Will had a bad feeling about Jasmine’s disappearance. According to Cedric, Jasmine had seen something, talked to someone who was connected to the murder. That made her either valuable or expendable, depending on who you talked to, but as far as the city of Atlanta was concerned, Will’s bad feeling didn’t warrant an all-out manhunt.
This train of thought had persuaded Will to break down and call Michael Ormewood to find out if the girl had said anything to him before she’d escaped up the stairs. Michael could have been the last person to see her. Unfortunately, the detective either wasn’t home or wasn’t picking up the phone.
Angie’s black Monte Carlo SS pulled into her driveway. The engine sounded like it was running on gravel, and he couldn’t help but wince at the knocking that continued when she turned off the ignition. Will had spent a year restoring that car for her. Nights, weekends, a whole vacation. He had been on a mission to give her something nice, prove that he could build something with his hands without being told by a stupid manual that bolt A matches with nut C. The fresh oil stains on the driveway were like a kick in the face.
Angie threw open the car door and demanded, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
He couldn’t help but notice that she was dressed for work. The way she sat in the car gave him and everyone else on this side of the street a clear view right up her short skirt.
Will asked, “What did you do to the car?”
“Drove it.” She got out and slammed the door so hard the car shook.
“There’s oil all over the driveway.”
“You don’t say.”
“Did you even get it serviced?”
“Where would I do that?”
“There are ten billion garages around here. You can’t throw a rock without hitting one.”
“If I was going to throw a rock, it’d be at your head, you stupid shit.” She pushed him away from the front door so that she could open it. “I’m tired and I’m pissed off and I just want to get to bed.” She tossed him a look over her shoulder, like she was just waiting for him to say something about joining her.
He said, “I need to talk to you.”
“Will, why didn’t you use your key?” She didn’t have to crane her neck to look at him and he realized she was still wearing her high heels. She said, “You still have your key. Why did you sit out here in the cold?”
He smelled alcohol on her breath. “Have you been drinking?”
She sighed, giving him another whiff of what had to be whiskey. “Come in,” she said, shoving her key into the lock. “My neighbors get enough of a show with me flashing my cootch every time I get out of the fucking car.”
Will followed her inside and closed the door behind him.
She kicked off the stilettos by the couch and slid into a pair of pink flip-flops. Angie hated going barefoot.
“You don’t need to be here.” She flipped on the hall lights, talking and undressing as she walked toward the bedroom. “I’ve had the shittiest day of my life. All the girls are freaked out about Aleesha and they just kept fucking crying all night, as if my day wasn’t bad enough already.” He saw her naked back, the slope down her spine that disappeared into her pink panties, right before she slammed her bedroom door. “Three o’clock, I got a call from Lieutenant Canton,” she continued, her voice muffled through the door. “He made me come in early and work with that fucker Ormewood all afternoon to find some stupid files from back when he was in Vice.”
Will remembered that Michael had said he’d go through the files, but he was surprised the man had followed through, considering the state he was in the last time Will had seen him.
“I had to spend two hours sitting in this God damn skirt”—he heard something thump against the wall and assumed it was the skirt—“with that asshole breathing down my neck, joking with me like he was my best fucking friend.”
Will had used his key about an hour earlier to put Aleesha Monroe’s mail on the coffee table so he didn’t have to hold it all night. He sat down on the couch now and went through it, stacking the letters into neat piles for Angie.
“I swear to God, Will,” Angie began, coming back up the hallway. “Some days I look at those girls and think they get better treatment from their pimps than I do from these cocksuckers I have to work with.”
The flip-flops slapped against her heels as she walked into the kitchen. He heard the refrigerator door open, then ice hitting a glass. She opened a bottle and poured something, then slammed the refrigerator again. Seconds later, she sat on the couch beside him, kicked off the shoes, and took a healthy swig from the glass.
Will couldn’t help it. His spine straightened like a Catholic schoolgirl’s. “Are you going to drink that in front of me?”
She pushed her bare foot against his leg, saying, “Just until you start to look pretty.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?” she teased, nudging him again.
He turned to look at her, which was exactly what she had been waiting for. Angie was lying back on the couch, her foot still pressed against his leg. She had put on a short black robe and nothing else. The belt was tied loosely around her waist and he could see a tuft of hair between the folds.
Will felt his throat tighten. His mouth was so full of saliva that he pressed his lips together to keep from drooling.
She said, “I guess you found out my guy’s a pedophile.”
Will stood up so quickly he got a head rush. “What?”
“Shelley,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m assuming you pulled his sheet?”
Will put his hand to his eyes, like taking away his ability to see her would change what he had just heard. “He’s a pedophile?”
She gave him a funny smile. “You realize you’re yelling?”
Will lowered his voice. “You asked me to check up on a pedophile for you?” He walked to the fireplace, wanting to punch his fist through the brick. “What the hell are you thinking? Is that who you’re seeing now? Jesus, I was worried about Ormewood and now you’re—”
“What did he say?”
Her tone had changed, and the air in the room seemed to turn cold along with it.
He asked, “What did who say?”
She sat up on the couch, crossing her legs, covering herself with the robe. “You know damn well what I’m talking about.”
“No,” he countered. “I don’t.”
She put her glass on the table by the mail. “What’s this?”
“I know you slept with him.”
“Real gentleman, that Michael Ormewood. Told you all the details, did he?” She gave a dry laugh as she thumbed through one of the stacks of mail he’d brought. “What fun it must have been for y’all to compare notes. No wonder the fucker was so happy this afternoon.”
“He didn’t tell me anything,” Will said. “I figured it out on my own.”
“Give the detective a gold star.” She lifted her glass as if to toast him, then took a long drink. He watched her throat work as she swallowed and swallowed until the glass was empty.
Will turned his back to her, looking at the painting over the mantel. It was a triptych, three canvases hinged together to make one image when it was open, another image when it was closed. He had always assumed she liked the duplicity of the piece. It was just like Angie, one thing inside, another out. Just like Michael Ormewood, come to think of it. What a perfect pair.