Elaine Viets [Mystery Shopper 03] Dying To Call You (pdf)

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tropical greens, blues, reds and yellows. Young women in sa-
fari outfits walked around with live macaws, spider monkeys
and spectacularly ugly lizards. Helen hoped the animals went
home after the first party. God knows what would happen to
them at the second.
The band did a thumping version of Baby Elephant
Walk that sounded like it was being played by pachyderms.
A different bored newspaper photographer showed up and
snapped the same pictures.
It was the same crowd of thin face-lifted women and fat
rich men. Helen heard the same conversations as the men
lined up at her bar.
Greatest president we ever had. Bombed those camel
jockeys back to the stone age, said a scotch and soda.
No, he didn t. They were already in the stone age, said
a bourbon and water. The two broke into braying laughter as
they left with their drinks.
Helen poured red wine for a white-haired politician who
said, This is America. If they want to live here, let em
speak American.
A hatchet-faced doctor agreed, then said, Some bleeding
heart is trying to raise the minimum wage again. Those peo-
ple don t understand what it takes to stay in business. I m
running an office and barely breaking even. He reached for
a fresh gin and tonic. Helen saw that his watch cost more
than a minimum-wage worker made in a year.
You re going to be here for the second party, right,
honey? the doctor said.
Yes, Helen lied.
He stuffed a twenty in her tip jar.
You gonna give her a free breast exam? the politician
said.
Helen poured booze until her arms ached and her feet
screamed for relief. The next time she checked her watch, it
128 Elaine Viets
was nine o clock. She d seen no sign of Kristi all night. She
was getting uneasy.
At ten o clock, Helen made an excuse to go back to the
kitchen for more limes. She wandered through the party,
scoping out all the stations. Kristi wasn t working any of the
bars or passing around canap�s. Now she was worried.
Where s Kristi? she asked, when Steve came by at
eleven thirty. The first party was ending. Helen wasn t going
to panic yet. But she had to find Kristi quick.
Steve counted out ten twenties. She couldn t make the
first shift. She ll be here at the second party. The one you re
working.
Helen turned pale.
You re not going to chicken out on me, are you? If you
turn me down, that s it, honey. I don t know your name any-
more.
Topless. Helen would have to work the second party top-
less. There was no escape. Not if she wanted to talk with
Kristi.
She couldn t do it.
She had to. Helen thought of Savannah, waiting for her
little sister who would never come home. Kristi knew what
had happened to Laredo. There was no other way to find her.
She took a deep breath. Yes, she said.
Clean up your bar, Steve said. Then take off your shirt.
You gotta show your tits at twelve.
Helen felt like she d been slapped.
She scrubbed the sticky spilled liquor and soda off her bar
while she argued with herself. At midnight, she would be
tending bar topless. She d take off her blouse and bra and pa-
rade half-naked in front of strangers. She saw the nuns from
her high school staring at her in horrified shame. She heard
her mother crying. How could she?
I do what I have to do, Helen thought. I don t know those
people. They won t see me. I ll be another anonymous
worker. I won t have a face.
I ll be half-naked for a bunch of rich jerks.
DYING TO CALL YOU 129
I m forty-two, not some blushing virgin. Besides, there
are doctors at this party. They see naked people all day.
But not healthy naked people. They see the sick, the in-
jured and the dying. For them, good health is a turn-on.
Then Helen remembered the way the police had looked at
her, as if she was a hysterical woman. That was worse than
being naked.
Besides, said a nasty little voice. It s five hundred bucks.
After the break-in, she could use the money.
Helen put the lemon peels, lime wedges and maraschino
cherries into little glasses on the bar. She checked the ice.
She counted the glasses and set out the cocktail napkins.
She unbuttoned her blouse. There were six buttons. She d
never noticed before. Now each one counted.
She was standing at her bar with her shirt open. She looked
around. No one was pointing and laughing. The guests were
inside the mansion, changing out of their clothes. The other
bartenders and servers were already topless, looking like
they did it every day.
Helen took a deep breath, removed her blouse and un-
hooked her bra. She stuck them both in her purse.
Going topless wasn t as bad as she expected. It was a lit-
tle chilly, since her bar was outside, but that perked things up.
The men stared at her chest, which made her uncomfortable
at first. Then she felt better. She knew they d never remem-
ber her face. Their eyes would never get up that high.
I m invisible, she thought. I am a pair of breasts. I have no
other identity.
Some guests had stripped to their underwear. Only a few
men stayed dressed. Helen was grateful to the guys who kept
their clothes on. Clothes did make the man, she thought. Es-
pecially when he was over forty.
A skinny woman whose pool house had been featured in
a recent Sunday paper strolled by, clad only in pink thong [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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