Mayhem Takes a Dare: The Second Marisa Adair Mystery Adventure (Marisa Adair Mysteries Book 2) (25 page)

“I’m surprised you didn’t just get up and leave.”

“I thought about it, especially since he started making cracks about my age. I’m a couple of years older than he is, and he seemed to think that was fair game for jokes. Normally age jokes don’t bother me. Hell, if you don’t get older, you get dead!”

Alex laughed. “I totally agree with you!”

“Anyway, under other circumstances, I let comments or jokes like that slide. But that day, it just hit me the wrong way.”

“Sounds like his asshole comments had a cumulative effect, and you had reached your maximum tolerance level.”

“I could see our waiter was getting fed up with Derick, too. The waiter was a young guy, very polite and respectful, very handsome in his white shirt and tight black pants. An idea hit me. I told Derick I was going to the restroom. Derick must not have been totally insensitive, because he asked if I was coming back. Instead of going to the restroom, I looked for our waiter. I waved at him frantically to get his attention. We were standing where Derick couldn’t see us or hear us.

“I told the waiter the whole story. I told him I’d made contact with the guy in the online group, which at that time was called Women Who Love Excitement, and today was the first time I’d met him. I said, ‘He’s a total freaking jerk.’

“Not surprisingly, the waiter agreed with me. I said, ‘He’s making stupid wisecracks about my age. Will you help me give him a small dose of his own medicine?’ The waiter immediately agreed. I asked him to make some comment to Derick about ‘his daughter’...
me
....just to get in a little slap at him. The waiter pulled it off perfectly! Derick was livid! It was such an awesome sight!”

Alex laughed so hard he had to lean against the wall. “I can’t believe you thought of that and I can’t believe you got the waiter to join your little conspiracy!”

“As I was leaving, I went over the waiter and thanked him. I thought, what a great guy. Then I surprised even myself...I gave him my phone number! He called me that very afternoon. We chatted for over an hour. He told me his name was Nick.”

Alex nodded. “That’s where I thought you were going with this story.”

“Nick said he was working as a waiter, but his real passion was boxing. He asked me if I’d go out with him. I knew he was younger than me, I thought probably in his twenties. I said, I am thirty-seven, how old are you?”

Marisa clutched her chest. “I almost had a heart attack when he said nineteen! I was drinking at the time, and I thought, ‘This guy can’t even get into clubs with me!’ I actually asked him if he had a fake ID. We got off the phone and I never called him. I was relieved when I didn’t hear from him.”

Alex crossed his arms and tilted his head. “I think there’s more to this story.”

Marisa nodded. “A couple of months later, I was online in the live group, when it was Woman Who Love Excitement. An unfamiliar user posted a message. He wrote that he recognized my picture. He went on to say he had lost my phone number and he had been searching through live groups for the past two months, looking for me! I nearly went out with him just because he’d been so darn persistent. But I didn’t. And that’s the story of Nick the Waiter.”

Alex nodded. “You’re right, he’s way too young for you.”

Marisa frowned. “Hey, who says he’s too young for me? He’s over twenty-one now!”

“Marisa! We’re almost forty years old! We don’t need to date people half our age!”

Marisa couldn’t help laughing. “You sound like an old fogey!”

Alex grinned at her, causing Marisa’s heart to jump in her chest.

“Alex. Have you found out anything new about the murders?”

He perked up. “When I was talking to the Royal Bloodhound...”

“I hope he didn’t do to your leg what Punky did to Verna’s leg today.”

Alex grinned. “Nope, he’s being a good dog tonight. His manners are show dog perfect. Anyway, he said Sarah had been emailing back and forth with another woman in the group. He thinks Sarah was either bisexual or experimenting with it.”

Marisa grimaced. “I think bisexuality has turned into some sort of rite of passage for women in Generations X and Y. It could be they think they have to try it in order to be adult women.”

“Or maybe they know how hot guys think it is, and do it more as an exhibition.” Alex’s voice rose in question.

“I don’t know. I do know lesbians think bisexual women are completely messed up and try to avoid them.” Marisa frowned. “Sorry, I went off on a tangent.”

“Bryce, aka the Royal Bloodhound, said Sarah told him about a night she was on her computer before she ‘met’ Brandon. A user ID she didn’t recognize popped up on her instant messenger. The simple message ‘Hi’ appeared. Even though Sarah didn’t know who it was, she responded to the message.

“The user wrote, ‘I was poking around on my girlfriend’s computer. I’m getting ready to go to Korea for two years, and I need to know if she’s trustworthy. Why did she email you provocative pictures of herself?’

“Sarah has a user ID which could be male. The guy who was messaging her thought Sarah was male and that his girlfriend was flirting with a guy. Sarah messaged back, ‘I am not a guy.’

“He didn’t respond for so long Sarah didn’t think he was going to continue. He finally wrote, ‘Why would my girlfriend send nearly naked pictures of herself to a woman?’

“Sarah told Bryce she didn’t owe any allegiance to the other woman, and plus she could see by the guy’s picture on his instant messenger that he was very attractive. So she wrote, ‘Why do you think a woman would send nearly naked pictures to another woman?’

“He finally made the connection. Sarah boasted to Bryce that she continued to chat with the guy online, met the guy for dinner, and found him extremely attractive.”

“And now you’re wondering if this man could have killed Sarah out of anger and jealousy. It’s bad enough for a woman to cheat on you with another man...but with another woman? Especially if he was homophobic.” Marisa briefly thought about Parvis, and then sternly ordered herself to avoid those wayward thoughts.

“We have to find the identity of the man. Tara will have the user lists. We can go through them.”

Marisa pursed her lips. “Unfortunately, not all users click on the ‘join’ option. I’m not sure if Tara keeps a log of lurkers or not. The program offers the option, but it has to be toggled on.” Marisa waved madly. “There’s Tara!”

Teetering on her spike heels, Tara veered toward them. Her long blonde curls were in wild disarray and her skirt was hiked up her creamy thighs. If her skirt inched any further north, then her south of the border area would be exposed. If Dreamus counted as a border patrol officer, then he’d have to arrest her. She’d undone several buttons on the frothy sea green blouse, the exact color of her eyes. Her generous cleavage was exposed, framed by the lacy edge of her abbreviated bra. Her entire chest appeared to be splattered with a sticky red substance.

Her petite figure bouncing as she nearly plowed into Marisa, Tara was laughing and her eyes were glassy. As she unsteadily stopped in front of them, her glass sloshed onto Marisa’s skirt.

Marisa’s nostrils flared. She swiped at the liquid on her skirt and smelled it. Tara was drinking gin. She could tell by the expression on Alex’s face he’d smelled it, too.

“Tara, what’s that on your chest?” Marisa’s heart sank. She knew what was on her friend’s chest.

Tara waved one hand in huge circles, nearly taking out a barmaid’s full tray of drinks. “Some of the guys were doing jello shots out of my cleavage. Hey, they’re having a bar dance contest. Come on, Marisa, dance on the bar with me! Everyone votes on the dancers by handing them leis. Whichever person ends up with the most leis wins the contest! Come on!” Tara lurched for Marisa’s arm and missed.

Marisa caught her friend as she nearly fell, and squeezed her. Hard. “Tara! In your condition, I don’t think you need to dance on the bar—”

Four men Marisa had never seen before swooped in and tore Tara out of Marisa’s arms. “Come on, Tara, it’s time for you to dance!” The men bore her off, laughing and whooping.

“Dear God, we have to do something!” Marisa grasped Alex’s shoulders and shook him.

He pried her clutching fingers off his shoulders. “Come on!” He dragged her along with him through the crowd, and pushed and shoved to make a path for them.

Above them, women were lined up on the bar. Tara was weaving, and holding on to the woman in front of her to keep from falling off the bar.

Her purple ponytail bobbing, the very full-figured woman in front of Tara turned around in annoyance. Her jeans were cut so low her butt crack and green thong were fully visible. The tight waist band squeezed her belly up and out around the top of her jeans. Frowning, she shook off Tara’s hands.

One of the waitresses was handing out stacks of leis to the crowd of eager spectators while two bartenders worked at top speed mixing drinks and pulling draft beer.

Marisa grabbed Tara’s ankle.

The blonde peered down in annoyance. When she recognized Marisa, she smiled in sloppy happiness. “Marisa, get up here and dance with me! Hey, guys, help Marisa up here!”

Obligingly, Tara’s new entourage converged on Marisa and tossed her up on the bar. As she staggered, one of them pushed her upright.

The music started.

With Tara behind her and shoving her, Marisa found herself pushed along the bar. Marisa tried to dig her feet in. The force of the throng of laughing women behind her danced her around the circular bar.

Below them in the crowd, Marisa could see Alex trying to keep up with them by shoving his way through the crowd. As she watched, he was joined by Dreamus.

A man tried to give Marisa one of his paper leis. Irritated, she slapped his hand away. He yelped, “Hey! I’m trying to help you win!”

As Marisa was pushed along the bar, a familiar figure in the crowd caught Marisa’s attention. Tall, short thinning light hair, rangy body dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt...who was it? In the dim light of the bar, she couldn’t quite make out his features. As she craned her neck, he seemed to sense her eyes on him. He turned away.

Marisa bumped into the woman in front of her.

The younger woman whirled, her purple ponytail flying. Her heavily made up face scrunched in anger as she grabbed Marisa. “Back off, bitch!” As she screeched in Marisa’s face, spit flew. Her eyes narrowed on Marisa’s face and down her body. “God, you’re as old as my mother.”

Behind her, Tara pushed into Marisa. “Go, Marisa, go! We can’t win if we don’t dance!”

The purple ponytail swung in contempt. “And your friend is the same age as you. You two get the hell out of here and stop making such fools of yourselves!” She started toward Tara. “Starting with her!”

Marisa was getting angry. “Leave her alone, bitch!” Marisa’s eyes swept the other woman’s full figure and tight clothes. “From behind, you look like the back half of a hippopotamus squeezed into a two-pronged tube! And believe me, there’s more outside than inside!”

The other woman roared and picked Marisa up.

From his position below them, Alex cried, “Marisa, I don’t think that was a very good idea to give her your opinion on her fashion sense!”

Alex vaulted up onto the bar, and squeezed his way in between dancing women. He threw his arms around Marisa’s upper body, and pulled. Marisa’s attacker kept her grip on Marisa’s hips and tried to haul her away from Alex. “You’re going to pull me in two like a wishbone!”

Tara unsteadily grasped Alex’s shoulders and pulled. She lurched.

The four of them toppled into the crowd.

As they fell on the spectators below, the woman finally let go of Marisa. Alex retained his hold.

Marisa recognized the squirming bodies beneath them as Tara’s quartet of new friends. Marisa reflected as she tried to get up that at least they were good for breaking falls.

From her position on the floor, Marisa saw the woman with the purple ponytail standing over her. Her fists were clenched and she was focused on Marisa. Her eyes were slits. She roared as she reached into the milling bodies for Marisa.

Arms like steel bands circled Marisa and hauled her to her feet.

It was Alex.

Marisa spied Dreamus. His glasses crooked and shirt ripped, he reached into the crowd and plucked Tara out of the teeming bodies.

With his arm around Tara, Dreamus shouted for them to follow him.

He pushed open a door, and practically threw Tara inside. Dreamus frantically gestured for Alex and Marisa to follow.

Two men were standing at the urinal. One of them blurted, “Hey, this is the men’s room!” He quickly zipped his pants and advanced on them.

Something in Dreamus’ and Alex’s faces, and possibly Marisa’s, had the man throwing up his hands and backing away. “I don’t want any trouble!” He quickly exited the men’s room.

The other man at the urinal was William. “I’m glad you all decided to drop in...” His face scrunched in puzzlement. “In the men’s room?”

“Tara!” Marisa put her arm around Tara’s shoulders. “You’re drunk—”

William threw up his hands. “Will you all please listen to me? I was approached tonight! I was given the offer to buy kiddie porn! I—”