I LOCATED THE LETTER RUBY had thrown out several days before in my pocketbook. I rotated between the three pages. Ruby’s threat, Paulette’s threat, and Ruby’s Dear John were all written in the same handwriting. I turned Ruby’s V-mail over and found that it was addressed in a different hand. Clearly, the same person wrote all three of these letters, but someone else addressed the V-mail. That meant the culprit was able to switch Ruby’s letter to Captain Montgomery with a note of his or her own and seal it up before Ruby addressed it.
But who would’ve had access to her mail?
“Is something the matter, Rosie?” asked Minnie.
I shoved the three letters back into my pocket and stood. “Not a thing. I don’t think Ruby’s going to show up. Maybe we should just call it a night.”
“You know Ruby—she’s always late.”
“True, but Jayne’s going to go goofy when she realizes I’m gone.”
“I think we should stay.”
I started toward the stairwell. “How about you stay, and I’ll see if I can intercept Ruby before she’s gets here?”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Minnie pulled a revolver out of her pocket. The iron was so new I could see my reflection in it.
“Fine, have it your way.” I grabbed air. “What’s this all about, Minnie?”
“You know the answer to that.”
“If I did, do you think I would’ve asked the question?”
The gun shook. It was heavy and she had trouble keeping it elevated. “It’s not fair. It’s not right to take advantage of them.”
“I haven’t taken advantage of anyone.”
Her eyes glazed over. “These men are being stolen away from us, and instead of honoring them, you’re looking for ways to bleed them dry. I won’t let you do it.”
I backed toward the door. “You’re tooting the wrong horn, Minnie. I’m not seeing anyone. I’m not part of this scam. In fact, I’m the one trying to stop it.”
She put both of her hands on the butt of the gun and rested a finger perilously close to the trigger. “I thought you were different, but then you went and saw that man at the Canteen again.”
“Peaches? I made it clear to him that all I wanted was a few dances. Ask him if you don’t believe me.”
The barrel of the gun swayed like it was a living, breathing creature. “And then there was that man who kept calling the house, wanting to talk to you.”
So that’s why I’d missed Paul Ascot’s calls and why Ruby had been upset that she hadn’t been getting Donald’s. Minnie was the one who’d intercepted them and who, presumably, saw to it that I didn’t get the message Norma left on our door. “You’re misunderstanding, Minnie. None of these men mean anything to me.”
Even I knew how bad that sounded.
Minnie’s hands shook again, and the revolver refracted the lobby light. “All the while your supposed boyfriend is missing in action. It’s probably killing you that he hasn’t been declared dead yet. After all, you can’t get his money until you have a death certificate.”
Things were going from bad to worse. “You’re misunderstanding things. I can see how you would, but I’m not like the others. Jack and I weren’t married, remember? I’m not waiting for money to come my way. I wouldn’t want it if it did.”
“Of course you are. You’re just like them. It’s a game to them. Do you know that? I’ve heard them talking about their conquests like they were baseball cards they’d collected. And why? So they could get money to buy expensive clothes and afford a nice uptown address. My dead brother paid for those things. And the sad part is if she’d ever really loved him, if he’d come home safe and started a life with her, he would’ve gladly bought her anything she wanted.” So that was the link. Paulette must’ve been married to Minnie’s brother, Mickey.
“She didn’t kill him, though. You must understand that, Minnie.”
She cocked the gun, and my stomach slid down to my ankles. “Don’t you understand the hope she gave them? Each of those men left this earth believing she loved them. Do you think my brother would’ve taken the risks he did if Paulette hadn’t kept telling him to be brave and strong for her? We didn’t want him to be brave and strong. We wanted him to come home. We wanted him to live to see another Christmas.” She began to cry. “And then to find out that she married again so soon afterward. Just like that, Mickey was forgotten. All of them were forgotten.”
The stairwell door banged open. As Minnie turned to the sound, I dove on her and grabbed for the gun. She fired once, and a storm of plaster rained down from the ceiling. I pinned her arms to the floor and pushed all of my weight against her until she lost her grip. She yelped in pain as I tossed the gun toward the figure by the doors. Ruby bent down and picked it up.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I’m going to guess the same thing you’re doing here. Minnie told me I was supposed to meet someone here at nine.”
It was 9:15. Ruby had, as always, kept us waiting.
Minnie began to sob from her place on the floor. “Someone has to stop them.”
I approached her in trepidation. If she attacked me again, would Ruby stop her? Or would she be too busy looking at her reflection in the gun’s surface? “Someone will stop them, Minnie. I’ve already told the Canteen what they’re up to, and none of them will be working there anymore. I won’t let any of them get away with it again. I promise.”
Minnie lifted her tear-stained face to mine. “You can’t promise that.”
“Sure I can.” I fished a handkerchief out of my pocket and passed it to her. “I’ve got friends who have ways of being persuasive. I imagine they could get those three girls to do just about anything they asked.”
Minnie was arrested that night for the murder of Paulette Monroe and the attempted murder of Olive Wright. She also owned up to being behind Ruby’s allergic reaction, though she claimed it wasn’t to kill her. Like her attempts to intercept our phone calls and the letter she forged to Donald Montgomery, she thought if she could keep Ruby and me from seeing these men, she might be able to save both them and us.
Ruby went home with Jayne and me. While she had to know what could’ve happened to her if she had been on time for once in her life, she was too wrapped up in playing the heroine to acknowledge that things might’ve turned out very differently.
“I suppose I owe you a thank you,” I said.
“That would be nice.”
I dug my nails into my palms. Being grateful to Ruby was a hard state to find yourself in. “And while we’re giving each other the things we deserve, how about you give me an explanation: Why have you been so awful to me?”
Ruby sighed and stared into the parlor fireplace. Blackened logs crackled as flames danced around them. “I wanted to keep you out of this. I thought if I made you feel unwelcome, if I planted enough doubts to make you uncomfortable with seeing another man, you might stay home. I guess I was wrong.”
I couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d lifted her skirt and shown me a wooden leg. “You were protecting me?”
“I suppose you could put it that way.” I was strangely touched. I’d never known Ruby to do anything that wasn’t for her own gain.
“What happened to your ring?” I asked.
Ruby looked down at her bare left hand. “I gave it back. George and I are through.” She put her hand to her neck and massaged her tendons. The necklace George had given her was also gone. The only souvenir of their relationship was the vase of once-yellow roses rotting in the middle of the parlor coffee table. “It was awfully tempting. The money. The gifts.”
“So why did you change your mind?” I asked.
“I do have morals, you know.” And ambition. Unlike Zelda and company, Ruby had considered what would happen if her soldier came home. She couldn’t stomach the thought of giving up her career.
There was no point in telling her that I knew this. Ruby had her own demons to live with.
“I’m glad you changed your mind about George,” I said. “But I have to say, I’m a little disappointed that you leaped at the chance to meet another man at the Bernhardt tonight.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Not as disappointed as I am.”
“I don’t get you.”
She fought a smile. “The call Minnie intercepted was from Lawrence Bentley. He’s on leave and begged me to see him.”
“Oh.”
“He may be arrogant, close-minded, and self-absorbed, but he never once told me I couldn’t be whatever I wanted to be.”
There was a lot to be said for a man like that.