and Annie in front of me. They were standing together, looking happy. Annie had curly red hair and the pale skin of a natural redhead. Evelyn had her brown hair pulled back. Conservative makeup. She was smiling, but not enough to bring out the dimples. A mom and her kid… and I was supposed to find them.
**********************
CONNIE ROSOLLI HAD a doughnut in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other when I walked into the bail bonds office the next morning. She pushed the doughnut box across the top of her desk with her elbow and white powdered sugar sifted off her doughnut, down onto her boobs. “Have a doughnut,” she said. “You look like you need one.”
Connie is the office manager. She’s in charge of petty cash and she uses it wisely, buying doughnuts and file folders, and financing the occasional gaming trip to Atlantic City. It was a little after eight, and Connie was ready for the day, eyes lined, lashes mascara-ed, lips painted bright red, hair curled into a big bush around her face. I, on the other hand, was letting the day creep up on me. I had my hair pulled into a half-assed ponytail and was wearing my usual stretchy little T-shirt, jeans, and boots. Waving a mascara wand in the vicinity of my eye seemed like a dangerous maneuver this morning, so I was au naturel.
I took a doughnut and looked around. “Where’s Lula?”
“She’s late. She’s been late all week. Not that it matters.”
Lula was hired to do filing, but mostly she does what she wants.
“Hey, I heard that,” Lula said, swinging through the door. “You better not be talking about me. I’m late on account of I’m going to night school now.”
“You go one day a week,” Connie said.
“Yeah, but I gotta study. It’s not like this shit comes easy. It’s not like my former occupation as a ho helps me out, you know. I don’t think my final exam’s gonna be about hand jobs.”
Lula is a couple inches shorter and a lot of pounds heavier than me. She buys her clothes in the petite department and then shoehorns herself into them. This wouldn’t work for most people, but it seems right for Lula. Lula shoehorns herself into
“So what’s up?” Lula said. “I miss anything?”
I gave Connie the body receipt for Paulson. “Do you guys know anything about child custody bonds?”
“They’re relatively new,” Connie said. “Vinnie isn’t doing them yet. They’re high-risk bonds. Sebring is the only one in the area taking them on.”
“Sebring,” Lula said. “Isn’t he the guy with the good legs? I hear he’s got legs like Tina Turner.” She looked down at her own legs. “My legs are the right color but I just got more of them.”
“Sebring’s legs are white,” Connie said. “And I hear they’re good at running down blondes.”
I swallowed the last of my doughnut and wiped my hands on my jeans. “I need to talk to him.”
“You’ll be safe today,” Lula said. “Not only aren’t you blonde, but you aren’t exactly decked out. You have a hard night?”
“I’m not a morning person.”
“It’s your love life,” Lula said. “You aren’t getting any, and you got nothing to put a smile on your face. You’re letting yourself go, is what you’re doing.”
“I could get plenty if I wanted.”
“Well, then?”
“It’s complicated.”
Connie gave me a check for the Paulson capture. “You aren’t thinking about going to work for Sebring, are you?”
I told them about Evelyn and Annie.
“Maybe I should talk to Sebring with you,” Lula said. “Maybe we can get him to show us his legs.”
“Not necessary,” I said. “I can manage this myself.” And I didn’t especially want to see Les Sebring’s legs.
