her dressing room. I caught up with her inside. Nobody else was there.
“You’re doing all right, Grandma,” she said, turning around when she heard my footsteps. “I hope I have handsome men to escort me when I’m your age. Like Mae West.”
I smiled and said, “I want to ask you a question, Cherub. Did you know about Elise’s-the Shooting Star’s- tattoo?”
“Lefty told me about it. That’s why he was sure that the murdered girl was the Star.”
“But you never saw it?”
“No, it was covered by her g-string.”
“Then how come Lefty knew about it?”
“Lefty? You can’t keep a secret like that from Lefty. He probably got in her pants.”
“But…”
“But what? But she was a good girl? Listen, Grandma, on a night when you’re dancing good and you’ve got the guys eating out of your hand and ready to die for you, it makes you horny as hell. And if all she had to look forward to was a boyfriend who didn’t like sex, she needed something more.”
“But she always left right after her number.”
“Not always. Sometimes she’d go to Lefty first to get paid. Did you see the door in the corner of his office? That leads to a small room with a bed in it. He says it’s so he can take naps. Ha. I know what it’s for because I’ve been there.”
I was learning more than I wanted to know.
“One other thing,” Cherub continued. “The Star and I, we didn’t talk that much, but she did tell me one thing I can relate to. She told me the only time she felt in control of her life was when she was dancing.”
Chapter 24
“I have a confession to make,” Mark said between two bites of bacon as we were eating breakfast the next morning.
Uh oh, I thought. I said, “It’s too early in the morning for confessions.”
“You’ve been so good to me, I’ve got to tell you this. I know one reason you’re helping me is because you hope that Sandy and I will get back together, and I hope with all my heart that we do, but I don’t want you helping me under false pretenses.”
Having said that in one breath, Mark’s body collapsed in his chair like a ventriloquist’s dummy without the ventriloquist.
Get it over with. I said, “I can see that you’re not going to be happy until you say whatever it is that you want to say, so go ahead.”
“I knew about Elise’s tattoo before I read about it in the paper.”
I choked on a mouthful of coffee. Mark watched me worriedly as I coughed and tried to catch my breath, wondering whether he should slap me on the back or call 911, but I waved him off and eventually I recovered. All I could do was whisper, hoarsely, “Tell me about it.”
“When I told you about the time Elise came to my office, I didn’t tell you everything that happened.”
He paused and I said, “I’m listening.”
“When Elise got up to go that day she turned around at the door and faced me. I stood up from my computer. Before I took a step toward her she unzipped her jeans and pulled them down in one quick motion. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Then she said, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ At first, I couldn’t do anything; I just stared. Then I saw her tattoo. It was small but I couldn’t miss it. Then I said, ‘Pull your pants up.’”
I took another sip of coffee to prove that I could do it without my hands shaking, and swallowed it very carefully.
“Elise didn’t move; she just looked at me, taunted me with her half-smile. I cracked first. I moved toward her without a clear plan. I guess I was going to try to pull her pants up, myself. When I got close to her she grabbed me and kissed me.”
“And you pushed her away.”
“Well, it’s not that simple. Elise was not the kind of girl who was easy to push away.”
“I’m beginning to find that out.”
“I’m afraid we…messed around for a minute. And believe me, she was willing. When I finally came to my senses and realized what I was doing, I pushed her away so hard that she fell down because her jeans had trapped her legs. Her head hit the door. That scared me. I apologized several times, but she looked dazed and didn’t respond at first. I wondered whether I should call for help, but then she started to move. After a minute I asked her if she was okay. She said her head hurt, but she would be all right. She pulled up her jeans; then I helped her to stand up and she left.”
“Did she say-what was it-‘Now you know how I feel about you?’”
“Yes, she did say that as she left.”
Tess poked her head in the door and said, “Lil, are you going to pool aerobics this morning?”
I had forgotten all about that. I stammered for a few seconds and then said, “I don’t think so. Not today, Tess.”
“You’re letting yourself go.” Tess shook her head, disapprovingly. She said to Mark, “Are you going to let her get away with this?”
Mark tried to focus on Tess. He said something that wasn’t apropos.
Tess looked at each of us in turn and said, “You two are a pair this morning. Is there some new calamity I should know about? Or anything I can do to help?”
“No.” Mark and I said together.
I tried to soften it by saying, “Thanks for offering, but there are some things we have to do today that I’m afraid you can’t help with.”
Having been rebuffed, Tess strode toward the door, carrying her large towel. She turned and said, “Let me know when you can use the help of a friend.”
“Eat dinner with us and we’ll fill you in,” I called after Tess as she went out the door and disappeared. I rose from my chair and said, “First, true confessions and now this. I’ve had about all the talk I can stand for one day. Come on; we’ve got work to do.”
We stopped first at the Hoffman house in Bethany. Eric Hoffman had become a suspect again in my eyes when we confirmed that Elise was the Shooting Star. If he had known this, that would have given him a possible motive for her murder. But how could I find out whether he had known?
Mark was acting as my chauffeur, but I didn’t want him to go in with me. He dropped me off at the head of the driveway. I made my way past a couple of vehicles and responded to Monster’s barking with a goody I had brought for him. He recognized my scent and subjected himself to my petting with an eagerness that belied his regal bearing.
“Somehow I thought that might be you.”
The voice was that of June Hoffman, not Eric. I said hello and she said, “When Monster stops barking that fast, it’s because he knows whoever is coming. And after reading this morning’s paper, I figured you might drop by.”
“You know about Elise being the Shooting Star then,” I said, walking up to the front door, where June stood.
“I can’t say I’m surprised. Come on in and sit a spell. I’ll get some coffee. Eric’s not here. I’m taking a vacation day today. I’m still an emotional wreck.”
I followed June into the living room and sat in a chair I had occupied before. The comfortable room was beginning to feel like home. June went into the kitchen and returned with the coffee. I repeated her remark about not being surprised to find out that Elise was the Shooting Star, and placed a question mark at the end.
