“Naive,” she croaks, for a moment sounding like Silke. “You have to look beyond what you think you know.”
I shake my head. “Then who will I be?” “Yourself.”
Maybe that is what scares me most.
Chapter 12
Jake started every time a set of footsteps approached Heart of Darkness, disappointed when it wasn’t Shelley.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the woman.
He’d awakened to find she’d stolen away while he was sleeping. He’d felt alone, suddenly not a good feeling.
Something about Shelley wouldn’t let him be. She was fearless and stronger than most people. That she might be his match in every way was something he hadn’t been able to say about any other woman. And she was a straight arrow and true to herself. Sappy stuff, but in the end it all got to him.
Blaise Allcock slid onto a stool at the head of the bar. “The usual.”
Jake poured him the house’s finest red, which went for more than twenty bucks a glass. Blaise didn’t mind the expense.
He set the glass of red on the bar. “Who’s watching the store?”
“I haven’t opened.” Blaise picked up the glass, his hand smooth, fingers manicured, long nails painted a deep blue to match his silky midnight-blue shirt. “No people, no business, no sense in sitting around waiting for my next victim to come in.”
Considering what had been going on in the area, Jake didn’t think that was particularly funny, but he smiled anyway, just to appease the shop owner, who normally had a thriving business. Most of the bar regulars were victims, but fashion victims rather than the violent kind. Many of them not only wore odd clothing and odder makeup, but they also mutilated their bodies with myriad piercings and multiple tattoos. As far as Jake was concerned, the one ear he’d had pierced was plenty. Blaise was either a damn fine salesman or he had a way of mesmerizing his customers to come back again and again and again.
Mesmerizing…hmm…
Jake stared at Blaise and attempted to read him, but try as he might, he couldn’t manage it. He was blocked, stopped cold.
Maybe that should tell him something, but he couldn’t be certain. Some people were simply more resistant than others. And Blaise was definitely an odd duck, an effeminate semi-cross-dresser, who—while he didn’t pretend to be a woman—certainly played on those pretty looks of his. For some reason, young women were attracted to him. Maybe guys, too.
Not that Blaise did a thing for him.
Which was in itself unusual. Not the sex part. The unreadability factor. He could nearly always get an accurate take on a person’s nature. That he couldn’t on Blaise made the man suspect.
But before Jake could attempt to sort out his thoughts in the matter, Shelley entered the bar and his attention shifted.
There was something different about her tonight. She was toned down a bit, more natural-looking. More attractive, if that was possible. But she was also more tense than normal. He didn’t miss the once-over she gave the place, as if looking for someone. Mowry?
Just seeing her made his blood rush.
Shelley looked every way but at him.
Amused, Jake wondered if she really thought she could resist him. Of course she must. She didn’t know who or what he was.
Not yet.
I so didn’t want to be disappointed in Jake after last night, but after talking to Mom and reading the report, I was concerned. If he wasn’t who he said he was, then who? Why was he tracking down some criminal? Could I believe the story that the person had been responsible for his mother’s death? What if he knew more about my investigation than he was saying?
I suspected I might not like whatever was going on with him.
Still, I had to face him sometime.
I chose to do it while he was occupied with Blaise. That way, I wouldn’t have to take the heat of his full attention.
I stopped at the head of the bar and opened with “They’re not exactly banging down the doors tonight, are they?”
“Blame the perfect weather,” Jake said, his eyelids drooping, as if that could hide his thoughts from me. “Every outdoor beer garden in the city probably has a waiting line.”
“Of Goths?” I couldn’t see it. They seemed to be happiest in a room thick with smoke.
Blaise said, “You’re not wearing any jewelry tonight.”
Uh-oh. I hadn’t properly finished my first do-it-myself makeover. That’s what I got for refusing my sister’s help. Now Blaise made me wonder what else I might have missed. Had I put on the violet eye shadow or not?
I shrugged nervously. “I was in a hurry to be on time.”
Blaise sipped at his wine, his eyes never leaving mine. “Those red crystal chandelier earrings I told you about have your name on them.”
Right. The ones that would look like splashes of blood against my throat. “No customers, no tips, no cash.”
“I take credit.”
But of course my credit card was assigned to me—Shelley—not to Silke Caldwell.
“I’ve taken a hiatus from using my card. I got a bit carried away last month.” I could feel Jake’s eyes on me again, and my pulse rushed to the blood in my throat. “I don’t even have it with me.”
“You can pay me later,” Blaise said. “Or I’ll take it out in blood.” He laughed at his own joke and added, “I’ll even give you a professional discount. Now, that’s an offer even you can’t refuse.”
Take it out in blood? “You’re right.”
If I continued to refuse, it would simply bring attention to me, which I didn’t want. Besides, this was an opportunity to check out Blaise Allcock, one of the key players in this Goth miniempire.
So the next thing I knew, I was following Blaise through the hall door, all the while feeling Jake’s gaze boring into the spot between my shoulders.
I glanced back and said, “If Desiree asks, tell her I’ll be just a few minutes.”
We crossed the hall to the minimall of stores up front along the street. Expecting to see Hung Chung back on duty, I was a little on edge. But the security guard working the building was tall and wiry.
“No Hung Chung tonight?”
“It seems to me you might be relieved that our Asian friend has been removed from the premises.”
A reference to the fight, I supposed. No doubt, everyone had heard about it.
“Removed?” I echoed him. “As in fired?”
Blaise shrugged. “You could say that.”
“I haven’t seen Raven tonight, either,” I said, testing the waters by using the dead girl’s name. No reaction. “Chung scared her to death.”
“Bad technique,” Blaise said. “There are better ways to get what you want.”
A comment that disturbed me. It was almost as if Blaise thought Chung should have gotten what he wanted….
Inside Taboo Tattoo, I was avoiding looking at the needles laid out in the tattooing and piercing area and was following Blaise forward to the jewelry counter, when I saw a gargoyle among the tattoo designs. Not the same as LaTonya’s tattoo, but a gargoyle nonetheless. And on the jewelry counter lay several other gargoyles in the form of pendants.
“Neat gargoyles,” I said in Silke’s enthusiastic voice. “Everyone seems to be into them.”
“Some are. Mowry’s group mostly.”
Mowry’s group. Thora qualified. And I guess LaTonya did, too, from what Raven had told me. But Raven herself? I hadn’t yet been able to make that connection. An image came to me—Mowry lifting the glass of wine in a ring-heavy hand. One of those rings had been a pewter gargoyle.
Blaise had gone straight for the dark red crystal earrings, which he snagged from a display. “Here you are.”
When he held them out to me, his shirtsleeve opened slightly and I caught a glimpse of the tattoo beneath. Every inch of his skin was covered with beautiful inks. I thought I caught a glimpse of a wing, but the gap in the material closed before I could get a better look.
I focused on the ea
rrings. “They are beautiful.” They really were. I took them from him and, looking in the mirror set on the counter, held them up next to my ear. The crystals spilled from tiny carved faces, full and practically long enough to brush my shoulders. Not my taste, not normally—too wild—but an impulse I couldn’t quite name made me say “Okay, you convinced me. So you said something about a discount?”
“Keep them as a gift from me.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Of course you can. But here, let me put them on you.”
I was about to tell Blaise that wasn’t necessary, but the words froze in my throat when I met his gaze. Nodding, I gave the earrings back to him, and the next thing I knew, I was enjoying the feel of his hands brushing against the side of my neck and my earlobes as he fastened the crystals in place.
Enjoying…actually, I was loving it.
I recognized how odd that was even as I looked deep into Blaise’s eyes. I couldn’t turn away from him, couldn’t move. For the moment, I was mesmerized. He broke the connection and set a mirror in front of me. I checked out my reflection as he watched me. I got a good look at those carved faces at my ears, which were tiny gargoyles.
And then, so lightly that I might have imagined it, Blaise stroked the length of my throat. Sensations rippled down where his fingers touched my flesh and kept going to my breasts. My nipples hardened, and sensations lit me from the inside out.
“You really are a beautiful woman, Silke.”
I fought the flush of warmth threatening to overtake me. “And you really are some salesman.” Disturbed by my reaction to him, I blinked and took a step back.
“Yes, look at all the profit I’m making with my many customers.” He didn’t bother to keep the irony from his tone as he took hold of me again with his eyes. “I might as well lock up and leave for the night. I could do that. You could accompany me. I can promise you a whole menu of earthly delights.”
“Menu?” I asked breathlessly, my imagination already at work. “That’s a big promise.”
“And a sincere one.”
He hadn’t broken his gaze. And though I desperately tried, I couldn’t look away. The thought that I might want to accompany him, might want to see what his earthly delights might entail, seemed for a moment irresistible. Then I somehow managed to tear my gaze from his and reality came flooding back to me.
What the heck was happening to me? First Jake, now Blaise…
“Hey, listen, I need to get back to work before Desiree notices I’m gone,” I said, turning to leave.
“Leave Desiree to me. If she becomes agitated over your absence, I’ll calm her.”
“Oh. Thanks, but I really must go.” I wondered how he might manage that. Did Blaise have some kind of relationship with the bar owner? “I’ll pay you for the earrings at the end of the night.”
“If you insist.”
I was looking down at my hands as I headed for the door—anything to keep from looking at Blaise—and almost ran into a customer entering the shop. I blinked and went on as if I’d never met the blond cop who ignored me, too.
“Can I help you?” I heard Blaise ask, his tone sounding more interested in her than in making a sale.
I raised my eyebrows and fled back to the bar. Jake spotted me the moment I walked in the door. Or maybe it was that I spotted him.
Unsettled by my strange encounter with the tattoo artist, I was glad to see the place was filling up. Our Goth customers weren’t lining up for those beer gardens, after all, though maybe the neighborhood regulars and the tourists were seeking summer digs since they were in short supply.
I got busy taking orders, all the while my brain going over what had just happened with Blaise. And with his declaration that he could take care of Desiree if she presented a problem—which she didn’t, because she was nowhere to be seen.
But the new undercover cop was. Officer Fred Duran’s own mother wouldn’t recognize him in black leather pants and jacket and a long black wig. He sat at the bar, about halfway down. I knew he was the plant by the way he too casually swept his gaze over the room, letting it come to rest on me for a significant moment before looking away. He was too close to where I placed my orders for my comfort. I didn’t want him overhearing anything personal between Jake and me. Assuming anything personal went down.
Thinking I would simply have to make sure it didn’t, I avoided lingering at the bar. As I approached a table of straight customers, I was reminded of Annie. I looked around but didn’t see her tonight. Smart girl.
“What can I get for you?” I asked.
No sooner did I place an order than I approached another table, then returned to the bar and traded a new order for the filled one.
An hour of this and Jake said, “Are you trying to make most-efficient-waitress-of-the-year or what?”
“Wow, I didn’t know efficiency was frowned on around here.”
“Avoiding me is.”
I glanced sideways to the cop, hoping he was far enough away that he hadn’t heard Jake’s throaty reply.
“Not here,” I said, my jaw clenched.
“Sounds promising. Where, then?”
I felt as if Officer Undercover were staring a hole through me. And beyond him, Desiree had appeared from somewhere, and she was staring at us, too.
In a slightly raised voice, I said, “Make that Bloody Cosmopolitan a double.” Then I took my tray and moved off to deliver the drinks.
With a reduced crowd, I couldn’t keep up the busy-waitress routine, so I decided a break was in order. No one was in the ladies’ room, so I took refuge in there.
The ladies’ room was downstairs in the basement. There was a lounge area sharing space with the furnace, which at this time of year was off. I had to go through there to get to the stalls.
I did my business and was about to come out when I heard, “Elvie told me the lair is something else,” and I froze.
I recognized the voice as belonging to the fuchsia-haired Goth named Sheena.
“Where is this place?” a second voice—one I didn’t recognize—asked.
“He said the entrance is on Lake Street. You know, the boarded-up meat market,” Sheena said. “I think we ought to check it out.”
“Without the guys?”
“Why not? Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I don’t know….”
“I don’t want to go alone,” Sheena complained.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t go at all.”
The voices faded off and I came out of the stall.
Lair. What kind of lair? One that interested Elvin Mowry. And with a nearby Lake Street address.
Maybe tonight I would find out what happened to Thora Nelson and LaTonya Sanford.
Chapter 13
After I left the ladies’ room, I went to find Desiree. I found her in her office. She lay back against her chair, looking weak and wan. At my knock, she lifted her head as if with great effort.
“Silke, what is it?”
Wondering if she was ill—or perhaps simply weak from starving herself to stay so thin—I said, “I need to leave a little early tonight.”
I thought to slide out the back way. I didn’t want one of the other cops following me and screwing up my plan. I meant to check out the place Sheena had been telling her friend about, and if my guess was right about its use, I would call for backup and do everything by the book. But I didn’t want to jump the gun and have my colleagues getting their chuckles at my expense once again.
“You may leave as you wish if you will work late for me tomorrow night. A private party at my place.” She stood and walked over to me. “You will be well compensated.”
I didn’t see how I was going to get out of agreeing to do the private party, so I said, “Sure. No problem.” Unless I solved the case tonight, of course.
If we were on her private turf, I might get some useful information out of the bar owner. I wondered, though, if she really was going to be able to hostess that party. I note
d how sunken her cheeks were, how pale her skin, how dull her eyes.
We left her office together to the sounds of a commotion—raised voices, knocked-over chairs. Jake was standing in the middle of two half-drunk halfwits—a Goth and a neighborhood regular who were going at each other. The Goth was bleeding profusely from his nose. He ignored any pain he was in as he tried to get past Jake to jump the other patron. Jake put out a hand and stopped him cold.
So fast that I didn’t see it coming, he grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and yelled, “Enough!”
The contentious men started to swing at him, but Jake somehow managed to hold them far enough away from himself and each other so they couldn’t do more damage.
I glanced at the cop halfway down the bar. He was watching the altercation closely, but he couldn’t break his cover. From somewhere, a tall bouncer I hadn’t seen before appeared. Jake handed over the two men to him.
I relaxed. At least I did until I got a good look at Desiree. Still next to me, she’d frozen, her gaze fixed on one of the men—I was pretty sure it was the one whose nose was undoubtedly broken. The blood was pouring from it. Desiree’s mouth was open and she darted out her tongue to her top lip as if she wanted to taste it; she was practically drooling. Then she covered her mouth and rushed back inside her office.
It was almost as if she were turned on by the sight of blood. Could she be a member of a vampire cult, too? That would explain why she ran a place like this.
All that vampire nonsense was getting to me. I desperately needed to figure out if Mowry and company were responsible.
Taking Desiree at her word that I could leave, I decided to head out now. I could probably check out the lair and make it back to the bar well before closing. Then Jake and the undercover cop could think whatever they wanted about my absence.
When Jake’s back was turned, I grabbed a small flashlight from the bar and dropped the slender metal stick into my skirt pocket. I delivered the last order I’d had filled, then slipped out into the hall, checking to make certain no one—including the cops watching the place—noticed my departure. I quickly crossed to the rear exit that took me to an alley.
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