The waitress headed toward the kitchen, giving Sara a look at her nametag-Shawna. Damn, Sara thought, but then the hostess stopped the waitress.
"Those people at 12-C," the hostess said, "are getting antsy for their drink order. See if it's ready."
"I got an order up, Sherry."
"Do this first, Abeja. Now."
Sara had finally found an "A"-and something about the pretty, hard waitress made her think this just might be the "A" she'd been looking for….
Dropping a twenty on the table for her abandoned meal, Sara stood as the waitress delivered a food order, then the CSI intercepted the waitress whose nametag said Shawna, but who had answered to the name Abeja….
"I need a minute," Sara asked, and discreetly showed the young woman her ID.
The hard dark eyes didn't betray anything except perhaps mild irritation. "I'm busy right now. I'm off in two hours. How's that sound?"
"I already waited twenty minutes for a table," Sara said. "We'll talk now, 'Abeja.' "
"How'd you know my nickname?"
"I don't miss all that much," Sara said cheerfully. "Let's go somewhere private…unless you prefer to talk about Kathy Dean out in the open."
That got a flash of reaction in the dark eyes. "Is that what you wanna talk about? How'd you know Kathy Dean and me were friends?"
"I didn't. But I do now."
The waitress said, "I got a drink order to take to that table over there, okay? Then we can talk."
When the young woman came back, she nodded toward the front door. They walked together past the hostess, to whom Shawna/Abeja tossed a few words: "Need five for a smoke, Sher."
The hostess didn't receive this news warmly, but Shawna paid no heed to the woman's glare, and led Sara out into the darkening evening.
The temperature was still over ninety, but at least a breeze had wound its way down out of the mountains. Withdrawing a pack of cigarettes from an apron pocket, the waitress lighted up, then offered the pack toward Sara, who declined.
"So," Sara said, "you did know Kathy Dean?"
They were standing next to Sara's Tahoe and the waitress leaned against it and drew on her cigarette. She released a wraith of smoke as she answered: "All the kids do…did."
"Really?"
"Everybody knows she's gone." She swallowed, and was having to work at maintaining her hardness, now. "Hell, it was on TV."
The media had only reported the discovery of the Dean girl's body in the cemetery; the circumstances of the coffin body-switch remained under wraps.
"So I could have asked anybody," Sara said, "and they'd've said they knew Kathy?"
"Yeah. And?"
"And…why do I think I still picked out the right one to talk to, Abeja?"
The waitress laughed. "You don't miss much, do you? Yeah, we were tight, Kathy and me. What can I say? Lots of bitches around these days-maybe you noticed that, too? But, Kathy? She was really sweet."
"Maybe you can help me, then," Sara said. "I'm looking for someone who knew Kathy, a friend."
"I told you! We were friends."
"I'm looking for a specific friend." Sara took her photocopy of the note from a pocket and held it out to the young woman. "Did you write this note, with your pink pen, Abeja?"
The young woman took one last hit off the cigarette, stubbed it out under the toe of her shoe, then took the note from Sara and looked at it. A tear made a glistening trail down the waitress's cheek, the note trembling in her grasp.
Hanging her head and crying for real now, Abeja covered her face with a hand and wept.
Sara gave the girl a tissue.
Abeja dried her face, smearing her eye makeup, and got control of herself. "I wrote it, okay? I wrote it."
" 'A' for 'Abeja.' Isn't that Spanish for bee?"
"It's just a stupid nickname. Everybody here calls me Abeja. Owner of the place, Pablo, gave it to me. I do things at my own pace, I mean things get done, but you don't rush me-so it was a jokey nickname, 'busy bee'; plus I don't take no crap, so I can sting you, ya know…when you get on my bad side?"
"Nicknames common around Habinero's?"
"Oh, yeah, everybody's got 'em. Kathy was Azucar, sugar, you know? Because she was always so damn sweet to everyone…." Abeja broke down again. "Sorry…sorry. I just heard about Kathy on the TV, before I came to work today. Sorry…"
Sara contributed another tissue, waited for the girl to get herself together, then asked the key question: "Shawna…Abeja…who is 'FB'?"
The young woman shook her head and shrugged. "Who?
"FB."
"Got no idea. Don't mean crap to me, honest."
"But you wrote the note…."
Abeja gestured with two open hands. "I did, but I still don't know."
Sara frowned. "You better start explaining."
Lighting another cigarette, the waitress took a deep drag, then sighed smoke. "Kathy's social life was…uh…complicated."
"Complicated in what way?"
"Well, mostly…. You ever meet her parents?"
"Yes."
"Then maybe you get it. They're like…way beyond not cool. They're not mean or anything, they just…I dunno, they're like parents out of a TV commercial. Commercial from hell."
"They struck me as strict," Sara said with a nod. "Little old-fashioned."
"Oh, did they? You are a detective! Man, her parents were mad strict with her. I mean, God, she was nineteen.…They didn't let her start school till she was six, y'know, she was one sheltered chica. Even at nineteen, they still didn't want her to have a boyfriend…and they wanted to know where she was every second. They practically stalked her!"
"Why did she put up with it?"
"I wouldn't have! But sometimes, when you're raised a weird way like that, particularly when you ain't shook loose of the parental handcuffs, and got your own place and all? Well, you get used to, like, a lifestyle."
"What kind of lifestyle?"
"Well, having to sort of sneak around to have a social life. She…uh…liked guys."
"Don't we all?" Sara said with a grin.
"Yeah, but you weren't thirteen, doin' your history teacher, was you?"
"Uh…no."
"I told her, she needs more respect for herself. She says…you'll love this…she was two-thirds a virgin till not too long ago."
Sara frowned. "What did that mean?"
"Well, I think it meant, she went down, and she let guys in the back door, but she was saving her virginity for Mr. Right."
"…I don't think she found him."
The waitress smirked. "Why, lady-you think he's out there to be found?"
"If he is," Sara said, with a weary little smile, "he doesn't want to be."
"Didn't stop Kathy from looking. I mean, she was always dating more than one guy at a time. But it wasn't about sex."
"It was about attention."
The waitress laughed, once. "Hey, you aren't dumb, are you?"
Sara laughed herself. "Not very."
"I mean, it ain't like Kathy was Queen Slut or anything…. It's just, when you got parent issues like that, when you're not under their thumb, away from the house? You kinda tend to cut loose. And did Kathy ever cut loose…."
"Funny. To hear her parents tell it, she spent all her time at her job, the blood bank, and school."
"They don't know shit, do they? She was a good student-and at track? She was amazing. But she only volunteered at the blood bank about, oh…two hours a week? But she had her parents thinking she was there three or four hours, three nights a week."
"Did she exaggerate her Habinero's hours to her folks?"
The waitress shook her head. "No, she probably would've, but she couldn't, really. Mommy and Daddy, they came in here at least once a week-but always different days. They said they liked the food, but what they were doing was, they were checking up on her. You know, I haven't seen them once at this place, since she disappeared. So much for the food."