Page 19 of Baratta's Darkness

“I just need a minute. Bet Wrench could use a break.”

“No, I’m good”, he calls out but I repeat myself.

“I bet Wrench could use a break.”

“Yeah, I’m going to smoke Fiona.” He finally picks up on my tone of voice.

She stomps over to me. “You can’t interfere with my work, this is my livelihood.”

“Like I said, I have a question.” I point to the pictures. “Who is this man? He is in almost every picture from New Orleans.”

She finally looks down at my laptop. “Oh that is Clint.”

“And who is Clint? What is he to you?”

“He is just a wannabe. His work is shit. I can draw better than him with my eyes closed. But, he is a nice guy. He has been trying to get me to hire him for the last two years.

I tried to let him down gently when he applied here. I think he finally got the message because he hasn’t contacted me since his interview.”

Just then Wrench walks back in, so she has to go back to work. Now I have two suspects to research. I still haven’t told Fi about the batch of pictures that came yesterday, but now I know it has something to do with New Orleans, so I’m going to focus there.

She finishes up with Wrench and has a couple more club members to work on. Lily is busy doing a memorial tattoo for a local woman that lost her son in a car accident, while Arin is practicing on grapefruits.

I spend the next few hours searching through Lily and Clint’s background. I find nothing connecting the two except the expo. They aren’t even from the same part of the country.

I print off a picture of Clint grabbing it off the printer before anyone sees it. Then send pictures of both of them to my contacts. I have basic research skills, but Buzz is better.

Buzz from the New Orleans Night Howler’s chapter can find information on anyone, anywhere and he does not ask questions. We are in different time zones, so I don’t expect an answer tonight.

I shut down my gear, then stretch. I can feel every bone in my body cracking from sitting so long. I’m an action man; I’m not used to doing the research myself. Stretching my legs I wander over to Fiona’s workstation, she’s tatting a man I’ve seen around the club but don’t know.

“Hey beautiful.” I call out; I don’t want to make her jump while she’s working.

“I’m almost done here, just got some shading left.”

“Lily and Arin are done for the night. I’m going to walk them out. Wait here for me.” I plan to take the chance to ask Lily some questions, while I walk her to her car.

“So Lily, how did you end up working for Fiona?”

“I met her in New Orleans two years ago. I was working for a pig. Asshole was always grabbing my tits or my ass, thinking it was funny. Then one night I forgot my purse in the shop, when I went back for it I overheard him on the phone telling someone how he was going to ‘tap that’ if I wanted it or not. I got the hell out of there.”

“But why Fiona? There are thousands of tattoo parlors in California. You could have found work anywhere.”

“I didn’t want to work for a man, and Fiona is the best. Working for her, gets me seen. Besides, at the convention, Fi told me her dream was always to open a shop made up entirely of kickass women. The only grabby hands I have to deal with while working for her are customers and I can always tattoo a dick on them if they can’t keep their hands to themselves.”

I can not hold back my laugh, “Shit you are as mean as Fi.” she just shrugs her shoulders.

“I learned from the best.”

“You should join the self defense class.” I suggest.

“Arin and I are signed up to start next week. Fi requires it as part of our employment, she even pays for us.” With that she closes her car door and drives away.

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