Catch a Falling Knife

Star, even after I told him I was sure of it. He said it was her roommate. I told him to bring the roommate down, that I could tell by talking to her, but he didn’t seem to think it was important.”
    “I could have told him, too,” Cherub said. “I talked to her a few times. But the detective never asked me.”
    “So who killed Elise?” Burt asked of the room in general, with as much dignity as he could muster, considering that Cherub was playing with his tie.
    “Whoever drove her home that night,” Lefty said. “It sounds like the work of a lover. Did she have a lover? I didn’t see anything about one in the papers.”
    “She had a boyfriend,” I said, “but I would hardly call him a lover. He didn’t believe in sex before marriage.”
    “Yegods!” Cherub exclaimed, jumping up from Burt’s lap. “No wonder she was so skittish. A boyfriend who doesn’t believe in sex.” She went out the door, but then stuck her head back in and said, “Let me know when you find the asshole. The Star acted strange, but she danced good and she didn’t deserve to die.” Cherub shut the door behind her.
    I said, “Excuse me. I’d like to go talk to her for a minute.” I stood up and followed Cherub out the door and to her dressing room. I caught up with her inside. Nobody else was there.
    “You’re doing all right, Grandma,” she said, turning around when she heard my footsteps. “I hope I have handsome men to escort me when I’m your age. Like Mae West.”
    I smiled and said, “I want to ask you a question, Cherub. Did you know about Elise’s—the Shooting Star’s—tattoo?”
    “Lefty told me about it. That’s why he was sure that the murdered girl was the Star.”
    “But you never saw it?”
    “No, it was covered by her g-string.”
    “Then how come Lefty knew about it?”
    “Lefty? You can’t keep a secret like that from Lefty. He probably got in her pants.”
    “But…”
    “But what? But she was a good girl? Listen, Grandma, on a night when you’re dancing good and you’ve got the guys eating out of your hand and ready to die for you, it makes you horny as hell. And if all she had to look forward to was a boyfriend who didn’t like sex, she needed something more.”
    “But she always left right after her number.”
    “Not always. Sometimes she’d go to Lefty first to get paid. Did you see the door in the corner of his office? That leads to a small room with a bed in it. He says it’s so he can take naps. Ha. I know what it’s for because I’ve been there.”
    I was learning more than I wanted to know.
    “One other thing,” Cherub continued. “The Star and I, we didn’t talk that much, but she did tell me one thing I can relate to. She told me the only time she felt in control of her life was when she was dancing.”

Chapter 24
     
    “I have a confession to make,” Mark said between two bites of bacon as we were eating breakfast the next morning.
    Uh oh, I thought. I said, “It’s too early in the morning for confessions.”
    “You’ve been so good to me, I’ve got to tell you this. I know one reason you’re helping me is because you hope that Sandy and I will get back together, and I hope with all my heart that we do, but I don’t want you helping me under false pretenses.”
     Having said that in one breath, Mark’s body collapsed in his chair like a ventriloquist’s dummy without the ventriloquist.
    Get it over with. I said, “I can see that you’re not going to be happy until you say whatever it is that you want to say, so go ahead.”
    “I knew about Elise’s tattoo before I read about it in the paper.”
    I choked on a mouthful of coffee. Mark watched me worriedly as I coughed and tried to catch my breath, wondering whether he should slap me on the back or call 911, but I waved him off and eventually I recovered. All I could do was whisper, hoarsely, “Tell me about it.”
    “When I told you about the time Elise came to my office, I didn’t tell you everything that happened.”
    He paused and I said, “I’m listening.”
    “When Elise got up to go that day she turned around at the door and faced me. I stood up from my computer. Before I took a step toward her she unzipped her jeans and pulled them down in one quick motion. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Then she said, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ At first, I couldn’t do anything; I just stared. Then I saw her tattoo. It was small but I couldn’t miss it. Then I said,