Louise: A New Beginning (15 page)

“Who the hell are you?” Someone said behind us, scaring me half to death.

Will and I turned around and saw an old man standing there, with his gun pointed right at us.

“We are looking for Debora Griffin,” Will said calmly, shielding me with his body.

“I don’t know anyone with that name,” the man barked in response. I would say he was around seventy, maybe even older, with a long, gray beard and wearing a funny hat that reminded me of an elf I had seen in a movie once. His dark gray trousers and shirt were all dirty, and even from the distance separating us I could smell his filth. Did the man realize there was a handy little thing to stop the stench called soap?

“Do you know the owners of this house?” I asked, stepping forward. Will caught me by the hand and pulled me back.

“Careful,” he said quietly so only I would hear him.

“Of course, I do! This house is mine,” the old man responded.

“I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to bother you,” I said. “We were looking for an old friend of ours.” I turned to Will, saying, “Give me the iPad.”

He wordlessly gave it to me.

“Do you mind if I show you the picture of the woman we are looking for?” I asked the man with the gun, which was still pointed at us.

The man looked around carefully, and then he put the gun down and nodded.

I stepped forward, leaving a few feet of distance between us and showed him the picture of Debora.

“Have you ever seen this woman?” I asked.

The man stared at me, then his eyes moved to Will, standing behind me.

“I have,” he said finally. “That is my daughter. But her name is not Debora, it’s Christine Montgomery.”

William

I don’t think I had ever been more shocked in my life.

“What did you just call her?” I asked the man. “Christine Montgomery? And she’s your. . .daughter? Which means you are the relative of Fletcher Montgomery, right?”

“Yes, he’s my nephew.” The man smirked. “Though I don’t think he realizes that I am still alive. We haven’t seen each other for almost forty years. My brother and I have never been close. I never saw him or anyone from his family after they left this house. . . Which has been many years ago. . .”

“What about your daughter? Where is she now?” I asked.

“I haven’t seen her in several months.”

Louise and I shared a puzzled look.

“Do you know how to find her?” She asked the old man.

“No, I don’t. She didn’t come here very often, maybe once, sometimes twice a year. But she used to call me almost every week. Then, a few months ago, her calls just stopped. And she hasn’t come by either, I don’t know what happened,” he said, sounding worried. For a second I thought I saw tears glistening in his eyes.

“Thank you for your help, Sir,” I said. “Again, sorry for bothering you. We didn’t know Debora. . . I mean, we had no idea Christine didn’t live here anymore.”

“Why do you need to find her? Did she and my nephew do something wrong?”

“Why would you think that?” I asked, taking a step closer to the man.

“Even when they were kids, Fletcher always got her into trouble. . .”

“So they kept in touch even after your brother’s family left this house?” Louise asked.

“Yes. Fletcher kept sending her letters and birthday cards. Then, when she graduated from school, she called him and he invited her to come to LA where he and his family lived back then. I begged her not to go there. You know, her mother died when Christine was five and I raised her all on my own. I didn’t want her to leave, she was my little-girl, even all grown up she was still my baby. . .” The man looked at the house behind me thoughtfully, then back at me again. “But when she returned with a diploma in her hands, I was so proud of her. She said Fletcher helped her get into college and when she graduated, he wanted her to work for him.”

I bet Louise and I were thinking the same thing about that.

“Thanks again for your help, Sir,” I said. I outstretched my right hand and the man shook it, nodding.

“Anytime,” he said. “Can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure,” I replied.

“Will you let me know if you find out where my daughter went?”

Louise spoke, “We will, Sir.”

There was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about. I looked at the house again, then at the man and said, “Why didn’t your daughter help you with this place? No offense, but it doesn’t look very good.”
And neither do you,
I thought about the man.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was homeless. He looked like he was homeless, and I wondered how on earth that could happen to him. I was sure his daughter had plenty of money to provide him with anything he needed.

“I didn’t want her help,” the man said. “I used to do everything on my own, even after I retired, and had both of my legs broken in a car crash, I didn’t want her to help me. She sent money for doctor’s visits, medications, food, and clothes; but I wouldn’t accept anything else from her. Even the money she was sending, I was giving most of it away, to help one of the local hospitals for military veterans. And yes, maybe I sound like a pain-in-the-ass old and insane man, but it is who I am. I’m okay with what I have. All I want now is to know that my girl is okay.”

“We will let you know if we find out anything,” I said. “Are you ready to go?” I asked, turning to Louise.

She nodded, and followed me to the car.

“That was the weirdest conversation I have ever had in my life,” she said, as I sped away from Montgomery’s house. “Don’t you think it’s weird that neither Drew nor Christopher managed to find the real address of Debora, also known as Christine Montgomery? And what about her name? Why would she change it?”

“I think I know what happened to Christine’s real name and why she had to change it.”

“You do?” She asked surprised.

“I’ll bet your father told her to change the name to hide the fact that they’re related. And if my thoughts are correct, it was done to fool my dad.”

“You think Debora had been spying on him the whole time she had been working for him?”

“I’m pretty sure of that. The only thing I don’t get is what your father had against mine. Why did he want to destroy him?”

“Do you think it had anything to do with their respective businesses?”

“Who knows? Anything’s possible. I need to ask Christopher to dig deeper into my father’s past and Debora’s life. Turns out we knew even less about her than we thought we did.”

“Why do you think Drew never told me he knew Debora or Christine, or whoever she is? They grew up together. He couldn’t not know her, right?”

“Maybe he didn’t know his brother kept in touch with her. Besides, he knew her as Christine.”

“Yes, but how could he not recognize the address he gave me? He used to live there, he should have asked why I suddenly wanted to visit the house he grew up in. And do you really believe that he didn’t know Debora and Christine were one and the same person?”

“Why don’t we go and ask him all these questions in person?”

But luck was not on our side that day. When Louise and I arrived at
Le Papillon
, Kate said that Drew was not there.

“Do you know when he’s going to be back?” I asked.

“Nope. He only said he wouldn’t be out long. Did you guys try to call him?”

“We did,” Louise said. “At least ten times. It was all for nothing. He wouldn’t pick up the damn phone.”

“Well, then how about a cup of tea? Or maybe whiskey?”

“A cup of whiskey?” I grimaced at Kate’s choice of words. “Thanks, but not today.” The thought of drinking again made me sick.

Louise giggled. “No whiskey. Though tea would be great.”

Louise, Kate and I went to the bar, full of women in dresses, getting ready for the show that night. A few of them screamed when they saw Louise.

“Oh, look who’s here!” One of the girls said, walking over to greet Louise. As far as I remembered, her name was Natasha.

“We didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow,” another girl said. “You are going to come for tomorrow’s training, right? Valery and I are working on a new dance. We would like to know your opinion.”

“Valery wants to know my opinion?” Louise said, genuinely surprised. “I seriously doubt that.”

“Actually, I do,” Valery, aka Tess said, stepping forward. She nodded at me, then said to Louise, “Can I talk to you for a moment? In private.”

Louise looked at me, preparing to say something, but Kate spoke first, “Don’t worry, I’ll look after your
Candy Man
. Go talk to Val.”

Louise smiled apologetically at me, then she and Tess left.

“Are you still sure you don’t want some whiskey?” Kate asked, sitting in front of me at one of the tables.

“Positive,” I said.

“As you wish. Ben!” She called the bartender. “Two cups of tea for us, please.”

“So how are things have been going here?” I asked, waiting for my tea.

“Not bad, actually. The new girls that Marlena has sent here, are really good. Turned out they were huge fans of Lu. They saw her dancing back in the orphanage.”

“So Marlena keeps sending new girls here?”

“Yep. She and Drew made a deal. He gives them a job, food, and a roof over their heads, and they work for him. Not all of them dance, some work as waitresses. And one of the girls is my assistant now. I have so much to do; two hands are not enough to do it all on my own.”

Ben brought us tea, Kate took her cup from the tray and asked, “So what do you want from Drew? I know you, of all people, have never been a big fan of his.”

I smiled. “True. But I need to ask him a few questions about his family. Do you know anything about them?”

“All I know is that he’s the brother of
The Son of a Bitch
Montgomery
. I hated when he used to come here all the time. He was always so rude to my girls.”

“Fletcher used to be one of the club’s visitors?”

“He still is. He comes here once in a while. Not as often as he used to, but occasionally he still does.”

“Has he ever brought any friends with him?”

Kate thought for a moment. “No. Not that I can remember. He always comes alone, takes one of the furthest tables, watches the show, and then asks for a private dance from one of the girls. But I have never seen him with anyone else.”

“I see.”

“Do you have anyone in particular in mind?” Kate asked, watching me suspiciously. “What’s going on, William? And don’t tell me that it’s nothing, because I saw how troubled you and Lu looked when you came in.”

“Well. . .” I looked around. The girls were leaving the bar, so I waited until Kate and I were alone and said, “We have reason to believe that Fletcher has something to do with my father’s death.”

Kate gasped. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. . . Why would you guys think that?”

“Turns out Fletcher and Drew’s cousin, who used to work for my dad, later started working for Louise’s father. And someone told us she might know the truth about my dad’s death. That’s why we thought we would go and talk to her in person. But when we got to the house where she was supposed to be residing, she wasn’t there. And not even her father, who does live there, knows how to find her.”

“Oh, I see. . . Is that why you need to talk to Drew? You think he knows how to find his cousin?”

“Yes. Or at the very least we are hoping he will be able to tell us more about her. She changed her name a long time ago, and personally, I think Drew didn’t know anything about that. But I still want to ask him a few questions.”

“Drew never told me he had a cousin. As a matter of fact, I always thought his brother was the only living relative he had.”

Louise returned to the bar, as pale as a sheet.

“What happened?” I asked, worried. Tess wasn’t with her anymore. “What did she tell you?”

Louise looked carefully at Kate, before saying, “Did you know that the detective investigating Isabel’s death used to come here with my father?”

“What?” She asked, surprised. “Did Valery tell you that?”

“Yes. She said she couldn’t remember where she saw that guy, but then, a few days ago, she saw Drew talking to my father and she remembered seeing them come in together.” She paused for a split second, catching her breath, and then continued, “She even danced for them. . .”

I held up my hand, processing every word she said. “Wait,” I said, interrupting her. “Is Isabel the girl you told me about? The one who used to work here, the one who was murdered?”

“Yes,” Kate answered for her. “But I don’t understand why Valery would talk about it with you.” She looked at Louise.

“Because last time I was here, I talked to Drew about my father, he said something that made me believe he knew more about Isabel’s death than he wanted people to believe. I asked him directly if my father had anything to do with it, but he said no. Then I went to Valery and asked her about the night the poor girl was killed. She told me about the detective investigating the murder. According to her, right after the case was closed, he was sent to work in a different place. She was sure she knew him, only she couldn’t remember where she saw him. And now that we know he was one of my father’s friends, and if we add Drew’s weird behavior during my conversation with him, we might come to a very bad conclusion. . .”

“No. . .” Kate shook her head. “Drew would have never lied to the police if he knew something about Isabel’s murderer.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked.

She and Louise shared a glance.

“I know pretty much all there is to know about Drew,” Kate said. “But he would never cover his brother’s ass if he were involved in a murder, especially if it were one of the girls working in his club. It would be too risky for him.”

“I think we should wait for Drew and ask him about Isabel, again,” I said.

“What do you want to know about her?” Drew’s angry voice rang out behind us.

Louise, Kate, and I turned to the sound of his voice. As always, Drew didn’t look like he was happy to see me. He knew I would never come to the club if I didn’t have a good reason to be here, and now that Louise wasn’t one of its dancers anymore, I’m sure the man could feel trouble on the horizon.

“We need to talk,” Louise said. “Can we go to your office?”

Drew gave me another suspicious look and said, “Follow me.”

The four of us left the bar and followed Drew into his office.

The moment we entered the room, he shut the door behind us, went to his desk, pushed a few buttons on his laptop keyboard, making all the heavy curtains cover the windows in the room.