Amused, Eva stopped staring at the girl’s panties. She realized that she was pulling along her friend, who was really a teenager. Her friend looked sullen, obviously reluctant to be led where she was going. “Hey,” said the girl in the pink panties.
“Hey,” said Eva, raising her glass. “Good evening.”
“My name is Marian, and this is Alice,” the girl said, pointing at her sullen friend. “Can we sit with you?”
“Sure.”
She waited for the girls to get comfortable before saying, “My name is Eva.”
“Lobo told us you’re a cop. You don’t look like a cop.”
“Lobo?”
“The tough-looking guy, military cut, with a “Front 242” T-shirt? You asked him about Barbie earlier. Is she in trouble?”
Eva nodded yes. All those nicknames building the mythology of this alternative culture. It was fascinating when you stopped to think about it.
“You know her well? Barbie?” she asked them.
“Of course,” Marian said. “She comes here all the time, and we have classes together in college. What’s happened?”
“She died.”
“Oh shit,” Marian whispered. “How did it happen?”
“She was attacked in her apartment last Tuesday.”
“Fuck,” said her friend, Alice. Her voice was as dull as her face.
“But we were with her last Tuesday!” Marian cried out. “We came together to the electro ball, and…” She put a hand to her head and said, “My God, it really happened? I mean… Oh, shit… I can’t believe this.”
Eva set her vodka on the table beside her.
“I really am sorry. Were you together all evening?”
“Yes,” Marian said. “I mean, during the time she was here, at least. She left early to catch the last metro.”
“Did anything out of the ordinary happen? Was anyone hitting on Barbie maybe?”
“Dickheads are always hitting on us,” Marian said. “This is a club.”
“There was that weird chick,” Alice said. “The chick with the mask, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right,” Marian said. “She looked real screwed up, that’s for sure. She spent the whole time in the corner, staring at us. Actually, I think she left at the same time as Barbie.”
“And she was wearing a mask?”
“Yes, she was,” Alice said. “One of those white porcelain masks, just the upper part of the face.”
“I know the kind. So, that girl, you never saw her here before?”
“Never,” Alice said.
“No, never,” Marian added.
“And you haven’t seen her again?” Eva asked. “She’s not here tonight, for instance?”
Both girls shook their heads.
“All right. Apart from her mask, what did she look like?”
“Slim, normal height, black hair,” Marian said.
“It was a wig, if you ask me,” Alice said. “And she wore a full-length dress.”
“That’s right, an old-style dress,” Marian added. “I actually thought it looked like one of those period costumes, like in the movies.”
Eva took in the information. All of it corresponded with the profile. If some psychopath really believed she was Countess Bathory, would she be screwed up enough to actually go out dressed like her? Better not get carried away, though. It might be a coincidence.
“Listen,” she told the girls, “your testimony could be extremely useful to me. Let me give you my card. I’d like you to think about that girl. If you remember any detail, anything that looked odd to you, or if you ever see that person again, call me immediately, okay? Let me have your phone numbers too.”
“You think that chick killed Barbie?” Marian asked.
“I never said that. But you’re saying they left at the same time. So that girl is a witness. That’s why it’s important for me to know who she is. You understand?”
Marian nodded. She snatched the card Eva had set on the table and slid it into her bra-triggering a glance from Alice and a spark of jealousy in her gray eyes.
Then she got up and said, “I really need a drink. I promise to call you if I remember anything, okay?”
Eva watched the two girls walk away, Marian still pulling her girlfriend along. Or maybe it was her little sister, who knew?
Eva was thinking. A porcelain mask? Anywhere else, the idea was absurd. But here? She could see these young people wearing masks, along with a lot of other paraphernalia making them look like they belonged in a sci-fi flick.
In here, a masked killer would easily blend with the decor.
And maybe that’s just what he did-to spy on his prey.
Eva was thinking that she could do with another drink too, when a slender angel appeared and granted her wish. He set two pints on the table, both overflowing with foam.
“A little beer to cut the vodka?” The barman blew away the braids that had fallen in his face. “I promised that I’d be at your disposal. You remember?”
“I remember,” Eva said. “Anthony? Right?”
“Yes. And you are the police.”
Eva gave him a radiant smile as he sat down beside her.
“My name is Eva,” she said.
“Well, Eva from the police, I just finished at the bar. So I’m all yours.”
“Now that’s interesting.”
She picked up one of the pints, and he took the other. They raised their glasses, and the boy downed half his beer in one go.
“So tell me, Anthony, I was wondering if you ever saw a girl wearing a mask in here. A porcelain mask.”
He thought about it for few moments and said, “Yeah, last Tuesday there was someone wearing one of those. She was dressed like a flower picker.”
Eva smiled.
“An old-fashioned dress, you mean?”
“Yep. She stayed for a while, but she didn’t dance. I remember her staying near the bar for over an hour, just looking at people, but she didn’t order a single drink.”
“Did she talk to anybody?”
“I don’t think so. Anyway, she left pretty early.”
“Do you think you could recognize her if you saw her again?”
“Hard to say. There were like five hundred people in here for that ball and lots of new faces. It’s the new school year, you know.”
“Yes, of course.”
She took in the scene, the people dancing, some hoisting their beers. Anthony’s life had to be simple. One night following the other.
Then she looked at him and once again thought he was very good-looking. With the simple, slender beauty animals have. A prince of a young man who knew how to make love, like all young men of his caliber, going home every night with a different girl, only to forget her name before dawn, blending the faces together in a sea of jaded memories.
“Anthony?”
“Yes?”
“You feel like going elsewhere to talk?”
“Elsewhere? Like where?”
“Like my place, for example,” she said with a very explicit smile.
34
5 a.m.
Eva turned in her bed and surveyed the naked boy lying next to her. His hair was spread in coils on the pillow and all around his youthful face. His right arm was folded over his chest, showing his round, firm biceps. Eva smiled to herself.
She ran her fingertips along his arm and then his back, feeling his lean muscles under his skin. She traced the curve of his buttocks. He shivered under the caress.
He moaned.
Eva’s fingers made their way slowly up his back. She ran her hand in his braids, savoring the feel of their rough texture, and as she leaned over him, she took in the delectable scents of musk and cinnamon.
Grunting, the boy finally turned onto his back. Eva caressed his hairless and well-delineated pecs. His left nipple was pierced, and she gently tugged at it, making him sigh again. Her hand ventured lower to his cut abs adorned with the tattoo of a scorpion and farther down still, grazing his flaccid penis.
Moving down, she blew lightly on it and watched it swell slowly. Then, when it had bulged enough, she leaned forward and took it in her mouth, feeling it growing bigger still against her palate. She licked it gently. Then sucked it even more gently.