They sat around drinking coffee after, Laurel making sure to keep Jim’s cup in particular full to the brim. Before Laurel plopped herself down in his lap, Kate cornered her in the kitchen.
“Hey, Kate,” Laurel said with a sunny smile, tending to the burgers on the grill, the dishes in the sink, and the coffee urn all at the same time. Watching her smooth efficiency in the compact kitchen made Kate feel like an underachiever.
“Got a minute?” Kate said.
Laurel flipped the burgers in three swift movements. “Now I do,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron. “What’s up?”
It was late and Kate had neither the time nor the inclination for diplomacy. “Rumor has it you had a thing with Bernie Koslowski last year.”
Laurel’s smile vanished. “I don’t see where that’s any of your business.”
“It wouldn’t be,” Kate agreed, “except that some other stuff might have come out of it.”
“Like what?”
“Like some stuff concerning Bernie’s wife, Enid.”
“She never knew.”
“Yeah,” Kate said, “she did. And she slept with Len Dreyer to get even.”
Laurel didn’t change expression. She was a striking young woman, maybe five feet ten with thick reddish brown hair clipped back from her face, large brown eyes, and dark arched brows. She had a high-bridged nose, handed down along with her height from the Yankee whaler rumored to have been her grandfather, and a small rosebud of a mouth. Her T-shirt was cropped and her jeans low-rider, both playing hide-and-seek with the gold ring piercing her navel. Kate winced away from the sight. “That,” Laurel said, “would come under the heading of none of my business.”
“Yeah,” Kate said, “it is, because Len Dreyer’s dead.”
“I heard. You don’t think-”
“I don’t think anything, yet,” Kate said, “I’m just gathering information. Which I have more of, by the way. I’ve heard that you had something going on with Len Dreyer, as well.”
“What of it?”
Laurel was getting a little defensive, Kate was glad to see. Defensive people usually had to justify their actions, which meant they talked more. “Like I said, I’m just looking for information. I’m not accusing you of anything except sleeping with two different guys at the same time, which we could all plead guilty to at some point, right?”
“Or more,” Laurel said, and then looked as if she wished she hadn’t.
“I’m only interested in these two. How did things end with Bernie?”
Laurel shrugged. “Well, I think. It only lasted a couple of months. The wife and kids, his own business, not to mention the coaching job, they kind of cramp his style.”
Kate took a guess. “He wasn’t unhappy you called it off?”
“Well.” Laurel thought it over. “He wasn’t happy, exactly. Things were pretty good there for a while.”
“So he was unhappy.”
“No.”
“Which is it?”
“We agreed together we should call it off,” Laurel said, exasperated. “I wanted more than he could give, and no way was he leaving his family for me. He understood.”
“You wanted marriage?”
“Good god, no!” Laurel said, and surprisingly, laughed. “I just wanted him around more, is all.” She winked. “He’s got some nice moves. Know what I mean?”
Bernie was a friend and this was not a visual Kate wanted. “What about Dreyer?”
Laurel noticed her arms folded tightly across her chest, and gave Kate a wry smile, inviting her to recognize the body language. The burgers were done and she flipped them to the buns, arranged lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickle on the plates, at which time the deep fryer alarm went off and she went for the basket of fries. “Len was a mistake,” she said, shaking the basket.
“How so?”
“And my mistake, too,” Laurel said, letting the fries drain. She looked up at Kate. “I thought he was interested.” She shrugged and gave a self-deprecating smile. “Seemed like pretty much of a given. Let’s face it, the ratio of men to women in the Park is pretty much in our favor.”
That was one way of putting it, Kate thought, looking involuntarily through the pass-through at Jim, thick hair rumpled, laughing at something Bobby had said. He looked up suddenly and caught her staring at him.
Laurel was speaking again and Kate willed the sudden drumming from her ears so she could listen.
“I had him in here to do some fix-up stuff the contractor left behind.”
“When?”
Laurel thought. “We opened the first week of school, the first Tuesday after Labor Day. Everybody’s back from fishing by then, and Billy and I figured we’d get a boost from the teenagers coming in when classes let out.” She shrugged. “They don’t have anywhere else to go, and I make a pretty mean milkshake, if I do say so myself.”
“What did you have Dreyer do?”
“Oh, you know, the linoleum wasn’t completely glued down in one corner, they used flat paint instead of glossy on one wall of the bathroom, the garbage disposal wasn’t hooked up right. Like that. So I asked around and somebody recommended Len.” She sighed theatrically, hand on her heart. “There’s just something about a guy with a pipe wrench that does it for me. He had his head under the sink and he’d stripped down to his T-shirt, and he was kinda buff, you know? I, well, I guess I jumped him.” Her smile was a little shamefaced. “The troopers could probably run me in for assault.”
“So it was a one-time thing?”
“Yeah. He wasn’t that interested in more.” Her brow creased. “Funny, you know? I mean, it’s not like I’m Miss America or anything. But most Park rats wouldn’t turn me down. It’s supply and demand, you know?”
“I know,” Kate said.
12
Well, now,“ Brendan said, grim satisfaction rolling out of Bobby’s receiver in waves, ”amazing what a name change will do for the database.“
“Why didn’t his fingerprints pop up on search?” Kate said, leaning into mike range.
The satisfaction changed to disgust. “We’re in the process of switching from paper fingerprint cards to electronic files, in order to sign on with the National Fingerprint File. I’m guessing your guy fell through the cracks.” A pause, followed by a heavy sigh. “Plus it’s the Feebs. I mean, jeeze, what’re ya gonna do. Listen, Kate?”
“Yeah?”
“You said this guy kept his head down in the Park?”
“So down he didn’t register on hardly anyone’s radar.”
Another pause. “Yeah. Well. His file ain’t pretty. Tell Bobby to check his e-mail.”
“Will do. And thanks, Brendan.”
A rich chuckle. “I’m adding it to the tab, Shugak. You keep getting me up in the middle of the night. I’m telling you, it’s costing you. Horizontally.”
She laughed. “Ooooh, you big bully, I’m scared now,” and knew enough to know that while 2 a.m. guaranteed few listeners there would always be at least one lonely trapper tuned in, and that the stories about Kate Shugak having radio sex with a member of the Anchorage law enforcement community would be circulating around the Park at first light and crossing the bar at the Roadhouse at opening time.
Brandon hung up and Bobby signed off. Fifteen minutes later, the file on one Leon Francis Duffy arrived in Bobby’s in box as an attached file. Kate, too impatient to wait for it to print out, opened it and started scrolling.
Dinah, elbowed to one side, accepted a mug of coffee from Jim and went to sprawl next to her husband on a couch. He grabbed her, heedless of her mug, and whispered in a mock snarl, “When can we get rid of these yo-yos so’s you and me can get horizontal?”