3 Bad Guys Get Caught (7 page)

A few minutes later Janet returned to
table five to take their order.

“Don’t you see the difference?” the
blonde was asking her date, taking a sip of her martini. “Gluten free is the
way to go, Roger.”

“Yes, darling, of course,” Roger
confirmed. “Ah!” he exclaimed at the sight of Janet. “Perfect timing. We’re
ready to order.”

“Would you like to hear the specials?”

“Not for me. I know what I want,” said
Roger.

“I’d like to hear them,” demanded the
blonde.

“Of course,” said Roger. “We’d like to
hear the specials.”

Janet recited the list of specials, but
was interrupted before she could get to dessert.

“Quails?! You serve quails?” asked the
blonde.

“Yes, it’s our chef’s specialty. From
what I hear they are quite tender,” Janet embellished for effect. She had no
idea what the chef’s specialties were, or what quails tasted like. Up until
today she had never heard of a quail before. Instantly, she realized that she
had made a mistake. The blonde’s eyes were welling up with tears.

“Quails?” her lips trembled. “How could
you? They are such sweet little birds.”

“Yes, they are,” Janet mumbled, at a
loss of what to say.

“Darling, why don’t you stick with your
original choice of duck?” Roger intervened.

The blonde shook her head mournfully. “I
think I’ll just have a salad. I’ve lost my appetite.”

Damn, Janet thought; now her tips were
down by at least twenty percent. Mila would not be happy about that. There was
a lot she had to learn about the art of pleasing customers, especially when it
came to finicky blondes.

“Bring the duck anyway,” Roger added.
“I’ll have the steak, medium-rare.”

“Very well. Thank you very much.” Janet
rushed to give the order to the kitchen.

The evening became a blur of faces and
dishes, as Janet made her rounds from table to table, a frozen smile plastered
on her face. It felt like she was trapped in an endless avalanche of faces and
dishes. At some point she had been covering six tables all by herself, and she
was proud to say that she did a good job. She was not the only one who thought
so; the six hundred dollars she had made in tips for the evening was a pretty
good testament. Janet checked her watch: it was eleven p.m. She had just
finished serving her last table, and there was a momentary lull. She still had
two more hours to go, and she was wiped out.

While her waitressing skills were
improving at an exponential speed, the true purpose of her employment at
Panther remained unrealized. She had only been there two days, but in her line
of work every day counted. She wondered how much longer Dennis would be able to
keep making excuses for her. Maybe she should have come clean with Ham and told
him that she was pulling double duty as a waitress at Kovar’s restaurant, but
then she would also have to explain why she had gotten the job without
consulting with either Ham or Dennis and forgot to attend to such an important
detail as a fake id. If Ham found out that she had gotten the job under her
real name, he would be disappointed. He would be disappointed even more if he knew
what motivated her actions. Sure, she wanted to solve the case, but she’d be a
liar if she didn’t admit that her competitive streak had gotten the better of
her.

“Janet!” Mila’s voice made Janet
literally jump.

“Yes?”

“Calm down, girl! You did well tonight.
Six hundred dollars in tips! Woohoo!” Mila raised her hands, snapping her
fingers. “I say let’s blow this joint and go celebrate.”

“But my shift isn’t up until one a.m.”

“It’s up now. Have you seen the dining
room? There’s no one there. The rest of the staff can handle it.”

“What if more people come in?”

“At eleven o’clock at night? I don’t
think so. Besides, I just got two cancellations. So go downstairs and change,
and then we’re out of here.”

Janet hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” Mila asked. “You don’t drink?”

“Oh, I could use a drink, but what about
Roman? I thought all the schedule changes had to be cleared by him.”

“Don’t be silly. Roman left early;
something about a hot date. When the cat’s away—”

“The mice come out to play,” Janet
finished. “I’ll be right out.”

“I’ll wait for you outside the
entrance.”

Janet changed quickly and walked back
upstairs. Her heart was beating as wildly as though she were going out on a
date. In a way, this was just like a date; she had to look interested in Mila
and convince Mila to like her.

Mila was waiting for her outside the
entrance, smoking a cigarette. “Do you want one?” Mila held out a cigarette
pack.

“No thanks, I don’t smoke.”

“I didn’t either, but this place has a
way of getting to you,” Mila grumbled. “I should quit. It’s bad for your
complexion.”

And for your lungs, Janet was tempted to
pipe in, but resisted. “I’ll have one after all,” she added. One cigarette
wasn’t going to kill her, but it could get her miles closer to making friends
with Mila.

“That a girl.” Mila held the lighter for
Janet.

Janet puffed tentatively. The first and
last time she had tried smoking had been in sixth grade; the bout of
uncontrolled coughing that followed nixed her further curiosity of the subject
in the proverbial bud. She prayed the embarrassing episode wouldn’t be repeated
now. To her surprise, the cigarette didn’t taste too bad; in fact, she kind of
liked the calming sensation of the smoke entering her lungs. Great, she
thought, now I’m going to start smoking to boot.

“So how long have you been working at
Panther?” Janet asked to start a conversation. If she was going to risk her
health, she would at least learn something about Mila in return.

“About a year,” Mila drew on her
cigarette.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s a job.” Mila shrugged.

“You could always get a different job,”
Janet offered.

“Not when your employer is sponsoring
your work visa, you can’t.”

Janet had noticed a faint accent in
Mila’s speech, but had thought it too forward to ask until now. “Where are you
from?”

“Prague, Czech Republic.”

“I love Prague! After college, I spent a
month backpacking through Europe with my friends. It’s a beautiful city.”

“It’s beautiful all right, but there’s
not much in the job department. Not if you want to be anything more than a bank
clerk.” Catching Janet’s glance, Mila smirked. “I know, compared to a job at
Panther’s, being a bank clerk sounds pretty good. When I came to America, I
didn’t think I’d end up waitressing. I’ve learned that life in New York isn’t
like they show it in movies.” Mila shook her head. “I used to watch that show,
Sex
and the City
, and think that if only I made it to New York, life could be
like that.”

“With your looks you could be a model or
an actress,” Janet offered. Flattery was always a good way to get a person to
open up, but in this case she was speaking the truth: Mila was drop dead
gorgeous.

“That’s what I thought, but all the
modeling agencies are of a different opinion. You can forget about acting; the
competition is literally cutthroat. There are girls working at Panther who are
way better-looking than me, and if they can’t get a break, I might as well
forget about it.”

“You’re very beautiful,” Janet insisted.
The waitresses at Panther were drop dead gorgeous, but Mila certainly had
nothing to complain about in the looks department.

“You’re very kind, but I think it’s
important for a girl to be honest about her looks. I’m an eight, but Clarisse,
the waitress who got all the top tables tonight, is a ten. You’re a seven and a
half.”

Janet resisted the urge to snap back.
The last thing she needed was some stupid restaurant hostess to grade her
looks, but her goal was to become Mila’s confidant, so she let it slide.

“Hey, don’t get mad. I wasn’t being mean
or anything. I think it’s important to be honest about your assets. It’s like
when you’re going into a fight, you want to know exactly what’s in your
arsenal. You are pretty, just not model material.”

“Thanks.” Janet began to wonder if maybe
Mila’s difficulty in getting her dream job had more to do with her personality
than her looks.

“I really should stop smoking.” Mila
threw away her cigarette. “I already look like crap from all the hours I’ve
been putting in.”

“Well, then there’s certainly no hope
for the rest of us,” Janet quipped. “You should see the way customers look at
you: the men’s jaws drop and the women’s eyes narrow. If that’s not enough,
Anton is head over heels for you. How long have the two of you been together?”

“About a year.”

“You don’t sound very excited about it.”

“I’m not.”

“So why are you with him then?”

“It’s a long story,” Mila shot back.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just
that I recently broke up with my boyfriend, caught him cheating with my best
friend,” Janet improvised on the spot. “If someone like you can’t meet a good
guy, what hope is there for the rest of us?”

“There’s always hope,” Mila set her lips
in a determined line. “Enough moping around. We’re going to have some fun
tonight. Remember my friend Amy I told you about? She’s going to join us for
drinks. She really knows how to party.”

Mila weaved her way through the
Meatpacking District, surely navigating its cobblestoned streets in the high
heels she had changed into after the end of her shift. Janet silently followed
Mila’s lead, deciding to suspend conversation attempts for the present. A few
minutes later Mila stopped in front of a small bar.

“This is it.” Mila pushed open the door.
The small space inside was packed to the gills. A petite redhead waved at them
from the other side of the bar.

“I see Amy’s here already. Come on!”
Mila slithered her way through the crowd, and Janet followed.

“You’re late!” the redhead mock-punched
Mila in the shoulder.

“Five minutes isn’t late. This is Janet,
the new girl I told you about.”

“Nice to meet you, Janet. I’m Amy.” She
spoke with just a hint of a brogue. Her red hair was swept up in a ponytail,
showcasing her milky white skin and cornflower blue eyes. She was probably no
more than five feet five tall, but her delicate, petite frame was exuding
boundless energy, like a spark ready to ignite into a fire at any moment.

“So nice to meet you, Amy. Mila’s told
me a lot about you.”

“Did she tell you about how we met?”

Janet shook her head.

“We waitressed at Hogs and Heifers.”

“Hogs and Heifers? Is that the bar where
the girls dance naked on the bar stand? Like in that movie, Coyote Ugly?”

“Not naked,” Mila cut in. “We had our
bras on. We only worked there for a week.”

“You worked there for a week,” Amy
corrected. “I’d already been there for almost a month before you got there.
That’s how we met,” she explained to Janet. “You should’ve seen Mila when she
first walked through the door. She was so shy, I thought she was going to fall
off the bar stand, but then it was like she got unleashed. By the end of the
night she was the one with the biggest tips. All the boys went gaga over her!”

“Stop it, Amy, you’ll scare Janet. How
about we order some drinks?” Mila interrupted.

“Way ahead of you!” Amy pointed at the
six tequila shots on the bar stand. “You’ve got some catching up to do.” Amy
motioned at the two empty shots in front of her.

“Bottoms up!” Mila raised the shot to
her lips, downing it quickly and then followed up with the second shot.

Janet gulped. Tequila wasn’t her choice
drink, but when in Rome … She lifted the shot to her lips, resisting the urge
to gasp as the fiery liquid scorched her throat. She hoped to escape the second
round, but no such luck.

“Come on, Janet!” Mila cheered.

Janet closed her eyes and downed the
drink.

“By the way, that pig Roman called me to
check your references,” said Amy. “I told him that you worked for me for a year
and were one of the best waitresses I’ve ever met.”

“Thank you—” Janet began.

“She damn well is,” Mila cut in. “Made
six hundred in tips tonight! And the best part is that I get half of it. We’re
going to party tonight!”

“You can put your money away for now.
Everything in this place is on the house. Another round!” Amy signaled to the
bartender. “The owner, Frankie, is a friend of mine. He bartended at Hogs and
Heifers and a whole bunch of other places. He opened this place about a year
ago, and he’s doing really well.” Amy eyed Mila pointedly. “You remember
Frankie, don’t you Mila?”

“I remember. Good for him.”

Amy narrowed her eyes. “So are you going
to come and work for me in my new place?”