Page 44 of Ruined
CHAPTER 12
Lucas
A hoop was hanging in the middle of the stage, so I knew the club was opening with one of Haley’s acts. A short black haired server sat in the seat beside mine, looking at her phone. I had no intention of making the same mistake that I made with Mel. But I had other questions I wanted to ask her.
“Excuse me,” I said. She looked up. “What’s your name?”
“You forgot me already?” she said and winked. “Iris. You’re Haley’s friend, right?” I nodded. Good. She knew the situation then. “She’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“I wanted to ask you about Reeves Aldrich,” I said. She bobbed her head, the choppy hair shaking with her movements. “We’re old friends, but sometimes men don’t ask each other certain questions.” She shrugged. My words were believable so far. I had to straddle careful lines in order to get information out of the servers, without alarming them to suspicious behavior. “His second wife. What was her name? I don’t want to bring up hard subjects in a place like this. You understand.”
The smile disappeared from her face, but she didn’t stop bobbing her head. She constantly needed to be moving.
“Maxine? Mandy? Marabelle? Something like that. An ‘M’ name for sure.” That sounded right. “Can’t remember. We weren’t close. This is what I heard from Greenhouse gossip.”
“What do you remember about her?”
“Uh,” she looked around. “She died. I think it was some rare disease. When Haley connected that both his wives died from the same thing, she tried to convince Aldrich to have his house checked for contaminants, because she didn’t want him to die too. Of course, Aldrich was flattered. Thought thatthatmeant that she loved him. But really, Haley was looking out for herself. We all do.”
I disagreed. Haley didn’t seem like the kind of person to be concerned like that, and only think of money. During our time together, she had only mentioned money twice, the very first time in the Terrariums, and when she increased her fees. Many of the other servers brought it up within seconds of introducing themselves.
But there was Haley’s debt. That controlled most of her decisions.
“Can’t say I know more than that,” Iris shrugged. “Haley might know more.” She gestured at the door to the Greenhouse. “Ask her yourself.”
As if on command, Haley emerged from that door, a classic silky pink robe around her shoulders, a red and white lingerie set covered in see-through lace delicately worn on her skin. Iris waved to her. “Nice talking to you again.” She left.
Haley plopped down in Iris’s seat. There was a strictness to her movements. She was biting the inside of her cheek.
“You can hang out with Iris. I don’t mind,” she said in a stilted voice.
“I’m here for you,” I said. She sucked in a deep breath, her cheeks flushing at the words. I turned towards her. “I was asking about Aldrich’s second wife. She died not too long ago, correct?”
“Sometime last year, yeah.”
“Do you remember anything about her death?”
“It was weird,” she said. But her voice had a distracted, airy quality to it. “How do two people die of the same exact thing, and yet he never got sick from it?”
“Luck,” I said. Or malicious intent.
She shrugged. “He was devastated that it took both of them. They died so young.”
The situation was suspicious. I didn’t trust Aldrich with my life, and the more I was reacquainted with him, the less I trusted him with others. As long as Haley was smart enough to never be in a room alone with him, I had faith that she would be okay.
But I didn’t want to alarm Haley any further right then. She was moving the robe on and off of her shoulder like she couldn’t stand the way it felt on her skin. Something was already bothering her, and it had nothing to do with Aldrich or Iris.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Dahlia came to the Greenhouse,” Haley said. She sighed deeply. “Told us that we should be doing more for our money. That we need to be earning higher amounts or she was going to charge us more fees.” She smacked her forehead with her palm. “Damn it. We’re not supposed to talk about this kind of stuff out here.”
I grit my teeth. More secrets. “I’m listening.”
“You didn’t come here to listen to me whine about club politics.” She forced a smile. “Tell me. How wasyourday?”
I took her hand in mine. “I want to listen,” I said. “Tell me what’s going on with Dahlia.”
Her forest green eyes peered at me.
