It's Not a Pretty Sight (24 page)

“Who was it?” Gunner asked her.

Singer opened her mouth to say something, stopped, and then said, “Let the cat out of the bag, did I?” Trying to smile.

“You don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to,” Gunner said. “It’s none of my business, really.”

“He was my second husband. Tony,” Singer said, jumping right into the story before she could lose the nerve to tell it. “I was twenty-six, he was thirty-one. We met at a going-away party for a mutual friend. He was a print ad salesman, very successful, very handsome. Tall, dark, and all that. I fell in love with him immediately. He never said a cross word to me until the third day of our honeymoon. He’d brought some work along with him to do while we were at the hotel, and I was trying to get him to put it away … so he slapped me. Just once, with the back of his hand. He knocked me to the floor, and never said a word.

“Two years later, he was still doing it. Two, sometimes three times a week. Anytime he was upset, he felt like he needed to let off a little steam, he’d slap me around some. Always with the back of one hand, always to the face. That was his routine. He’d have been a puncher, somebody who likes to use his fists on the body as well as the face, he would’ve killed me eventually, I’m sure of it. But he wasn’t. I was lucky. I didn’t feel lucky at the time, but I was.”

“How long ago was this?” Gunner asked.

“A little over eight years ago.”

“And where is Tony now?”

Singer shook her head. “I don’t know. Last I heard, he was up in Sacramento. I haven’t spoken to him in years.”

“You’re divorced, I assume?”

“Yes.”

“He didn’t have a problem with that?”

“You mean, did he fight it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t contest it. I guess that was another way in which I was lucky. Aside from a bitter argument or two, he let me leave rather quietly. Most abusers won’t do that. They hang on for dear life, no matter what you do to get free of them.

“So yes, my work at Sisterhood was born of personal experience. But surely, you always suspected that.”

“Actually, I never gave it much thought. I suppose if I had, though, I’d have presumed you were an abuse victim yourself, yeah. Thing is … you really don’t look the type to me, you want to know the truth about it.”

“I don’t?”

“No. Not at all. You always struck me as someone too self-assured and confident to ever tolerate that sort of thing. From anyone.”

Singer smiled. “You’d be surprised. By all the different ‘types’ there are, I mean. Because anyone who’s ever needed to be loved by another human being is vulnerable to abuse, Mr. Gunner. Anyone. I don’t care how ‘confident’ and ‘self-assured’ they seem to be.”

Their waiter came by to refill their coffee cups, then disappeared again, but they held on to the silence he’d brought to their table for several minutes longer, neither one of them sure what direction they wanted the conversation to take from here.

Finally, Gunner said, “I talked to Trini Serrano yesterday.” Deciding it was time to start treating this meeting more like an interrogation and less like a first date.

“And?”

“And she told me the real reason she’s no longer welcome at Sisterhood House is because you suspected her of luring Nina into a lesbian affair.”

Singer thought that over a minute, looking to be building up to something explosive, but finally all she said was, “So now you know.”

“In other words, it’s true.”

“More or less. Yes.”

“So why didn’t you tell me that Tuesday? Why give me all that crap about her no longer being available to come by?”

“I was trying to spare her some embarrassment. Obviously.”

“She insists it isn’t true. That she and Nina were only good friends.”

“They were. Only she wanted them to be more than that.”

“And if she did? Why was that a problem?”

“Because women come to Sisterhood House to get well again, Mr. Gunner. Not to get laid. They’re hurt, and they’re damaged, and they’re extremely susceptible to all manner of suggestion. So for that reason alone, I have always been very outspoken in my opposition to people becoming romantically involved during their stay with us.
All
people. Nina was in no condition to be courted by anyone, and Trini knew that. But she was trying to get Nina into bed anyway, and that’s what eventually led Nina to leave us. Weeks before she was ready, I might add.”

“Did Nina tell you that?”

“Yes.”

“She said
Trini
was pressuring her into a lesbian relationship?”

“In so many words, yes. She did.”

“You ever see any evidence to that effect? Anything tangible, I mean?”

“Anything tangible?”

“Like a bracelet, for instance. Inscribed. Something Trini might have given Nina to demonstrate her affection for her. That sort of thing.”

Singer shook her head. “I never saw anything like that, no. Who—”

“Trini says she gave Nina a bracelet like that just before Nina left the house. She said it was inscribed with some words of friendship that Nina mistook for something else. Something more intimate. You’re sure you never saw it?”

“I’m sure.”

“In that case, I’m confused. If Nina was trying to get you to believe that Trini was interested in her sexually …” Gunner fell silent, thinking.

“What?”

The investigator shook his head, said, “Never mind. Scratch that.”

“Scratch what? What were you going to say?”

“Well … I was going to say she should have shown you the bracelet. What better way to prove to you that what she was saying about Trini was true? But then I remembered that Trini said Nina had lost it. Lost it or chucked it, one or the other, she didn’t know which. Either way, Nina didn’t have it anymore. And that would explain why she didn’t show it to you, of course. If she no longer
had
it …” He shrugged.

“What else did Trini tell you?” Singer asked.

“About what?”

“About anything. I’m curious to know.”

“You think she might have fed me a pack of lies, is that it?”

“I’m concerned that she might have misled you about some things, yes.”

Gunner didn’t answer for some time, waiting until he was sure how much he did and did not want to say. Finally, he said, “She told me she wasn’t the only woman at Sisterhood pursuing Nina sexually, for one thing.”

“Referring to Shirley Causwell, of course.”

Gunner’s face registered his surprise.

“I told you, Mr. Gunner. It’s my job to know what happens in my house. Shirley had eyes for Nina too, I saw that right away.”

“Then why—”

“Why did I ask Trini to leave and not Shirley? Because Shirley I had some control over. Trini, I didn’t. Shirley is a resident, Trini wasn’t. When I asked Shirley to back off, she listened to me. Trini wouldn’t.”

“Shirley agreed to leave Nina alone?”

“Reluctantly, yes. I told her she could have any kind of relationship with Nina she wanted to have, once they were both out of the house, but until then, I wanted her to treat Nina as a friend, and nothing more. And that’s what she did. If Trini told you it was Shirley who drove Nina from Sisterhood, she was lying. Trini was the one who wouldn’t stop badgering Nina, not Shirley.”

Again, Gunner fell silent, trying to absorb what she was saying.

“You didn’t think I needed to hear any of this before now?” he asked.

“I told you Nina had friends, but no enemies. And that was true. Why should I have wanted to say any more than that?”

“Because unrequited love is an excellent motive for murder, Ms. Singer. That never occurred to you?”

“Frankly, Mr. Gunner, no. It didn’t. Look, I’ve already told you who murdered Nina. If you choose not to believe me, that’s your business.”

“But if both Trini and Shirley were in love with her—”

Singer shook her head vigorously and said, “It doesn’t matter. They didn’t do it. They didn’t do it any more than Virgie Olivera did.”

“Virgie Olivera?”

“Yes. You don’t remember Virgie? She was the girl you asked me about Tuesday before you left. The one Angela told you had once pulled a gun on Nina out in the field.”

“And you said her boyfriend made her do it. The Mexican Mafia hero.”

“Ricky Salcido. Yes.”

“So what about her?”

“She’s dead. Her and Ricky both. I’d been thinking about calling her ever since you reminded me of her, just to see how she was doing, and yesterday, I did. The number we had for her was at her sister’s place. Rosie. You never called her yourself?”

“No.”

Looking up Virgie Olivera had been something he was saving as a last resort, judging her to be the least of his possible leads. Sometimes, he was clairvoyant like that.

“Anyway, Rosie told me they were dead,” Singer went on. “They were both killed at a party last Christmas. They were standing out on the lawn with a group of other people when an argument broke out and … somebody drew a gun.” She gave her shoulders a little shrug and left it at that.

“Okay. So them I can scratch off my list,” Gunner said, actually thankful to have had even this small part of his job done for him.

“And Trini and Shirley?”

Gunner just shook his head.

Singer told him she was ready to go home.

fourteen

S
HIRLEY
C
AUSWELL
’
S RESPONSE TO
G
UNNER
’
S ASSERTION
that she had been in love with Nina Pearson was surprisingly succinct: “Yeah, so?”

He wasn’t sure what else he had been expecting her to say, but he was taken aback nonetheless.

“Then you admit that it’s true,” he said.

“You think of any reason why I shouldn’t?”

“No. But then, I can’t think of any reason for you to take this long to tell me about it either.”

“You can’t? How about, it’s none of your fucking business? That’s a good reason, isn’t it?”

They were standing out in the front yard, beneath the giant avocado tree where Gunner’s red Cobra was still parked. They talked with the car between them, because that was how Causwell wanted it. She kept her back to the house’s front door, seemingly ready to retreat at any time, given just the slightest provocation.

She was wearing a pale blue summer dress, and sandals. Like a college girl dressed for a spring-morning walk on campus. Gunner tried to focus on her anger, and not her beauty, but it was hard; he liked what he saw, despite himself.

“You didn’t think I’d find out anyway?” he asked her.

“I figured somebody would tell you, sure. But so what? What do I care what you know? Who the hell are
you
?”

“I’m the man who’s trying to find Nina’s murderer. I told you and Angela that two days ago.”

“And we told you, the cops already
have
Nina’s murderer. Only you’re too thick-headed to understand that.”

“Meaning Michael again.”

“She loved him. She
loved
that sonofabitch!” She was trembling, tears suddenly rolling down both cheeks. “He was a filthy, dirty, mindless piece of shit who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as she did! He made her feel small! He made her feel ugly!” She pounded her chest with one fist, said, “But
I
loved her.
I loved her
! And I could have made her happy, if … if …”

“If she had let you,” Gunner said.

“No! Not if
she
had let me! If
they
had let me! If all her so-called ‘friends’ had just left us alone and let her make up her own mind about what she wanted to do, and who she wanted to be with. If they had just left us
alone
—”

“Nina wouldn’t be dead right now.”

“No! She wouldn’t! She’d be okay. She and I …”

Her voice trailed off.

“What? What would you be?” Gunner asked.

But Causwell was shaking her head at him, a tiny smile playing over her tear-streaked face. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” she said, laughing now. “Nice try, Mr. Gunner, but no.”

“Excuse me?”

“
I
didn’t kill her! All right? So you can get that thought out of your tiny little mind right now. I loved her, yes, and I was hurt that she didn’t want me, yes—but I didn’t kill her. I’m sorry.”

She had caught him trying to maneuver her toward a hasty confession, and now he didn’t know quite what to say.

She had all the anger and rage a man could ever want to find in a potential murder suspect, but it was all misdirected. If the victim had been anyone else—Singer, Serrano, Angela Glass, or Agnes Felker, even—she’d be perfectly suited for the crime. But Nina? As much as he hated to admit it, Gunner could no longer see it.

“Tell me about Trini and Nina,” he said, trying not to sound as unnerved as he was. “Was Trini trying to seduce her, or not? That’s the question.”

Causwell smiled again. “What do
you
think?”

“I think I’m asking for
your
opinion, not mine. Am I going to get to hear it, or not?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. She wasn’t. Nina thought she was, but she wasn’t. It wasn’t like that with Trini.”

Gunner would have bet money she was going to say just the opposite.