James 3:11
Wednesday 5th December: "Well now. An assignation with not one but two ladies. A truly unexpected pleasure. You will have?"
"A glass of white wine. Anything as long as it's cold."
"I'll have a gin and tonic."
Hanlin waved the order at the girl behind the bar before focusing his attention on his interlocutors. The contrast between the two women could not have been more complete.
Vicky Walters carried her long brown hair like a badge of honor. She had been thinking about cutting it short like Trish Hartnett had suggested but so far had failed to screw up the courage. Still, she had shed much of her latter day hippy persona. There was just the faintest sign of her pregnancy, that early slightest of the slight rounding of the belly and thickening of the ankles that is only noticeable to the practiced eye. She was power dressing in a figure-hugging black number that was more the badge of the femme fatale than the mother-to-be. Her dark hazel eyes glistened wide as they focused their attention on Hanlin in the comfortable seats of Pazzo's spacious bar at the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Contrast the other girl, Lisa, the sometime barmaid at Pazzo's. Off duty now, she had two years on her friend Vicky. Two years and another world. From the wrong side of the tracks, Lisa, bejewelled and well bossomed, her hair pulled back in a pony-tail, was every bit the rough diamond. But the two girls were friends.
The drinks were delivered.
"So ladies, what can I do for you?" Hanlin sipped his Bombay Sapphire dirty martini.
They were silent a moment and exchanged a glance.
"Tell him Lisa."
"No V. You tell him. I don't want us to argue."
"Tell me what?"
Vicky Walters tossed and swung her head so that her long brown hair fell neatly behind her shoulders, like a filly readying herself for a race. "OK," she said. "It's about Michael." She pronounced the name Mikhail in the Latino fashion.
"Who's Mikhail?"
"Maria's boyfriend."
Hanlin nodded and sipped his martini. "Go on."
"He told Lisa that his Maria told him that my Baxter tried to rape her." The words tumbled out breathlessly, all in a run. "Which is nonsense of course. My Baxter is a man and if that slut Maria tried to seduce him, he might have weakened. I can believe that men are like that." She dropped her gaze, flushing, embarrassed. "But my Baxter would never rape anyone. He doesn't need to. He can have any woman he wants. Just has to snap his fingers." She looked up defiantly, daring either Hanlin or Lisa to gainsay her.
"So what you are saying, in so many words, is that Mikhail, or Michael whatever his name is, had a reason to try and kill Baxter and you want him stopped."
"Something like that."
"So why," Hanlin turned his attention to the other woman. "Why didn't you just go to the police Lisa?"
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