Elliott wasn’t lying now. He wasn’t saying anything.
“Two shots or three shots?” Betty Jo said, waiting expectantly.
“Three shots.”
Betty Jo threw down her tablet, stood up, and said, “I won’t sit here and listen to this bucketful of lies any longer.” She picked up her Hermes briefcase and walked out.
“Whew,” Sandy said. The transcriber raised her eyebrows and said to Nina, “Now what?”
“We’re finished,” Nina said.
Wish was waiting in the outer office to take Elliott back to the house. He didn’t mind being the babysitter as long as he had access to Nina’s computer and phone at the cabin. But Elliott said, “I’m slept out. I have to do something.”
“It’s better for you not to go out until your flight tomorrow,” Wish told him. “Nina?”
“What do you have in mind?” Nina said.
“I want to play some cards. Wish can come.”
“I can’t protect you in a casino,” Wish said, but he added again, “Nina?”
“There’s no safer place on earth than a casino,” Nina said. “But how about getting there and getting back?”
“We could take my van. It’s pretty discreet,” Wish said. Nina was acutely aware that Elliott was not in her custody and that he would not fare well staring at the wall of Bob’s bedroom. She said, “Be careful. Both of you.” Elliott brightened a little.
“Did I do all right?” he asked. “The thing is, that lawyer almost made me believe it was a straight robbery. I could almost see me lifting the man’s arm, when she lifted her arm. But I don’t think I did. I hit his arm, and the gun went flying. And there were three shots.”
“You did fine,” Nina said. “Thanks.”
But as he pulled on his parka, Elliott said, “Maybe it was a robbery and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe I’m trying to find some sense in this when it’s all random. Some criminal saw me win some money and all this other stuff happened.”
“Go play some cards,” Nina said. “Rest your mind.”
When the door closed behind them, Nina said to Sandy, “She’s so good she has me half-convinced it was all Elliott’s fault. Did you call Sergeant Cheney?”
“He’s got a call in to the Heddesheim police. He said he’d phone when he hears anything.” Sandy had returned to her desk and was looking at something on the Net. “Wish wants you to check this out. Come around here.”
It was a porn site, the writing, whatever there was of it, in a foreign script. The site had a.thailand html.
“ Thailand?”
“Brittney” posed in red leather underpants. She had red lips and spiky black hair, a slight body that didn’t seem right for the togs. She smiled for the camera. She was riding a large gray mutt, canine species, and swung some sort of spiked ball on a chain in the air, like an elf-queen going into battle. The background colors were comic-book. There were several stills, all involving the dog.
“That’s Meredith Assawaroj! The clerk at the Ace High! I saw her photo in one of the newspaper accounts of the shooting!”
“She’s a naughty girl,” Sandy said. “Not to mention, we had to pay twenty bucks to get this site up, and I’ll be getting porn spam for the next year on this computer. I hope it’s worth it.”
“It’s disgusting. Look at that!”
“I wish Willis hadn’t.”
“Did Wish say anything else?”
“He just said to have a look. He interviewed her and he was following up.” Meredith had her hands full with the dog.
“She still works at the Ace High,” Sandy said. “You have court at three.”
“What’s the weather prediction?”
“Eighteen inches of snow.”
“I wish Bob were home. He’d be excited. Did you send the copies of the tape and the napkin to Mick?”
“He wants five hundred dollars to grant you his wisdom.”
“Grr. Fine. I’ll make out the check.”
The plows were out, but the boulevard still had several inches of fresh powder and the snow kept coming, straight down on this windless dark day. Though it was only noon, Christmas lights strung merry colors along the way. Few cars were out.
Meredith sat in the overheated motel office, reading a Thai newspaper. The lipstick was still red. She had a complicated arrangement of piercings in her ears and a pointed chin. She jumped to her feet and said, “Welcome to the Ace High. How may we serve you?”
Nina gave her a business card. Her face closed.
“I can’t talk now. I’m on duty.”
“When someone comes in, I’ll stop.”
“I already talked to your boy.” She meant Wish. “I don’t know anything.”
“Are you still posing for porn photos?” Nina said. Meredith’s eyes veiled and her expression hardened.
“So what?” she said. “You want to buy one? You can’t blackmail me. It’s totally legal. My lawyer said so.”
“Does Mr. Bova know about it?”
Meredith laughed. “He loves them. Why are you here, bugging me? Go away.”
Nina stood her ground. She was five feet three, but Meredith was at least three inches shorter and quite a bit younger. It was nice to have a physical advantage for once, but Meredith wasn’t the kind of girl who responds well to pressure. “Okay,” Nina said, “I can’t put any pressure on you. I didn’t mean to sound accusatory.”
“Brittney” folded her arms. “You’re damn straight.”
“How about if I buy you lunch?”
“Why? You don’t care about me. Nobody does.”
“I won’t ask you any questions. Let’s just have lunch.”
“You’ll just hassle me.”
Nina shrugged. “I’m hungry, and I want to eat well, and I don’t have anyone to eat with.” Meredith didn’t buy that, but she seemed to like the idea of having lunch bought for her.
“Where?” she said.
“You pick.”
“It’s snowing.”
“The heater in my truck works fine. I’ll drop you back here.”
“You’re buying?”
“Damn straight,” Nina said with a smile.
Meredith said, “You want to buy me lunch at the Summit restaurant, I’ll go.”
“Why not?” Nina said.
“I have to set up the answering service.” She did that, and put on a furry coat. She wore black leggings and ankle boots. She kept casting sideways glances at Nina that said, You’re a fool.
It was a long shot, a whim really, but Nina had a feeling.
“I don’t really have a lawyer,” Meredith said over her halibut. She drank some wine and dabbed at her lips. “I always wanted to come to this place.”
“Mind if I ask how old you are?” Nina said.
“Twenty-six.”
“Were you raised in the mountains?”
“You know I wasn’t. You know I still have an accent. I was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand.”
“Oh,” Nina said. “I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place.”
“No snow there. I can’t believe how hard it’s snowing. It scares me. But we’ll have so much business from the snowboarders. We get a lot of people from England and France and Germany.”
Nina added some olive oil to her salad.
“What are those little green balls on your salad?”
“Capers. They’re-you know, I’m not sure what they are.”
“So do you despise me? Because of the photos on the Web? You don’t think I really gave permission for those things to be in every bedroom in America, do you?”
“Is that why you’re eating lunch with me?” Nina said. “Because you need a lawyer to help you get those photos off the Web?”
“What are my chances? The creep is my ex-boyfriend, of course. He’s in Bangkok.”
“Did he take the photos?” Nina asked.
“Every one. He set it up. He brought the dog. My boss-Mr. Bova-doesn’t really know.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“It wasn’t like that. It was a joke at the time.”
“When did he post the photos?”
“Over a year ago.”
“Did he use your real name anywhere?”
“No, he used the Brittney name.”
“We found the site by Googling your real name.”
“God damn it!” For such a small girl, she spoke with a lot of force.
Nina stabbed a small tomato and said, “I’m sorry, Meredith. If he were in California, even somewhere in the U.S., maybe I could do something.”
