“Well enough not to cry over her death.” Her candor matched Stacey Wallace’s. Alex should have been inured to it by now, but she wasn’t. “Look, sugar, I hate to put it to you so bluntly, but I didn’t like your mother. She knew that Reede and Junior both loved her. The temptation was just too strong.”
“What temptation?”
“To play them against each other, see how far she could go. After your daddy got killed, she started playing up to them again. Reede was slow to forgive her for getting pregnant, but not Junior. I guess he saw his chance and took it. Anyway, he started courting her in earnest.
“His folks didn’t like it. Stacey Wallace was about to come apart at the seams over it. But it looked like Junior was going to get Celina, after all. He made it known to anybody who wanted to listen that as soon as he graduated, he was going to marry her. Tickled your grandma to death. She’d always been jealous of Reede and fancied Junior Minton as a son-in-law.”
She paused to light another cigarette. Alex waited impatiently, a knot of tension drawing tighter in her chest. After Nora Gail’s cigarette was lit she asked, “How did Reede feel about the pending marriage between Celina and Junior?”
“He was still pissed at Celina, but he cared—a hell of a lot. That’s why he came to me that night. Celina had gone out to the ranch for supper. Reede expected Junior to pop the question. By morning, he expected them to be engaged.”
“But by morning, Celina was dead.”
“That’s right, sugar,” Nora Gail replied coolly. “And in my opinion, that was the best solution to their problem.”
As though punctuating her startling statement, a shot rang out.
Chapter 34
“Good Lord, what was that?” Alex sprang to her feet.
“A gunshot, I believe.” Nora Gail remained admirably calm, but she had already reached the door by the time the man who had greeted Alex flung it open. “Is anyone hurt, Peter?”
“Yes, ma’am. A customer’s been shot.”
“Phone Reede.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Peter lurched toward the telephone on the desk. Nora Gail left the office. Alex followed her. The madam flung open the drapes with a theatrical flourish and took in the scene at a glance. With apprehension and curiosity, Alex peered over Nora Gail’s shoulder.
Two men whom Alex assumed were bouncers had subdued a man and were restraining him against the ornate bar. Several scantily clad young women were cowering against the purple velvet furniture. Another man was lying on the floor. Blood was pooling beneath him, making a mess on the pastel Oriental rug.
“What happened?” When Nora Gail got no answer, she repeated her question with noticeably more emphasis.
“They got in a scuffle,” one of the prostitutes answered finally. “Next thing we knew, the gun went off.” She pointed down. A revolver was lying on the floor near the prone man’s feet.
“What were they fighting over?” After a lengthy silence, one of the girls fearfully raised her hand.
“Go to my office and stay there.” Nora Gail’s tone was as brittle as cracking ice. It suggested that the girl should have known how to prevent an incident like this. “The rest of you get upstairs, and stay there until f
urther notice.”
No one argued. Nora Gail ran a tight ship. The young women flitted past Alex like a flock of butterflies. They were met on their way upstairs by several men stampeding down, pulling on their clothes as they ran. Without exception, they looked neither right nor left as they exited through the front door.
It was a farcical scene, but giggling over it was out of the question. Alex was mortified. She had been on the fringes of violence before, but reading about criminal action in a police report was different from experiencing it firsthand. There was something very startling and real about the sight and scent of fresh, human blood.
Nora Gail gestured Peter, who had rejoined them, toward the bleeding man. He knelt beside him and pressed his fingers against the man’s carotid artery. “He’s alive.”
Alex saw some of the starch go out of Nora Gail’s posture. She’d handled the situation with aplomb, but she wasn’t made of stone. She had been more worried about the situation than she had let on.
Hearing the wail of a siren, Nora Gail turned toward the door and was on the threshold to greet Reede when he came barging in. “What happened, Nora Gail?”
“There was a dispute over one of the girls,” she informed him. “A man’s been shot, but he’s alive.”
“Where is he? The paramedics are—” Reede stopped short when he spotted Alex. At first he just gaped at her with patent disbelief; then, his face turned dark with rage. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Conducting my investigation.”