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PART I
SPEAKING IN TONGUES

38-C
(Please note: This is a long-ass chapter, with yet more answered questions. I’ve split it in four [yes, four] parts.)

“What do you mean what happened. The girl’s pregnant. What’d you think happened?”

Albright took a deep breath. “She doesn’t remember any of it.”

Trey scowled. “I was there. It happened. I got cats in here all the time, swear they weren’t in the Great War, then get drunk and spill their dirty little secrets. I’ll allow as how I wouldn’a thought Marina’d take that tack.”

“Liz thinks she was drugged.”

It took a few shocked seconds for Trey to get through that. “Drugged?” he croaked.

“We’ve fostered many girls in the past couple of years who don’t know how they got pregnant. Liz gives them the lecture and they say, ‘He did that to me.’ Marina swears she never did that with you and the mechanics made her ill. Marina’s been running with Dot since first grade, so Liz’s sure she’s telling the truth. There are gaps of time in her very detailed and boring diary, but a couple of very telling dreams.”

Trey dug into his eyeballs. “God almighty,” he whispered. “That explains that.” Trey was ashamed to feel utter and complete relief that Marina was only Hyde when she was high. No high, no Hyde.

“Explains what?”

“I … knew,” Trey began slowly, “something was wrong with Marina. That first time. She was, uh … ”

Albright held up a hand. “Don’t want to know.”

Trey shook his head. “Not where I’m going. She was, uh … carefree. Yeah. That. Carefree. She was laughing without blushing and— Not flirty, but not quite herself. More herself, or what I thought was wantin’a get out of her. I thought she was finally comfortable with me, ready to cut loose but still be a good girl like Dot. Breezy, Gio says. You know. Now, Dot apparently knew somethin’ was wrong, but not in time and she ain’t savvy enough about bad people to suspect anything like that anyway.”

“I suppose.”

“I didn’t have any plans to seduce Marina that afternoon. She looked at me like I was dinner so I kissed her. She kissed me back. I was surprised, pushed my luck a little and there it was. The next day, she’s back to her own self, shy, blushing, which I figured she would be, so I didn’t say anything about it.”

Albright’s brow wrinkled. “Uh … Was she asleep at any point in time while you were together?”

The question surprised Trey. “Not … before. She did zonk out after, but lotsa folks do that. Why?”

“She sleepwalks. Talks in her sleep. The first few times it happened at our house, we thought she was awake, but she didn’t remember. One night, she stood up in bed and recited the Gettysburg Address. We talked to her, but she didn’t acknowledge our existence, then laid back down and closed her eyes. That’s when we knew she was never awake, didn’t remember.”

Trey blinked in disbelief. “I … don’t know what to say. If she was drowsy before we did the deed, she didn’t act like it. Not the first time, not the two times after, both of which she instigated. She surprised me both times. Then she’s shy the next day, blushing at the slightest tease and whatnot, same as always. I decided I wasn’t gonna grill her about why or how she felt or anything. I was just gonna thank my lucky stars I had a clear path to the speak. After the third time, I’m done. I can’t do it anymore ’cuz I got no good options gettin’ out of it. But she was not asleep until she was worn out.”

“That’s when Gio broke up with Dot?”

Trey nodded. “I decided to start easing out of Marina’s life. Didn’t wanna burn my bridges. But I’m shamed to admit, I did not like that Marina. I wouldn’t’a married that one.”

Albright’s eyes narrowed.

“But I also wouldn’t’a courted her long enough to do the deed an’ I ain’t givin’ a girl like that sweet tea without her permission. Oh, hell, I wouldn’t give it to anybody I wanted to fuck.”

“Sweet tea?”

“You know I keep gigolos, right?” Trey asked abruptly. “Main clientele is men. Gio ’fess up to that too?”

Albright nodded tightly.

“They use an aphrodisiac that keeps ’em hard and goin’ all night long. They have to, to fuck some of the people they do. Lot stronger’n Spanish fly. I keep a sharp eye on ’em because some people can’t leave it alone once they’ve had it and I can’t have my earners strung out on it. The girls use it when they have certain clients coming in. ’Sides which, nobody in my whorehouse will fuck anybody who’s loaded up on coke or sweet tea. Job’s hard enough without bein’ behind the eight-ball like that.”

“You deal it?”

“’Course I do. I deal everything if it’ll make me a buck. My dope’s premium shit. Not cut with nothin’, like my booze ain’t doctored rubbin’ alcohol or watered down with tobacco spit.”

“Do you have anybody who might have done it?”

He had at least a dozen people who thought it was a good idea, including one of his tenants. He had thirteen whores who used it and kept it in their rooms. However, Trey couldn’t think of one who’d have had the opportunity, and said so.

“Have you used it?”

“I tried it. Didn’t do anything different for me, upped the dose, still didn’t, upped it again, still didn’t but my heart was thumping outta my chest, couldn’t breathe, scared the shit outta me, so I figured it just didn’t work on me. Nothin’ does. Can’t even get properly drunk. But I see it here, almost always couples or they’re putting it in their own drinks ’cuz a cat’s not gonna dope his girl up if he can’t go as long as she can. Or they snort it like cocaine. Put it on their food like salt. What’s good about it is they get all relaxed and happy ’stead o’ gettin’ loud and mad or cryin’ and passed out, like on booze. So even if they’re not rarin’ to go, they’re still good company.”

Albright’s mouth pursed. “Do people who use it remember anything in the morning?”

“Hell, I don’t know, but if I’s a whore, I wouldn’t wanna remember that shit, either.” Trey made a note to ask as soon as possible. “Look, Albright. You and I both know she’s a bit tetched in the head. Standin’ up in bed at three o’clock in the mornin’ reciting the Gettysburg Address, for God’s sake. That’s pure lunatic. Maybe it tripped something upstairs.”

He shrugged his concession.

“But I swear on whoever I value’s grave, which I don’t, so take that for what it’s worth, I did feel like something was off, but I did not drug her.”

“I believe you,” Albright muttered. “Gio said you weren’t as happy about owning the speak as you should be and you were moping around.”

Trey shrugged.

“Why didn’t you tell TJ to suck eggs? He would’ve kept his promise to let you continue on.”

“I should’ve, goddammit!” Trey pounded the table. “I was thinking, what if something happens that shifts power Lazia’s way, tryin’a clever myself out of a trap, but instead I chose the wrong thing, which is normal. But you know what? I didn’t choose the speak over Marina. Hell, the threat of torchin’ it woulda made me stop and think about it first, but then he went an’ threatened Gio. I chose Gio and my people over Marina. I knew she’d wind up in a decent situation after all the hullabaloo died down but I didn’t make a deal with Marina. I made one with my people. It boiled down to this: If Boss Tom was still my employer, I couldn’t guarantee things would stay the same.”

Albright looked shocked. “You would’ve taken Marina over the speak in other circumstances?”

“Yes,” Trey shot back. “And I should have! I shouldn’t’a taken the bet in the first place, but I have made every bone-headed move I could possibly make since Boss Tom stuck me here to keep it limpin’ along. Now, if I’d’a known she was drugged, it wouldn’t’a happened. I don’t take kindly to customers tryin’a force themselves on my whores, so I sure as hell ain’t gonna rape a girl, and drugging her’s the same thing. I will admit that I was surprised by Marina’s behavior and probably shoulda thought that through, but I didn’t, same way I haven’t thought through any other goddamned decision I’ve made. An’ hell if I don’t feel like a chump now too.”

Albright gave him a gallic shrug.

They were quiet for a long time while they nursed their drinks, and Trey ordered up a steak for the bishop.

“I’m curious,” Trey said when Albright’s food came and he dug in without so much as a thanks. “What’d your wife do to get Scarritt run outta town?”

“My wife was part of that congregation long before Scarritt was hired, before she joined our church, so she left a couple of friends behind, then her friends left when Scarritt was hired. She went to them, laid it out raw. They told their husbands. Things snowballed. Rumors and secrets came out.”

“Scarritt’s women?”

“Named names, but better than that. Marina is the Scarritts’ grandchild.”

38C

If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.

Speakeasy staff.