"Harlow doesn't want to be friends with me. She needs girlfriends to shop and gossip with when Rafael's not around. I'm great at gossiping, sure, but shopping sucks."
Darla hands me a cup of coffee while I cook. "Are you staying with me today?"
I glance back at Minka, who frowns. "I need to go to the office to see what info Saskia extracted."
"From Mistress Agony?" Darla asks, frowning darkly. "Are you going to let her live?"
"She's already dead," Minka says, checking her phone. "Saskia sent us a coded message overnight. I can't understand half of what she's saying since she has a code that only makes sense in her head. I do know Mistress gave up Locke, and now she's dead."
Darla says nothing for a long time. I don't know if she's relieved to hear of Mistress Agony's death. I almost sense she's sad. Minka reaches out and studies the cut sections of Darla's hair.
"I fucked up my hair," Darla says.
"It's a good length for a bob. I bet you'd look sexy with one. I know I did."
Darla looks at me for reassurance. I hate seeing her so fragile again. I even wonder if I'll return to the apartment later to find her wearing giant sweats and hiding behind her hair again.
"The cops want to talk to us," Minka says. "We need to give formal statements before they lose their shit."
"Who'll stay with Darla?"
The answer arrives twenty minutes after we finish breakfast when Rafael and Harlow show up. I give Darla a good hard kiss to hold her over. She still grips my shirt until the very last moment.
Minka and I take the same car to the police station where we spend over an hour answering the same questions asked in dozens of ways. Knowing we have Locke's location and can organize a hit on him, I have no interest in pandering to the law.
When finally allowed to leave, Minka and I head to the office.
"Who will go after Locke?" she asks while we sit in traffic.
"Saskia should go. She's tiny enough to crawl in tight spots. Never know if we'll need that."
"Is that your way of telling me I have to stay behind?"
Glancing at her, I give her an earnest smile. "I need to know Darla's safe. None of the others can keep her calm, and I can't stay behind."
"Actually, you could."
"Would you stay behind if you were me?"
"No, but I'm very spunky. You're a dull fuck."
"Stop being jealous of my happiness. That kind of behavior is beneath you."
Minka leans her head against the window. "I'll get someone to come to the apartment to cut Darla's hair."
"Are you really cutting your hair too?"
"Sure. I've never had a girlfriend. Normally, women are just too sneaky for my tastes, and they lie too well. I prefer dumb easily readable men like you. Now that I have Darla, I'll give this friendship thing a try."
"You might be a bad influence on her."
"Said the pig man using her hot body for sex."
When I glare at Minka, she laughs and keeps on laughing for the rest of the drive.
"You're weird when you don't get enough sleep," I say, parking in the office indoor lot.
"Part of being a good girlfriend is telling a male interloper that I have my eye on him."
Minka gives me the "I'm watching you" gesture. I reply with my own hand gesture, which sends her into laughter again.
We find Saskia in her office. After she had spent the night torturing a woman, I guess I expected her to look shell-shocked. Instead, she's playing Mahjong.
"Manny and I disposed of the woman," she says without looking up at us. "We'll remove her body after dark."
Nodding, I glance around the quiet building. "I'm surprised the media haven't been hanging around. Apparently, they're creaming themselves over last night's shooting."
"They came," Saskia says, stretching. "We called the gang bangers and asked them to make their presence known. They drove by very slow in their low riders and scared the media vans away. Been quiet the last few hours. Tia's handling the phone calls by saying you two are on administrative leave. Whatever that means."
"That woman was Mistress Agony?" I ask, leaning against the doorway.
"Yes. She told us everything about Locke. Darla was the fifth Rose. The first one was his cousin. He has homes on both coasts, but she said he was hiding at the house in Oregon with Mister Pain."
"Are you sure she was telling the truth about his location?"
Saskia narrows her eyes at me. "I know how to extract information, Troy. By the time she broke, she was willing to sell out her own mother. Actually, she did, so, yes, I'm certain Locke is at his Oregon house. He's been hiding there since Darla ran from him."
"When do we go?" I ask.
"We're locating blueprints of the house and overhead maps to see how close his neighbors are to his home. We'll find the entry spot for his electrical, so we can put him in the dark and prevent him calling anyone for help."