Corpse Suzette

said, “but I know how irritating it
is when bosses ask you to run frivolous personal errands for them on your own
time.”
    She had struck pay dirt.
Myrna nodded vigorously and promptly discarded her right to remain silent. “No
kidding!” she said. “Like you don’t even have a life of your own. Trips to the
dry cleaners, the drugstore, the grocery store for heaven’s sake! Heaven forbid
that somebody’s run out of fresh basil!”
    “And some bosses will even
have you go to the vet for them!” Savannah added. Might as well stoke the fire
a bit. “Picking up medicine for her dog, of all things. You must just
hate that.”
    Just as quickly, Myrna’s
demeanor softened. “Oh, I don’t mind that. Sammy’s a little sweetheart. And I
love animals. It’s the trips to pick up her favorite bath gels that I resent.
And having to go shopping to buy skimpy lingerie for his latest girlfriend. That I mind!”
    “And who wouldn’t! Can’t
Devon pick out her own garter belts, for heaven’s sake?”
    Myrna’s eyes widened. “You
know about Devon?”
    “Oh, honey, I know just
about everything worth knowin’. Being nosy is my job, and I gotta tell you, I’m
very good at it.” Myrna laughed and Savannah felt a bond, a girl-connection,
had been made.
    She had a new friend at
Emerge.
    No time like the present to
take this new friendship for a practice run. So, she leaned even closer and
whispered, “Also, just between us, I can’t stand that Devon. She should fall
down a flight of stairs and into a pit of crocodiles, as far as I’m concerned.
She irritates the daylights outta me.”
    “Oh, absolutely. I hate
her! She thinks she’s so hot and so smart.”
    “And that’s particularly
irritating to those of us who really are.” Myrna snickered, then shook her
head. “I don’t understand what Sergio sees in her, or any of the rest of the
bimbos he dates... except that they’re young and don’t have any wrinkles or
sags.”
    The depth of sadness in the
woman’s eyes touched Savannah’s heart. She could tell by looking that Myrna had
once been a beauty. And if she hadn’t been cut, stitched, and tucked into an
unnatural caricature of herself, she still might have been.
    “I don’t think men like
Sergio date young women because their skins are smooth,” Savannah said softly.
“I think it’s because they feel more comfortable with a woman who hasn’t been
around very long... long enough to figure out how little a man like that really
has to offer her. Us older gals see a guy like him coming and we tuck tail and
run.”
    Myrna studied Savannah’s
face for a moment, then said, “You aren’t as old as I am. Judging by your
lines, I’d say you’re in your midforties.”
    “Very good. You could work
at a carnival, guessing ages and all that.”
    “It’s like a carnival here.
Strange characters everywhere and—”
    The phone on her desk
buzzed. She answered it and then told Savannah, “Mr. D’Alessandro can see you
now—now that he’s finished with his call to London... which is code for
‘talking dirty on the phone with the bimbo.’”
    Savannah flashed her a
warm, down-homey smile. “Thank you, Myrna. I’m glad we had this little girl talk.
Let’s chat again, soon, huh?”
    Myrna returned the smile.
Yes, Savannah decided, she definitely had an “in” at Emerge.
    “You got it,” Myrna
replied. “Good luck with your magazine story. I can’t wait to read it. But
remember... don’t quote me directly on any of that.”
    “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
    Yeah, I can’t wait to read that story
too, Savannah thought as she headed down the hall toward D’Alessandro’s
office door. And if the story has a bad ending, which I think it’s going to ... I want to read it in the form of an arrest warrant.
     
    Down the hallway and to the
left was a door with a brass plaque that read, “Sergio D’Alessandro,
President.”
    She had to admit, Sergio
D’Alessandro sounded a bit spiffier than Leonard Roy Hoffman. It certainly looked
better on a brass door plaque. But she’d never trusted people who changed their
names as frequently as the papers on the bottom of a parakeet cage. One changed
names and bird-cage papers for the same reason: because the shit was piling up.
    She knocked once, then
opened the door and stepped into one of the most opulent offices she had ever
seen. From the China-red walls to the black lacquered furniture, the plush
oriental rugs and oversized vases sprouting