Jack the Stripper

by Jennifer Macaire

  “All right, give it back,” snarled Brianna’s client.

  The boy looked confused. “I didn’t take anything from you.”

  “Yes you did—one of my chips is gone. Give it back or I’ll ...” Brianna stepped in and pulled the child back from her client’s raised fist.

  “I’ll handle this,” she told her client. She looked at the boy. “Did you take one of the man’s gambling chips?”

  The boy shook his head.

  “There are cameras all over the place,” Brianna went on in a soft voice. If you didn’t take anything, then you don’t have anything to worry about. But if my client wants, he can demand that security check the video.”

  “I didn’t take anything.” The boy looked at Brianna earnestly.

  She nodded and turned back to her client. “Did you see this person take one of your chips, or did you just misplace it?”

  His face turned nearly purple. “I didn’t misplace anything. I had ten chips here, and now there are only nine. You should have been watching me. You should have seen this happen. Now, get my chip back or you’re fired.”

  Brianna kept her temper. She was good at that. “I’m going to ask security to show me the video of this table. You can stay here and continue your blackjack game.”

  “What about the thief?”

  The boy gave a start. “I’m not a thief!” he cried.

  Brianna patted his shoulder. “I’m sure you’re not. I’m going to prove it. Want to come with me?”

  The boy nodded, and Brianna took him to the security guard and told him what was going on. The guard called over one of the reservation police officers and he accompanied Brianna and the boy to the video control room, where she clearly saw that the boy didn’t steal anything. Her client was probably a little drunk and ... She blinked. “Can you play that sequence again?” she asked.

  There it was. Her client had a small pile of ten chips by his side, and a second later there were nine. It was as if a chip had suddenly evaporated. The policeman and the security guard replayed the sequence again. Then, because it made no sense, they played it one more time. The boy, bored, began to tap his foot on the ground, and because he obviously had nothing to do with the vanishing chip, Brianna let him go.

  She and the policeman went back to the casino.

  “So where’s the little thief?” her client asked.

  “He didn’t take it.” The policeman hesitated. “On the video, nobody took it.”

  Brianna was about to explain that there was no explanation, when she felt a mild tickling in her ear. She was about to rub it, when it turned into a faint buzz and everything clicked into place. “Oh no,” she whispered. She didn’t think. She grabbed her client and shoved him over the table, scattering chips and cards. “Clear the casino!” she shouted. “The Heart Taker is here!”

  The policeman whirled around, whipping his gun from his holster. Brianna didn’t think that was such a good idea, but the combination of her scream and the sight of the gun did the job. In seconds there was a mad stampede for the doors and in no time the place was empty except for the guards, the dealers, Brianna, her client, and the policeman.

  Afterwards, there was more debriefing at the local police station. Brianna had all day, since her client had fired her on the spot. He’d not appreciated being pushed head-first over the table, and he’d lost all his chips. He still thought the boy had ripped him off, and he blamed Brianna for everything.

  Brianna sat in the police station and for once was glad to be there. She felt safer than in the casino. The vanishing chip plus the vibration in her ears only meant one thing to her. The Heart Taker had been inside the casino.

  The police didn’t believe her, but they had the video sequence of the disappearing chip—so they didn’t exactly disbelieve her either. They weren’t sure what to do. They filed a report, which seemed to make everyone in the station happy. A report in triplicate with lots of paragraphs, appendices, a copy of the video, and Brianna speaking on tape. She signed everything they gave her, and by the end of the day, the police chief looked almost content.

  ****

  Jack ate a huge lunch and then went shopping. He bought a pair of worn jeans, some shirts, and a nice sweater at a thrift shop and headed toward the club.

  He wanted to talk to Mr. Ling-Li about the problem he had with time. Twice that day he’d found time slowing down so that he felt like he was moving through thick honey. Sounds were distorted. Once it happened while crossing the street. All traffic seemed to stop while he moved. When time snapped back into place, he stumbled and nearly fell. The last time it was a fly again. He batted it away before it landed on his arm. He saw its wings beating in slow-motion.

  He didn’t mind it. Time hadn’t slowed down that much, and he loved the feeling of sailing through space; it was a very odd but not unpleasant sensation. But at the same time, it scared him. Was he dying again? Could it harm him? Why couldn’t he seem to control it?

  At the club, he asked if it was all right if he used the phone and Dee raised his eyebrows. “Of course you can use it. How are you feeling today, Jack?”

  “Good. Much better, in fact. Hungry,” he added, catching sight of a bowl of bright red apples on the bar.

  “Have an apple,” said Suki, from behind the bar. He was cleaning the shelves and rearranging the bottles. He held a sponge in one hand and a bottle of spray detergent in the other. He gave a quick spray onto the bar, and Jack was fascinated to see that he could see each individual droplet shoot out of the bottle and very slowly fall toward the bar.

  Jack grabbed an apple while he watched the spray, and then time gave a little snap, and he found himself standing with an apple in his hand, while Dee and Suki stared at him with their mouths open and their eyes wide.

  “Whoa .... man. How did you do that?” Suki shook his head, making his dreadlocks swing.

  “Do what?”

  “Make the apple appear in your hand like that. I didn’t know you did a magic act. Too cool.” Suki whistled, and then, with a shrug, went back to cleaning the bar.

  Dee took Jack’s arm. “I think you better call Mr. Ling-Li now.”

  Jack nodded and headed toward the office. Dee held onto his arm a little harder and longer than he should have and it popped off in Dee’s hand. Luckily Suki had his head down, scrubbing the bar and Chloe and Davinia were not in yet. Jack grabbed his arm, keeping it inside his sleeve, and, walking sideways, made it to Dee’s office without Suki noticing anything. In the office he had to take off his shirt to get his arm back in. Dee apologized all the while.

  “Look, it’s nothing,” said Jack. Embarrassed at having such a horrible weakness, he sat down in the chair facing Dee’s desk and pointed at the phone. “Can I use this one?”

  “Of course!” Dee pushed his long hair back and shook his head.

  The phone rang only once. “Jim Ling-Li, how can I help you?”

  “This is Jack Severn. Can you spare me a couple minutes? I have something I want to tell you.”

  “Of course, Jack. Go ahead. I’ll listen.” In the background there were crunching, slurping noises that Jack did not want to identify.

  He took a deep breath. “I can stop time. At least, it seems like that. For instance, when I see a fly, I can see its wings beating. Traffic stops when I cross the street, and when I took an apple, no one saw me ...” his voice trailed off and he suddenly knew the truth. His breath suddenly whistled in his throat. “I can move as fast as the Heart Taker,” he said.

  “I’m sending May over to see you,” said Jim Ling-Li. “You have to learn all about that gift.”

  “It’s a gift? You gave it to me?”

  “How else were you going to catch the Heart Taker?” A shrill buzzing sounded in the background, and then something cracked like a green branch breaking. “Ah. That’s interesting.”

  Jack felt his stomach clench. He did not want to know what was interesting. “When will May get here?”

  “Where are you?” Jim
Ling-Li’s voice had a trace of laughter in it. A jolly necromancer.

  Jack gave the address of Dee’s bar and hung up, feeling oddly heavy. Through his shirt, he traced his scar with his fingers, staring unseeingly at the desk.

  The journal hadn’t spoken about this sudden, deep feeling of despair. Or maybe the writer just didn’t want to dwell on it. But suddenly Jack would have given anything to be alive again. His lost humanity was the most precious thing on earth, and he had no wish to see May, catch the Heart Taker, or have incredible speed. All he wanted was to be normal. If he were normal, he could make love to Brianna and not worry about his arm falling off and scaring her. If he were normal again, they would be able to have a real relationship. Anger at fate submerged him, but then it turned into fury against the Heart Taker. That mutant had taken away his life and he would pay. He’d catch him if it were the last thing he did. Then his fury abated and left him feeling once again exhausted and empty.

  Dee patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, Jack. What gives?”

  “I don’t know.” Jack put his hand in his pocket, feeling for his handbook as if it were a talisman. He’d never been prone to emotional fits before. He’d always been an easy going guy. May was coming. She had been a zombie for a long time. Maybe she could understand what he was going through—because he didn’t have a clue.

  Chapter Ten

  Violets are Blue

  Brianna decided to drop in on Mamie Hoya. She was in the neighborhood, and it was just one stop past Union Station, where Dee’s club was. She thought she’d go see Jack’s rehearsal and maybe Mamie Hoya would like to see it too.

  The voodoo queen opened the door before Brianna could knock. “Come in, I was just having tea with Sally.”

  Brianna looked at the table. It was set for three. Mamie pointed to the place to her right. “Don’t sit here, you’ll squash Sally and make her most upset. Take that chair. I took the liberty of pouring some tea for you.”

  Brianna sat. She didn’t ask how Mamie Hoya knew she was coming, but she couldn’t help a glance in the direction of the crystal ball perched on her bookcase.

  “That’s just for show.”

  “You read minds?” Brianna sipped her tea. It was steaming hot and delicious.

  “Not exactly. I feel auras, and I felt yours heading this way. Once I meet someone, I know their aura like their face or voice. Better even. But I don’t know why you’ve come to visit. Is there a problem with Jack?”

  Her cheeks flamed. She could feel them burning, so she buried her nose in the teacup. “My, this is wonderful tea. Jack? No, no problem at all. I was just wondering if you wanted to come see his show.”

  “Sally is worried about you,” said Mamie Hoya. “Are you feeling all right dear?”

  Brianna looked up. “Yes, of course, yes. Well, no.” She paused. “I think the Heart Taker was nearby today at the reservation casino. I was there with my client and something strange happened.”

  Mamie Hoya looked startled. Brianna hadn’t expected her to look so surprised. “That’s bad news, child,” she said.

  “I know. He hasn’t killed anyone in so long that I thought that maybe he’d left town.”

  Mamie Hoya shook her head. “We’re missing something. When was Jack killed?”

  “On Halloween, just a year ago.”

  “It’s nearly Halloween again. He could be stirring again.” Mamie Hoya hoisted herself from her chair and waddled to a small table covered with a red velvet cloth and several candles. She set the candles on another table and took the cloth off the table. Underneath it was a laptop computer. She flipped up the lid and turned it on. “I keep it hidden because it doesn’t look very mysterious. Oh, I know, Sally.”

  “What did Sally say?”

  “That technology is the work of the devil. Sally died in the late seventeen hundreds; she never got used to electricity.”

  Brianna felt a pang of sympathy for Sally, so far out of her time. “What does she like about this age?” she asked.

  Mamie Hoya typed something on the computer. “She likes the grocery stores. Food whenever you want and wherever you want. She can’t get over the abundance. Sometimes she spends all day in the produce section of the Maxi-Mart down the street.”

  Brianna tried to imagine a spirit hanging around in a grocery store. “Does she like television? Cars? Airplanes?”

  Mamie Hoya snorted. “You have to be kidding. Here, I found articles about the Heart Taker and the dates of his kills in the archives of the Daily News. Looks like I’m right. He kills on or around holidays. First kill on Halloween. That was Jack. Then on December twenty-first. Isn’t that the winter solstice? Valentine’s Day, May Day, June twenty-first, which is the summer solstice, and then nothing. What do you notice about that?”

  Brianna looked over her shoulder and read the headlines, skimming over the dates. “No religious holidays, or he’d have killed on Easter or on the Ascension. But it’s pretty regular, and every two or three months. I wonder if it has anything to do with his job. Last year the dates were both on the weekend and during the week, and the killings took place from one end of the city to the next. He might be a cab driver or someone who makes his own schedule. Who can tell when or where he’ll strike again?”

  Mamie Hoya turned off the computer and covered it with the cloth. “The where I can’t tell you, but I’m pretty sure about the when. I’m afraid he’ll strike again on Halloween. That’s coming up. I bet he’s casing out his next victim. He wasn’t at the casino to kill. He was there to find someone to kill on Halloween. These kind of killers are strange.”

  “As in, other killers are not strange?”

  “No, as in they only kill on certain days. The Heart Taker kills on Halloween, winter solstice, Valentine’s Day, May Day, and on summer Solstice. I bet he won’t kill on any other day.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I’ve read some books about serial killers. They have patterns.” She nodded seriously. “Sally told me she’s terrified of him. For some reason, he scares even the undead.”

  Brianna felt a prickle of disquiet. Could the Heart Taker have been casing the casino? For who? She thought of her obnoxious client, and then shook her head. “It can’t be the guy I was guarding. He’s leaving town tomorrow. The Heart Taker strikes here.”

  “Aren’t we lucky!” Mamie Hoya shook some lemon drops from a box into her purse, then took a shawl and put it over her shoulders. “Well, let’s go see Jack. Best tell him what we know.”

  “It’s odd the police haven’t seen that pattern,” said Brianna.

  “They probably have seen it, but they don’t want to advertise it. Panic might occur if everyone knew the Heart Taker was stalking his next victim. This way, he hasn’t struck in a while, so the people have managed to push him back in their minds. But I bet the police took your deposition very seriously.”

  “Actually, they did.” Brianna frowned. “In the casino, when I hollered, the policeman next to me pulled out his gun so fast I thought he might be the Heart Taker.”

  “Well, let’s go.” Mamie Hoya spoke to the empty room. “Don’t mind the dishes, Sally, I’ll do them when I get back.” To Brianna she whispered, “Sally was a house slave and always thinks she has to pick up after me.”

  “Does she?” Brianna gave a little shiver.

  “Only very light stuff,” said Mamie Hoya with a shrug.

  ****

  Jack watched Dee finish putting the finishing touches on the posters he was going to use for the new show. They were bright orange and featured a sexy man taking off his shirt. Dee finished writing the text and bit the end of his magic marker.

  “Now, off to the printers.” Dee held the poster up at arm’s length and squinted at it. “Not bad at all. What do you think, Jack?”

  The Purple Dee

  Come See the Halloween Bash, featuring our new star: Jack the Stripper!

  Music, Dancing, and a prize for the best Halloween costume

  Cover Char
ge $15.00 single, or $25.00 for a couple

  One free drink per cover charge.

  “Great!” Jack gave him a thumbs up. Then he imagined his thumb dropping off and closed his eyes. Was having a zombie as a stripper star such a good idea?

  “You all right, Jack?”

  He opened his eyes and nodded. “Fine. Just a little headache coming on. I think I have to eat something to keep my energy up. And the poster just gave me stage fright.”

  Dee brushed his hand over his long hair and straightened his shoulders. “Too late for second thoughts now. Besides, Jack, you’re very handsome. The woman will go crazy for you.”

  “Thanks. What else can I do for you?” Jack had been running errands that morning and helping set up the bar.

  “Nothing. I just have to remember to rent an awning. Don’t forget the ice. Make sure Doreen and Chloe have enough change. Tell Marty to kill the lights on the stage if your arm falls off.” He paused and made a face at Jack. “And find another way to phrase that.” He patted Jack on the shoulder. “Well, I’m off to the printers. I’ll be back and we’ll rehearse. Don’t worry. It’s a cinch.” He grabbed his things and left, waving to Suki on his way out.

  Jack stood in the office doorway and crossed his arms over his chest. No, it wasn’t going to be easy. He had to be careful not to pull his arm off when he took his shirt off, and he had to make sure it didn’t disconnect when he danced. A silhouette at the front door caught his eye. Hesitating a bit, May came into the bar. She had a large purse slung over her shoulder, and she looked around, her expression curious. Jack went over to her and she gave him a little bow.

  “So glad to see you again, Jack,” she said.

  He inclined his head a bit, not sure about the bow. “Would you like something to drink?”

  “Oh, I would like that very much.” She put her bag on the floor and sat next to Jack at the bar. She wore a hot pink silk dress. Embroidered dragons and flowers in gold and blue thread added touches of bright color. She crossed her legs and Jack saw she wore black high heeled shoes.