Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls (19 page)

If Berlin had a baby with Charlie, they’d probably spawn a mutant child with three
legs.

I turned the page and glanced at a photocopy of Berlin’s driver’s license. Yikes! It was a
horrible
picture; it barely even looked like her. She’d obviously gotten a nose job while she’d been in France and probably some collagen too. The old Berlin had thin, mean little lips and a honker that was long and pointy enough to stick in an electrical socket.

She would die if she knew I was looking at this,
I thought, chuckling.

Then the guilt hit me. No, she wouldn’t die—because she was already dead, and all I could do was laugh at her plastic surgery.

It was just so hard to think of Berlin as no longer living. Just over a week ago she’d been totally fine. Things changed so quickly that it didn’t even seem real.

What a jerk I was. I
had
to find her killer now, if only to recoup all the karma I’d just tossed out the window.

With new resolve I found the emergency contact information for the Silver family. It was hard to make sense of it—there were phone numbers and addresses from all over the world—but I decided that the best bet would be to call the Silver compound in Motoropolis. I rolled onto my back and punched the number into my celly.

A voice answered after one ring. “Silver residence,” a woman intoned mellifluously.

“I’m looking for—” I paused and glanced at the page next to me. “Babs Silver.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Silver is not in town right now. Can I put you through to her voice mail?”

Thinking fast, I lowered my voice a notch and affected the nasal quality of all private school headmistresses. “This is Dr. Felicia Bober, at Orchard Academy,” I said. “I need to speak with her about her daughter. Immediately.”

“I
’m sorry,
Dr. Bober,” the secretary said. “But you’ll have to leave a message.”

“That won’t do,” I told her. “It won’t do at all. Berlin is in a world of trouble right now, and I’m afraid it can’t wait. Mrs. Silver must have a cell phone where she can be reached.”

There was a put-out sigh on the other end. “Just a moment,” said the voice.

When I hung up, I had Mrs. Silver’s number in hand and a smile on my face.

I am so good,
I congratulated myself.

I dialed the number and dropped the Bober impression when I got Babs on the phone.

“Mrs. Silver? This is Lulu Dark. I’m a—well, I know Berlin. I need to talk to you about her.”

“Oh, hello, Lulu,” Mrs. Silver said. “I’ve heard so much about you. Berlin really admires you.”

I held the phone away from me and stared at it. Once again,
Huh?

Then I started feeling guilty as well. Weird as it seemed, Berlin had totally liked me, and I’d ignored her overtures at friendship like a total snob. It was sad to think that of everyone she’d met at Orchard, I was the one she considered herself closest to.

“What can I do for you, Lulu?” Mrs. Silver prompted.

At that moment I realized that I didn’t even know what I was going to say. I couldn’t tell her my real suspicions. Especially not over the phone. It would be too cruel.

“Um, have you heard from Berlin lately?” I asked, doing my best to sound unconcerned. “I haven’t seen her in a week or so, and I was afraid she’d gotten sick or something. She hasn’t answered her phone. I hope she’s not mad at me.”

There was a long silence. “You haven’t seen her?”

“Not really,” I murmured apologetically.

“Dammit,” Babs snapped. Then: “Sorry, dear. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that’s a bit of a pattern for Berlin. She seemed to be doing so well. But the school’s been calling and calling about her, and I can’t seem to get in touch with her either. What a nuisance. Can you meet me for lunch, by any chance?”

“Um,” I said. “I’m in Halo City.”

“I am too,” Berlin’s mom said airily. “Here on business. That’s why I’m sure Berlin’s hiding out. She’ll do anything to avoid seeing me. So. Where can I meet you?”

 

After setting up a meeting with Mrs. Silver, I took a deep breath and bit the bullet. I needed Charlie’s help, and I was willing to grovel if necessary.

“What do you want, Lulu?” he snapped when he answered his phone.

“Charlie.” I sighed. “Please, please,
please
help me out here. I’m not going to apologize for lying about the other night because the fact is that I’m telling the truth. I did not, repeat
not,
ditch you to make out with Alfy. I’m sorry things have been so weird between us. I promise we can sort it out later, but right now I really need you to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“Why should I?” he asked peevishly.

“Why shouldn’t you?” I retorted. “I have never lied to you, Charlie. Never. Why would I start now? Besides, if I
had
made out with Alfy, wouldn’t I make sure to tell every jealous hag at Orchard Academy about it
personally?
”

There was a long pause.

“Fine,” Charlie said sullenly. “What do you need?”

Charlie agreed to meet me and Mrs. Silver at Little Edie’s. He still seemed unsure about the Alfy rumors, but he was starting to come around, and thank goodness. He’d be much better at talking to an aristocrat than I would. He was experienced with it from dealing with his own mother. And with what I had to tell Mrs. Silver, I needed all the help I could get.

When I got to the restaurant, I recognized Berlin’s mom immediately. She was waiting at the table in the middle of the café, smoking a cigarette nervously. The tip-off was her jewelry—she had diamonds dripping from her neck and wrists and a huge tacky ring on her finger. Although she seemed to be trying for legitimacy, she was wearing a skimpy tank top and enormous Chanel goggles even though we were indoors. Her bronzed skin had that tight, stretched look that comes from serial face-lifts. It had to be her.

“Hi, Mrs. Silver,” I said, approaching her. “I’m Lulu.” I wanted to ask her to move to my usual table, since that’s the place I’m most comfortable. But somehow it seemed rude.

Mrs. Silver glanced around the room before dropping her cig in an ashtray to shake my hand. “Hello, Lulu,” she said. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

We finished the handshake, then stared at each other blankly. I didn’t know what to say next. I smiled nervously and took a seat.
Please let Charlie get here fast,
I prayed silently.

It was almost enough to give me religion that he chose that moment to walk in the door. And he was perfect. Seeing him in action is always such a surprise.

He’s a total ruffian in day-to-day life, but when he’s got to interact with someone like Babs Silver, Charlie completely transforms. He shook Bab’s hand firmly, kissed her on the cheek with a smooth, “Mrs. Silver,” and took a seat next to us. Yep, Charlie was a charmer. Babs melted like butter—and he didn’t even let on that he was mad at me.

We ordered some appetizers, which Babs ate only at Charlie’s behest. We talked small talk, or he did, rather, while I fretted about when to bring up Berlin. It took forever to work up the nerve, but finally I did it.

“Bab—I mean, Mrs. Silver,” I stammered. “When was the last time you saw Berlin?”

Mrs. Silver placed her glass of wine on the table and exhaled a slow puff of smoke. I coughed loudly.

Mrs. Silver tsked. “Nasty habit,” she said apologetically. She extinguished her cigarette. “I haven’t seen Berlin since January. Since she started at Orchard Academy. But I keep in close contact. I’m sure you know that she can be a handful. She needs a lot of attention, so I talk to her at least once a week. When I can get ahold of her, that is.”

It didn’t seem occur to Mrs. Silver that perhaps Berlin was “a handful” because she’d been in boarding school since she was eight years old. I remembered my notebook entry from Saturday. Childbirth and insanity. There was
certainly
a medical connection.

“Have you spoken with her
this
week?” Charlie asked.

Babs gave him a smile. She was so impressed by him that she probably would have smiled if he’d sneezed in his hand and wiped it on her tailored wool pantsuit.

“Last time I spoke with her was two Fridays ago. She was on her way out the door. Something about going to see some handsome rock singer perform.”

She no doubt meant the Many Handsomes’ show. “But you haven’t heard from her since?” I asked.

“Not a peep.”

“Well, this might come as a bit of a shock to you,” I said as gently as possible, “but Berlin hasn’t been in school for more than a week.”

Mrs. Silver sighed and rolled her eyes in frustration. “She always does this. She knew I was coming to town and just couldn’t
bear
to see me. So she disappeared. This time she didn’t even bother to call in and excuse herself from school. She always turns up eventually, but honestly, it’s getting ridiculous. I’m beginning to think we should just bring her back to Motoropolis permanently.”

Duh,
I thought.

“Berlin had been acting strange for a while before she, um, disappeared,” I said, parroting Helena’s observation. Although I hadn’t noticed it myself, I thought it was best to play along with Babs’s notion that Berlin and I were tight. “Had you noticed that?”

“No, she seemed fine to me except for her sinuses,” Mrs. Silver said. “They’ve been giving her trouble since January.”

“Probably the surgery,” I said unthinkingly. “I’ve heard it can do that.”

Charlie’s eyebrows shot up in alarm. He kicked me under the table, but it was too late.

Lulu Dark strikes again,
I thought ruefully,
talking too fast for her brain to keep up.

“Surgery?” Mrs. Silver seemed genuinely surprised, but I knew she was just covering.

I squirmed in my seat. “You know.” I gestured to my nose, scissoring my fingers.

Mrs. Silver was suddenly angry. “We Silvers have
perfect
features,” she said, pointing her own nose, which had obviously been under the knife as well, into the air. “She would never, ever get a nose job.”

Charlie reached across the table, cutting in. “Absolutely,” he said. “I guess Lulu just jumped to conclusions. A nose as beautiful as Berlin’s doesn’t usually come naturally in Halo City, that’s all. But looking at yours, I can see where she gets it.” He snuck a glance at me.
This is how it’s done, you idiot,
his eyes telegraphed.

Berlin’s mom seemed mollified. She placed a bony hand at her jawline. “Why, thank you,” she cooed.

“The boys sure like it,” I said, following Charlie’s lead with more flattery. “Berlin has them lining up.”

“I’ve been concerned about that, too,” Babs said, still slightly wary. “Of course, I want her to be happy, but I want to make sure she’s not dating the wrong types. God forbid she should get into trouble with some gold-digging ne’er-do-well. You know, she never dated much before. But now that she’s in Halo City, she’s gotten a little carried away.”

Although I was learning a lot about Berlin’s psychology, none of it was going to help me find her killer. I had one final thought before we called it a day. Maybe I could fit some of the pieces of this crazy jigsaw puzzle together. I pulled out my digital camera and found the picture of Sally Hansen.

“Have you ever seen this girl?” I asked, handing the camera to Mrs. Silver. She glanced down at it for a fraction of a second.

“No,” she said, without much thought. “Is she a friend of Berlin’s too?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

Babs slid the camera across the table. “Listen, I really appreciate your concern for my daughter, but I assure you Berlin has just taken another little sabbatical. She’ll turn up eventually. She always does.”

This woman was something else. The fact that her daughter had been missing for more than a week didn’t even give her pause. If I were a truly terrible person, I would have told her that Berlin had been murdered, and I would have stomped out. Just to teach her what a bad mom she was. But I’m not a terrible person. I didn’t even have the heart to broach the subject. And all of a sudden I felt even sadder for Berlin than before.

“Sorry to have wasted your time,” I mumbled.

I took my camera and started to fidget with it while Babs and Charlie chatted about their summer homes. I was messing with the magnification, absently zooming in and out, in and out on Sally’s picture when—

I gasped.

“Charlie,” I said. “We need to go.”

“What?”

I threw a wad of bills onto the table, knowing I was overpaying, and grabbed Charlie’s hand, dragging him out of the café. Berlin’s mother didn’t seem surprised at our hasty exit. She just sat there, watching us go.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Silver!” Charlie called over his shoulder, waving in a panic. “Have an excellent stay in Halo City. See you again soon.”

“When Berlin shows up, I want you two to go out together,” Mrs. Silver shouted at Charlie as I flung open the door. “You would be
perfect
for each other.”

 

“I can’t believe you, Lulu,” Charlie said when we were halfway down the block. “How could you be so rude? You really blew it.”

“Charlie, you’ll never believe it. That picture!” I exclaimed, making a beeline for the subway.

“What picture?”

“On my camera. Sally Hansen.
She
had my purse!”

“No way!” Charlie said.

“Yes! I didn’t see it before because she had it over her shoulder. You could just see a tiny bit of it, peeking out from behind her skirt. But I know that was it! That pattern is unmistakable. And if Sally Hansen has my purse, there’s only one person she could have gotten it from—Berlin!”

“What?” Charlie asked.

“Try to stay with me,” I told him. “Your sister saw Berlin Silver with my handbag on Saturday night—the last time she was seen by anyone. This picture was taken the following Friday afternoon,
after
Berlin disappeared.”