Blue Blood: A Debutante Dropout Mystery by McBride Susan

Author:McBride, Susan [McBride, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Molly looked worse than she had when I’d visited her two days before. But then being locked up at Lew Sterrett was hardly comparable to a pampering at the Greenhouse Spa.

The shadows beneath her eyes had darkened. Her skin seemed gray, the line of her mouth more grim, though the hopelessness in her eyes lifted briefly as she caught sight of me beyond the Plexiglas barricade.

“Don’t give up,” I said the instant she grabbed the black receiver and put it to her ear. “We haven’t lost the battle yet.”

“Then why am I still here?” she demanded. “Why haven’t they caught the real killer so I can go home to my son? Or aren’t they even looking for anyone else? Oh, God, they’re not, are they, Andy?”

“I’m looking,” I told her, but that didn’t seem to give her much more confidence than it had Malone.

“I didn’t do it, I swear.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and she bit at her lip to fight them back. “Bud was a creep, for sure, but I didn’t murder him. He wasn’t worth my losing everything. Hell, he wasn’t worth the price of a burger.”

“You don’t have to convince me, Mol,” I assured her, wishing I could leap past the clear partition and give her a hug. “I’ve believed from the beginning that you’re innocent. So does Malone,” I added, sensing after my last conversation with Brian that this wasn’t stretching the truth anymore. “You have to trust us. We’re doing all we can to fix this mess.”

“I know you are, Andy,” she said, but didn’t appear any too encouraged. “And I can’t thank you enough for that.”

I leaned nearer the Plexiglas, as if I could whisper my next words to her instead of breathing them into the receiver. “I got the job at Jugs,” I informed her, and her eyes widened. Though I left out the sob story about my pretending to be alone, penniless, and pregnant. She might think my artful lie was imitating her life a tad too closely. “I started yesterday, and I’m working the dinner shift today.”

“Have you found out anything new?”

“A few possibilities.”

She leaned forward, eagerly. “Spill.”

I hardly needed prodding. “Well, for one, you’re certainly not the only waitress who felt Bud was an octopus. I met Rhonda, Christie, and Ginger, and each of them had stories about Hartman coming onto them, despite his so-called relationship with Julie Costello.”

“It’s like I said, Andy.” She frowned, tension pinching her features. “Bud was a big guy. He was physically powerful. If he wanted something, he just took it. What a waste of nice packaging. If only he hadn’t been such an ass on the inside.”

“Well, someone other than Julie must’ve ignored what was beneath his slick-boy exterior. I heard about a girl named Sarah who worked at Jugs for two weeks, then abruptly disappeared. The other waitresses said she had a thing for Bud.”

Her brow wrinkled in concentration. “Yeah, I remember her. Cute girl. She was young, maybe eighteen.”

“Bud bait,” I repeated what I’d been told.

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