‘Wilson came in here in the afternoon and started drinking. A couple of hours later, Terrence Haggart came in – he was a regular.’
‘What was he like?’
‘Terrence Haggart thought the world owed him a living. He’d get aggressive with lottery tickets that didn’t have the right numbers printed on them.’
Ren smiled.
‘He was always disagreeing with people about sports or work or women. He would just pick the opposing view of whoever he was talking to. I’d see it played out in front of me every time. I used to hope he’d meet someone who would take him from his bar stool to a booth, so I wouldn’t have to listen to his bullshit. He was ignorant.’
‘Can I guess that you served him hard liquor?’ said Ren.
‘What – as opposed to soda?’
‘No. I just heard he was charming, depending what kind of alcohol was coursing through his veins.’
Billy rolled his eyes. ‘Sure, whatever. I guess in the early stages of an evening, yes. But it was the later stages that left the lasting impression on me. I mean, he had a party guy rep, but he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to party with.’
‘And what was Mark Wilson like?’
‘A heavy drinker, but a harmless one, from what I saw. He’d only been here once or twice before the night he disappeared.’
‘So what happened that night?’
‘I got the impression they knew each other. So it was all friendly until Haggart had one of his lottery-ticket meltdowns. Wilson started laughing at him. Haggart went ballistic and said if Wilson hadn’t owed him so much money, he wouldn’t have been in such a desperate need of a lottery win.’
Ren rolled her eyes. ‘God, alcohol sucks people into the most petty bullshit.’
‘Tell me about it,’ said Billy. ‘Anyway, they start punching the crap out of each other. I try and get between them. I break it up for a little while. Then Wilson starts calling him Terrence Jackpot Haggart. Haggart loses it, pushes him out into the parking lot, kicks the shit out of him and leaves him there. He comes back in for a few drinks. And a couple days later, we hear Wilson’s disappeared.’
‘How come you let Wilson leave alone when he was clearly so drunk, he had been beaten up, and it was a freezing cold night?’ said Ren.
‘Have you ever worked in a bar?’
‘Yes … when I was in college.’
‘Well, was it a nicer bar than this?’
She smiled. ‘It was in a five-star hotel. But … all bars serve alcohol. And last time I checked, alcohol has a pretty similar effect on people with pockets full of cash and people with pockets full of unobliging lottery tickets.’
Billy smiled. ‘OK. But at least you will acknowledgeit was a bar, not a day-care center.’
‘I will.’
‘And no matter what, the pretty girl serving the drinks on a tray doesn’t have to subdue the drunks,’ said Billy.
‘Ah, but I worked the door,’ said Ren.
‘What?’ said Billy.
She nodded. ‘So maybe you could have done with me that night.’
‘Maybe I could have,’ he said. ‘So, are you working the Wilson case?’
‘No,’ said Ren. ‘I said I’d look into it as a favor. I’m keeping track of my man-hours, so if it goes over a particular number, I will stop.’
‘How many hours?’
‘About one point five.’
He smiled.
‘Five,’ said Ren. ‘So that’s one lunch hour a day, one working week.’
‘I bet you don’t even do lunch.’
‘But I do delusion pretty well.’
She went over to the window. The snow was falling relentlessly.
‘Holy shit,’ she said. ‘How did that happen?’
‘What?’ said Billy.
‘It’s dumped, like, seven inches out there.’
‘Uh-oh,’ said Billy.
‘Shit.’
He came over beside her and looked out. ‘They might have closed McCullough Gulch Road.’
‘What?’ said Ren.
He nodded. ‘There’ve been too many accidents there.’
‘No way.’
He nodded. ‘Let me go call Traffic Watch.’
He came back with bad news. ‘Looks like we might be stuck here.’
‘This is a disaster,’ said Ren. She rubbed an arm across the window and looked out on to a black-and-white night. ‘Screw this.’ She turned around to him. ‘Did you listen to the forecast this morning?’
‘Oh, this is my fault?’ He was smiling. ‘I don’t want to be here either. I want to close up.’
‘You are closed up.’
‘I want to go home to my own bed, instead of …’ He threw a glance back behind the bar.
‘What’s back there?’
‘It’s not five star.’ He looked embarrassed.
‘Do you stay there a lot?’
‘No. Jesus. In the back of a shitty-ass bar like this? In the cold? In the middle of nowhere?’
Ren shrugged. ‘I don’t know what you’re into …’
‘Who’s into that?’
Ren stared back out the window. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.’ She went quiet, staring at a rising storm. ‘What will I do?’
‘Is there someone you can call?’ said Billy. ‘State patrol?’
‘No one’s going to be out in this weather. Anyway, by the time they make it out here, it will be the middle of the night and the storm will probably have passed. I’d rather stay here until four a. m …’ She turned slowly around. ‘I mean, if that’s OK with you …’
‘I’m sure whatever’s OK with you is OK with everyone. All the time.’
Screw you.
‘I didn’t mean you have to stay up talking to me until four a. m.,’ said Ren. ‘You can go ahead to bed. It’s not like I’m going to rob the place.’
‘I don’t know what you’d be like, let loose in a bar.’
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘That sounds interesting.’
‘No. Take it from me. It’s not.’ She turned back to the window. ‘Some proper insulation here might be good.’ She walked away and took a seat by the fire. ‘It’s at an annoying level,’ she said, pointing to it.
‘Its only level,’ said Billy. ‘The boss is tight. The heating’s OK, but he doesn’t want the fire to ever be turned up.’
‘Yeah,’ said Ren, stretching her palms toward it. ‘God forbid the place ends up looking cozy.’
‘Does