Karen Olson - Pretty In Ink

So that’s how it worked.

“Do a lot of people buy their own stuff back?”

He waved his hand to indicate everything in the shop. “Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t.” He reached inside the glass display case and pulled out a pair of diamond studs that shone in the light. “These are a steal.”

I studied them a second, then shook my head. “I’m not here to buy anything. I’m just trying to find Wesley Lambert.”

“And I told you I don’t know who that is.”

As he said it, his eyes skirted over toward where he’d appeared from. Made me wonder whether he was lying, if Wesley wasn’t back there somewhere. But I wasn’t exactly sure how to find out unless this guy played along.

I figured I’d try to throw him off again, so I pulled the sketch I’d just made out of my bag. “Do you know this man?” I asked, showing it to him.

He glanced at it, and his face froze for a second; then he said, “What are you, police?”

I shook my head. “No. I own The Painted Lady, a tattoo shop.”

He looked like he didn’t believe me, but then his eyes ran up my arm and over the dragon head that stuck out of my tank top on my chest. He nodded. “You’re Brett Kavanaugh.”

I didn’t like it that strangers knew my name.

Before I could say anything, he added, “Jeff Coleman talks about you.”

Of course. Jeff. He hung with nefarious people; this didn’t surprise me. Then I realized: The roulette guy had said Jeff did his ink. Maybe Jeff had mentioned me to him as well, and he just recognized me from a description. Maybe that’s how he knew my name.

I began to feel a little silly.

Until I had another thought.

Why did the guy run, then? Why not just stick around and continue on our winning streak?

The pawnshop guy was looking at me expectantly.

Oh, right.

“You didn’t by chance have some sort of… well… disturbance or something here this morning?” I asked.

“No. Should I have?”

“Guess not.”

This guy wasn’t any help. I stuffed the sketch back in my bag, said, “Thanks for your time,” and walked toward the door.

As I stepped outside, a man was walking quickly to the pickup truck parked next to my Mustang. I took another step, and he spotted me. We weren’t that far away from each other, and I recognized him.

It was the guy from the roulette table.

My first thought was that I did a lousy job on that drawing. His eyes weren’t nearly as close together as I’d remembered, and his nose was longer. But he was pretty.

And he was getting into the truck, a panicked look on his face.

I stepped up my speed and almost ran to the truck, which started to back away. I hit the hood and he honked the horn, startling me and rendering me momentarily deaf. I looked up into the cab and saw him grinning at me as the truck screeched out of the lot, heading north.

I got into the Mustang as quickly as I could, trying to keep the truck in sight. But by the time I got to the street, the pickup was gone.

I hung my head in defeat, my hands on the steering wheel. What to do now?

I could go back into Cash & Carry and try to lean on that big guy about the guy in the truck. I had a feeling he knew him. But I doubted he’d be willing to help me out.

I could drive around checking out all the city’s pawnshops. That might take a while.

Or I could go up to Murder Ink and pump Jeff Coleman for information. We’d never been friends, but I’d helped him out over the summer and we now had a grudging respect for each other. He just might be able to ID that guy, if he’d done the ink.

I chose door number three.

Goodfellas Bail Bonds was next door to Murder Ink, and across the street was the Bright Lights Motel, whose name seemed an oxymoron. There was nothing bright about the dingy concrete building, and there were no lights. Just a bland sign that advertised HBO and hourly rates.

I shuddered as I parked in the motel’s lot and crossed the street.

Jeff Coleman looked up when I came in. “Hey, Kavanaugh, what are you doing on the dark side?”

He was inking a guy’s back-a basic skull and crossbones; couldn’t he be more creative? Oh, yeah, Jeff only did flash, the stock tattoos that lined the walls of his shop.

“Got some questions.”

The machine stopped whirring for a second as he frowned at me; then it started up again as he resumed what he’d been doing. “Pull up a chair.”

While The Painted Lady has separate rooms for each tattooist and client for privacy, Jeff’s shop let it all hang out in the open. There were three stations divided only by short cabinets and shelves, on which I noted the baby wipes, inkpots, piles of sterilized needles in their packages, and boxes of black latex gloves.

I have blue gloves-a little more cheery.

Jeff inherited his business from his mother, Sylvia, who was one of the women pioneers in the tattoo business. He was maybe ten years older than me, with a salt-and-pepper buzz cut and tattoos covering his arms and chest. He was a couple inches shorter than me and skinny, but looking at him now, I thought maybe he’d put on a little weight-or at least had been working out a bit.

A quick glance around told me that this was the only client at the moment, and Jeff was the only tattooist in the place. I grabbed a chair on wheels from one of the other stations and rolled it near Jeff.

He grinned at me. “Now you can see a master at work.”

“Yeah, right,” I said, although for someone who did only flash, Jeff did have a certain style, a way of shading and coloring that stood out. I would never tell him that, though. For sure he’d use it against me at some point.

I pulled the sketch of the pretty boy out of my bag and stretched my arm out so he could see it. “Do you know this guy?”

The machine stopped again. The client lying facedown on the flattened chair mumbled, “Are you done?”

“No,” Jeff said, then saw my expression. “Not you.” He turned back to his client. “No, we’re not done yet. Give me a second, okay?” He peered more closely at the drawing. “Guy’s eyes are too close together.”

I felt my heart take a leap. “So you know him?”

“Did his ink. Queen of hearts. Maybe last year sometime?”

Sounded good to me, but…

“How do you remember?” Sometimes I couldn’t remember what I had for lunch two days before.

He tapped the side of his head and smirked. “Bionic brain.”

I made a face at him, and he chuckled.

“I remember because I did three of them at the same time.”

“Huh?”

“There were three guys. All came in late, maybe two in the morning or so. I remember because two of them were dolled up, like women. Weird.”

My heart jumped again.

“There were three?”

“Yeah. Hey, Kavanuagh, what’s up? What do you want with a bunch of trannies?”

“They’re not transvestites,” I said patiently. “They’re drag queens.” At least I thought so. “There’s a difference.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “Could’ve fooled me.”

“This guy wasn’t dressed up, though,” I said.

“How do you know that?”

“If he was, then you wouldn’t recognize him as a guy, only as a girl, right?”

He shrugged. “Okay, Kavanaugh, you’re right. This guy wasn’t in drag.”

“Do you know this guy’s name? Do you have a file?”

His expression grew concerned. “Why are you looking for him? What did he do?”

I figured I should keep it simple. “I met him this morning in New York New York. We were playing roulette.”

Jeff’s eyebrows shot up into his forehead. “You? Really?”

“So what’s wrong with that? Can’t I gamble?”