Page 92 of Things We Do in the Dark
Joey had never hated someone she’d never met so much.
Wiping away her tears, she headed all the way down the stairs, peeling her clothes off as she went. She didn’t bother to turn on any lights as she walked straight through the pitch-black apartment to the bathroom. She wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore. There was nothing the dark could do to her that it hadn’t already done.
By the time she reached the bathroom, she was naked. She turned on the tub faucet and avoided her reflection in the mirror as she lit the three vanilla candles she kept around the sink, all in various stages of melt. The flicker was soothing, and when the tub was full, she sank into the warm water.
Joey was certain she would have felt okay if Drew was marrying Simone, but this other person, thisKirsten, was an… interloper. Someone who was trespassing on something that didn’t belong to her. Joey didn’t know a thing about Kirsten, but already she resented everything about her.
Even the baby. Which made her a horrible person, but she couldn’t help it. Drew and Kirsten’s baby would tie them together forever.
I’ll always be here for you, Drew had whispered in her ear as they hugged goodbye in the driveway the day he and Simone moved out. A year later, it turned out to be a lie. Because that’s what men do. They lie to get what they want. And once they get it, you’re discarded, like a shirt with a stain that won’t come out, even though the shirt is new, and they are the stain.
Clutching her knees to her chest, Joey found her wrist with her fingernail and started digging. And digging. And digging. She felt so dirty. Everything she hated about herself was written all over Drew’s face. She was disgusting. Unworthy. Stupid.
All the things Ruby always said she was.
When the bathwater cooled, Joey pulled the plug and reached for her bathrobe. She padded back through the dark apartment to her bedroom, and only then did she turn on a light.
She froze, taking in the scene.
Every drawer was open. Closet doors, too. The small desk in the corner had been ransacked. The floor was covered in her clothes, makeup, books. Just like the dressing room in the club, someone had been here, looking for something.
Vinny.
Of course it made sense that he would look for Mae here. Joey hadn’t been able to get a hold of her friend, and after she saw Drew at the club, she’d forgotten all about it. Mae did hang out here, not all the time, but enough that she knew what snacks were in which cupboard, and which drawer Joey kept her pajamas in. Occasionally, if they were watching a movie and it was too late to go home, Mae would borrow something to sleep in and crash on the sofa.
Vinny would know that. Which was why he’d come here.
But how had he gotten in? The door was locked when she got home.Shit. The spare key. Mae knew where she hid it, inside the base of the light sconce mounted on the brick above the side door. She must have told Vinny about it at some point.
Was he still here?
No, he couldn’t be. If he was still in the apartment, waiting for her, he would have shown himself while she was in the bathtub, naked and vulnerable.
A thought occurred to Joey then. Vinny might not have found whatever he was looking for, but did he find her cash?
She rushed to her nightstand drawer, which was open, its contents rifled through. She didn’t keep anything interesting in here—bottles of nail polish, two half-read paperbacks she’d lost interest in, an open box of condoms Chaz had brought, an issue ofCosmopolitan—but it was what she hidunderthe drawer that she cared about.
Kneeling on the floor, she emptied the nightstand quickly, tossing everything onto the bed. Then she pulled the drawer out as far as it would go. Placing her palms flat against the bottom of the drawer, she slid her hands to the back of the nightstand and pressed down hard on each corner. The false bottom popped up. Holding her breath, she removed it and looked inside.
It took a few seconds to process what she was seeing.
Her small fireproof box was still there. She removed it from the drawer and opened it, sighing with relief when she saw that her cash savings—a little over forty grand that she’d saved from her tips over the past year—was still intact. But that wasn’t what she was having trouble with.
It was the five thick stacks of cash that were also inside the drawer, each one secured with a rubber band. They all appeared to be in hundred-dollar bills. She couldn’t imagine how much money it was, but she sure as shit wasn’t about to count it. Beside the cash was a plastic-wrapped brick of what looked like cocaine. Or maybe it was heroin. How the hell would she know?
What she did know was that none of this was hers. It had to be what Vinny was looking for. He had given his girlfriend drugs and cash to hold for him, and for reasons Joey couldn’t begin to fathom, Mae had decided to hide it here. Joey had never revealed her hiding spot to anyone, but at some point, on one of her visits, Mae must have spied Joey stashing away her tips for the night.
And if her boyfriend didn’t get back what he was looking for, he was going to kill her. She needed to get a hold of Mae and talk her into giving it back.
Joey picked up her cordless handset and punched in her friend’s phone number. In her ear, the line started ringing. Three seconds later, she heard a sound coming from somewhere outside the bedroom, and her head snapped up.
Had the TV turned itself on? No, that wasn’t it. A radio? The only stereo she had was here, in the bedroom, and it was off. She walked to her bedroom door, ear cocked, and finally realized what it was she was hearing.
It was aringtone. The tinny opening notes of “Für Elise” were playing from somewhere in the dark apartment. She was calling Mae’s cell phone, and somehow, Mae’s cell phone washere.
Carrying the handset with her, Joey followed the sound through the kitchen, flicking on the lights as she went, her eyes peeled for any sign of Mae’s red Nokia. Right as she reached the living room, the ringtone stopped. In her hand, she could hear Mae’s voice coming through the receiver, distant and small.It’s Mae. You know what to do after the beep.She switched on the living room lights. And then she dropped the cordless, jumping so far back that her ass hit the bookcase behind her.
Blood, everywhere.
