eb93c43e214c621f9157c05b4b6a6878

“Murdered,” Chase clarified. “Presumably by the same person. So if you could please tell us if you knew either Calista or Dotty we would be most grateful.”

“Oh, my God,” said the woman, and dropped down next to Odelia, visibly shaken.

Turns out they did work for Calista, in her capacity as owner of this massage parlor, as the ladies referred to Star Calypso. The one who’d addressed us had worked for Calista the longest. Her name was Rilla Nyzio and she had also known Dotty well. The other girl, Tosha Hinchliffe, had only started working for Calista recently, and wasn’t much help.

“This is just awful,” said Rilla. “I’ve known Dotty since she started working here, maybe a little less than a year ago? She used to work for a caterer but said it was boring work for a measly pay. Here she had the opportunity to make a lot more money in a short amount of time. And she did.She was probably the most popular of all of Calista’s girls.”

“Do you recall Dotty having trouble with a customer at any point?” asked Odelia.

“No trouble. She was very well-liked.”

“Her boyfriend, maybe? Mitch…”

“Utz,” Chase supplied.

“I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend,” Rilla said.

“She mentioned a boyfriend to me,” said her friend Tosha. “Said she hadn’t told him about what it was she did for a living. She thought he probably wouldn’t approve.” She shrugged. “My boyfriend doesn’t know either. I’m sure he wouldn’t like it if he knew.”

“Do either of you maybe have a list of clients of the salon?” asked Chase.

Both girls shook their heads.“Only Calista kept a list of the clients,” said Rilla. “She kept it on her phone. All the calls came through her and she made the bookings.”

“No one else worked with her?” asked Odelia.

Another shake of the head.“She was very discreet,” said Rilla. “Usually when a client liked a girl, he stayed with her. Calista didn’t like us to swap clients if she could help it.”

“I did have one of Dotty’s clients once,” said Tosha. “Dotty was unavailable and he ended up with me.”

“Do you remember a name?” asked Chase, taking out his notebook.

Tosha frowned.“Um… Dewey something? He owns a car dealership. Sells these really fancy Italian cars. He took me there and I could choose my own car for the night. I chose a red Bugatti. I love Bugatti. Wish I could afford one.”

“Must be Dewey Toneu,” said Odelia. “I attended one of his VIP customer events where he introduced his latest collection of Italian supercars. A very glitzy shindig.”

Chase nodded.“Thanks,” he told the two girls, then handed them each his card. “If you can think of anything else, don’t hesitate to call.”

“There is one other thing,” said Rilla. “I just thought of it now. Calista’s husband Dave was in here a couple of days ago. Him and Calista had a flaming row. They were in the office at the back, but I could hear them all the way here in the salon.”

“That’s right,” said Tosha. “I was also here when that happened. It was so scary.”

“It only lasted about half an hour or so, and just when I was worried that Dave might have done something to Calista, and wondered if we should call the cops, he came storming out of her office and disappeared. He looked as if he could have murdered her.”

“Calista’s office is at the back?” asked Chase.

“Yeah, I’ll show you,” said Rilla, and led us in that direction.

“We haven’t found her phone,” Odelia explained. “So maybe she left it here.”

“Impossible,” said Rilla with a laugh. “That thing was glued to her hand. She took it literally everywhere. It was her office, her connection to her girls, her clients, everything.”

“How was she to work for?” asked Odelia.

“Oh, she was just the greatest. She was like a mama bear to us. If a client got a little rowdy she was the first to tell them to back off or else. She didn’t care if she lost that client. Well, here we are,” she said as she opened the door and led us into Calista’s office.

It was cramped, as offices go, and pretty sparsely decorated, and it only took Chase a quick search to determine that there was no computer and no phone there either.

“Not even a notebook or a calendar,” he grumbled as he pulled off his plastic gloves.

“I told you,” said Rilla. “She kept everything on that phone of hers. She once told me that if she lost it she’d be ruined. She never let it lie around. Even took it into the bathroom and kept it next to her bed at night.”

Chase and Odelia thanked Rilla, and then closed and locked the door to Calista’s office and pocketed the key. He explained that a forensic team would drop by to give the office a more thorough search, and also the rest of place, then told Rilla and Tosha to go home. Star Calypso was now closed for business.

Chapter 9