Julie Green and I sat in her sister’s tiny kitchen where the girl had a turkey sandwich and chips and a Diet Coke; I just had a Diet Coke, my appetite dulled somehow. She filled me in, chapter and verse, on the Green family fortune and how it impacted Daddy and his daughters.
Seemed Green’s media empire had started when he married money-that money belonging to the late mother of Janet and Julie.
“It’s a trust fund deal,” Julie was saying, nibbling at the white bread and white turkey meat. She could wear hip-hop clothes all she wanted-this kid was Caucasian. “Jan’s gonna be thirty next month, and she’ll get a pile.”
“What about you?”
She grinned as she chewed. “Oh, I will, too, when I’m her age…I still got a few years of youthful abandon left.”
I was squinting again, but this time things were coming into focus. “And if something bad happened to Janet-before the trust fund money came available to her-your father inherits…?”
“Yeah. Sure. Who else?”
One aspect remained fuzzy, however, so I asked, “But why would that matter to a mogul like Jonah Green? He’s loaded…”
She snorted a laugh, and the nose ring jiggled. “He was, before his second wife’s settlement…and before he invested in fucking Enron. He’s riding on fumes, my clean-shaven friend. Hope you enjoyed your hundred K for rescuing me, ’cause the bastard made me give him an I.O.U. for it!”
I leaned back in the hard kitchen chair. Sipped my Coke and mulled this new information.
Julie sat forward. “Okay, what wheels are turning in that fucked-up skull of yours?…Quarry, are you trying figure out a way to make a buck again? Squeeze Daddy over Janet?”
I flicked her a little frown.
Her eyes went big and her smile was big, too. “Don’t tell me…don’t tell me you really fell for my dowdy ol’ big sis…? The degenerate hardass and the maiden librarian…Didn’t I see that on Lifetime?”
“I’m going to help her,” I said.
She didn’t seem to be sure whether to be amused by that or not, and just asked, “Help her where Daddy’s concerned? How the fuck?”
“Will you help me do it?”
She smirked. “Sure. Do what? ”
“ Will…you…help? ”
She shrugged magnanimously. “Sure-why the fuck not? My sister is the only relative on the planet that I give two shits about, and anything that gives Daddy a bad day is my idea of a good time.”
“Swell.” I rose. “I’m going to call her at the library.”
“Okay.” She watched me go to the kitchen’s wall phone. “You want privacy?”
“No.”
The library was on a short list of numbers posted by the phone (Rick’s had a line through it; mine at the motel was added on) and I dialed.
“Homewood Public Library,” Janet’s voice said pleasantly. “Help Desk, this is Ms. Wright, how may I help you?”
“Like you did last night,” I said, “is just fine.”
Her voice warmed up. “Hi, Jack.”
“Listen,” I said lightly. “Your sister dropped by the apartment, and we’re getting along famously.”
“Oh! Completely forgot about Jules! I should’ve mentioned her, Jack, sorry…but she didn’t say when exactly she was coming. She’s kind of a…you know, free spirit.”
I glanced over at Julie. She was standing next to the kitchen table, now, slipping out of the t-shirt. She tossed it on the table and stood there grinning at me, fists Superman-style on her hips, the nice little pierced-nippled breasts bare and perky and proud.
My dick twitched.
“Free spirit, huh?” I said to the girl’s sister. “I noticed…How about after work the three of us meet for a drink, grab a bite together?”
“Great! I’ll go straight to Sneaky Pete’s, unless you’re sick of it.”
“No, that’s fine. See you there.”
We exchanged ’byes, I hung up, and the little topless punkette was right there, right on me, wrapping her arms around me, pushing me to the wall, cornering me like she had at Harry and Louis’s cabin.
“I’m not on the rag now,” she said with a wicked smile and a single arched eyebrow. “You finally ready for that reward?”
I put my hands on her hips, held her away from me at arm’s length, and took a long, leering look at her and she grinned, pleased with herself.
Then I pushed her away. “Get your shirt on before your nipple rings rust.”
She backed off and appraised me, frowning; now I finally could see the resemblance between the sisters-the tips of Julie’s breasts were long, too.
“Turning me down again, Quarry?”
“I seem to be.”
I wasn’t sure if that had been a test or if she was just a little cockhound.
Maybe the former, because after she slipped the black t-shirt on, she winked at me and said, “Okay. Okay. Maybe you really do like my big sis.”