Jack Daniels and Associates: Snake Wine by Bernard Schaffer

wash away the filth.
    Once they were cleaned off, I wiggled out of my panties and bra, a nice peach colored thong and pushup bra, and I was glad they weren't ruined too. They set cost almost a hundred bucks at Victoria's Secret. I dropped everything into the washing machine and headed up the stairs, walking through the house naked, wondering if I'd remembered to close the blinds on all my windows.
    I made it halfway through the living room before realizing I hadn't. If anybody was looking in through my front windows at that moment, they were getting a free show. To hell with it, I thought. What's the point of worrying about what I eat and drink all the time if nobody ever gets to see the results anyway?
    I headed up the stairs and turned on the shower, letting the water get piping hot and fill up the bathroom with a thick layer of steam before climbing in. The water pelted my back and sides and hips, and I just stood there, letting it massage me, and purify me and wash away the grime and the worry of the day.
    Tomorrow everything would be better, I told myself. Tomorrow, all of this would seem worth it, for sure.
     

7.
    The day started around two o'clock in the morning, right after she'd just fallen into a state of floating semi-consciousness that had good potential. It felt like it might even finally lead to something resembling sleep, when the phone rang. She rolled over and squinted to see the name HERB BENEDICT HOME on the phone's screen and shot upright in bed, hammering the answer button. "You son of a bitch, where the hell have you been?" Jack shouted.
    The woman's voice was quiet on the other line when she said, "It's Bernice, Jack."
    "Jesus, I'm sorry," Jack said, pressing her hand to her face. She felt a dull throbbing in the side of her head from not sleeping. It was like someone was slowly carving out her skull with a spoon. "I thought he came home."
    "No," Bernice whispered. "I need to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest with me."
    "All right," Jack said.
    "Was there ever another woman?"
    Jack paused, squeezing her temples with her fingers, trying to stop them from throbbing.
    "Jack? You're not answering me. I guess that's my answer."
    "No," Jack said. "Not that I know of. I don't think so."
    "Think?"
    "I mean, not that he ever said."
    "I've been married to a cop long enough to know when someone isn't telling the whole truth, Jack," Bernice said. "I need you to be honest with me. Please."
    Jack lied back down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling fan. There was half an inch of dust on its blades. She closed her eyes and said, "We interviewed a bartender who said Herb was last seen talking to a pretty Asian woman. He might have left at the same time she did. Now, we're not sure if he did, and that doesn't mean they left together, you understand? It's just one witness's statement and they hardly ever turn out right. The most important thing is to stay positive and keep looking until we get an answer."
    When Bernice didn't answer, Jack said, "You okay?"
    Surprisingly, Bernice let out a small laugh and said, "A pretty Asian woman? That's preposterous. Herb?"
    "I know, right?" Jack said, finding herself laughing now too.
    "I mean, maybe if he thought she was going to cook for him."
    "The only Asian that ever tempted Herb Benedict was a General named Tso."
    "This is so crazy," Bernice said. Her laughter was gone then, a short-lived thing like a comet flashing across a dark sky, only to be swallowed instantly by thick storm clouds. "I can't believe he'd leave me like this. I just can't believe it."
    "If it helps," Jack said, "I'm not ready to believe it either, and until I am, we're going to keep looking."
    Even after she hung up the phone and closed her eyes, desperate to sleep off the throb in her head, she could not. She'd playfully teased her body with finally getting some rest, and it was now paying her back by refusing to fall for the same trick twice. At four in the morning, she got up and made