Shaking off my maudlin thoughts, I tried to decide whether I should contact Susie and see if she needed anything. We hadn’t heard many details on Ames’s condition other than he was in ICU in serious condition, which is exactly what Corinne, busy bee that she was, happened to be talking about I her video when my phone rang with Knuckles on the other end.
“Trixie girl? You need to get in here fast!”
The panic in his voice made me stand up straight and pay attention. “What’s wrong, Knuckles?”
“Do you know somebody named Susie Masters?” I heard a bit of a scuffle and some loud voices, but I couldn’t make out what was being said.
“I do. I met her last night in the ladies’ room at the hotel. What’s happening, Knuckles?”
“You’d better get here before she scares away all the customers, Trixie!” he yelled into the phone. “She’s on a tear, and it has your name on it. She’s screamin’ and yellin’ at us. Poor Goose is hidin’ in the corner, scared half out of his mind. She demanded I call you and, in her words, ‘tell that lying, cheating, backstabbing phony I’m going to kill her!’”
The blood drained from my face for the second time today. Maybe Coop should be having her talk about violence with Susie…
Chapter 11
“You want me to call the police, Trix?” Knuckles huffed into the phone.
“No!” I almost yelled then lowered my voice. “No. Don’t call the police. I’ll be right there. Please tell her to wait for me.” I clicked my phone off and grabbed my coat. “I have a small emergency at the shop, Coop. Do you want to come with?”
She looked as though she wanted to do anything but—today, her disillusionment was realer than ever. When Coop loved, she loved hard, and these people had really hit home how ugly the world could be. I guess it’s one thing to see it in a video, but quite another to physically witness it firsthand.
Coop looked down at her hands, her eyes almost sad. “I think I might stay here today, if you don’t mind, Trixie. I’m still feeling a little blue and I’m beginning to wonder if Tansy wasn’t right. Maybe Mitzy’s death was an accident and there’s nothing to investigate. Rather, there’s just ashes of my disappointment to sift through at this point.”
Aw, man. I hated this. She’d reached the dramatic stage of her idol worship, where the idol had indeed fallen and she couldn’t overlook their blatant faults, and it hurt. Her answer was to express herself in melodramatic words, likely because she couldn’t cry. But if she kept this up, she was going to make me cry.
I reached over and wrapped my arms around her shoulders from behind and gave her a tight squeeze. “I’m sorry, Coop. This has been a hard lesson to learn. Not everything is as it seems.”
“Are you still feeling disillusioned, Coopie-Coop?” Livingston asked. “I know how much you loved the lasses and their face paint. I hate seein’ ya so disappointed. Come sit with me and let ol’ Livingston tell ya some stories about when he was just a lad in Ireland. It’ll take yer mind off yer troubles.”
She gripped my arm back before she said, “You go handle things at the shop, Trixie. I’ll be fine. Livingston will tell me one of his silly stories and it’ll cheer me up.”
Dropping a kiss on Coop’s despondent head, I flew out the door, throwing my purse over my head as I jumped in our brand-new car. We had to lay the old Caddy to rest and I’d done it with tears in my eyes. She’d been so good to us.
She’d gotten us all over Washington and Oregon with nary a glitch, but her time had passed and when she left us stranded on 205, we had to call it a day. Now, we were the proud owners of a Subaru—one of the more common vehicles in the Pacific Northwest—and I loved it.
The whole way to the shop, my heart slammed around in my chest as I wondered what I’d done to Susie to anger her so—even as I fret over Coop’s disenchantment with Ames and the others.
Fool that I am, it never occurred to me Susie’d think I was responsible for leaking this mess to Corinne.
Well, let me tell you—talk about blindsided.
The moment I entered the shop and saw Susie, who sat on our colorful couch with clenched teeth and wild eyes, an Inked magazine next to her, I knew she wanted her pound of flesh. When she saw me, she flew at me, her finger in the air.
“I should have known! I should have known better than to tell a complete stranger something so sensitive. I’ll never learn! There isn’t a single soul alive who isn’t out for some cash,” she sneered at me. “You sold me out, Trixie Whatever-Your-Name-Is! You sold me out, and now I’m going to have to deal with that moron Luca and the fallout from all these dumb kids because you’re a snitch!”
Tears fell down her splotchy, makeup-free face, making me feel even worse, despite not being the guilty party.
“Hold on there, lady!” Knuckles thundered, rushing from the back of the store, his boots clapping against the tile. “I let you wait there as long as you were quiet, but you’re not gonna go around callin’ the boss here a liar and a snitch. She’s the most honest person you’ll ever meet! Now, you can take yourself right out that door and don’t let it hit you in your keister, missy, or I’m going to call the po—”
“Knuckles, no!” I
