Flamethrower - Maggie Estep [46]
“I guess I’m gonna get going,” Ruby told her.
Victoria shrugged. “Yeah. Well. Watch yourself, girl.”
“I will. Thanks for your help,” Ruby said. “You need a ride somewhere?” Ruby added, not expecting to be taken up on it.
“I wouldn’t mind,” Victoria said. “I’m late for work.”
“Oh.” Ruby couldn’t help expressing her surprise. “Where should I drop you?”
Victoria gave Ruby an address in the West Fifties. “I’m a stripper,” she added.
This was basically the last occupation Ruby would have pegged on the skinny, flat-chested woman.
“Good money,” Ruby said.
“You done it?”
“For about five minutes. I’m not much of an exhibitionist. I just felt naked.”
Victoria laughed.
“Yeah. Well I like it,” she said. “Gets me off taking those shit-heels’ money.”
They were in the car now, Ruby marveling over the fact that she was about to drive into the hideousness of Midtown traffic.
Victoria prattled on about men, stripping, and drinking, apparently her three favorite topics. This successfully kept Ruby from worrying so much about traffic. In twenty minutes, she was dropping Victoria outside the strip club.
“You ever want to come in, just ask for me. I’ll give you a free lap dance,” Victoria said.
“Oh,” Ruby said. “Thank you.” She wasn’t really sure how to interpret that one.
“My dancing name is Dazzle,” Victoria added before shutting the Mustang’s passenger door.
Ruby took a deep breath, then drove downtown.
Ruby circled Jody’s block on Charles Street for twenty minutes before finally getting a parking spot. She was tired, her head was throbbing, and she felt right at the edge of hysterics. She closed her eyes, rubbed her eyelids, then got out and locked the car.
Jody’s block was tree lined and packed with good-looking brownstones. It was very quiet, expensive quiet.
Ruby took out the keys The Crone had given her then tried two before getting the front door open. Jody occupied the two bottom floors, with a tenant at the top. Ruby entered through the garden-level door. The huge apartment was as beautiful as Ruby had expected. The ceilings were high, even on the lower floor. The dark wood floors were gorgeous; the furniture was tasteful and timeless. Even the carefully selected antique light fixtures were perfect. Ruby wanted to move in. To assume the lovely life that went with it. Only that life didn’t appear to be quite as lovely as Ruby had once thought.
Ruby went into the bathroom, threw water on her face, and peed. She still felt horrible, and when her explorations of the apartment led her to the bedroom, she sprawled out on the immense bed. It was soft, very soft.
Ruby came to abruptly a half hour later. She’d been dreaming about Ed. He’d been walking down a busy street ahead of Ruby, not waiting for her. She kept trying to catch up with him but never did.
Ruby went into the bathroom again, splashed more water on her face, then started rooting through the apartment. There were immense closets filled with well-made clothes and shoes. There was a lovely kitchen, an expensive-looking stereo and TV and walls lined with hardcover books. Ruby couldn’t find a computer though. She knew Jody had a laptop, had seen it at The Psychiatrist’s office, so she assumed Jody had taken it with her. Ruby didn’t find anything useful in the desk drawers in the study.
She went to sit in the dining room and put her face in her hands, trying to empty her mind. She was vaguely expecting some revelation, some sense of her psychiatrist, anything. But no. All she got was a headache and the idea to check with the tenant upstairs.
A tall, fortyish man with a mustache answered Ruby’s knock.
“Yeah?” he scowled down at Ruby. He was wearing a black silk robe, and his long hair hung past his shoulders. He looked like a medieval king recently back from conquest.
“Hi. I’m trying to find Jody Ray,” Ruby said simply.
“Well she ain’t in here,” he said as though Ruby had just accused him of harboring