Chapter 6
1032 Words
SIX
“You are so busted,” Kelli said as Vivian walked into Dumbarton & Dumbarton, the downtown ad agency where she worked as a copywriter. Kelli rocked reception in short skirts, cleavage and a toothy Britney Spears smile. She was the office gossip and lived for dish like it was oxygen. “Where have you been? It’s like lunchtime.”
Vivian ignored the question. Kelli picked up the phone and tapped a number. “She just got here.” She listened for a moment, then put the phone down and looked up at Vivian. “In Donny’s office, like now.”
Donny Dumbarton was sitting back in his Aeron chair with his hands behind his head and his Nikes up on his desk when Vivian into his office. The walls were decorated with posters of all the ad campaigns he had taken credit for. There was a golf bag filled with clubs by the door. It was branded with a logo that showed a fat white cloud with a yellow thunderbolt and the words Cloud Cover wrapped around it.
Donny looked up at Vivian with a pained expression that was supposed to suggest how much it hurt him to push her around. He was stocky, in his 40s, with a goatee and a man bun, and he was the creative director at Dumbarton & Dumbarton. There was only one Dumbarton, but Donny thought repeating the name made the agency sound bigger and more important. But everybody knew it was all about making Donny sound bigger and more important, and referred to the agency as Dumb and Dumber behind his back.
“Where the hell have you been?” Donny said.
“I’m sorry, something came up,” Vivian said quietly.
Donny gave her a searching look. “You okay? You don’t look too good.”
“I think I’m coming down with something,” Vivian said.
“Well, don’t spread it around here,” Donny said. “But whatever you got, get over it, because I need you focused on the Cloud Cover business, okay? One hundred and ten percent. Take the afternoon off and be ready tomorrow to come up with some results.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
“Good. That’s what I like to hear.”
“You got a tagline yet?”
Vivian shook her head. “I’m working on it.”
“Work harder. The client’s not gonna wait around forever.”
Vivian nodded.
“Okay, that’s it, get out of here. Go be creative.”
Vivian walked out of Donny’s office in a daze. She’d barely heard a word he said. How could he expect her to care about a tagline when she’d walked in on a murder?
She ran into Terry in the corridor. Terry was tall and blonde and gay, and he was Vivian’s absolutely best friend. As far as she was concerned, gay men definitely made the best girlfriends. He was the only person who knew everything about her. But he didn’t know about Joanna.
“Hey you, where have you been?”
“I have to talk to you,” Vivian said.
“Sure, girlfriend, is everything okay?”
Vivian shook her head.
“Okay, c’mon, let’s get out of here.”
They walked to the Embarcadero and sat on one of the benches facing the bay. It was sunny and bright in the city, with an offshore breeze. The Embarcadero Promenade was a walkway that ran along the bay from Fisherman’s Wharf to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. You couldn’t beat the Embarcadero for waterfront views, and on weekends the promenade was crowded from one end to the other with tourists, cyclists, joggers and parents pushing strollers. But on weekdays it was filled with office workers who spent their lunch hour eating a sandwich or a salad and looking out at the Bay Bridge and the yachts and sailboats dotting the bay.
Terry looked at her. “So what happened?”
Vivian paused. She looked out at the water and for no apparent reason thought about scattering Joanna’s ashes.
“I’m really freaked out. I don’t even know how to talk about it.”
“Just start at the beginning. Tell me what happened.”
“Murder. That’s what happened.”
Terry’s jaw dropped, revealing the nicest set of perfectly white teeth. His eyes widened. Vivian noticed that they were blue. He liked to wear different colored contact lenses every day of the week, and he got off on the way people would look at him and do a double take, as if to say, “Weren’t your eyes green yesterday?”
“Murder! Who? What are you talking about?”
“I was with her…and now she’s dead…and I saw her dead…and I can’t stop seeing it.” Vivian buried her face in her hands.
Terry put his arm around Vivian and pulled her close.
“I can’t believe she’s dead…that somebody wanted to kill her,” Vivian said. “ She looked up at him. “We spent the night together…I don’t understand…” She wiped her eyes, then said, “I guess I owe you an explanation.”
While Terry listened, Vivian filled him in on her night with Joanna, and her discovery of Joanna’s body. When she was finished they both fell silent. Vivian could hear the seagulls calling one to another as they swooped over the bay.
Then Terry said, “I don’t know what to say…it must’ve been awful for you to find her like that.”
“I wish I could stop thinking about it, but I can’t.”
“Do the police have any leads?”
Vivian scoffed. “Yeah, me.”
“What are you gonna do now?”
Vivian shrugged. “I’m just gonna go home. Donny Dumb gave me the rest of the day off.”
“You want some company?”
Vivian shook her head. “I think I just need to be alone right now.”
Terry gave a helpless shrug. “I’m so sorry, girlfriend.”
Terry accompanied Vivian to the cable car stop across the street from the agency. Tourists were shooting smartphone pics while they waited for the cable car.
“I want to know what happened to her, Terry.”
“I’m sure the police will figure it out.”
“Wish I could figure it out.”
Terry stared at her. “Are you kidding me? Who are you, Nancy Drew? Just because you read mysteries it doesn't mean you’re a detective.”
Vivian shrugged it off as if it were a minor detail. She heard the ring of the cable car’s bell. “Whatever. I got a right to know what happened. This whole thing’s turned my life upside down.”
The cable car rattled to a halt and she climbed onboard. Terry watched her with a worried look on his face as the cable car rolled away from the stop and headed up the California Street hill.
- Writer
