He’s not dumb.
This Andy has money in his pocket but doesn’t have a bit of street smarts, waving the roll of bills around like he wants somebody to take it away from him. If Nacho hangs with this guy too long, he’ll worry about his own future health.
What he’ll do for his friends. And Caroline is one of the best.
Andy bought him a nice bottle, a token of his gratitude, and that counts for a lot. You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Nacho’s getting married to the love of his life and has promised Daisy that he will dry out. Soon. He’ll do it soon. She’s promised to help him beat his demons, and he’ll do anything for her. Right now though, he’s drunk on gold-label whiskey. Johnnie Walker. Eighteen-year-old blended to be exact. He knows his liquor.
Andy’s a talker, which suits Nacho. He’s observing instead of participating, which is his style. Sit back, stay alert, absorb. All night, he tipped back, wetting his lips, savoring the amber liquid, watching it swirl like the gold it’s named after.
Otherwise he would have been bored out of his skull, having to listen to how this guy’s wife had left him and he’d been trying to get her back. How they came to Phoenix thinking the trip away from LA would be good for them, and how it wasn’t.
How she had told him right before she was killed that it wasn’t going to work after all.
Andy was just as drunk as Nacho, even more, slurring his words, nodding off, waking up, and continuing his boohoo story.
They all had it rough. Why should this guy’s problems be any worse? All kinds of people have wandered through Nacho’s life. Every one of them thinks they are worse off than the next guy. Like it’s a big competition and being the biggest loser is some kind of win.
This blurry Saturday morning, his guest is sleeping off one big-mama hangover, while Nacho is out and about, still drunk but searching for someone.
The word’s out to the other street people, along with a description of the person he wants to find: a skinny doper who works for anybody who’ll hire him, no name, as in NoName. That’s what they call him. Has a red pentagram tattoo on his neck, the five-pointed star inverted to point down, surrounded by a black circle.
This particular person doesn’t mean anything to Nacho, but Daisy has put in a request. Gretchen and Caroline are in need of assistance. Anything he can do, he will.
Time to find the guy who shouldn’t have been in the cemetery the night of the murder.
31
Gretchen looked out the window of This Great Coffee Place at the same moment that April banged her white Lincoln’s bumper into a parking meter directly in front of the coffee shop. Nina jumped out of the passenger seat and said something to April. Judging from the expression on her face, she wasn’t very happy with her new partner’s driving skills.
At the first sign of real trouble, Bonnie had abandoned them for a weekend in Glendale with a different group of friends. Julie went off to Tucson. Turn up the heat, Gretchen thought, and you find out quickly who can take it and who will abandon you for a more temperate climate.
“Unbelievable,” Caroline said when a traffic cop came into sight in time to witness April’s destruction of city property. He didn’t look pleased as he listened to April, who appeared to be arguing with him.
Nina pushed past April and was addressing the police officer.
“I’m only thankful,” Gretchen said, ducking back from the window, “that I can’t hear what Nina is saying to the cop.”
“She’ll get April out of it.”
“Calamity Jane has an extensive driving record with the motor vehicle department. Springing her is going to be tough. April’s an accident waiting to happen. Why is Nina riding with her? I thought we had agreed that we’d live longer if we didn’t let her drive.”
“Nina stayed with Brandon last night.”
“I know.”
“He decided to surprise her by tuning up her car today. She said he had it ripped apart before she woke up. By then it was too late to stop him. She griped plenty when we couldn’t come and get her.”
April wore a yellow pantsuit, accessorized with an orange ribbon headband tied around her head, its long showy ends trailing down her back. Nina had on a tiger-striped wrap dress and gold heels.
Gretchen rose from the table and chuckled. “I’m not sure if we should split those two up when we start canvassing or stay as far away from the peacocks as possible. I didn’t think to tell them to play this low-key.”
“I can’t partner with Nina,” Caroline said. “We’ll disagree on everything and end up mad at each other.”
“I’ll take her. You and April work one side of the block, we’ll do the other. Let’s go.”
Nina had finished convincing the officer that April didn’t deserve a citation. Gretchen saw him walk away without writing anything.
But her aunt wasn’t finished complaining to April. They arrived outside in time to hear April tell Nina to “buzz off.”
The four of them walked down the street, two of them stomping a little more angrily than the others. They passed the banquet hall and went another two blocks where they turned the corner and stopped in front of World of Dolls.
Caroline spoke first. “If I didn’t know differently,” she said, “I’d think it’s just another work day at the museum.”
“It looks exactly the same,” April agreed.
Nina was staring up at the second-floor windows.
“Looking for your ghost?” Gretchen said.
“She’s watching,” Nina said, not taking her eyes off the house. “I know she is.”
“By the way,” Gretchen said, only that moment remembering all the tiny responsibilities, “where are the dogs? Day care?”
Nina gave up on window gazing. “Doggy day care is closed on the weekend. I didn’t have a choice.”
“They’re at your house?” Gretchen could only wish. Fat chance of that.
“No. Yours,” Nina answered. “They’re keeping company with Wobbles.”
Gretchen and Caroline groaned in duet.
The dogs were wonderfully well behaved, if Gretchen didn’t count Tutu, until they got together. Then their primitive pack mentality got the better of them. The last time they were left unsupervised, the canines had run wild; the house looked like a war zone by the time Gretchen got home.
“Let’s get started,” Gretchen said since she couldn’t do anything about the dog situation. “We’re going to canvass the neighborhood. With any luck, we’ll find someone who has lived in this area for a long time, long enough to know the Swilling’s family history and give us some background.”
Caroline handed each of them a notebook. “Jot down the addresses you visit and the results. We don’t want to waste time by repeating the same houses later. Make notes if you discover anything that could be relevant.”
The women teamed up under Gretchen’s direction. She watched her mother and April knock at their first house before she crossed to the other side of the street with Nina.
Six homes later, after four unanswered knocks and two occupied by owners too recent to be helpful, Nina started complaining about her feet, then about the task at hand. Gretchen glanced at her aunt’s gold heels but didn’t say anything.
“Phoenix, in case you haven’t noticed,” her aunt said grumpily, “is a transient city. Everyone living in the Valley of the Sun is from someplace else these days. We’re wasting our time on a wild-goose chase.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“I could be spending the day with Brandon.”
“Under the hood of your car? That sounds like a good time.”
“You have a point.”
