Concealed in Death (In Death #38)(68)

“I need to talk to him, Mavis.”

“Shit. Double shit. Let me talk to him first.”

Eve eased back a little, nearly goggled. “You know how to contact him?”

“Triple shit. He helped me out, Dallas, when I needed it. He taught me—okay, not what you’d like, but still. He’s sort of semi-retired. Sort of. Now I know why I never told you about him.”

“Twelve girls are dead.”

“I know it. I know it, and I knew three of them. Maybe it’s going to turn out I knew more of them. It makes me sick inside. I’ll talk to him, get him to talk to you, but you have to promise it’s, like, not in that sweatbox deal. That you won’t bust him for—just stuff.”

“Christ.”

“Please.”

“Set it up, but if it leans a frigging inch that he killed those girls, it’s over.”

Mavis breathed out in relief. “It won’t, so that’s a deal.”

“Tell me more about the girls.”

“Shelby ran the show—with her crew. LaRue hung with them more than anybody else, but she was more on her own. Mikki was, like, all about Shelby. I think she had the hots for her, too, and just didn’t get it yet. There was another girl—kinda small black girl, with a great big voice. Really magolicious pipes.”

“DeLonna.”

“Yeah, yeah—I didn’t really know her. She only came around with Shelby a couple times. And there was a guy, but Sebastian didn’t allow boys in The Club. I think that’s why Shelby didn’t just bag it and stick with us. She had mega loyalty. They were hers, including the guy, so she just hung and ran sometimes, and talked about getting her own place.”

“He didn’t allow boys, but what about men?”

“It was just Sebastian. Actually, he, like, boosted us. Our self-esteem and all,” Mavis explained. “He always said stuff like we were worth more than anything we could liberate. He used words like that instead of, you know, steal.”

Mavis cocked her head at Eve. “Fancy words,” she said in a reasonably decent impression of Eve, “don’t make it less of a crime.”

“Funny. Why are thieves so hilarious?”

“Stealing’s kind of a funny business when you think about it. Anyway, he’d say how we should never give away what we had—meaning sex—or let anybody take it. And how we needed to wait until we understood all that stuff.”

She looked down at her fingers, joined with Leonardo’s. “He made me feel like I was worth something. No one ever had.”

Not a bad ploy, Eve thought, for getting a bunch of hungry girls to steal for you. “He had to move merchandise. Had to have a fence, had to buy supplies.”

“He mostly dealt with a couple pawnbrokers, but they never came around The Club—not while I was running with them anyway.”

“Women?”

“No. He hooked with this LC, but he never brought her around either. Look, he wasn’t—isn’t—a sleezewad. We had rules, and okay, sure, they were pretty loose, but we had them. We even had to study, like in school. He said there was no excuse for stupid. No illegals or booze. If you wanted to screw yourself up, you did it outside. That was the thing with Shelby,” Mavis remembered, circling back. “She had a taste for illegals, for brew. She wanted her own place so she and her crew could do what they wanted. That’s why I figured—we all did, I guess—she just took off.”

“How many girls?”

“It went up and down. Ten, maybe fifteen. More when the weather went sour. Some stayed a couple days, some stayed years.”

“I’ve got some pictures I’d like you to look at.”

“I saw them, on your board. I only recognized the three.”

“We’re still IDing. I have some pictures from Missing Persons reports. Can you look at them?”

“Oh.” Mavis let out a long breath. “Yeah, sure. Yeah. If it could help.” She turned to Leonardo. “I want to help.”

He brought her hands to his lips, then kissed her cheeks. “I’ll check on Bella.”

“You’re the biggest prize in the big, shiny box of prizes.”

“Maybe the biggest.” He touched his lips to hers. “You’re the sweetest. I’ll be right here.”

“I know. Okay.” She rose. “Let’s do it. Thanks for listening,” she said to Roarke. “And the wine.”

He stood, stepped over to enfold her in a hug. “You’re family.”

She squeezed hard. “One of the top ten phrases. Right up there with ‘I love you,’ and ‘For you it’s free.’”

When she went out with Eve, he sat, looked at Leonardo.

“I need to give Summerset a break.”

“Take a moment,” Roarke advised. “I can promise you he’s enjoying himself.”

“Little shaky, I guess.” Leonardo picked up the wine he’d ignored while Mavis had talked, while he’d held her through it. “I knew it all, but hearing her say it all again . . .”

“It makes it all real again. It makes you wish again that you could somehow go back and save her from all of it.”

Leonardo let out an unsteady breath. “It does. It does just exactly that. Everything got brighter when I met her, and faster. Then, it stayed bright but it all settled in. I could’ve gone on just fine with my work, and the women, the parties. It seemed like enough. Now? All of that could go. I don’t mean the women,” he said, suddenly flustered. “I mean there aren’t any women, not since Mavis. I mean she’s the only . . .”