“Well,” Carmen asked.
“Very touching that she would write this to you or at least have started it, but I know that's not what you're talking about. A few things stand out and others just raise questions. I assume that you have the answers, which is why you wanted me to read this first.”
“Marcus,” Carmen said anxiously, wishing he'd get to the point.
“First off, it says Desireé Taylor Ferguson in the heading, but in the first line she's Desireé Marie Taylor. She seems unhappy with her life and she has been keeping things from you for various reasons. Carmen the sneak, jumped off the page at me.” Carmen smiled a shy smile. “I wish she would have finished that last sentence.”
“Doesn't it just scream, I think somebody is trying to kill me?”
“In retrospect, yes, but we have the benefit of knowing that she was murdered. But that's not the most interesting thing I see. This is not a complete sentence,” Marcus pointed at the screen.
“What's not?” Carmen asked and glanced at the screen. “Okay, so she didn't use perfect English. Loosen up a little, Marcus. I've been known to forget a modifier or two. And but, has started a lotta things for me,” Carmen smiled.
“I'll bet your butt has started some things, but that's not what I'm talking about.”
Marcus removed the check in the box which read; Hide Grammatical errors in this document, and clicked okay.
“See it now? See the green line. I don't love? It’s obvious that there are two spaces between those words. Like the name of who she doesn't love has been deleted. I think it screams I don't love Roland and Roland deleted it.”
“There's no way he could have, it had a password.”
“You got in, Carmen.”
“I guessed her password,” Carmen said, pushing out her chest with pride. Marcus blinked and inhaled deeply.
“That computer's been sitting there for a year. If he wanted to get in, a password wouldn't stop him. Carmen, your brother-in-law is a very resourceful man.”
“You're starting to think he did it, aren't you?” Carmen asked.
“Finish telling me about your day first. Then I'll tell you about mine. But getting back to that letter, Carmen, it does leave me with one big question.”
“Here it comes.”
“What's up with the, my so called friends just use me for money and my body. But you know there's nothing new or unusual about that. That's what I wanna hear about, girlfriend,” Marcus said smiling as he picked up the menu for room service. “Come on, give it up, Carmen.”
“Marcus, there was a whole lot that I didn't know about my sister. Well, I knew, but I didn't know how deep, until today. Remember I told you that I rebelled against my mother’s control by hanging out, getting high? Well, Dez had a different type of rebellion. Sex.”
“Sex.”
“Sex. While I was getting high to escape, Dez was having sex. I remember telling her that when I smoke weed I can't hear Mommy tripping and she looked at me and said; I know what you mean Carm, when I'm doing it and it’s good, I don't hear her tripping either. I couldn't have been more than sixteen and still a virgin then and here's my little sister telling me how good sex is.”
“Sex is escapism in its highest and most beautiful form.”
“So I've noticed,” Carmen said and rolled her eyes at Marcus. She pointed to one of the piles of letters on the bed. “Most of those letters and just about all of the email are sexually explicit. Poems, short stories,” Carmen paused. “Thank you notes.”
“Who are they from?”
“Most of them are from Robert Pettibone or they're poems that she wrote him. He was one of her toys. I found her phone book and I called him, but the number is disconnected. I saw two other names that I remembered, Axle Grant and Ira Stinson. I called both of them, but I didn't get an answer. Dez went out with somebody named India the night before she was murdered. I left a message for her.”
“Anything else?”
“I sent out that email. But now I'm afraid to read what I get back. I know where we can find Porsche Temple. So if you're going to order something, order it now, because we have some place to go tonight,” Carmen said and looked at Marcus. “That is if you don't already have something to do.”
“Where are we going, Carmen?”
“Porsche has girls dancing at two clubs; Pleasers and Goosebumps.”
“You want to go to Pleasers and Goosebumps? Do you know what kind of places those are?”