Chapter 15 – Stone
STONE
Iwaited until Whitney finished eating to ask her if we could talk outside on the balcony. “You’ll be able to see us the entire time,” I told her friends.
“I’ll be fine,” she told Stevie before getting up to follow me outside.
“Make yourself comfortable,” I said, gesturing to several rocking chairs.
She dropped into the closest one. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
I took the chair beside her and pulled a blunt from the inside pocket of my cut and lit it. “We’re trying to figure out who sent the letter and need to ask you some questions.” I held out the blunt to her.
“What strain is it?”
“It hasn’t been named yet, but it’s an indica-dominant hybrid.”
“Yes, please.” She blew out a plume of smoke and smiled. “That’s good.”
“Thanks. It’s our own strain.”
“I’d buy it,” she said and passed it back. “So, what do you want to know?”
“What happened with Glenn? How long were you together? When did you break up? That kind of shit.”
She sighed. “We dated for a year before I moved in with him. We lived together for two years, the last of which he spent cheating on me. When I found out, I waited until his upcoming business trip, which was actually a vacation he planned with her, and moved in with Stevie while he was gone. That was a little over a year ago.”
“When was the last time you saw him before Friday?”
“I’m not sure. It had to be at least eight months ago, if not more.” She chuckled. “He tried to get back together with me for a couple of months before he finally gave up. And he was still seeing that bitch the entire time.”
“Were they still together when he was killed?”
“Yes!” Whitney said, turning to face me. “It was on the news earlier today. He was reported missing, and she was listed as a contact person.”
“Could she be involved?”
She laughed. “Doubt it. I don’t think she knows how to do anything other than use her holes for profit, but I could be wrong.”
“What’s her name?”
“Tori Mustard. Before you ask, I don’t know anything else about her other than her name and what she looked like a year ago. Oh, and she was really into coke then.”
“Does Tori know who you are?”
“Yes, she knows who I am. She knows Stevie and Hadley, too.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” I said, hoping she would tell me for no other reason than my own curiosity.
She laughed. “Hadley and Stevie are my best friends. They were with me when I met her for lunch. She had just gotten back from the business trip with Glenn and thought she was meeting him. I just wanted to know if she knew about me. I got my answer without having to talk to her because she tried to leave as soon as she saw me. Stevie stepped in front of her and stopped her, but she refused to talk to me. Then she started screaming about calling the police because she was being kidnapped. Stevie was only standing in front of her. Tori could’ve turned around and left at any time.
But no, she stood there and called the cops.
When they told her refusing to leave through another exit was not the same as being kidnapped, she flipped out and got herself arrested for a variety of things, including disorderly conduct and possession of cocaine. We haven’t seen her since.”
“So why were you meeting Glenn for lunch a year later?” I asked.
“He said he found some of my things when he was moving and wanted to get them back to me. I was pretty sure I had left nothing behind, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him having any of my belongings.
While we were there, he asked if we could get back together.
I told him no, and he immediately backpedaled.
Then, he asked to borrow several thousand dollars.
I said no. He stole my wallet. I chased him to the pawn shop where he was killed, and I was … something’d.”
“In the video, it looked like they hit you on the side of the head.”
“They did, but I think they drugged me, too,” she said. “I was really tired and felt weird when I got home. Plus, that was a long time to be unconscious just from a blow to the head and then wake up with only a headache.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about the drugs.” I hadn’t thought about how they would kill Glenn when we agreed to the job because it didn’t matter to me. My role was the same no matter what they did—with the exception of sending a live body to be cremated with a dead one.
“What else do you need to know?” she asked.
“What’s your life like now? Friends? Job? Boyfriend? Anyone who might have known about Nate and Tate?”
“You’ve met my friends. No boyfriend. I live with Stevie.
And I’m a piercer at Ink Therapy. The only people I know who know about my encounter with the Wood brothers are Stevie and Hadley, and they have nothing to do with this.
They were at work when shit happened on Friday, and I’ve been with them ever since. ”
“What about enemies? Have you pissed anyone off recently?”
“No, not that I’m aware of. But if I had, they wouldn’t be trying to help me, which is what seems to be the case here,” she said. “Maybe the note wasn’t about me.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, it just said the girl in the casket, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, wondering what she was getting at.
“Could they have meant someone else? I mean, how often does stuff like this happen?”
“Stuff like what?”
“Like finding someone in a casket who wasn’t supposed to be there.”
I froze. It had happened twice. Well, technically once, because I didn’t find Kim, so I would never know if she was actually in the casket.
Fucking Kim.
“So far, you’re the only additional person—dead or alive—we’ve found in a casket,” I said tightly and got to my feet.
“I don’t have any more questions. You can go back to your friends.
” When I opened the door and glanced back, her face morphed into Kim’s.
Even though I had more questions for her, I left her sitting on the balcony and fled like a bitch because my dead wife’s face scared me.