Free Everybody Takes The Money (The Drusilla Thorne Mysteries) by Diane Patterson Page A

give me Courtney’s number.”

C HAPTER S IX

    AS SOON AS I told Courtney who was calling, she burst into tears and cried her way through saying she was sorry, oh my God she was sorry, but there was nothing she could do that would help me. She had to side with Roger.
    If that were true and she had no choice, she wouldn’t have called me. She either wanted me to tell her everything was all right, or she wanted something from me.
    In the absence of all other data, begin with the expectation that people want something from you. Which was fine. After all, I wanted something from her: to drop her affidavit. As a bonus, if she could help cause trouble for Roger, so much the better.  
    “Let’s calm down, love. I can’t talk to you like this. Take a few deep breaths. Breathe in...hold it...breathe out.”
    She actually did it. And she did become remarkably calmer after two breaths.
    “Is there a color that makes you feel calmer?”
    “Well...blue’s my favorite color.”
    “Blue’s perfect . Okay. Just feel that color flow through your entire body.”
    Within a few seconds she was relaxed and the tears were done.  
    “Wow, that was amazing,” she said.
    The next step was to get her to start saying, “Yes.” Saying “Yes” would make it easier for her to agree with me about a lot of things. It’s an old trick, but it works. “Is Roger with you right now?” I asked.
    “No,” she said.
    “Are you alone? Now, Courtney, I know you’re far from home and far from your family. You feel alone, don’t you?”
    “Well....” She didn’t agree, because maybe that would feel too disloyal to Roger.  
    “No, he ain’t up yet.”  
    “Okay, so it’s just us?” When she murmured, “Yes,” I responded, “Does he sometimes make you feel uneasy?”
    “Yes.”  
    “Courtney, you’re between Roger and me on this issue. And it’s hard, because you want to support your friends. My family has a saying, though. ‘Don’t borrow trouble.’ Have you ever heard that?”
    “We say that, too!” she said.  
    “If you had your family here, what would they tell you? They would tell you not to get involved in this, wouldn’t they?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “But you don’t want to tell them about what’s happened, because you’re afraid to tell them about Roger?”
    She let out the kind of sigh that signified she was letting go. “Yes.”
    “Okay. I think you might be happier if you get permission to leave this situation from someone who’s not me and not Roger. Is there anyone in this area who you trust? Someone who makes you feel as secure as you do with your family?”  
    She was quiet so long the only way I knew she was still there was her breathing.  
    “Maybe you have someone you trust to help you figure your way out of this?”
    “Well, there is one person.”
    Fabulous , I thought.  
    “Will you come with me?” she asked.  
    “Of course I will.” I high-fived Stevie, who’d sat next to me during the phone call, knitting.  
    And that was how I ended up meeting Courtney in a church parking lot in Tarzana.
    *   *   *
    When Courtney told me where to meet her in Tarzana, Stevie looked up the address, and then checked the address of where Courtney had worked when she was on the show. All of the girls on the show had had some kind of “day job” to show how they were supporting themselves while waiting for their big break, and Courtney had worked as a receptionist at a place that did financial counseling for people with credit troubles. On my way to my meet with Courtney, I took a roundabout detour by a small one-story strip mall in Panorama City, north of Van Nuys.  
    Panorama City was melodically named but not quite as easy on the eyes. Every street seemed to be four or six lanes wide, and every business had gigantic signs to catch the eye of the passing driver. More Hispanic, less business park development than other nearby areas of the Valley. I was glad for Stevie’s exact directions on how