“But it wasn’t that?”
“It was more than that. She was all fine one week and then, boom! She didn’t show up... That was what... months ago? And after she left, Lily started acting all nervous too.” Guiltily, I thought of Lolo getting a job stripping at Ophelia at just eighteen, when most girls weren’t even out of high school or were just starting college. She was a smart kid, so... why?
Don’t, I scolded myself.Just don’t.
And then, just as abruptly, I forgave myself for wondering. Why not ask why? Lolo’s work wasn’t illegal, or particularly dangerous, but it was, yes, it was demeaning. It was pandering, gratifying a distasteful desire. It wasn’t really work you’d wish for a daughter to do if you had a daughter, unless, I guess, you did it too. Andeven if you did, you’d be fighting with all your might to convince your daughter to do something more worthy of her than being peered at by men old enough to be her dad. Yes, I was making a moral judgment on Dovey. But since when was it wrong to make a moral judgment?
I steered my concentration back as Lolo wetted down a sponge and began applying her foundation, the thick, waterproof kind that would stay put even with sweat and hot lights. “Did you ask Felicity?”
“I tried. She didn’t answer my calls. I went by her house. She wasn’t there.” She stood up and began to use body glue to apply twirlers to her nipples, then put on a silver shirt that she knotted under her breasts. She shook out a silver pair of hip-hugger leggings.
“And Lily?”
“I didn’t have to ask her. She was weird. Almost like she was scared too.”
“Of what?”
“Of whom.”
“Okay, of who?”
“She was scared of Jack.”
“Okay, let’s forget about Lily for the moment. Did you get the impression that Felicity was scared of Jack as well?” Lolo nodded, pressing her lips together for emphasis. “Somebody said Felicity loved Jack.”
“She did. She talked like she did. Or at least, she talked like he loved her. She didn’t talk about things he gave her, but I know for a fact that he bought that Mercedes for her. And he furnished her condominium. The pool. The landscaping. Have you ever seen that place? The trees in the shapes of birds?” I said that Archangel had shown me a picture of the living room. “But then something happened.”
“Do you know what?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you probably because I’m notentirely... I guess you could possibly say I’m scared of him too.” This went along with what Sam had said, that Jack really was a gangster, that he was capable of the kind of hurt that people assumed went out with movies based on events in the 1960s. “Only one who isn’t is Archangel. She’s scared of nothing.”
“Well, if you don’t know what changed, who would know?”
Lolo just shrugged.
“Lily?”
At that, Lolo snorted. “I’m sure! But good luck getting Lily to say anything to you about Jack. Especially now. She knows better than anyone else...”
“Knows what?” Lolo shook her head. “Knows what, Lolo? Would he, like, keep your paycheck? Or key your car? Or... ”
“Key your car? Come on. You think that’s what people are afraid of?”
“Can’t you tell me anything else?”
“No!” Lolo said, her face slamming closed like a door. “Ask Felicity yourself.”
Would that I could, I thought, and remembered my sister. “It really is like porn,” Nell said. “You think it’s going to be this forbidden delight. But it gets boring after ten minutes.”
“Are you going to hang around?”
“For a while maybe,” she said. “I can take the car and come back for you later.”
“I can get a ride to your house. But I have to let Lily go back to the door. I have to be behind the bar.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry for stranding you behind the bar,” I told Lily. “But before you go, give me one moment. Let me ask you just one thing—do you know why Felicity left?”
