Espresso Shot

“Bye, honey!” I shouted.

“See you tonight!” he shouted back.

He threw me a kiss and climbed into Sully’s car. I drew my head inside the window, went to the kitchen, and poured another cup of Mike’s coffee. Then I called the Sixth Precinct.

“Detective Lori Soles.”

“This is Clare Cosi, Detective. I’d like to talk to you one more time about Hazel Boggs…”

I didn’t dress for Trend’s offices. The sneakers, jeans, and sweater that I’d stashed at Mike’s apartment would have to do.

“Brea

“What?” Brea

I walked into her office, shut the door, and threw the lock. “I’m here to get your side of the story.”

“What story? I don’t understand?”

“I just spoke with Hazel Boggs’s mother. She’s downtown, collecting Hazel’s remains and personal items. Like her daughter, Rhonda Boggs looks just like you.”

Brea

“There’s no thinking about it.” I strode up to her desk and showed her my cell phone photos of Hazel, Rhonda, and a snapshot among Hazel’s possessions that linked both women to Brea

I reached into the back pocket of my jeans and unfolded the paper. The enlarged photo showed a young Brea

“I couldn’t read the smaller type on the magazine cover, so I looked up this issue on the library’s database. And guess what the cover story was titled: ‘Architect of Fashion,’ by Brea

Brea

“Randall Knox claims he knows what you and Hazel Boggs shared besides a physical resemblance. He obviously knows what I know, and on Monday he’s going to publish it.”

Brea

“Well, I certainly know a lot of it based on my interview with your younger sister. You were born Rita Boggs in a trailer park outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, the oldest of four children. After high school, you attended community college, but you were forced to drop out of school after only one year when your father, an ex-con who did time for armed robbery and attempted murder, got on his hog and rode away. Am I warm?”

“Okay, Clare. What do you want?”

“What do you mean, what do I want?”

“Everyone who comes to me with that story wants something. What do you want?”

“Brea

“I never met the girl, Clare. It’s been twenty years since I’ve even seen my sister. Now, what do you want to keep this quiet?”

“I don’t want anything! Clearly, you’ve cut all ties to your past. That’s the way you want it-and I can see now that’s why you expected Matt to cut his ties, too.”

“I don’t expect it anymore.”

“I’m glad to hear it. But, look, even though your background is your own private business, Matt should know the truth before you marry him.”

“No.”

“Why? You have nothing to be ashamed of. Your sister told me that you send her and your younger brothers money on a regular basis-”

“And I only ever asked them for one thing in return: to never speak of my background. Rhonda obviously forgot that bargain.”

“Don’t blame her for opening up to me. She believed I was working with the detectives who were investigating her daughter’s death-which I was, frankly. She had no idea I had a co

“She shouldn’t have talked to you, Clare. And she should have told me that Hazel was living in New York.” Brea

“Hazel didn’t want you to know. She knew you wanted your privacy. And she had her own pride, too. That’s how Rhonda put it. She said her daughter came to New York to make it on her own like her aunt did. Maybe Hazel never met you, Brea

“Is that so? And is that why she dressed like me to strip?”

“She only did it twice. The look-alike agency regularly booked her out as other celebrities. It was Randall Knox who saw the resemblance and paid her to imitate you. Your sister had no idea Hazel was hiring herself out as an exotic dancer to make ends meet.”

Brea

“She was very sad, of course. But she seemed okay, a survivor. Her husband came with her. She said she has two younger daughters and a son back home.” I stepped up to Bree’s desk and put down a piece of paper. “This is her hotel and phone number. She’ll be in New York until tomorrow morning if you want to see her before she leaves.”

Brea

“That’s ridiculous. You didn’t gun her down. And your life was in just as much danger.”

“But if I had known that Hazel needed money, she wouldn’t have had to do the exotic dancing. I could have helped her-”

“Like I said, according to your sister, Hazel didn’t want your help. She was proud of her looks, her talent. She wanted to make it on her own.” I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds a lot like you, from what Rhonda told me.”

Brea

“That you were barely out of your teens, yet you quit college to take care of your younger sister and brothers on nothing but food stamps and welfare checks. What you did was admirable, Brea

“My father was a criminal, and my mother was an alcoholic who ended up in a mental hospital. Not a very pretty past, Clare. I also did things, illegal things, for extra money. Did Rhonda mention that?”

“No.”

“Well, what’s the difference? In for a pe

“Rhonda said you were very smart, you made friends with the store buyers.”

Brea

“The one on the Vogue cover? How did you manage that from a trailer park in West Virginia?”

Brea

“And Vogue bought it? Just like that?”

“Fortune favors the foolish, I guess. The circumstances were unusual.”

“What do you mean?”

“The architect was no spring chicken. The man suffered a heart attack and died right before fall fashion week. The clothing line he helped create was a huge hit, and I had the only interview.”

“So your article ran as a Vogue cover story under a pen name you invented: Brea