“We’re late!” Mavis bounced in on thigh-high platform boots as red as Rudolph’s nose. Her hair, a twisting, curling, corkscrewing mass of sunshine covered with silver glitter, tumbled around a face that lasered out smiles.
She danced over, a high-on-the-thigh skirt of Christmas green scattered with silver stars fluttering as she tossed her arms around Roarke, then Eve for hugs.
“I’m totally juiced you thought of get-together time, because we haven’t—just us—in a while. Leonardo’s down with Bella, but you said I should come up, Dallas. The house looks ultra mag Santa time. Bellamina’s seriously dazzled. And—”
She broke off, frowned at Eve’s board.
“Work. I was just finishing up. I just wanted to ask you a couple questions about street life, girl packs, street packs, flops, chain of command. Anything I can get.”
“It’s work,” Mavis said slowly, in an un-Mavis-like tone. “The girls in the building on the West Side. Their bodies, in the old building. I turned off the screen because I didn’t want to hear about it.”
“Sorry, but I wanted to pick your brain a little,” Eve began.
“They’re all dead, these girls? All of them?”
“Yeah.” Eve didn’t like the way the rosy glow in Mavis’s cheeks died to sickly white. “Let’s go downstairs and talk about it.”
“A case. Your case. But I knew them. This one, and this one. This one, too.”
“What?” Eve gripped her shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I knew her.” She gestured to Shelby. “And her.” Now Mikki. “And her.” And lastly LaRue Freeman. “I knew them, Dallas. Before you. I knew them before you.”
She turned her face to Eve’s with tears shimmering. “They were friends of mine.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. You don’t forget . . . They’re dead. They’ve been dead all this time. That’s why they never came back.”
“Came back where?”
“To The Club. That’s what we called it. They never came back.”
“Mavis.” Eve took her by the shoulders, shifted a little to block the photos on the board so Mavis would look at her instead. “When did you know them?”
“Before. Before I met you. I told you how it was before.”
“Yeah.” But she’d given Mavis a lot of leeway on details. No point pushing for them when they could make you wonder how many times you could arrest your best friend on prior bad acts.
“I’m going to need you to tell me more now.”
“I need . . . a minute. It’s all still there. You think it’s not. You figure you’ve dumped it, or at least packed it all away. But it’s all still there.” She leaned on Eve a moment, all the bright clothes and hair. “You know.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“We were just kids, Dallas. They were just kids.” She shuddered, eased back. “I want Bella, for a minute. I want Bella and Leonardo.”
“We’ll go down,” Roarke said. He brushed off Eve’s protest before it happened, simply giving her arm a squeeze as he drew Mavis away. “You could do with some wine, darling, and a bit of time to gather your thoughts.”
“I guess. I’m upside down, or inside out. Maybe both. I thought they took off.” She leaned on him now as they went downstairs. “A lot of us did, or got picked up, swallowed up. But a lot just took off. People don’t always stay, even when you want them to.”
“They don’t, no.” He led her into the parlor where Leonardo and Summerset, with equally besotted smiles, watched Bella bang enthusiastically on some sort of colorful plastic cube. One bang and it played a rapid guitar riff, another trumpets blasted like New Year’s Eve on Zeus.
While it riffed, blasted, drummed, tweeted, Bella laughed like a loon and shook her hot pink ruffled butt.
“Look what Summerset gave Bella.” Beaming over the cacophony, Leonardo, a glittering silver vest flowing over a sapphire shirt, rose from the sofa. “She has your musical talent, moonbeam.”
His smile faded as he focused on the sheen in her eyes. “What’s the matter?” He started toward her, but she shook her head, glanced down at Bella.