The Queen of Hearts (Mountain Springs Mysteries, #1)

by J. E. Mann

  “Ben, he’s not here so there is no reason to start this old argument all over again.” Ben crossed his hands on his desk. “You’re right Rachel. He’s not here of which I am eternally grateful. I know that you think he is an outstanding guy. But you have blinders on. He is dangerous. Maybe not to you specifically, but he is not to be trusted.”

  “I trust him Ben. He’s never given me a reason to doubt otherwise.”

  “That may be. But Jake Morningstar will eventually lead you into trouble. He won’t want to, but it’s his nature. Where ever he goes, trouble follows.”

  JAKE

  J.R.’s was located about a mile outside the city limits. This wasn’t done to take advantage of some loophole in city codes, but rather to get away from the many other strip clubs that already had been built. It was built from the ground up, was pretty nice compared to its competition, and boasted of having the hottest girls. I showed the bouncer at the door my ID and was allowed access to the main room. One main stage was flanked by two smaller stages. Tonight, a woman in her mid-twenties was swaying along with some 80’s rock song blasted over the speakers. I took the third seat from the right closest to the stage. The woman spotted me and ran her hands over her large chest and slid over to me. I responded by putting five dollars down on the stage. She smiled and began playing to me only. After about five minutes and a total of 28 dollars tucked into her G-string, she saw a large bachelor party sit down on the stage. She blew me a kiss and walked over to the new money.

  “Looks like you’re all alone,” a sultry voice remarked behind me. I turned around. Behind me stood a gorgeous blonde. Her breasts were barely covered by a skimpy silver bikini top with a matching silver mini-skirt. Her eyes were brown and promised all manner of sexual pleasures. Her smile was large and inviting.

  “I am,” I said, “My friend left me.”

  She clicked her tongue in a sad manner. “Handsome guy like you should never be left unattended.” She put her arms around my neck, her breasts inches from my face. “I could be your friend.”

  “I’d like that.”

  She looked around the large room and sighed dramatically. “Too many eyes out here, baby, why don’t we go somewhere more private?”

  I nodded my head, eager to be alone with her. I stood and she took my arm. We weaved through the crowd and made our way to the back room. Another bouncer stood at the entrance to a few smaller private rooms.

  “Here’s the rules,” the bouncer said gruffly, “Don’t touch the girl. She can touch you, but..

  The blonde goddess waived her hand.

  “Don’t worry about it Bruce. I might just make my own rules with him.” She looked at me and giggled. Bruce, off track with her interruption, just nodded. We walked down to the fourth room, her arm tightly in mine. She winked at Bruce as the door closed. As soon as it shut, she dropped her arm and gave me a big hug. When she let go, her smile was not a sexy one, but a very friendly one.

  “Hi Jake.”

  “Hi Abby, how are you?”

  She blew air out of her mouth and sat down on the round party booth, crossing her legs.

  “Tired, this is my fourth shift this week.”

  I sat across from her. “Customers aren’t tipping much?”

  She held out her hand and rocked it back and forth. “I’m on private dancer duty this week. They’re big if you get one, but they are few and far between. Stupid recession.”

  I laughed. She stuck her tongue out me. I unzipped a hidden pocket in my jacket and pulled out a large sum of money. This wad was in hundreds, not the fives and ones I had flashed to convince anyone who might be watching that I was just a normal patron.

  “I can help with that,’ I said handing the money over. She counted it. When she looked up, her eyes were big.

  “Seven hundred dollars? Must be some kind of problem.”

  I nodded. “You got that right. You hear about that murder in the restaurant a week and a half ago?”

  She leaned forward, very intent. “The guy on the stove. Yeah, I thought that was right up Rach and yours alley.”

  “Up a blind alley right now. I’m leaning towards a pro. Anybody been in here flashing a lot of money, maybe talking about a job they did?”

  With one motion, my expectations fell. She shook her head. “Not one of mine. One guy was acting tough, but I can spot a fake when I see one. Do you want the money back?”

  I shook my own head. “Course not. Besides, what’s seven hundred between friends?”

  She smiled. Suddenly, her smile grew and she jumped up excitedly. “Marley!”

  “Who’s Marley?”

  She was running her fingers thru her hair, messing it up. “A dancer. She was telling us about two guys she danced for on Monday.”

  “Abby, I love you. Tell me she’s working tonight.”

  She nodded. With her free hand she pulled down one strap of her top. “I’ll call her in here.” She put a finger to her lips and opened the door.

  “Bruce?” she called down the hall, “I might have bitten off more than one girl can chew. Can you call Marely to come give me a hand,” A pause, then a giggle, “Or two?”

  Bruce said something I couldn’t hear. “Tell her not to knock, just come right in and join us.” She closed the door and turned back to me, smiling.

  “Marley is a nice girl. She’ll talk to you.”

  I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Suddenly, Abby was on top of me, grinding away slowly.

  “Act like you’re enjoying yourself,” she whispered in my ear.

  “Gee, I’ll try,” I said sarcastically.

  The door opened and a girl I guessed to be Marley walked in. She was younger then Abby, with short brown hair. She was a little too skinny for my taste, but her long legs ensured she would always get clients. She smiled as she surveyed the room.

  “Well what do we have here?” she said.

  Abby didn’t turn to look at her. “A big party. Why don’t you shut that door and help me work on it?”

  Marley laughed and turned to close the door. When she turned back, Abby was sitting across from me and had straightened her top. Marley looked confused. Abby patted the spot next to her. Marley sat down slowly.

  “Abby?” she asked.

  “Mar, this is my friend Jake Morningstar. He needs to ask you some questions.”

  Marley looked at me. I smiled.

  “You’re a cop,” she said. The sentence was half statement, half question. I raised my hands in mock shock.

  “Hey, hey let’s not say things we can’t take back,” I said.

  “He’s not a cop. He is a very dear friend of mine and he needs your help. Tell him about those two guys you told me about on Monday. The big spenders.”

  Marley still looked unsure, but Abby had vouched for me. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “These two guys came in around eleven o’clock. They got me for both of them. The whole time, they were talking to each other like I wasn’t even there. I hate when people do that.”

  Abby nodded sympathetically.

  “What were they talking about?” I asked.

  “Some job they had just done. I remember one of them saying that the guy never saw it coming and they both laughed. And then when I was riding one of them, I felt a gun in the front pocket.”

  My pulse quickened. The same gun that killed Steve?

  “What did they look like Mar?”

  “Dark skinned, about thirty. One of them had a snake tattoo on his right arm. Both about 5’9. They were strong.”

  “Any names?”

  Marley shook her head. “I never heard any. Sorry.”

  “That’s ok. Marley, did they ask if you wanted to have a party outside of here?”

  Marley hesitated. I smiled again.

  “Still not a cop,” I said.

  “He hates cops,” Abby added.

  Marley nodded her head. “Yea. Said I could make a lot of money. I was tired so I begged off. They said they w
ould be in town for a few weeks and if I changed my mind just to come over to their hotel. They gave me a phone number”

  I pulled out another three hundred dollars and handed it to her. She smiled gratefully.

  “This money is for the info, but it also comes with a condition. You and I never had this conversation. Do you remember the hotel?”

  She nodded. I pulled out another hundred and handed it over.

  “What’s this for?”

  I leaned forward. “For a phone call you are going to make for me.”

  RACHEL

  Two days had gone by and I still had heard nothing from Jake. He did tell me his investigation would take a while so I tried to calm my nerves; he always came back with something. The office was a mess with all of my paperwork and I kept myself busy cleaning, Jake never really did get the concept of having a tidy work space.

  My mind drifted to James, we had chatted idly every day for a few minutes about how our days were going and I always tried to throw our last meeting out of my mind. I found myself trying to tear apart the detective part of me and the private life I wanted to have with James. Part of me wasn’t sure if it was necessary to pursue James after the way he had treated me. Thankfully, a knock at the door helped me throw away all of my thoughts.

  “Hello there,” I greeted a disheveled woman on the other side.

  “Hi, Miss Paige? Miss Rachel Paige?” A hand was extended out to me and I shook it apprehensively. The woman appeared to be maybe, middle aged, Caucasian with a dark brown bob. Her clothes suggested she carried a business casual job.

  “Please, come in.” I quickly slid a chair across the room for somewhere for her to sit around my desk. “What can I do for you today Miss…?”

  “Oh, sorry my name is Lisa I’ve come today to speak with you about the murder from the Mongolian restaurant?” Her voice was peaked, even she sounded like she wasn’t sure what was going on. “I have some information that may help.”

  I gave the woman a notepad for her to physically recall her information and for my records. I gave her water and let her light up a cigarette, even though I was against the premise, I wanted to do anything to gain more information on this ever slowing case, Jake would have been impressed.

  “Ok what would you like to share?” Had this woman been crying? Her eyes were hard to see behind the sunglasses she was wearing.

  “Well, this is probably going to be hard to believe but…Steve was having an affair. I think it could really help a lot with his murder.”

  “He was? Where did you get that piece of information?”

  “Yes he definitely was, because I am the woman he was sleeping with. I know it was a stupid thing to do but he made me feel different. I would have liked to keep it a secret but I can’t, I think his wife murdered him.” She was so conflicted; as she spoke she waived her arms and then tucked them in around her waist.

  “Why would you say his wife did this?” Everyone’s opinion counted, especially on a case where we had little to go on.

  “I can almost guarantee she did it because… well because she caught Steve and I together. She just started screaming and throwing things. He tried to defend us but Gloria wasn’t having any of it. When I gathered my things to leave his house she was still screaming, all I could hear was, ‘I’ll kill you for this you bastard!’ over and over again.”

  I couldn’t say I was too surprised. A lot of crimes revolved around cheating partners and this could explain the reason why Steve and Gloria were caught fighting all of the time.

  “Are you sure she would be the only one who would want to see him dead? Do you think she really meant it?” I had to be thorough; any hole could leave us stuck again at square one.

  “I’m almost one-hundred percent positive.” She replied fairly quickly. “Almost?” she had hesitated and I couldn’t accept anything less than one hundred percent.

  “Ok fine,” she waived her hand at me, “I’m almost positive that bitch did it, oh yea, I think she meant every word, but I can’t say that she was the only angry person.”

  “Who else would be angry?” I was sitting forward on my seat almost ready to fall off. She really had my attention now.

  “Well take your pick. There were times when Steve would talk to me, that moron, and forget my name or call my phone, surprised when I wasn’t the right girl picking up the other end.”

  “So he may have been having an affair with more women than just you?” I could believe it. Cheating was always a good motive for murder but how were they all connected? The questions just kept rolling in.

  “I believe he was, yes.” She said after a moment. Her cigarette was almost burned to the filter and she stubbed it out in a makeshift ash can on my desk. She stood readying her things to leave.

  “Thank you so much for seeing me Rachel. I feel better knowing I could tell someone else. I must get to work now. Thanks!” And she was out the door. Good thing I had gotten the rest of her information. She seemed to know more about Steve’s history and she could come in handy.

  JAKE

  The man in the left chair began to stir first. His head began to move, his breathing increased. After a few more minutes, he opened his eyes and tried to focus. I took the last drag of my cigarette and tossed it aside. I walked over to the chair on the left first and slapped him lightly on the cheek. He flinched. His arms started to flex to bring his hands up, but the zip ties kept his wrists securely tied to the back of the chair.

  “Oh good, you’re up,” I said.

  “What the hell…?” he said, but I cut him off with a finger to my lips.

  “Let’s wait until your friend wakes up. I hate having to repeat myself.”

  I walked back to my own chair and sat down. These two had been easy to take. A call from Marley had gotten them all excited. When the one on the left had gone to the car to grab some beer, I had come up behind him with a chloroform cloth. After he was tied up and securely placed in my car, I walked into the hotel and went right to his room. I knocked on the door. The other idiot had actually opened the door and then turned around without seeing who had knocked. Didn’t anyone take pride in their work anymore? There was a reason Rach wasn’t allowed to know me.

  A cough. I looked up saw my second guest was in the process of rejoining the land of the living. I stood and dragged my chair closer. I sat down a few feet from my audience.

  “Now, let’s begin. My name is Jake. I know that you were expecting Marley, sorry about that. Word is that you two rolled in to town for some dirty business. I’d like to hear all about it.”

  They looked at each other and then back at me.

  “Boys,” I said, “It’s very impolite not to introduce yourselves.”

  “We aren’t telling you shit,” the one on the right snapped. I looked at him a second, then suddenly hit my head as if I had just remembered something.

  “I forgot! You two have already given me your names. Or rather your wallets have. I thought at first they were fake and then I looked again at the dumb looks on your faces and knew they were real.” I pointed at righty. “Marcus.” My finger moved to lefty. “Rico.” I dropped my hand, shaking my head. “Not smart carrying those around.”

  “You have no idea who you are fucking with white boy,” Marcus said.

  “I know exactly who you are. Two guys who probably couldn’t pass the third grade. You’ve made it this far by sheer dumb luck. You just have the good fortune not to run into anyone who saw you for what you are,” I smiled. “Until tonight that is.”

  “Keep talking. Our boys will fuck you up,” Rico had finally decided to join our conversation. I looked around.

  “Unless they’re here right now, your boys can’t help you. Look, maybe you two are big shit where ever you call home, but you are in my jungle now. You’ll answer when I ask questions and you will shut up when I tell you to.”

  Marcus spit at me. His mouth must have been dry. The spittle landed far left of me. I looked at Marcus and sneered.

 
“I almost want to teach you a lesson, little man.”

  “Untie my hands,” Marcus said. I stood and walked behind them. When I was in front of them again, my right hand was behind my back.

  “You know what? I’m going to take you up on that. Not that knocking your head around for a few minutes won’t be fun enough, but let’s make it interesting. I’ve got either a one or a two behind my back. You guess wrong, and it’s me and you. Guess right and I’ll untie both of you.”

  “Fuck you,” Marcus replied, “You don’t have the balls to do that.”

  “Oh I’ve got the balls. Question is, do you? Come on Marcus, guess the number. One or two? Or are you afraid you’ll guess wrong and little Rico here won’t get untied and he’ll get to watch me throw you around?”

  Marcus’s chair was shaking. I had called him out, right in front of his friend. His face was itching for the restraints to be untied.

  “One,” he said.

  “Wrong.”

  My hand came from behind my back, the gun gleaming as the light hit it. I aimed at Marcus’s forehead and pulled the trigger. The blast was earth shaking in this enclosed space. The force of the bullet pushed Marcus’s chair over. As it fell, blood, brain tissue, and pieces of skull flew in every direction. I stood over him and shot two more bullets into his head. I moved the gun slightly down and fired the remaining three shots into his throat. His mouth opened and closed, sort of like a fish. His eyes still held the surprise of seeing the gun.

  My ears were ringing, but I heard the distant sound of Rico screaming. I walked back toward a table and put the gun down. I picked up a knife and walked back toward Marcus. I bent down and cut the zip ties off. I glanced at Rico as I walked outside. In the moonlight, I lit another cigarette and waited for the ringing to stop. When it was barely a hum, I walked back inside. Rico was staring at the body, mumbling words I couldn’t hear. I grabbed my chair and brought it in front of him. I sat down and leaned in.

  “Can you hear me?”

  Rico didn’t turn to look at me. I grabbed his hair and pulled until he was looking at me.

  “CAN YOU HEAR ME?” I shouted.