy. Suddenly my friends were gone. I realized I couldn’t speak.

I couldn’t walk.

I couldn’t ask for help.

I hadn’t been targeted by a serial rapist in a nightclub, like the girls I’d taken statements from across my career in Sex Crimes. But the terror in my chest was just the same as my body and brain failed on me. A room full of people, and I couldn’t make a single person realize I was in trouble. Kazz put her arm around me, steadying me. Gammy slipped off her stool and walked ahead of us. This was all routine for her, I realized.