Kelly shook her head but then she said, “No, we were her best friends.”
“Did Beverly use drugs?” Josie asked.
“No, no drugs. She just had her men, you know?”
“Men?” Gretchen prodded.
Kelly rolled her eyes. “That’s what she called them. I don’t even know if they were real. Beverly liked to talk. Thought she was hot shit. I mean, she kind of was. She could get any guy, really, but she also liked to tell stories, exaggerate. Whenever she had a crush on a guy, she’d act like they were seeing each other, even if they weren’t.”
Josie said, “Do you remember the names of any of these men?”
“She never told us their names. That’s why I’m saying it was hard to know if they were real or not. She talked about them all the time, but we never saw any of them or met any of them.”
“What did she tell you about them?” Gretchen asked, pen poised over her notepad. “Particularly in the months leading up to the last time you spoke with her.”
Kelly tapped ash onto the concrete. “She would tell us, like, what they said to her, like how much they complimented her and stuff and what they were like.”
Josie asked, “Was she having sex with any of them?”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “She claimed they all wanted to have sex with her, but I don’t know if she really was. Like I said, Beverly was a lot of talk. Most of what she said—about anything—was bullshit.”
But Josie knew not everything Beverly had intimated was bullshit since she’d been five months pregnant when she was murdered.
“How many men are we talking about?” Gretchen asked.
“Like, four,” Kelly answered. “I guess she might have really been sleeping with one of them, ’cause he had a tattoo she always talked about. Like it made him badass or something. Everyone’s got tattoos. But we were young and dumb then. Dating a guy with a tattoo was a big deal.”
“What kind of tattoo?” Gretchen asked.
Kelly shrugged and flicked some ash onto the ground. The light mist was turning into steady rain. “Don’t remember. It was big, though, I think.”
Josie said, “Where on his body? Did she say?”
Kelly took a few seconds to consider this. “I don’t really know. I don’t remember.”
Gretchen said, “But you remember she talked about four different guys.”
“Yeah. One of them was, um…” She stared at Josie and bit her bottom lip.
“Ray Quinn,” Josie answered. “She was seeing him?”
Kelly said, “She told us she was, like, behind your back, but I don’t think it was true. Every time I ever saw her try to talk to him, he never gave her the time of day.”
And yet, Beverly had been wearing his treasured jacket when she was murdered.
“What about the others?” Gretchen asked, moving the conversation away from Ray.
“She said they were older. Ray was the only high school guy she said she was interested in. One guy was doing work at her house or something.”
That tracked with what George Newton had told them. Josie asked, “If she never told you their names, what did she call them when she talked about them?”
“She had nicknames for them.”
Josie asked, “Do you remember what they were?”
Kelly shook her head. She took one last puff from her second cigarette and tossed the butt aside. “Nah, I don’t remember after all this time. Sorry.”
“Was there one she was more serious about than the others?” Gretchen asked.
“I don’t know if there was one she liked more than the others,” Kelly said. “But there was one who lost interest in her, and she was pissed.”
“Any idea who that might have been?” Josie asked.
“No, sorry.”
Josie said, “What about Beverly’s father? Did she ever mention him? Did she know who he was?”
“She didn’t know who he was, and all her mom would ever tell her was that her dad didn’t want to be involved. Beverly didn’t believe her, but I think that was just because she didn’t really want to believe that her own dad would want nothing to do with her.”
It was a sad detail of Beverly’s life, and Josie wondered what Vera Urban had been thinking when she had told daughter that. Josie wondered if there would have been a kinder way to explain Beverly’s father’s absence to her. Perhaps there wasn’t, without lying.
“What can you tell us about her mother?” Josie said. “Vera?”
“She was, like, disabled.”
“In what way?” Gretchen asked.
“She had a bad disc in her back. Had to take a ton of Percocet and oxycodones to do the simplest thing.”
“Was it from an accident or something?” Josie asked.
Kelly pulled out her crushed pack of cigarettes and shook another one out, lighting it. The rain pattered on the aluminum overhang. “It was a fight.”
Gretchen and Josie looked at one another. Josie knew Gretchen was thinking about the criminal record they’d found for Vera. A couple of speeding tickets and a dismissed charge for writing a bad check. Nothing violent.
“It wasn’t, like, at a bar or anything,” Kelly said, as if fights only happened in bars. “Her and Beverly got into a fight. They were always fighting. Beverly’s mom could be a real bitch. In middle school they got into a real doozy, and Beverly pushed her down the stairs.”
Josie said, “Beverly pushed her mother down the stairs?”
Kelly laughed, blowing a stream of smoke into Josie’s face. “That surprise you?”
“No, I guess not. I just assumed she only took out her anger on people she didn’t like.”
“What makes you think she liked old Vera? I’m telling you, Vera was a pain in the ass. Wouldn’t let Beverly do a damn thing. They never got along.”
“Do you know why?” Gretchen asked.
“Are you listening at all? ’Cause Vera was a bitch!”
“Okay,” Josie said. “Kelly, we have some other questions about Vera. You said she was disabled with a bad back. Do you know if she worked before that?”
“Oh yeah, she was a hairdresser. She stopped after Beverly knocked her down the steps. She had to. Couldn’t stand all day, she said. She had surgery on her back, but it just got worse.”
“Did Vera have a boyfriend?” Gretchen asked.
“No, she never did. Beverly used to tell her she needed to get laid and she should get a boyfriend and then Vera would say no man would have her because she had a rotten teenage daughter.”
Again, Josie felt a stab of sympathy for Beverly even though she hadn’t been able to muster any when they were in school together. Then again, Josie had had no idea what Beverly’s home life was like back then.
Josie said, “Just one last question, Kelly. Did Beverly ever mention anything to you about being pregnant?”
Her eyes widened. “No. Never. You think she was pregnant?”
“We really can’t discuss it,” Gretchen said. “How about any friends of either Beverly’s or Vera’s named Alice? Do you remember anyone named Alice?”
Kelly shook her head. “No. Doesn’t ring a bell.”