about her sister.”
“Your car or mine?” he asked, adding, “Oh, we’d better take mine. More room.” And without waiting for a response, he went toward the back of the shop.
Joel gave a short shrug. It was a lost cause. I wouldn’t be able to talk Jeff out of coming with us. I’d just have to resign myself to the fact that he was.
The back of the shop was covered in fingerprint dust. I didn’t much blame Jeff for wanting to take off right now; it would take a little work to clean up. I felt as though there should be a white chalk outline where the flamingo had been.
Jeff slammed the door shut after us and went over to the back door of the Chinese place. A Hispanic man wearing an apron came out, and they talked for a couple of minutes before Jeff came back over.
“They’re going to watch the back. Make sure no one else shows up and tries to get in,” he said.
“Did they see anyone here before?” I asked, kicking myself for not thinking about asking them in the first place.
Jeff shook his head. “No.”
“Did the cops talk to them?” Joel asked.
“You kidding? That Willis guy wanted out of here right away.” He chuckled. “You are not his favorite person, Kavanaugh.”
Tell me something I didn’t already know.
“What about your shop?” I asked. “Can you afford to shut down?”
Jeff snickered. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about me, Kavanaugh.” And he opened his car door and climbed in.
We followed suit. I let Joel sit in the front because of his size, and I squeezed my long legs in the back, angling them so I wouldn’t feel too squished. Joel told Jeff where we were headed.
“Dentist, huh?”
Joel just grunted, clearly put out that Bitsy had put it on him to handle this unpleasant undercover operation.
We drove in silence. My head was spinning with everything that was going on: flamingos, pictures of me and Harry, Sherman Potter dead, Colin Bixby. Hey, how did he end up there? Oh, right. He broke up with me. And that led right into thinking about that kiss again. The one Jeff and I shared.
I felt the car slow, and I forced everything out of my head. I needed to be at the top of my game, because I was sure that there would have to be some fancy footwork to find out anything about Ainsley Wainwright at her former place of employment.
But as the car turned into the parking lot, it became obvious that this was not going to be our final destination after all, even though my suspicions about the office staying open late were on target.
Ann Wainwright was scurrying out of the building and through the parking lot, the lights of a nondescript white Toyota flashing as she hit the key fob.
Jeff slowed to a stop. I held my breath as we watched her get into the car and pull out. If she’d seen us sitting in this bright orange car, there was no outward sign. The Toyota moved out of the exit on the other side of the lot.
I told myself the metallic orange wasn’t obvious because it was dark now, and we wouldn’t stand out unless we were under a streetlight. Jeff really needed to get a car that was more incognito, although I couldn’t talk, since I owned a bright red Mustang Bullitt convertible.
Blame it on living in the desert. We needed those splashes of color amongst all the desert browns.
Slowly, the Pontiac moved forward until we were on the street, a couple of cars back.
“You won’t lose her?” Joel asked.
“Jeff was in the Marines,” I said.
Joel nodded, the answer satisfying him.
Jeff said nothing as his hands tightened around the steering wheel. I saw his biceps flex, the skull tattoo looking as though it was clenching its jaw. I absently touched my chest, where my Chinese dragon poked out of my shirt.
Ann turned down a couple of side roads and then came back up to the main drag, and I started to wonder if she didn’t know we were behind her, but then she maneuvered around again, and I realized she’d pulled into the parking lot at her sister’s apartment house. Jeff eased the Pontiac against the curb on the street, and we watched as Ann got out of the Toyota and went toward the building, disappearing inside.
I thought about the picture I’d found. Something was gnawing at me. What if this really was Ainsley, and it was her sister who was murdered instead? I mean, she had been at the dentist office where she worked and then gone to her apartment. What if the murder had been a case of mistaken identity? What if whoever killed her sister had meant to kill her instead?
But that would mean that the Ainsley I met was leading some sort of double life. Dental hygienist by day, sex kitten for Sherman Potter by night. But maybe she’d had a dream. A dream to sing with the Flamingos. A dream she couldn’t pass up.
I was grabbing at straws. Or was I?
We sat and watched the building for any kind of movement, until another car swung into the lot. A woman got out, staring at the Toyota, which was bathed in light from the streetlamp. She moved toward it, her head down as she tried the driver’s side door. It was locked. She lifted her face toward the light, and I recognized Terri.
Jeff sat up a little straighter in his seat.
“That’s her neighbor,” I explained. “The one we talked to this morning. Her name’s Terri. She’s having Joel do a tattoo for her.”
Jeff didn’t seem to hear me.
“That’s the girl I saw at Cleopatra’s Barge,” Jeff said. “The one who was pretending to be you.”
All my senses were on overload. “How do you know?” I asked. “She was in disguise, right?”
Jeff nodded, his eyes still glued to Terri, who was now holding a cell phone to her ear and watching the building, her face totally illuminated.
“She’s the one. I saw her come out of that ladies’ room without the disguise,” he said. “I noticed her. It was her.”
My brain was somehow stuck on the words “I noticed her.”
Terri stuck the cell phone back in her pocket and went toward her car. She climbed in, and the brake lights came on before she started to pull out.
“Okay, guys, here’s the problem. She’s still in there,” Jeff indicated the apartment house. “But
“Follow Terri,” Joel said without thinking.
Jeff sensed my hesitation. I wanted to see what both of them were up to.
“You want to stay here and confront that chick yourself, Kavanaugh? Because I agree with Joel. Let’s follow that girl who pretended to be you.”
They both needed to be watched. But we only had one car, even though there were three of us. I said as much.
“I can stay here if you want to drive,” Jeff offered.
“I can’t follow anyone like you can,” I admitted.
“I can stay,” Joel said. “I’ve got a phone; I can call if anything happens. If she goes anywhere.”
“But you don’t have a car.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll think of something.” Joel scrambled out of the car. “You better get going.” He indicated Terri’s car stopped at the light at the next block before stepping onto the sidewalk.
I barely got out a “thanks” when Jeff peeled away from the curb. I fell back against the backseat, the
