'Your hip pocket,' I said. 'Dolly, you've got thirty seconds left on this job if you don't get behind your boyfriend Toby right now.'
Dolly lunged as Toby reached for the pocket of his jeans. Their arms tangled, and then Dolly came up with what looked like a square of white paper with color at its center. She pushed Toby up against Alice and pinned him there, using all two hundred pounds.
He twisted in Dolly's arms, and she let him go. Once released from constraint, Toby wilted. I actually thought he was going to slump to the pavement, but he caught himself. Without looking up, he said again, 'I can explain.'
'Give it to me,' I said. Dolly put it into my hand.
I was looking at nothing: black surrounded by white. I turned it over, and it became a Polaroid photograph. Amber, caught by the flash on stage. But this was no publicity picture; her arms were twisted behind her, and her feet were bound by clothesline. She was exactly as I'd found her.
I heard a hiss behind me and saw a flash of red as Nana launched her nails at Toby's eyes.
14
Squawking, Dolly damn near caught Nana on the fly. Toby, scrambling backward faster than I would have believed possible, bumped up against Alice hard and sat down on the pavement. Nana's momentum carried Dolly back a few steps, and she stumbled over Toby. The two of them went down on top of him, a pile of female elbows and feet. It looked like the closing moments of a tag team wrestling match.
I grabbed Nana by the belt loops on the back of her pants and yanked. She came up swearing and crying and turned to take a swipe at me. Behind her I saw Dolly's face. Her eyes were wide with betrayal, and three bright red lines ran down one cheek. Toby had rolled away from beneath her and was scrambling to get under Alice.
I started to laugh, but Nana slugged me in the chest. She pummeled me furiously with both fists, making terrible little 'oof' noises. By the time I'd gotten my fingers untangled from her belt loops, a blow had caught me full on the throat. I choked. She kept on swinging at me, emitting a high, thin, shrilling sound, her eyes shut tight. I didn't think she had any idea who she was hitting.
Dolly got up, but instead of trying to help she backed away with a hand clamped flat over her bleeding face. She'd had enough of Nana. So had I. I hauled back and slapped her hard, twice, snapping her head left and then right. My nervous system was so hyped up that the slaps sounded like shots in my ears.
Nana just stopped. She let her arms go limp, and her hands fell to her sides. She didn't cry out or look at me or touch the burning red marks on her cheeks. She gazed down at the general area of my feet for a moment, her face closed and tight. Then, slowly and deliberately, she extended the middle finger of her right hand, stepped around me, and walked away, toward the entrance to the club.
'That girl's crazy,' Dolly said from behind me.
'Did you look at this?' I still had the picture crumpled in my hand.
'No.'
'Then shut up. Get your boyfriend out from under the car if you can.'
She pulled her hand away from her cheek and looked at it, wincing when she saw the blood. 'You won't scar,' I said. 'And if you do, you can say you got it in a duel. Toby, come out from under there.'
No answer. I bent down and peered under the car. No Toby, either.
I grabbed Dolly by the collar of her grungy T-shirt and hurled her in the general direction of the driveway, then sprinted toward the noise of Toby's car. 'Don't let him get past you,' I shouted.
Toby's tires smoked as the car shot in reverse out of its parking space. I was so close that his rearview mirror clipped my hip. It hurt. The car swerved wildly to reverse direction and came to a stop pointed at the driveway. I jumped in front of it.
Toby leaned on the horn, and I backed away, but the lot was too narrow: he couldn't get around me. If he was going to leave, he was going to leave over me. Dolly wailed something, but I couldn't make it out. All I heard was the car.
It revved once to a howling, red-lining rpm and then dropped, then revved again. Then Toby popped the clutch, and the thing pawed the ground and hurtled at me.
I backed up fast, and then it was my turn to trip. I went down hard on the seat of my pants, hearing the scream of the engine and the squeal of the tires. The next thing I knew, the Maserati was on top of me.
I threw myself flat on my back, cracking my head on the pavement. The front end of the car passed over my legs and suddenly stopped. I was most of the way under it, and the front bumper was at my chest.
Hands looped under my arms and pulled me free. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn't hold me. Dolly tried to steady me, but she was shaking herself, and we both sat down directly in front of the Maserati.
'You fucking idiot,' Dolly said. 'How you going to pay me? Come
The next thing I knew, I was standing up and Dolly was brushing things off my back like a worried wife. 'Never mind,' I snapped. 'The wheels didn't get me.' I went over and pulled at the handle on the driver's door. It swung open, and I saw Toby with his head resting on the steering wheel. His hands were in his lap. 'I can explain,' he said again.
I hung on to the door for what seemed like a week. Toby didn't move. I took a deep breath. 'So explain,' I said.
'I got it today,' he said. 'It came in the mail.' He still hadn't looked at me. 'I had a late call for work, and I picked up the mail as I left. Dolly will tell you.'
'He did get the mail,' Dolly volunteered. 'The mailbox is at the top of the hill, and he stopped there on the way out.'
'So you got your mail today,' I said. 'So did I. So did most people. How do I know the picture was in it?'
Toby didn't say anything. Finally he looked up at me. 'You don't,' he said. 'But it's true.'
'Let's say it is. Just for the hell of it, let's say you're telling the truth. When did you open it?'
'At the studio.'
'Where?'
'In my dressing room.' He moved his hand.
I panted. 'What time?'
'I don't know. I'd finished with makeup, but I hadn't worked yet.'
'Say one, one-thirty,' Dolly volunteered.
'Were you alone?'
'No.' Toby glanced at Dolly. 'She was with me.'
'You said you hadn't seen it.'
Dolly gave me a look of startled innocence. 'I didn't. He opened a bunch of stuff. I didn't look at any of it. You didn't tell me to read his mail.'
'No reaction?' I asked. 'No raised eyebrows, no nothing?'
'Not that I noticed.' She sounded ashamed of herself.
'I'm an actor,' Toby said.
'Why didn't you show it to her?'
His face twisted. 'Don't be dumb. I would have shown it to you when I got a chance.' Dolly tried not to look hurt.
'Toby,' I said, 'the death penalty is alive and well in California. If it weren't for Saffron, you'd be talking to lawyers right now.'
'I was going to show it to you,' he said insistently. 'It just didn't seem like something to do in a parking lot.'
