I awoke to an annoying racket. I pulled the pillow over my head, but I could still hear it. The telephone had no pity. At least it had pulled me out of another unwelcome dream. Groaning, I rolled over, and after eyeing the clock, which told me I’d had little more than four hours of sleep, I picked up the receiver.
“This had better be important,” I groused.
“Don’t you check your messages or answer them?” Silke asked. “I’ve been worried about you.”
“I got home too late.”
“Well, don’t scare me like that again, okay?”
Wanting to clarify things Jake had said, I told her about having breakfast with him and how he’d suggested that he’d asked her out before.
“He was lying,” Silke said. “But why?”
“He was testing me. And I don’t know why. But he guessed the truth, that I wasn’t you. He thinks he knows anyway. Not that I admitted to anything.”
“Well that’s that, then,” Silke said. “It’s over.”
“No, it’s not. I’m going back to the bar tonight.”
“You were just supposed to go for one night, to see what you could find out.”
“I barely got started with that cast of characters.”
“But if Jake—”
“What? You think he’ll tell everyone?”
“He’s not like that. He minds his own business. Well, usually. But what if he’s not on the up and up?”
A thought I had entertained. Not only had I not gotten anything on Thora or Raven, but also I hadn’t gotten anything on him. He’d been as evasive as I.
Almost as if he’d extended the breakfast invitation so that he could interrogate me…
“I can handle him,” I said with more confidence than I was feeling. “I can beat him at his own game.”
“That’s important to you, isn’t it? Winning, I mean.”
“There’s nothing to win here. Just a mystery to solve.” Maybe a murderer to put behind bars.
“But you didn’t get anything off Jake.”
“You’re right.” Nothing other than raised suspicion. “But earlier, someone attacked me on the way to my car—a Goth girl, probably on drugs. That makes me wonder if the murderer is really a man.”
“Omigod!”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. But I’m going back to the bar tonight.”
Silke tried to talk me out of it, insisted it was too dangerous, apologized for getting me into this mess in the first place. As far as I was concerned, no apology was necessary. After being attacked by a woman who apparently had been drugged out, I was sure something dark and dangerous was continuing to go on in the area. And I was going to get to the heart of the matter.
I was going to put LaTonya to rest.
After assuring Silke I would be at her place with some kind of take-out dinner so that she could do my makeup again, I cut our conversation short.
I dressed, then sat down in front of my computer. Part of me thought I should be investigating Jake DeAtley, as well as the other key players who hung around the bar—Desiree, Blaise, Chung, Mowry.
I started with Jake.
I Googled him. No links. 411-ed him. No phone. Searched the white pages. No address.
I tried the others. My frustration continued.
I wanted to check them all through the CPD system, but I didn’t have a squad with a computer, so I would have to report in to an office or to the academy and log in. Unfortunately that meant that I would leave a record of my search that could be traced back to me. Not good. Not in my circumstances.
And if I leaned on Stella too much, I would raise her suspicions. I was supposed to be teaching rather than detecting, after all. So approaching her could wait one more day until I had more to go on.
I tried another search engine with the same results. Nada. I could hardly believe it.
You couldn’t find everyone on the net, but nearly everyone. But not these five. Not one of them. Strange that they all had that in common.
If I hadn’t seen them all with my own eyes, I would think that not one of them existed.
Chapter 6
I took a long nap before heading for Heart of Darkness—I had to report to the training academy the next morning, and I wouldn’t get off until after midnight. Sunday was an early night at the bar. Luckily, the bad dreams stayed at bay.
I entered the bar with a sizzle that had nothing to do with Jake DeAtley, no matter how he stared at me when I swung by the bar, done up in Silke’s finery—a black velvet dress with loose elbow-length sleeves and a plunging neckline revealing the lace edging on a red French-cut bra. The biggest problem with this outfit other than its making me highly uncomfortable—who had ever decided bras needed wires, anyway?—was hiding my gun. I’d had to holster it under the full skirts of the dress and open the seam of a pocket so I could get to it if necessary.
Since Raven hadn’t shown up, I decided to concentrate on LaTonya. Who’d known her, whom she hung with, and whom she might have been with that night three months before. My first several attempts were met with shrugged shoulders and grunted denials.
Then I handed a drink to a fuchsia-haired Goth who called herself Sheena and asked, “Do you by any chance know a girl named LaTonya who used to hang here?”
Sheena’s brow furrowed. “LaTonya?”
“Fair-skinned African American, really tall? She’s not a Goth. At least I don’t think so. But apparently she likes the atmosphere here.”
“Oh, yeah. Toni. She came in a few times…not lately, though.”
A thrill shot through me, but I tried to appear surprised. “Oh, really? Well, do you know anything about her?”
Sheena blinked and her expression turned curious. “Who wants to know?”
“One of my customers wants an intro. He said he’d make it worth my while if I could hook them up. Normally, I don’t do that kind of stuff, but I’ve got rent to pay.”
“Yeah, tough,” Sheena said. “So ask Elvin. He was into her.”
Elvin Mowry, leader of the vampire cult. Great. He’d been into Thora, as well.
Another of those vampire-cult references I’d found in my research flashed through my mind.
A young woman had decided she was ready to “feed” and the leader cut an area below his wrist as he was having sex with her. She sucked his blood as they came together. She slept a while, then needed more blood, and went after another of the members to satisfy her. After that, she swore the only thing that stopped her hunger was more blood while having sex.
I shuddered inside and said, “So Elvin was interested, huh?” I hoped that outwardly I didn’t show what I was thinking. “Anyone else?”
Sheena shrugged. “I saw her wandering around the shops. Maybe one of the owners has info on her.”
“Good thought. Thanks.”
I moved on and took my next order. It wouldn’t do to press Sheena for information too hard. I didn’t want her getting suspicious and passing on the word that I was asking too many questions at once.
The tattoo on LaTonya’s thigh…could she have gotten it at Taboo Tattoo?
I’d noticed tattoos on most of the Goth customers, male and female, and suddenly it occurred to me there might be some significance to the type of tattoo. I also wondered if Thora’d had one. Maybe Silke would know.
I glanced over to where Mowry sat, the centerpiece to his minions, as I liked to call them. I wondered if there was a way to get him alone without giving him ideas. Blaise would probably be the better place to start. Or so I hoped.
Now, how to get to Blaise. I checked my watch. Taboo Tattoo would only be open for another hour. Either I had to go into the shop on my break and possibly tick off Desiree for doing another disappearing act, or I had to take the chance that he would come straight into the bar for an after-work drink as Silke told me he often did.
I saw my opportunity a quarter of an hour later, when Blaise Allcock walked in the door and sat himself at the bar.
“I ought to change my hours on Sund
ay,” I heard him grouse to Jake. “The number of customers hardly makes it worth my while to open up at all.”
“Must have something to do with church day,” Jake agreed, setting a goblet of red wine down in front of the tattoo and piercing artist.
“Avoidance or something.”
Blaise was an odd one, I thought, taking a better look at him than I had the night before.
His bleached hair was shoulder length, his skin had a natural pallor. He did wear makeup, if far more subtle than the Goths—his gray eyes were lined and lids colored with shades of gray from dove to charcoal. And the faint blush across his lips wasn’t natural, either. His nails were long for a man and polished with a transparent silver. He wore tight black pants, which I swore held a cup to enhance his sexuality. But his poet’s shirt trimmed with ribbons and lace and showing off his hairless chest was definitely feminine. I didn’t think he was gay, merely sexually ambiguous—just like the name Blaise.
Perhaps his taste in sex partners was all-inclusive. I simply couldn’t read him more directly than that. The question was how to be subtle yet get what I needed.
I slid up to the bar and gave Jake my order. “Two glasses of Shiraz and a Bloody Cosmo.” Then I smiled at Blaise. “What’s new at Tattoo?”
“Awesome chandelier earrings.”
He swung his hair over one shoulder and my gaze immediately shot to his ear, but all he wore was a sparkly stud.
“My favorites are the bloodred crystals,” he told me.
“How much?”
“A steal at thirty-five.”
“Hmm. Sounds like.”
“They would look beautiful against your long throat,” he said, his voice low, his lids lowering as he considered it. “Just like drops of blood.”
Blaise was certainly dramatic. Or perhaps I ought to say affected. Purposely. He sold himself as part of his product.
“I’ll think about it.” I glanced Jake’s way. The order was about filled, so I got to the point with Blaise. “Say, did Toni ever get that tattoo she wanted?”
“Toni?”
“Tall girl, African American. Not a Goth.” I bluffed. “She wanted one of those great winged gargoyles on her thigh.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Blaise said, just as Jake set the drinks on her tray. “Not that my memory is the best, what with thousands of customers over the years.”
“Thousands?” I echoed, disappointed that he didn’t seem to have any memory of LaTonya.
“Tens of thousands.”
“You must be older than you look, then.” Which now that I got up close and personal, I surmised to be fortyish.
He tilted his head and looked at me through eyelashes thick enough to inspire envy in any woman. “You might be surprised.”
I would swear Blaise was flirting with me. And from behind the bar, Jake was scowling. What? He couldn’t take listening to a little banter?
I pulled the tray toward me, intending to take off. “Customers. In the dozens,” I added jokingly. “I can’t remember them all, either.”
“Hey, come see those earrings tomorrow,” Blaise said. “And maybe I can talk you into one of my very special tattoos.”
“The earrings sound like a possible. But needles?” My stomach clenched and I shivered visibly. “Those I can do without.”
I felt his eyes follow me through the crowd.
Only later did I wonder if I’d made a mistake about the needle thing. Silke had never told me about getting a tattoo, but for all I knew she could have several in places that I hadn’t seen in a while. I’d have to remember to ask her, and if necessary, do damage control.
Not that I would actually get a tattoo.
Needles really did give me the willies. My avoidance went all the way back to my childhood, when a series of bronchial infections had made me feel like a human pincushion. Silke’d had to get me drunk before I got my ears pierced. No way would I ever consider getting a tattoo.
What felt like a heavy gaze followed me and I glanced back, expecting to see Blaise looking after me. Or Jake. But both were busy. But the feeling didn’t let up, so I craned farther and found that I had Desiree’s interest.
I was the first to look away.
I was too busy for a while serving drinks to think about the real reason I was here. As the crowd thinned, LaTonya and Thora and the attack on me filled my mind.
I didn’t know anything about Thora Nelson, and I didn’t think my sister was much better informed. She didn’t even have Thora’s phone number or address, so how close could they have been? But what I knew about LaTonya told me she was too level-headed to get into the weird cult stuff and go off the deep end.
Unless someone had pushed her…
My attacker the night before had definitely been out of it. There were plenty of drugs that could send someone off the deep end.
Sheena had said to ask Elvin Mowry about Toni/LaTonya. I glanced at the upper deck, where he held court, a Goth girl I didn’t know seated across his lap. Suddenly he reached up and pulled her head down toward his. It looked as if he was nuzzling at her neck. Her expression was thoroughly sexual, and I wondered if they would abandon all propriety and have at it right there in front of everyone.
I felt a surge of disgust and yet I couldn’t look away, kind of like when you see a multicar pile-up on the expressway. The cult leader seemed to have a grip on her neck and wasn’t letting go, as though he was sucking the life’s blood out of her….
My heartbeat quickened and my instincts went on alert.
Focusing on them alone, I casually moved toward the stairs as her lids lowered and her features went slack. What did he think he was doing? And what could I do? I couldn’t break cover just when I was getting somewhere. I looked toward Jake. Busy.
By the time I climbed the stairs, the girl had slumped over, eyes closed. And when Mowry raised his head, he quickly licked his lips.
Was that blood on them?
Then Mowry’s companion sat up and moaned.
“Oh, can we do that again, Elvie, but someplace more private?”
I stared and she eyed me with distaste. Nice.
“Another round?” I asked, trying not to sound out of breath.
“Nah, not tonight,” Mowry said, giving me a look that said I could have been the one receiving his personal attention. “We have more delicious treats on the menu.”
Goth Girl stood and flicked her hair. Her neck was red where Mowry had been sucking on her, but as far as I could tell, no blood had been exchanged.
Chagrined, I let the wanna-be vampires pass by me and then faced the table filled with discarded bottles and glasses and ashtrays filled with half-smoked cigarettes.
As I cleared the table, I became aware of the rumble of voices, words smothered by the ever present thump-thump of music. At first I tuned them out somewhat as I tuned out Silke. But then I realized the voices were raised in argument…or worse, a struggle of some sort. And one of the voices was that of a young woman.
I looked around. Nothing. Where was the argument coming from?
When I heard a muffled “Don’t!” from the woman, followed by what sounded like a body being tossed, I left the table half-cleared and went to investigate. The muted noises drew me around the end of the bar and to the door that connected the bar to the inside of the shopping mall.
Without thinking about the possible consequences, I opened the door and raced out into the mall. It was after hours so all the stores were closed and the mall was completely dark. But I heard a physical struggle to my left and saw Hung Chung pressed up against a shopfront window, his meaty arm pinning a fragile-looking woman with dark hair in tufts around her face and three earrings in one eyebrow.
Raven!
Her top was torn and Chung was groping her chest with his free hand. She was pushing at him and trying to free herself to no avail. Her expression was frightened and tears smudged her eye makeup into drippy dark pools.
“Get out!” Chung ordered me.
“I don’t think so. Raven doesn’t look like she’s enjoying your company.”
“What she wants is none of your business.”
“It is if you’re forcing yourself on her.”
“If you know what’s good for you—”
“Raven, talk to me.”
I knew from my time as a patrol cop that some women liked rough sex and if you tried to interfere, they made it rough on you. But this was clearly not a two-way affair.
“I—I just want to go,” she whispered.
My gut tightened. He was messing with her against her will. “You heard Raven. Let go of her, or—”
“Or what? You think you can take me, Silke?”
“Try me,” I said.
Chung turned his back on me and ground his mouth into Raven’s. I cursed him under my breath, then grabbed the fleshy part of his underarm and twisted. He came away from the girl with an explosion of sound and movement. I was lucky to get out of his way without being hit by one of his ham-sized fists.
“Go now!” I told Raven.
She didn’t hesitate, and as she flew by me, she croaked, “Thank you.”
“Call the police!”
She didn’t answer.
I didn’t take my eyes off Chung, who was focused and deadly-looking. Suddenly, he came at me in a frontal attack. I sidestepped, tugged at his arm to spin him around and then elbowed him in the back. He went down hard but rolled and struck out with powerful legs. I took a blow that knocked me off my feet. I landed hard on my hip, but conditioning didn’t allow me to cry out. I was so pumped, I barely felt it anyway.
Silke was freaking, though. I felt it not only in my head, but all through my body. Busy determining the security guard’s next move, I shut her out without another thought.
Chung got to his feet and I did the same, quickly reorienting myself to the bar door. I was no fool to stay in this fight any longer than necessary. It wasn’t like I could arrest the pervert without blowing my cover. I just wanted to dissuade him from further criminal behavior.
“Is this all you know how to do?” I asked. “Physically assault women?”
“You mean bitches like you?”
He came for me again and I waited until he was just close enough. I snapped out my leg and caught him at the side of the knee with my foot. His big body torqued and I followed up with a flat-handed strike to the side of his head.
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