Out of Body

already know.

The sound of cutlery on thick china didn’t bother Gray. Nor did Nat’s steady stare.

“You were there with her and Danny,” Nat said. “Now I want to know what you talked about.”

Gray smiled. “How do I know you know I was there? With Marley?”

“You already said you were there. And she’s Marley now, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Shit.” Nat threw the notebook on the table. “You could make this easy.”

“For whom?”

“Okay.” In a forceful move, Nat leaned hard across the table. “One way or the other you’ll tell me what you’ve found out.”

“Because you don’t know anything?” Gray said. “If that’s right, you’re off your game. I don’t know exactly how you found out where I was last night—although I can guess—but you’re on a fishing trip. Tell me what you’re trying to find out and I’ll see if I can help.”

“Did you call Marley at the shop where she works and make a date? That would have been after you left my office.”

“No, I didn’t. I’ll tell you this much and you ought to feel like an ass. Sidney, the woman Amber Lee sings with—I found out she showed up at Scully’s last night. I went there looking for information. Marley was already there. We talked and Danny Summit was there, too. That’s it.”

“Then you left with Marley?”

“I left right after she did.”

“You didn’t walk her home?”

“Yes.” Why deny it? “She couldn’t get a cab so I went with her.”

“And?”

“Nothing. Not a thing.” He wouldn’t voluntarily share that he hoped to see her again.

“Do you know some of the stuff they say about her family—and her?”

“I can imagine.”

“Witches, wizards, voodoo,” Nat said, but he smiled a little.

“That’s crap,” Gray said. “Maybe Marley thinks she sees things. And knows what’s going to happen before it happens.” Kind of like he was starting to do.

“And she says she leaves her body and goes other places—that’s what she told us,” Nat said.

Gray said, “Hmm.” She believed what she’d told them with enough conviction to pretty much convince Gray.

“Pretty crazy in my book. And they’ve all got red hair,” Nat pointed out.

“So what? Red hair runs in families.”

“From what I’m told, every member of the family has red hair. They only marry redheads.”

Gray spent a few moments on his food.

“A call came in a couple of hours ago,” Nat said. He pulled an already knotted tie from beneath his jacket on the seat and slipped the noose over his head.

Gray said nothing while he watched the man fasten the top button of his shirt, put up the collar, arrange his tie and smooth the collar down again.

“So who called?” Gray decided to throw Nat a couple of bones just to help his day. “And what did they want?”

“What did Danny Summit say to you?” Nat asked.

Gray yawned and shook his head. “If there’s nothing else, I’m going back to bed. I’m betting you know just about every detail about the missing women’s lives, who their families or whatever are and a bunch of other details. That’s all more than I know. I’ll have to catch up.”

“Why do you need to know anything? You can sit back and wait for us to sort this out.”

“I could do that, but you know and I know that there’s something obvious about these women. I spoke to two of them and was about to talk to Pipes—I’m not counting the dead woman. I never heard of her. Wouldn’t you want to do what you could to help solve this…if you were me?”

Nat frowned. “I—This isn’t about me. Gray, I want you to back off. Just tell me you’ll do that. Otherwise I’ll have to look for a way to…” He let the threat trail off.

“Something’s happened,” Gray said. “Did someone else go missing?”

“You’re messing with my case,” Nat told him.

Denying it would be pointless and an obvious lie. “I’m going through some harmless motions.”

“This Sidney. What did she talk to you about?”

“Not a damn thing, Nat. She said she had to get home.”

Nat didn’t look convinced. “So you backed right off and didn’t push her? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“It isn’t. I asked if we could talk later and she said she’d think about it. At least, that was the impression she gave.”

Massaging his temples, Nat stared into Gray’s eyes.

Bucky Fist arrived and clapped Nat on the shoulder. “Hey, my man,” he said. Young, not more than thirty or thirty-one, stocky with a good-humored grin that showed square teeth with a big gap in the middle, Bucky wore a baseball cap turned back to front. Sandy hair showed at his sideburns and nape.

“This is Gray Fisher,” Nat said.

Gray had met the man before, but he said, “Bucky,” and offered his hand.

Bucky pumped his fingers in a punishing grip and sat beside Nat.

“Just heard Shirley Cooper was a maid, not a singer,” he said. “She was last seen leaving work at a club. I don’t know why the boyfriend didn’t tell us that right off. He may not be involved but I’ve told him not to leave town.”

Nat grunted.

“Not a singer, huh?” Gray said. “Are we relieved?” He was. So far he hadn’t interviewed maids for any article.

“Ask me in a week if we still don’t have someone in custody,” Nat said. “The dead woman worked in a club. She could have been killed by someone who mistook her for a singer.”

Gray grunted.

“So what d’you think?” Bucky asked, looking from Gray to Nat. “I guess it could be true. But the kid could also be making the whole thing up.”

“What kid?” Gray said.

“I haven’t told him about that yet,” Nat said.

Bucky nodded. “A kid called down at the big house for Nat. A boy. I talked to him. He said he’d been told to let us know they didn’t like you interfering at Scully’s, Gray. The kid sounded scared.”

“Any idea who ‘they’ are?” Gray asked. This was coming from nowhere.

“Nope. He didn’t say it straight out, but he could be in danger. Someone doesn’t want you poking around in this case.”

That didn’t make Gray feel bad. “I’m getting under their skin so I must be doing something right. Are you sure it was a kid who called?”

“He more or less said you could get him hurt if you don’t quit meddling in this case,” Nat said. “He said he’s called Alan and he’s Amber Lee’s boy. We checked. Amber may have a son, but no one seems to know where we’d find him.”

Gray thought he saw a trap, or at least got a whiff of one. Amber hadn’t mentioned a kid to him and he thought she would have. But he hadn’t finished interviewing her yet.

His cell hummed in his pocket and he leaned away to work it out of a jeans pocket.

Any way he looked at it, Danny was behind contacting Nat and trying to pull Gray away from the case.

“Who’s that?” Nat said.

While the phone buzzed a second time, Gray stared at his old friend. “Do I ask you about your telephone calls?”

Nat shrugged. “Always worth a try. I could catch you off guard.”