“I just got lucky,” I told Dee-Dee.
“Un-uh,” she said. “Until tonight, I’ve never seen anyone handle Marko. You didn’t get lucky, you got good, and I think you’ve been that way for a while. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
And she crossed her legs and leaned slightly forward. This was another one of those times when I was going to have to remember to maintain that old focus.
“Dee-Dee, I’m not sure how to ask this, but could you describe the nature of your relationship with Terry Pendleton?”
“Sure,” she said, “I was his mistress.”
Well, that took away some of the awkwardness, anyway.
“And by mistress,” I said, “you mean . . .”
“I mean that we’d get together once in a while and fuck each other’s brains out. Am I embarrassing you, Jeremy? You seem a little red in the face.”
“No, not at all,” I said. “It’s just that I usually don’t encounter such, uh, honesty in my profession.”
“Let’s be clear about one thing, okay?” she said. “There’s a difference between a mistress and a whore. I never took any money from Terry, that was never part of our arrangement. He’d give me little gifts sometimes, and we’d go on overnight trips once in a while, but he never left an envelope filled with fifties on my night table, you know?”
I wasn’t anywhere near expert enough on the topic to debate the difference between a mistress and a whore with Dee-Dee or anybody else, and even if I were, that wasn’t my purpose.
“When did you two meet?” I asked her.
“Last Halloween. I remember ‘cause we had a bachelor party here that night, and I was wearing a cute little black outfit, made me look like a cat. Terry noticed me right away, asked for my number, and we started getting together.”
“Did you, uh, know he was married?”
“Well, there’s married and there’s married-married, you know? Terry was just married.”
Again, I felt a little out of my depth here, so I didn’t go into that married or married-married thing.
“What kind of arrangement did the two of you have?”
“We’d meet somewhere every couple of weeks, sometimes more often, sometimes less. Depended on his schedule, both at home and work. Usually, he’d come to my place, but sometimes we’d go out to dinner somewhere far enough away that there wasn’t any chance of our being seen by anybody who’d know him. And a couple of times, when he had to go out of town on business, he gave me plane fare to fly and meet him. Once to New York and once to Toronto. That was fun. We saw Beauty and the Beast.”
“How do you feel about the fact that he’s dead?”
“I’m sorry he was killed, I really am, but, hey, whaddya gonna do, you know? Shit happens.”
This was a tough cookie.
“Who else knew about the relationship?” I asked.
“Not too many people,” she said. “Like I told you, we almost always met at my place or somewhere else.”
“Never here?”
“Yeah, once. About two months ago, we were supposed to meet at my apartment, but I had car trouble, so I called Terry at work and asked him to pick me up here, and he did.”
“Anybody see you and him together?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I mean, he was only here for, like, thirty seconds. He just stuck his head in the door, got my attention, and we left.”
“Terry was married. What about you? Any boyfriends who might have been less than happy about you spending time with someone else?”
“I got no boyfriends, just friends. Look, Jeremy, I’m thirty-two years old, I been married and divorced twice. The only good thing I can say about both those relationships is that there weren’t any kids. I stopped lookin’ for Prince fucking Charming a long time ago. I don’t hate men, I just know what they’re like, that’s all. I got one thing to offer,” and here she spread her arms out and leaned back so that her skirt rode even higher up her legs and her breasts jutted out even more, “and you’re lookin’ at it.”
“What about Marko? Would he have known about you and Terry?”
“Marko? I doubt it, although I think he was here that night I had car trouble.”
“Would he be likely to be jealous of Terry?”
“I can see where you’re going, and I have to tell you that you’re way off. Marko’s definitely got a major case on me, and he might try to beat the crap out of someone he thought was hanging around me too much, but I can’t see him shooting anybody.”
“Do you know if he owns a gun?” I asked.
“I can’t say for sure, but I know I’ve never seen him with one.”
“Did Terry ever talk about work with you?”
“Well, sure, we talked about his work, my work, who the Steelers were playing that week, everything.”
“When was the last time you saw him before he was killed?”
“Just a few days before.”
“Did he say anything at all that night about hoping to be made a partner at his law firm?”
There was the slightest hesitation before she said, “Un-uh, not that I can remember.” It could have been nothing, but I wasn’t sure.
“Do you think he was seeing anybody else, besides you?”
“Hell, I don’t know, but I’d guess not. It wouldn’t have bothered me if he was, but I don’t think so.”
“Okay, thanks, Dee-Dee. If I think of any other questions, would you mind if I contacted you?”
“Not at all,” she said, and she recrossed her legs.
I got up to leave, but before I could open the door, she walked over to me and put her hand on my arm.
“Hey, Jeremy, I know you probably think I’m a bitch, but Terry and I knew exactly what our relationship was all about, and it was a good deal for both of us. He got to spend time with this body, and I got a few little gifts and an occasional field
