Page 81 of Lady Sings the Blues

“Darlin’,” he starts. Just the sound of that one word, his drawn out enunciation dregs the fear up from the bottom most place in my soul.

He has the look of a man about to spill something so vile he fears I may never completely recover. I get all that from a look.

“Darlin’,” he says again. “They determined the heart’s human.”

I suck in a sharp breath knowing he hadn’t hit me with the worst yet.

Oh, how I wish I’d been wrong.

“They identified the owner of the heart. Baby girl, her friends hadn’t heard from her and got nervous. Called Tommy to knock on her door, check things out.”

“Who?” I ask, but he keeps on talking as if I hadn’t asked my question.

“Apparently Shayla had been killed first. He sent them out of order for some reason. We’re still lookin’ into it. They found her danglin’ upside down from her feet inside a Plexiglas tank filled with water.”

A tank?

“Who?” I practically shriek.

“Hadley.”

My breath leaves in a gush as my knees buckle beneath me. Luckily Beau has a firm hold, keeping me upright. My ears know what they just heard. My ears know, yet the rest of me vehemently rejects the knowledge.

“Wa—was there a note? There was a note, right? From Houdini?” I ask, my body shaking even as I try to control the shakes. “I did an essay on him, the magician, my junior year of high school.” Then I swallow hard. “Mrs. Gentry’s class. You remember her?” Though, I keep rambling, not giving him a chance to answer. “Houdini—he had a famous escape, the China Box escape, or something like that. Sounds like what you described.”

He nods his affirmative.

“But darlin’, I swear I never had relations with her.”

“No, you wouldn’t have to. If—damn my head hurts—if,” I clear my throat instead of swallowing again, and pinch the bridge of my nose. “If Shayla was… if she, um, died first then it’s not about you or only you. My dad got with Hadley and didn’t have time for me anymore. So maybe the love he gave her came as sloppy seconds? Or maybe, I mean everyone knew how hard his death was on me. Maybe my love for him was sloppy seconds?” As those last words leave my mouth, a horrible thought hits me. “Logan, he didn’t have a fling with Hadley before my dad, did he? I mean, we all know he wasn’t faithful to me. You think that’s why she wouldn’t let my dad see me? Guilt?”

“Don’t know, but we’ll be lookin’ into it. Damn shit that bastard’s causin’ us still, he didn’t appreciate how good he had it.”

As I open my mouth to respond, Liv cuts through our semi-private conversation. “Do, uh, do you really think this Houdini guy is going after Logan Hollister flings?”

“It has to be more than that,” Beau answers her truthfully.

It hits me. Right here, right now I know his play. “Club connection,” I tell them.

“Pardon?” he asks.

And Liv says, “What?”

“I haven’t figured out the why of why Logan’s been involved. But if we can prove Hadley had a fling with Lo, then he’s going after club connections that had relations with Logan. He’s hitting the Lords by hitting those connections.”

“So the bastard has to be someone who knew Logan when we were younger.” Beau deduces for us.

“Seems that way.” Crass who’d been totally quiet up ‘til now finally chimes in. Arms folded over his massive chest, he looks contemplative, and I know he’s not just been paying attention but formulating. “Also seems like we need to find out about anyone else who might have jumped your boy’s bones with a tie to the club. You and your woman, Boss. Doc and his woman. The first chick fucked someone in the club, I’m guessing?”

Beau’s firm-lipped glare gives enough confirmation for Crass to continue. “Shit, there a way to figure out who all he fucked? Think it was just those two or you think he was a stupid prick for going out on that beautiful lady of yours?”

“He was a stupid prick for doin’ it just once, but I got a bad feelin’ about this.”

As Beau talks, I take notice of Liv becoming very agitated. Very agitated, opening and closing her hands into fists at her sides, scrunching up her lips, nose and brow. She catches me watching and stops. Fisting one of her hands to bring it up, she chews on her thumbnail. “You really think he’s targeting women who slept with Logan Hollister?”

“Yeah, why?” I ask.

“I had a one night stand with Logan Hollister,” Liv blurts out to all our dumbstruck faces. Me personally, my mouth hangs open from the gut-punch of betrayal. “Swear I didn’t know he had a girlfriend,” she rushes on, so I must be wearing every emotion I feel, and not slightly. “We met at a game senior year. Sat next to each other at Wrigley. I was in a vulnerable place, and he offered to make me feel less vulnerable for a time. He was charming and handsome, so yeah, shit… I took him up on his offer. Please don’t be mad at me, Elise.”

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