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?”
