Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #1: Books 1-4 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [classic children's novels txt] 📗

there save the barman, who was polishing glasses behind the bar. The place was dimly lit and smelled vaguely of stale beer and furniture polish. There were forty or fifty tables, each with a small red lantern, ranged around a stage that was painted black and had black curtains drawn across it. Every now and then the curtain moved, and there was a sound of feet on floorboards and furniture being dragged around.

Dehan leaned on the bar, and the barman, who sounded South African or Australian, said, “Whadlit be?”

“I need to talk to Gloria. She in?”

“They’re setting up for the show. Through that door. Don’t know how popular you’ll be if you go back there right now though.”

“It’s okay. I’ve never been popular. It unsettles my stomach.”

I followed her through the door into a maze of narrow, ill-lit passages carpeted in what used to be gray but was now just dirty. We heard voices, climbed a couple of steps, and found ourselves looking out onto the stage. Two young men who looked as though they needed to eat were arguing in hushed hisses with a girl who looked as though she could take them both with one hand tied behind her back.

Dehan sighed and said, “Is one of you Gloria?”

They all turned to look but said nothing for a moment. Dehan was about to repeat the question when the girl pointed and said, “In her dressing room.”

“Where?”

“Right at the intersection. Second door on your right.” As we turned to go, she called, “Say.” Dehan turned back. The girl was smiling. “You free later?”

Dehan nodded. “Yeah. And I plan to stay that way.”

I followed her to the intersection and then down to the right.

“You really need to do something about your attitude. The girl was just being nice.”

We came to the door, and she knocked.

“Come!”

When we opened the door, Gloria was naked. She had her back to us because she was sitting at her dressing table putting on makeup. But her reflection was just as naked as she was, and that was facing us. Her reflection smiled brightly.

“Hello!”

Dehan blinked and smiled back. “Are you Gloria?”

“Sure!” She made it sound like, “Why not? We can be anything we want to be!” We stepped in and I closed the door. She was still smiling and looking expectantly at our reflections. I left Dehan to it and watched Gloria’s face in the mirror. She was pretty. She had a nice face.

“Were you friends with Tammy Gunthersen?”

She turned on her stool and stared at Dehan, then at me. “Why yes, and I still am. Are you friends of hers? I haven’t seen her for ages.”

Dehan did a funny little sideways twitch of the head and said, “You haven’t seen her for two years. May we sit down, Gloria?”

Now Gloria looked worried. “Well, sure, but who are you?”

Dehan pulled out her badge. “We are police officers. My name is Carmen Dehan, and this is my partner, John Stone. Tammy has gone missing, Gloria. We don’t know for sure, but there is reason to believe that she might have been hurt… or worse. We really need your help.”

Gloria had put both her hands to her mouth and was staring at Dehan without saying a word. She looked genuinely distressed. Dehan waited a moment, then, with a small, coaxing nod, asked, “Will you help us, Gloria?”

“Well, of course! Poor Tammy! What happened? How can I help? Just tell me how.”

Dehan pulled up a chair and sat right in front of her, mere inches away. I removed a bundle of clothes and sat in a chair in the corner, crossed my legs, and watched Dehan with interest. This was the girl nobody could stand at the precinct because she had such a bad attitude. Now she was leaning forward, looking earnestly into Gloria’s eyes.

“Do you remember the last time you saw Tammy?”

Gloria’s eyes became abstracted. “Let me see… two years ago, we were doing A Woman for All Seasons…” Her face lit up. “Well, sure! She was real excited. She told me she’d been offered a part that was going to change her life. I asked her what it was, but she said she couldn’t tell me just then, because it was a secret.” She grew confidential, as though she were sharing a secret with Dehan. “She said she had met a wonderful man—he was a millionaire, or a multimillionaire, and he was going to change her life forever.”

“Did she mention his name?”

“Well, I asked, as you can imagine. I was dying with curiosity! She said all of that would have to remain a secret, but when I next saw her she would be driving a Rolls Royce!”

“Was she working here at the time?”

She shook her head. “No, we went out for drinks. A girls’ night out.”

“Where was she working? Did she mention that?”

She thought for a moment and sighed. “No. She said she had a great gig. She was being paid big bucks to put on some kind of show for a multimillionaire. I asked her if it was the same guy, and she said no, but I kind of figured it was. It was too much of a coincidence, know what I mean?”

Dehan made a conspiratorial face, narrowed her eyes, and smiled. “Sure! She’s met a multimillionaire, and she’s doing a gig for a multimillionaire. No-brainer, right?”

Gloria laughed and laid her hand on Dehan’s arm. “Right! That’s what I thought!”

“So you think she was having an affair with this guy, the millionaire?”

“Well, at first I did, but then she tells me she’s going back to see her ex!”

“Her ex?”

“Some loser she was with for a couple of years. He was an asshole, always sleeping around and treating her bad. So she sent him packing back to New