There was another Southern Comfort waiting for me at the bar. The bartender dropped a fresh ice cube into it so that it overflowed on the imitation mahogany counter.

“From the gentleman.” He nodded in the direction of the latin, who glanced quickly at me, then away.

This does not happen to me often, strange men wanting to buy me drinks. The last had been Ed Harrison, and it still made me feel queasy to think how that had ended. This man was of medium build, but his forearms, which were propped on the bar, were enormous and muscular. I wanted to get a better look at him, but he was partially turned away from me. As if reading my mind, he swiveled suddenly to face me.

“You like to party, girlie?”

There was a deep vertical crease between his eyes, the kind you get from liver damage. He did not look like he was in the mood for fun. All around it was a pretty weird bar, and nothing about it made me feel inclined to linger. As I gathered my things, I took another quick peek at the photos of Cathy, comparing the head shot with the one in which she was naked. They had been taken at approximately the same time, I decided, since her hair was the same length and style in both. I looked up and saw the latin guy staring at the picture in which Cathy was naked. His eyes flickered up to mine. Hastily I stuck the photos in my purse. Naked, there was nothing erotic, only a sad vulnerability. That must be why I was feeling obsessed with her. Whoever she was, she had come to LA with dreams like mine. To be free and make it in the big city. But the city was full of bad characters and quick to punish.

Now she was dead.

Could I be chewed up, spit out, empty and wasted as easily as she had been? More and more I felt I had to find out who she was and what had happened to her. After dropping a couple of dollars onto the bar, I found my car keys at the bottom of my purse. I made a point of not looking at the latin, who now watched me hungrily. What did he want? Sex? To rob me?

“Thanks for everything. It’s been great. Hasta luego.” I was out the door.