Michael Lister - Soldier 03 - The Big Hello by Michael Lister Page B

cleared her throat. “Colored section is over there,” she said, jerking her head toward a single table in the front corner opposite the other waitress.
    “Police business,” I said. “We’ll only be a moment.”
    “Police?” Vanessa Patrick said, looking a little relieved––something quickly undercut by doubt. “You aren’t really, are you? Who sent you?”
    “Somebody looking for you?” I asked. “That why you’re leaving town?”
    She was different than I had imagined––not stout as Bernice had said, and I wondered if that had been part of her costume or simply because she was big breasted. She was pale as hell, as Bernice had put it, but attractive, with only a smattering of light pink freckles and strawberry blond hair that was both thick and shiny. She was also a good deal younger than I had pictured.
    “Who are you, mister, really?”
    “You don’t recognize me?”
    She studied me. “Should I?”
    I shook my head.
    She leaned up slightly and looked around the room.
    “Whatcha looking for?” Clip asked.
    She shook her head and leaned back.
    “What gives, fellas?” she said, looking from me to Clip and back to me. “Is my number up? This the end of the line for me?”
    “Why would it be?”
    “So it’s not …”
    “You an actress?” I said.
    “Why? You want an autograph?”
    “Any good?” Clip asked.
    “She fooled a real nurse into thinking she was one,” I said.
    A flash of recognition flared in her eyes then vanished.
    It was only a little past eleven, but it seemed later, as if days and not hours has passed since Clip and I had first gotten in the car to head over here earlier in the evening.
    Outside the diner the night was dark. No moon. No stars. No streetlamps. No lights from passing cars. Inside, it was so bright it turned the windows into mirrors. The front of the diner was only a reflection of what was inside the diner itself, as if it was a two-way mirror in an interrogation room.
    I felt exposed and on display.
    “Where is Lauren Lewis?” I asked.
    “Who?”
    “Don’t,” I said. “We’ve got you. There’s only one play. Be smart and you can be on your bus when it gets here. All I want is the girl.”
    “And if she’s dead and I had something to do with it?”
    “Is she?” I said. “Did you?”
    “I had no idea what I was getting mixed up in, mister,” she said. “Swear I didn’t. It was just a job. I was just playing a part.”
    “Tell me everything.”
    “Get in there and get her out,” she said. “That’s all I was hired to do and all I did. Who has you looking for her?”
    “I’m not doing this for someone else,” I said. “I was with her. We arrived together. She’s my … they haven’t made up a word big enough, strong enough, good enough for what she is to me.”
    “Oh.”
    “Where is she?”
    “I don’t know. I swear it. They had me go in, isolate her, sedate her, say she died, and wait for the coroner. They came and got her.”
    “Who did?”
    “The coroner,” she said. “The guys pretending to be the coroner. They took her away.”
    “Who were they?”
    “No idea. Had never seen them before. Haven’t seen them since. Maybe actors like me. Poor dumb bastards that owe the wrong people. It’s the last I saw of her too. I swear it. I filled out the death certificate and got out of there. Never went back. These are very powerful people. Cruel. They collect debts like chits and hold onto them until they can use you and then …”
    “Who is? Who hired you?”
    “I’m real sorry about your girl, mister. Honest I am, but I’ve told you my part in it. That’s all I did. That’s all I know. I swear it.”
    “It’s not all you know. Who hired you? Who helped you at the hospital?”
    “Betty Jane Knox,” she said. “She owed the wrong people same as me. She made a call. I got a call. When I got there and told her, that other nurse, and that negro nurse I’d take it from there, she’s the one who convinced the others to