The Blackest Night

The sun was setting fast, that golden hour when everyone looks just a bit more pretty. Colette finished her latte and used the restroom, applying some lip gloss and a little blush. She pushed her way through the crowded coffee shop and stepped out into the city. The weather was warm, spring had finally arrived and it would be a long night of Johns.

Out on the boulevard she met up with Lulu, a trasplant from somewhere in Minnesota. Just another runaway prowling for tricks on the darkened sidewalk.

"Dontcha just love these pumps? Discount shoe store over on Fifth." Lulu did a pirouette in the cheap shoes. "Tiger print! All the rage!"

Colette nodded her approval and raised a shaking hand to her brow. She detested tiger or any other type of animal print. They all reminded her of her mother and that cramped, smoke filled apartment in Jersey.

"They are simply lovely," Colette lied, "and go so well with the pink tutu." She adjusted her fitted black blazer so as to reveal a hint of nipple, hiked up her tight black skirt and noticed a run in her new black fishnets. Shit.

"Coco, ever give any thoughts to maybe some blonde tips to that black hair?" Colette raked her black fingernails through her loose raven curls and tried not to grimace at Lulu's penchant for nicknames. "Lulu darling, it is simply not me, I am accustomed to disappearing in black, a sort of trademark look." She slid on her oversized black sunglasses.

"Ok Miss Gucci, just saying." Lulu plumped up her enormous breasts, barely contained beneath the concert t-shirt; 'THE BOSS' emblazened across her chest. She lit up a Viginia Slims just as a polished black BMW pulled up to the curb. Lulu scrambled over as the tinted window dropped an inch.

"Well I never....he called me Little Miss Bubblegum!" She said, returning to Colette's side. "He wants you, sugar." Colette peered over her dark glasses to take in the view. Edgar?! It was too soon in the week for Edgar, he was a weekend trick. "Back in a flash," Colette sighed to Little Miss Bubblegum as she got into the car, shiny as midnight.

"Hey tootsie how's it going?" "Please call me by my name Edgar, you know how those cheap endearments irritate me." "Coquette honey, I'm sorry." "Colette, my name is COLETTE, Edgar!" She gave him a playful swat, her head splitting behind her Foster Grants. "Whatever. I like it when you're bitchy like this." "You want it rough tonight, Edgar?" "Oh yeah, I've got it bad for you toots....Colette. Leave me all scratched up." "Something for you to remember me by?" She took off her glasses and put them in her black clutch bag.

They stopped as usual in front of a nondescript building in a nondescript industrial park. Edgar wiggled to free himself from the late model luxury car. Colette followed him into the building and up the stairs to his office.

"Our little love nest, mon cherie" he panted breathlessly as he removed his ever tightening suit. Beads of sweat lined his brow as Colette straddled his lap, slapping his face. She dug her nails into his back and with a grunt, he maneuvered on top of her. As usual it was over in minutes. His dead weight on her suddenly intolerable. Cold and sweaty.

"Edgar please, I need to use the ladies' room." No response, no motion, no breath. "Edgar?! Dear God! EDGAR?!" Colette struggled to push him off and Edgar landed on his back on the floor looking quite dead, except for the erection. Colette felt for a pulse. Nothing. She tried as best she could to revive him. A silly smile on his lifeless face.

"Oh my poor Edgar, you son of a bitch!" Colette kicked his lifeless body and started to cry. What do I do now? Think girl, think. I've got to get out of here, too messy a scene, those scratches and slaps. My God what have I gotten myself into? What did I touch, what didn't I touch? Oh this is hopeless! Get a grip Colette, get dressed and the the fuck out of here!

She threw herself together and was about to descend the stairs when it dawned on her that like it or not, she needed to be paid. Rummaging through his suit that lay piled on his desk, she knocked a black leather booklet to the floor. "Shit!" She kicked it with her stilleto shoe and it slid across the room, it's latch popping open.

Emptying Edgar's wallet of three hundred and change, she went to stuff it in her clutch, but the zipper wouldn't budge. Colette grabbed the leather booklet, stuffed the bills inside and closed the latch.

In the days that followed, Colette laid low. She stayed locked up in her uptown single, unable to sleep or eat. Every sound she heard was surely the cops coming for her arrest. Finally, out of desperation for someone to talk to, she joined Lulu out on the street.

"Hiya doll!" Lulu said between pops of her bubblegum. "Long time no see, gee you don't look so good." Colette, at the sight of Lulu in knee high white boots, short shorts and a stars and stripes tube top thought, darling I could say the same.

"Oh Lulu, I'm a nervous wreck....you have no idea what it's been like these last few days!" Colette took off her dark glasses and Lulu could see the weariness in her eyes. Taking Lulu's arm she said, "Can I buy you a cup of coffee, I've got a story to tell."

Lulu sat spellbound listening to Colette's account of her 'date' with Edgar. She slurped the last of her ice cafe mocha through a straw. "Did you call 911, are you sure he was dead?" "I checked for a pulse and tried what I know about CPR, but no, I didn't call 911. I was afriad I might be implicated. He liked it rough, there were marks all over his body."

Lulu slurped at the empty cup to no avail. "I never took you for the kinky type." Colette wiped the tears from her eyes. "Oh Lulu please, what am I going to do? Maybe I should leave town." "You could hide out at my place, no one would think to look for you there." Lulu shook her cup as if that would generate another sip and slurped noisily.

"Can I buy you another one of those?" Colette asked, eyeing the empty cup that Lulu mercilessly wouldn't put down. "Oh no, one's the limit! I'm a country gal, clean living and all." This brought a smile to Colette's face and lightened her mood. "Would you let me stay with you until I figure things out?" "Deal!" Lulu said grabbing Colette's hand. "Let's get you moved in!"

Colette's life was reduced to two garment bags, an over stuffed suitcase and a Nespresso machine held under her arm. They climbed the three flights of stairs to Lulu's walk-up. "Well here it is," Lulu laughed, "Shangra-la-de-da!" Colette smiled sadly at the sight of Lulu's dark, cramped apartment. Her city view now replaced with a single window opening onto an air shaft.

"This futon is really quite comfortable." Lulu straightened the leopard print sheet and made way for the Nespresso machine next to the microwave and bottles of instant coffee. Feather boas, hats and scarves dotted the walls. Mismatched animal print throws were draped upon cast off chairs and a table by the one window was home to a struggling fern. Zebra print curtains cordoned off a nook that held Lulu's bed.

Colette paged through one of the True Detective magazines that lay upon a wooden pallet coffee table. She started to cry again. This is like my childhood hell she thought as she lit the first cigarette she had smoked since she was sixteen. She opened the black booklet and removed the remaining two hundred dollars, handing them to Lulu. "For the kitty." "I don't have a cat, Colette." "Rent darling, it's for rent." "I'm all paid up, you keep your mad money, sugar." Lulu handed the bills back to Colette and put a Springsteen album on the scratchy phonograph. Colette moaned softly and put on her dark glasses.

After unpacking, Colette left the black booklet on top of the pile of magazines. "What's that sugar, your little black book?" "I took it from Edgar's, I needed someplace to stash the money I took from his wallet." "From a dead man's wallet?" Lulu's eyes grew large. "Oh sugar, that don't sound so good. And now you got something from the scene of the crime!" "Crime?!" Colette's head was reeling. "You don't think I had anything to do with his death, do you?" "Of course not sugar, but it sure would look suspicious if, you know, the law came looking. We better get rid of it. What's written inside?" "Only blank pages from what I saw." Colette handed her the booklet. Lulu paged through it. "Yup, it's all blank pages except." Lulu read the text hidden in the middle of the booklet. A name, a list of numbers, what sounded like a password and an international phone number. "Yup all blank, let me get rid of this before it gets us in trouble."

Colette's phone wrang. It was Champ, one of her regulars, who was hot to trot. "Lulu, I better go meet up with this guy, he is one of my best accounts." "Accounts?" Lulu giggled. "That's cute." "Champ is anything but cute, but he pays well."

Colette freshened up and left the apartment. Lulu took another look at the text written in the booklet. It reminded her of a story she had read in one of her detective magazines. And the phone number looked a lot like her aunt's number in Zurich. She noticed some else, something in the lining of the booklet. A key, a local address and a number.

Colette returned in the middle of the night. After Champ, she managed to hook up with a sailor on leave. My life is such a cliche she thought as she drifted off to sleep on the cheap leopard print sheet. She slept in until early afternoon, getting the rest she so badly needed. Lulu was nowhere to be found. Colette plugged in her Nespresso machine and winced at the sight of Lulu's instant coffee. Such a hick, but a sweet one, she thought. After finding bread and jam for breakfast she watered the wilting fern.

She showered and relaxed in front of the television, watching the news just in case they might mention something about Edgar. Blissfully, the stories were all about other tragedies.

Lulu had a very busy night as well. Tracking down an address, finding a rented locker, and making long distant calls. She had one more call to make.

Colettes phone rang, it was Lulu. "Sugar some thing has come up, I may be gone for a bit, maybe even forever." "What on earth? What is going on Lulu?!" "Listen sugar, I'll call you when I have more time, by the way there is $20,000 in the freezer behind the frozen peas. It's all yours, sugar!" The line went dead.

Lulu tightened her cheetah print scarf and stepped aboard a non-stop to Zurich. She had a new found banker to meet.