“He wrote plays?” Theo said.
“Screenplays. You sure you don’t have any quarters? They can make change at the front desk if you ask nice.”
“Let me check,” Auggie said, slipping off the bench and heading for the door.
Theo was trying to match the young man he’d briefly known as Robert Poulson to the aspiring screenplay writer. He said, “We’re looking for something Robert might have hidden.”
“What?” Jessica’s gaze sharpened, and she leaned in toward Theo. “What are you looking for?”
“A flash drive.”
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” Jessica said, leaning back and waving a hand in disgust. “Why’re you looking for it then?”
“Somebody’s twisting my arm.”
“Oh yeah? Who?”
“I’d rather not say.”
Her gaze sharpened. “You got right in the middle of all of it, didn’t you?”
“In the middle of what?”
“You want to know about Robert? Here’s Robert in a nutshell: always thought he was meant for bigger and better things. Better job, better life, better pussy. He’d move stuff for some guys he knew. Sold some stuff for them. And then he’d turn around and go to the police, think he could tell them something that would make him important, or make him some easy cash. Then he’d flip and be dealing again, holding meets in that shitty motel out on 50.”
“Sounds like a good way to get yourself in trouble.”
“He’s dead, right? He got himself in plenty of trouble.” Jessica leaned back. “The thing about Robert is that he wasn’t that smart, and he didn’t have any follow-through. He hopped from one thing to the other because he thought he could get there twice as fast if he just cut corners.”
Auggie slid back onto the bench and passed over an ice cream sandwich.
“Aren’t you a sweetheart?” Jessica said, picking open the paper with long nails. She worked the sandwich free and began breaking off pieces of the chocolate cookie. “It wasn’t just the drugs, you know. He’d do it with everything. He was convinced he was hot, you know. Good looks like a movie star or something. He did some coke, but he wouldn’t do meth because of his teeth. He was crazy about his teeth. Wouldn’t touch a cigarette because he said it ruined your teeth, aged you twenty years or something. I mean, for around here, he was definitely a nice piece of ass. But sometimes he’d go full steam. He’d do Oklahoma at the community theater, and I’d have to sit through two weekends of it, and he’d be riding high, next stop Hollywood. Then he’d forget about it. Six months later, he’d be picking up weird Craigslist jobs, pretending to be somebody’s boss or somebody’s boyfriend, thinking he was Tom fucking Cruise. I told him he’d get a new cornhole if he kept that up.” She chewed the last piece of cookie and pushed the stripped-down ice cream bar to the center of the table. “You want some?”
Theo shook his head, and Auggie said, “No, thanks.”
“I was in here when it happened, but you know who I think killed him? I think it was one of those weird sex things. Like a three-way. Or a guy who promised to pay him a ton of money. Robert thought he was such hot stuff, and if he thought he could get some good money and feel like hot stuff at the same time, he’d do it.”
“Where would he have hidden something?” Auggie said. “We found his apartment, but there wasn’t anything there. Did he have a place he liked to hide out? Would he have trusted a friend? Someone in his family?”
“What’s it worth to you?” Jessica said. Then she laughed, throwing back her head, and said, “Christ, your faces. Honestly, I’ve got no clue. If it was something really valuable, he wouldn’t have left it with a friend. Robert liked himself too much to really like anyone else, and besides, he was so busy covering his own ass, going to the cops then going back to deal, that he never really trusted anyone. That includes me, I guess. I just stuck around long enough to figure out all his shit. His mom and dad passed a while ago, and his cousins are shitholes.” She shrugged. “He didn’t really have anywhere he liked to go. Not anywhere I knew about.”
Theo struggled to contain a frustrated breath. He shot a look at Auggie, and then he said, “Do you have any idea where we could look? Please. This is life or death.”
Jessica shook her head. “You got enough quarters for another ice cream sandwich?”
“Yeah,” Auggie said. “Hold on.”
When he came back and handed it over, Jessica said, “You know, one time I was on his phone, and that dumbass had a list of every password he’d ever used. You know, in the notes app. He wrote down everything.” She tapped the side of her head. “Not smart.”
“We can’t find his phone.”
“Whoever killed him probably sold it. They probably scrapped it or figured out a way to reset it. Too bad. It was a nice phone.”
After that, the conversation went nowhere, and Theo finally thanked Jessica. He and Auggie left; they were heading outside when a voice said, “Auggie?”
Theo glanced over and saw two men crossing the lobby; he fought a groan when he recognized Somers and Upchurch.
“Hey Auggie,” the blond man said. “I thought that was you.”
“Oh. Hi, Detective Somerset. Detective Upchurch.”
Somers stretched out a hand to Theo. “Hi, Theo.”
Theo shook and nodded. He repeated the process with Upchurch.
“I didn’t know you two were acquainted,” Upchurch said, his gaze lingering on Theo. “We just met Auggie a couple of days ago.”
“What are you
