Page 42 of Nightshade

“I’ll ask you again,” Stilwell said, “do you have any idea where Leigh-Anne Moss is?”

“No idea,” Galloway said.

“Do you know where she stays when she’s out on Catalina?”

“Not really. I guess she stays with whatever rich guy she’s banging at the time.”

Stilwell didn’t respond to that at first. Galloway’s tone gave him pause. He now had a direction to go with his questions.

“That seems kind of harsh,” he said.

“Sometimes the truth is harsh,” Galloway said.

“What do you do for a living, Peter?”

“I go to auditions, mostly. I’m an actor. But since the strikes, there’s been like zero production out here. I’m thinking about moving to Atlanta, to tell you the truth.”

“And leaving Leigh-Anne behind?”

“There’s nothing between us, so there’s nothing to leave behind. We broke up a long time ago.”

“But this is the address she put on an employment application.”

“Well, I had nothing to do with that.”

“Do you know what she does on the island? For work, I mean.”

“Same thing she always does. Bartender, waitress—she’d strip too, but I hear there’s no places like that out there. Not officially, at least.”

“What’s that mean? ‘Not officially’?”

“Let’s just say L-A is available for private parties of any kind. Here, there, wherever she happens to be.”

That tone again. Galloway could barely hide his contempt.

“She goes by L-A?” Stilwell asked. “Her initials?”

“Sometimes,” Galloway said. “Like a stage name, I guess you’d call it.”

“Is that how you met? At a club or a bar? Or on a stage?”

“We met when we worked for the same catering company up in Hollywood.”

“When was that?”

“About five years ago. We met and after a while we moved in together.”

“Long commute to Hollywood from down here.”

“We moved down here after we left that job.”

“Left or got fired?”

“I wasn’t fired. I got a part in a movie and quit. She got fired for doing her thing like she always does.”

“Coming on to the clients?”

“Man, you have all the answers. Why bother with the questions?”

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