Emily's Seams
Chapter 15: Tula Bing

I was exhausted when I got home the next morning. But good exhausted. I felt like I had drunk too much but it had been worth it. I don’t know why I did what I did but it didn’t matter right then. I crawled into bed and slept until noon.

I thought about going in to work for a half day and then decided against it. Instead, I called in sick unapologetically and then got on my computer and tackled the mystery of Dolly’s demise from a different angle. Listings for Tula Bing, Las Vegas. Despite this being one of the most unusual names I had ever heard, Google still found me four listings.

I got to it right away. The first three were all escorts that were severely pissed that someone named Dolly was passing their name around. I tried to explain to the first that Dolly had just named Tula as a friend, that I wasn’t sure if this was the right Tula, but that sent her off the deep end.

“What? There’s more than one Tula Bing? Those bitches are probably stealing all my clients!”

I hung up. With the next two I just didn’t even bother getting that far.

The fourth was something different.

“No, Tula’s my grandma. She doesn’t live here anymore.”

“Oh. You don’t know where I could get in touch with her, do you?”

“Yeah, sure. She’s at the Springs old folks home. Want the number?”

“That would be great.”

After three nurses, one doctor and the janitor, somehow I had gotten a resident of the Springs Retirement Center on the phone.

“Hi, Ms. Bing?”

“Who?”

“Tula Bing?” I was almost shouting now.

“What? Tula? That’s my roommate.”

Fuck. “Oh. Could I speak to her please?”

“What?”

“Could you go and get her? I really need to talk to her!”

“Oh, you want to talk to Tula? Why the hell did these idiots give me the phone?”

“I don’t know. Sorry.”

“What? Sorry? Oh don’t be sorry, there’s a bunch of useless tits running the show around here. Hold on a sec.”

I heard some muffling and after a few long minutes another person got on the phone.

The voice was raspy and hard. It twisted hello into something almost frightening.

“Hi, Tula Bing?”

“Yeah, who’s this?” This woman had rough edges all around. I wondered if she let her grandchildren call her Nana.

“Hi, my name’s Emily. My mom was friends with someone I think you used to work with. I’m just trying to track her down.”

“Oh yeah, what’s your mom’s name?”

What had I told Francine’s brother? “Doreen Simmons. She said her friend’s name was Moira Seeley but most people called her Dolly.” Whoever Doreen was, I was going to have to send her flowers and an apology note for pretending that she was my mother on now two occasions.

The other end of the line was quiet. I was about to say something when Tula’s raspy voice made me stop short.

“Are you a cop or something? Trying to make a name for yourself?”

“What? No, I really just want to find Dolly.”

“Hmph. Well, some friend your mother is. Dolly’s dead. She’s been dead for years.”

“Oh. She said they lost touch after Dolly left Jersey.”

“Yeah, Las Vegas will do that to people.”

“Ms. Bing, when did she die?”

Tula sighed heavily. “I don’t really know. She’s been on the missing persons list since the seventies. And if you are full of shit and really are a cop, you put down that I told those bastards what I knew had happened to her, but that they didn’t do shit about it.”

My stomach clenched like a fist. “What are you talking about?”

“Dolly was picked up for her last gig at Big Jimmie’s. A retirement party for a bunch of cops. She was moving over to the Riviera after that. Even stole her new costume for her last gig at Jimmie’s.” She laughed. “Oh Jesus help us, that girl felt like a princess in that little red and blue jumpsuit. Not once did it get into that thick head of hers that she looked like a streetwalker. I told that son-of-a-bitch that sending his girls out like that was dangerous. He didn’t give a shit about any of them and Dolly, well...if your mom was any friend of hers she’d know that as sweet as that kid was, she was dumber than a sack of shit.”

“She was murdered?”

“Never saw her again but there ain’t no other explanation. Brute cops got too drunk and messed around with her. Not like she’d be the first girl to go missing in Las Vegas. I tried to tell the cops in charge of her case what I knew but they didn’t want to hear it of their own. Got my windshield smashed in and my tires slashed. All sorts of crank calls telling me to keep my mouth shut. Would’ve gone out there and found Dolly myself but I had a kid. I couldn’t be doing that.”

“She was never found?”

“No. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure it all out, especially after seeing the guilty looks down at the station.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that. I don’t know if I should even tell my mom that. She’s pretty old.”

“Who’d want to know that kind of shit? Nah, I think you’ve got it right. Tell her Dolly got appendicitis or something classy like that.”

“Yeah, I just might do that. Thanks, Ms. Bing.”

“Sure. Guess it’s nice to know that someone is still thinking about that sweet girl besides me.”

And she hung up.

I felt sick. If I had thought for one second that this was even a possibility, I wouldn’t have asked to take this on in the first place. Now I was stuck with this and I didn’t know what to do with it. How could I tell Dolly this? Nobody except the bartender gave a crap.

This was too much too soon. I had been alone and safe for so long but now I felt alive. It was terrifying.

My backpack was full of new magazines and junk food as I headed off to the forest. I walked past Shirley from the lab but she took one look at me and kept on walking. Guess she was still pissed about her rotten tissue samples.

I wondered if she would tattle on me. Go ahead, tell my crappy boss that I’m not actually dying, I thought.

And then I wondered if Robert had made it to the lab that day. The thought of him made me smile like an idiot.

The day was bright and sunny and that helped a little. I still hadn’t decided what to say to Dolly but I felt myself definitely leaning one way.

Angus was waiting outside.

“Hey, how’d you know I’d be here at this time?”

He chuckled. “You think I’ve got anything better to do than wait out here for you? Besides, it’s just odd in there. Dolly moping about and Francine and Doug looking more like angels every day.”

“What?”

“Well, like you said, they didn’t seem to mind knowing. It’s changed them. They’re...lighter. For the love of God, tell me you found something for Dolly. That woman has been shaken with a serious case of the blues. I don’t know what to do for her.”

“Yeah, I did.” The reluctance in my voice was clear. I couldn’t hide it.

His eyes widened. “Is it bad?”

I nodded. “I don’t know what to do, Angus.”

He took a drag from his cigarette and thought for a long moment. “You’ll know. For some reason you found us, so I know you’ll do the right thing.”

“Yeah, right.”

“A little bit of advice? Honesty isn’t always the best policy. Anyone that says different is full of shit or has alienated everyone with the truth.”

I looked up at him as he tucked his cigarette away. “What if the truth is the point? What if that’s what made Francine and Doug the way they are now?”

“Well, the way I see it is that if Dolly doesn’t get out of this funk she’s in from you telling her something nice, you can always tell her the truth later on. I never believed that truth telling was a one shot deal.”

I nodded and we went inside.

Francine and Doug did look lighter and the change from yesterday was noticeable. Dolly looked horrible.

“Hey, that information you gave me really panned out.”

Her big eyes got unbelievably bigger. “Really? So how’d it happen?”

I looked over at Angus and picked up on the faintest of nods.

“Appendicitis. You had gotten a job at the Riviera and didn’t want to miss your first shift. Tula said you did really well even though you were dancing through your appendix bursting. By the time you took a rest it was too late.”

Dolly gasped and put a hand over her mouth. “I got hired at the Riviera?”

Of course that’s what she would fixate on. “Yeah, you did. That’s their old costume.” I said, pointing at her ridiculous outfit.

“Appendicitis? Is that bad?”

“Yeah, pretty bad.”

“Well golly gee. Guess I was just too excited to notice!”

I stayed for a while and didn’t notice any changes in Dolly like I had in Doug and Francine, but she was definitely happier. Even Francine listened to her gush about how she’d made it.

Angus stepped out of the room with me and breathed in the musty air of the old hospital.

“Well, Dolly seems pretty happy.” he said.

“Yeah, I think so. I hope it worked.”

He looked at me. “So that wasn’t the whole truth?”

I shook my head. “She did actually get hired on at the Riviera.”

He nodded and looked away. “Probably for the best. You’ve got some crocodile skin on you and if it made you a little green thinking about how she died then I’m thinking it might have made Dolly pass out.”

“Yeah, I think so too. It was pretty bad.”

He didn’t ask and I respected that. What good would it do him to know?

“Okay, well I should go before it gets too dark.” I turned to leave.

“Emily?”

“Yeah?”

“Who’d you lose?”

My stomach knotted up. “What do you mean?”

He took a step towards me. “I mean that you found four spooks living in a wall. You got to know us and decided to do some investigation. Why? Why are you so comfortable with us? With all this...”

“Death?”

“Well, yeah.”

He waited. I didn’t know what to say so the truth came out. But just a little.

“I lost my mom when I was twenty and then my sister died when I was twenty-four. I guess I am a little too used to this.”

Angus nodded. “Yeah, that’s a bit much I suppose. Least you still got your old man around, huh?”

A surprised laugh escaped me. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Look, I really gotta go.”

“Alright now. We’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll try.”

No. Don’t think I’d try.

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