Therapy

“Laughing at him, his being dead and all.”

“Any idea who killed him?” I said.

“Nope.”

“A girl was found with him. Blond, about your size-”

“Skankadoo,” she said.

“You know her?”

“I’ve seen her. He like showed her off to me. As if. My friend Ellie said she looked like me, but I was like get a refund on your LASIK, girl. Then Ellie was like, ‘Not like a twin, Kayle, like just a little. Like if you had a rough night.’ ” She shook her head. “No way; that thing was trailer-trash skankplasm. But then I thought maybe Gavin, being brain-damaged and all, liked her because he thought she did look like me. Because he couldn’t have me, and she was like sloppy seconds, you know?”

“When did he show her off to you?”

“After I told him no more quickie-city.”

“After the accident?”

“Way after,” she said. “This was like- couple of months ago? I thought he’d stopped bugging me ’cause I hadn’t heard from him in a while, but then he started calling me again. I expected him to like break down and beg, you know? Because he claimed he was really into me. But he just called and wanted to hang out. So that proves he was lying, he really wasn’t into me. Right?”

“Unusual for Gavin,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Giving up so easily. I’ve heard he could be pretty persistent.”

“After the accident he got really weird that way. Started calling me again, like twenty times a day. Dropping over, bugging my dad.” Faint smile. “I guess he did end up begging. Then he stopped.”

Because he was stalking Beth Gallegos. I said, “So he wanted to hang out.”

“He wanted to go somewhere and park and put his cock in my mouth. I felt sorry for him, so I did it once. But never again.”

“No more speed-record sex,” I said.

“You’re making me sound mean,” she said, pulling at loose strands and trying to stuff them back in the beret. Unsuccessful, she yanked off the hat and began kneading it.

“You should apologize,” she said.

“For what?”

“Saying I’m mean and a slut.”

“You said you felt sorry for Gavin-”

“Exactly. I was being nice. After the accident he got kind of… I don’t want to say retarded because it sounds so mean, but really, that’s what it was. So I felt sorry for him and wanted to help him.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“It does,” she agreed.

“So Gavin slowed down intellectually.”

“Like before, he could be obnoxious, but he was smart. But now- it was…” She probed her cheek with her tongue. “I want to say pathetic.”

“Sounds like it was.”

“Huh?”

“Pathetic.”

“Yeah, exactly, like it really was.”

“The time you went out with him-”

“It was only once. I felt sorry for him.”

“Where’d you park?”

“Up on Mulholland?” Her mouth froze in a tiny O. “That was where- omigod.”

“Was that a regular spot for you and Gavin? Back in the old days?”

“Sometimes.” She started crying. “That could’ve been me.”

“Tell me about the blond girl,” I said.

She wiped her eyes, smiled. “Too bleached out, you could see her roots.”

“Where’d you meet her?”

“I never met her, like actually hanging out. Me and Ellie went to a movie and later we went to Kate Mantolini for the vegetable plate. Sometimes Jerry Seinfeld goes there.”

Her eyes drifted out a side window, switched direction, and focused on a parking sign. “I hope I don’t go past the validation time.”

I said, “You and Ellie at Kate Mantolini.”

“Yeah,” she said. “We were like into our veggies and in comes Gavin with this skank. I’m talking Ross-Dress- for-Less blouse and a skirt up to her you-know-what.” Her eyes dropped to her sandals. “She did have cool shoes. Black, open-backed. Very Naomi Campbell.”

“Jimmy Choo,” I said.

“How’d you know?”

“She was wearing them the night she was murdered.”

“They were cool shoes. I figured she boosted them.” She chuckled. “Just kidding!”

“So Gavin walked in with her-”

“And pretended not to see me so I pretended not to see him. Then he had to walk past us to get to his booth and he pretended to all of a sudden spot me and be all like surprised, like, hey-it’s-you, Kayla.”

“What did you do?” I said.

“I waited until he came right up to the table, I mean right up, so like no way could you ignore it.”

“Then what?”

“Then I said, ‘Hey, Gav,’ and he wiggles his finger and the skank comes over and she’s like ‘who are you?’ Like she’s got it all goin’ on. Which she doesn’t. And Gavin’s like this is… whatever her name was. And Skanky just stands there in her Jimmy’s like she’s the star of an E! True Hollywood Story or something.”

“You don’t remember her name?”

“Nope.”

“Try.”

“It’s not like I was listening.”

“Try,” I said.

“It’s important?”

“It is.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s dead.”

“Hmm.” She flipped her upper lip with her index finger, let it snap down against her teeth. Repeated it several times, making little ploppy noises. Squished the beret and watched the soft fabric pulsate amoebically as it regained its shape.

“Kayla?” I said.

“I’m thinking,” she said. “I guess I’d like to say Chris. Or Christa. Something Chris-sy.”

“Any last name?”

“No,” she said. “Definitely not. Gavin never mentioned a last name. This wasn’t like some big introduction. Gavin was like ‘I don’t need you, look what I’ve got.’ ”

“He said that?”

“No, but you could just tell. Later, he came up and said how cool she was.”

“Later when?”