wearing a skimpy getup that made her look like a contestant in a new reality show called America’s Top Tart . Cradled in her arms was a white rat with a pink nose that matched his pink-jeweled collar and leash. As she walked through the front door, she tripped on her four-inch platform shoes. The bodyguard caught her just before she did a triple-header into the glass display case.
When the young woman was upright again, she pushed her way through the crowd to the counter and threw her scrawny arms across the top, knocking over a basket of chocolate bark. The rat must have sensed trouble, because he jumped over her shoulder and scurried down her back as far as the leash would allow.
“I hear somebody got creamed in your back room last night.” Her words were slurred by booze, drugs, both, neither. “You should call this place Death by Chocolate.” She giggled at her joke.
She didn’t look like a member of the newspaper-reading public, so she must have heard the scoop about Lupe Ortiz’s death someplace else, maybe by word of mouth. I imagined the store becoming a stop on some macabre tour of famous crime scenes. It was troubling that Nectar’s profile had been raised by a murder in the bathroom, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.
Kathy seemed flustered by the appearance of the morning’s second unruly patron. She picked up the spilled bark and set it on the back counter. “I’m with a customer right now. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“A minute?” The young woman’s voice squawked as if she had just been startled awake from a bad dream. “Don’t you know who I am?”
Maybe Kathy didn’t recognize her, but I did. She was Alexis Raines, a pop princess for the bubblegum crowd who’d ruined her career by growing into adulthood, physically if not emotionally. In the past year, she’d had a succession of DUI arrests and unflattering mug shots plastered across the front page of every tabloid newspaper and celebrity magazine in the country.
The woman with the Fendi bag whipped around. “Excuse me, young lady. Can’t you see I was here first?”
That’s when she saw the rat. She screamed and raised the Fendi above her head, as if she was a trendy cavewoman about to bag dinner. I knew if I didn’t do something fast, the rat was going to end his life as a pancake. I rushed from behind the counter in time to catch the blow from the purse just as the bodyguard pulled Alexis to safety.
The Fendi woman gaped at me, stretching the surgery scars near her ears to a pearly white. Her gaze cut to the bodyguard looming over Alexis. Without so much as an apology, she grabbed the box of chocolates Kathy had packed for her and left the store.
“Christ on a cracker,” Alexis said, cuddling the rat in her arms. “You saved Aldo’s life. I owe you.”
“No big deal—”
“I mean it. You deserve a reward.”
“How about buying chocolates for a hundred of your closest friends, and we’ll call it even.”
“That’s all you want?”
“That’s all.”
“It’s not enough. I’m going to send you tickets to my next concert. Front-row seats.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell Alexis if she didn’t get her act together, there would be no next concert. There may not even be a tomorrow. While Kathy and I filled her order, Alexis lurched up to the newspaper article mounted on the wall. She turned and scanned the room.
“Hey, what happened to all the stuff in the picture?”
It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. The display shelves.
“The owner took them down to make room for more tables.”
“Why don’t you put it over there?”
As Alexis swung her arm toward one of the glass cases to illustrate her point, she nearly upset a jar of cacao nibs. I grabbed the jar before it went flying across the room. The crowd of customers stood frozen, as if they were watching a train wreck.
“Thanks,” I said to her. “I’ll mention your decorating ideas to the
When the young woman was upright again, she pushed her way through the crowd to the counter and threw her scrawny arms across the top, knocking over a basket of chocolate bark. The rat must have sensed trouble, because he jumped over her shoulder and scurried down her back as far as the leash would allow.
“I hear somebody got creamed in your back room last night.” Her words were slurred by booze, drugs, both, neither. “You should call this place Death by Chocolate.” She giggled at her joke.
She didn’t look like a member of the newspaper-reading public, so she must have heard the scoop about Lupe Ortiz’s death someplace else, maybe by word of mouth. I imagined the store becoming a stop on some macabre tour of famous crime scenes. It was troubling that Nectar’s profile had been raised by a murder in the bathroom, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment.
Kathy seemed flustered by the appearance of the morning’s second unruly patron. She picked up the spilled bark and set it on the back counter. “I’m with a customer right now. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“A minute?” The young woman’s voice squawked as if she had just been startled awake from a bad dream. “Don’t you know who I am?”
Maybe Kathy didn’t recognize her, but I did. She was Alexis Raines, a pop princess for the bubblegum crowd who’d ruined her career by growing into adulthood, physically if not emotionally. In the past year, she’d had a succession of DUI arrests and unflattering mug shots plastered across the front page of every tabloid newspaper and celebrity magazine in the country.
The woman with the Fendi bag whipped around. “Excuse me, young lady. Can’t you see I was here first?”
That’s when she saw the rat. She screamed and raised the Fendi above her head, as if she was a trendy cavewoman about to bag dinner. I knew if I didn’t do something fast, the rat was going to end his life as a pancake. I rushed from behind the counter in time to catch the blow from the purse just as the bodyguard pulled Alexis to safety.
The Fendi woman gaped at me, stretching the surgery scars near her ears to a pearly white. Her gaze cut to the bodyguard looming over Alexis. Without so much as an apology, she grabbed the box of chocolates Kathy had packed for her and left the store.
“Christ on a cracker,” Alexis said, cuddling the rat in her arms. “You saved Aldo’s life. I owe you.”
“No big deal—”
“I mean it. You deserve a reward.”
“How about buying chocolates for a hundred of your closest friends, and we’ll call it even.”
“That’s all you want?”
“That’s all.”
“It’s not enough. I’m going to send you tickets to my next concert. Front-row seats.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell Alexis if she didn’t get her act together, there would be no next concert. There may not even be a tomorrow. While Kathy and I filled her order, Alexis lurched up to the newspaper article mounted on the wall. She turned and scanned the room.
“Hey, what happened to all the stuff in the picture?”
It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. The display shelves.
“The owner took them down to make room for more tables.”
“Why don’t you put it over there?”
As Alexis swung her arm toward one of the glass cases to illustrate her point, she nearly upset a jar of cacao nibs. I grabbed the jar before it went flying across the room. The crowd of customers stood frozen, as if they were watching a train wreck.
“Thanks,” I said to her. “I’ll mention your decorating ideas to the
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