seated around the stage paid no attention to me, perhaps because I had all my clothes on, but more likely because their eyes were riveted on the stage. I crossed the room to the bar and asked for Briana Engle, Gumby’s wife. The bartender sent the half-naked waitress standing at the bar to get Briana from her dressing room.
“What else can I getcha?” He smiled at me with two broken front teeth.
“Nothing, thank you.”
He hitched his pants up and walked to the other end of the bar to watch the football game.
“Hey, Jolene. I haven’t seen you since the wedding. How are you?” Briana enveloped me in a hug that brought me in contact with her own two cannonballs. They didn’t flatten an inch under her red silk robe as her chest met mine.
“Worried. My sister, Erica, is missing. I know she was in here Tuesday night. Did you see her?”
Briana pursed her lips, which were as red as her robe. “I saw her singing at the top of her lungs and hitting on all the boys. She stole my thunder. I didn’t make any tips that night. Gumby finally called Ray.”
So he called because his wife was losing money, not because my sister needed help? Surely Gumby was a better officer than that. “I’m sorry about your tips. Has my sister been back since?”
Briana called the bartender over and asked him. He shook his head. Briana shrugged. “Guess not.”
“She wanted a man to take her home that night. Do you know his name or what he looked like?”
“No name, but he’s a big, redheaded guy. Really big. Meaty. Erica kept asking him if he was big all over.”
Lovely. And unfortunately, not the same man as the one from The Lincoln House. Now I had two potential suitors for her affections, and no name for either one.
“If Erica or the redheaded man comes in again, can you call me?”
“Sure, Jolene. No problem.”
“Thanks, Briana.” I started to turn away then felt Briana’s hand on my coat sleeve.
“Can you do me a favor, too?”
“Of course.”
“When you find your sister, tell her to stay away from my husband.”
____
After Danny went to bed, I climbed into the bathtub and tried to soak off the lingering sleaze dust I’d picked up inside the strip club. I hadn’t been able to think of anywhere else to look for Erica when we left there, and I knew Danny should be in bed by nine before his first day at Wachobe Middle School.
I must have dozed off in the tub because the next thing I knew Ray was sitting on the side of the tub, giving me a soapsuds beard.
He bent to kiss me on the nose as I wiped away his handiwork.
“How was the rest of your day? Did you find Josie Montalvo’s body?”
“Not even a lead. She rented her apartment a little over a month ago. Her landlord didn’t require any information from her, just a $500 deposit, which he’s now going to have to use to hire a professional service to clean the blood off her bedroom carpet. They released the scene today.”
“I went to The Cat’s Meow to look for Erica tonight.”
“I heard. Briana called Gumby.”
“I have no secrets, do I?”
Ray gazed down at my body. “Not without the soapsuds.”
My cheeks burned. I tried to attribute it to the hot water, but the temperature of my bath had turned cold long ago. “Could you hand me a towel?”
He rose and pulled a bath sheet off the rack, holding it out so I could step into it.
I would have preferred to have him hand it to me and leave the room. Even though we’d been together for over fifteen years, I felt a little shy to step out naked in front of him. I knew where it might lead, and I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had sex. Most likely it had been in the days following Noelle’s departure, when I’d been inconsolable no matter what Ray tried.
I could tell from the look on Ray’s face what he’d like to try tonight. My hands started to shake even as I told myself how ridiculous it was to feel nervous with Ray.
Erica’s nonsense about becoming a born-again virgin crossed my mind. Absurd. Totally absurd.
I stood and stepped over the side of the bathtub with as much grace as I could muster. I slipped on the wet tile. My leg went out from under me. I flailed my arms in an effort to catch my balance.
Ray’s