chip in the first place.
Unless he really was the guy who’d shot Trevor with the cork, and it wasn’t Wesley Lambert. Maybe he thought I could identify him.
And what was he doing with the makeup case? Unless he’d known Trevor kept the brooch in it and thought it was still there.
As I sat at a light, I knew I was going to have to find out more about that Queen of Hearts Ball. There was that pin and the tattoos and all those pictures of everyone looking so tight with their arms around each other: Rusty Abbott and Wesley Lambert and Charlotte.
How did Trevor play into all that? Was he the third person who showed up at Murder Ink for a tattoo?
No, he didn’t have a playing-card tattoo. That I knew for sure. So who was the third person?
Jeff Coleman wasn’t back yet from dropping off Sylvia. Murder Ink was closed up, but I found a key to the back door on the chain with the Gremlin key. I let myself in.
I turned on the overhead light and dropped my bag on the cluttered desk. I eyed the file cabinet in the corner. Jeff had to have some sort of record of those three clients that night.
I told myself he was as interested as I was in all this as I opened the top drawer.
The files were a mess, just like the rest of the place. I couldn’t make heads or tails of them. They weren’t in any sort of alphabetical order or even arranged by date. It seemed totally random. I flipped through about twenty folders, taking a deep breath with each one, not because I was afraid of what I’d find, but with the exasperation I felt. Bitsy would never let our records be such a mess.
I had reached in to grab another file when the door opened, and I felt my heart jump into my throat.
“Kavanaugh, what are you doing?”
Jeff was next to me, taking the file out of my hand and slipping it back into the drawer.
“You weren’t here-”
“So you decided to go through my files. For what? What are you looking for?” Despite our rather up-and-down relationship, this was the first time I’d heard him actually angry with me. He’d teased me before, but this time I’d touched a nerve.
“What don’t you want me to find?” I challenged. It was easier to get on the offensive.
But he wasn’t having it.
“What are you looking for?” he growled, slamming the drawer shut.
I decided I should tell him the truth. “I just wanted to know if you’ve got a file on that third guy who came in for the queen-of-hearts tattoo with Rusty Abbott and Wesley Lambert,” I said.
His eyes were narrowed, and he studied my face for a few seconds, during which I could totally believe that he’d been in the Marines. He scared me.
But then he gave a low chuckle and started shaking his head.
“Oh, Kavanaugh, you could just ask before you start snooping around. Or do you like playing
I felt my face flush, but I couldn’t let that go. “That was one of the most misogynistic shows ever on TV,” I said hotly.
“Yeah, maybe, but they were so hot.” He turned his back on me as he rifled through the files, then turned around with one in his hand. He waved it in front of me, teasing me. “Didn’t every girl want to be a Charlie’s Angel?”
“Not me,” I said, a little too loudly, my eyes following the file.
“Which one would you be? The smart one or the tough one or the dumb, sexy one?”
I sighed. “Stop playing around,” I said.
He laughed out loud. “You know, Kavanaugh, you shouldn’t make it so easy to get to you.”
I couldn’t tell him that he was the only one who brought out this side of me. Then he’d think he was something special.
“What’s in the file?” I asked.
He looked at it as if he were seeing it for the first time. “Oh, this,” he said. “This is the file you’re looking for from that night.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “Those files aren’t in any particular order.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “There is an order. My mother set it up, and it works, so it’s staying that way.”
If Sylvia set up the filing system, then it clearly wouldn’t have any rhyme or reason to it. But if they could keep track, who was I to say anything?
“Do you want to see it?” Jeff said, handing the file to me.
I snatched it away from him and rolled my eyes as I flipped it open.
The name took my breath away.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “This is the right one?”
Jeff nodded. “Yeah. You know who it is?”
I nodded slowly. “I do.”
And he’d told me he didn’t have any ink because he didn’t like needles.
Colin Bixby.
Chapter 42
“This is the guy who was in drag?” I asked.
“One of two,” Jeff said. “That guy Wesley Lambert, the one with the ricin in the condo? He was the second one. I checked that out this morning. And Rusty Abbott was the third guy, but he wasn’t in drag.” He paused. “Who is this Bixby guy?”
“He’s a doctor,” I said softly. “At the emergency room. I met him.”
“Yesterday when you were there?”
“And the day before, when I went to see Trevor. He’s the one who told me Trevor was dead. He knows Kyle. Kyle Albrecht. He’s MissTique. At Chez Tango.” I thought about how I’d suspected Bixby of being gay. So maybe I wasn’t so wrong about that.
“Those guys really look like women,” Jeff mused.
“It’s weird to see them taking off their girl faces and becoming boys again,” I said.
“Huh? You’ve seen that?”
“They’re so not shy,” I said, but I was still distracted by how I’d misread Bixby. Sort of.
I handed the folder back to Jeff. “I’ve got to get to the shop,” I said.
“Sure you don’t want to hang around here and learn how it’s really done, Kavanaugh?”
“Doesn’t take much to do flash,” I tossed back at him, picking up my bag and slinging it over my shoulder. “Just take me to my car, okay?”
“Say please.” He’d put the folder back, shut the drawer, and was standing too close to me, his eyes searching my face.
I stepped back. “Give me a break.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Should I just call a cab?”
He dug keys out of his pocket and motioned that I was to follow him back out into the alley, where the gold Pontiac sat. We settled in after he locked up his shop, then headed back down to the Strip.
The sky was a deep cobalt blue. No clouds in sight. The Stratosphere Tower loomed high above us on our right just before crossing Sahara. I spotted the pawnshops to the left, just before the Sahara hotel. Just a little way down, Circus Circus was to our right, its red and white striped big top advertising its theme, and an empty lot sat where the Star-burst used to be.
