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  Just in time to see John the bouncer throw someone out the door and onto the sidewalk.

  “Hey, John, how’s business?” Ruby asked as the guy flew past her and landed on the pavement with a thump.

  “Slow night,” the bouncer said with a shrug. He waved to the monkey. “Hey, Zoomer. It’s a bit early, though. Maybe it will pick up later.”

  “What’s with the loser?” Ruby asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the groaning young man on the ground.

  “Got a bit too pushy. Just because a girl strips for you doesn’t mean you can do what you want. No still means no.”

  “You’re a real gentleman,” Ruby said, and meant it. John was actually a decent guy. She had no idea why he chose to work in a whorehouse that masked as a strip club, but he had proven to be the best man for the job. This sort of place needed someone like him.

  The man picked himself up from the pavement, swore, and rushed them. Without turning around, Ruby snapped a back kick that got him straight in the groin. He doubled over with a falsetto groan. Zoomer clapped.

  John shook his head. “Why do girls always go for the nuts? It’s so unoriginal.”

  “I could have gone for a roundhouse kick to the head, but I don’t think there’s anything in there.”

  “Probably not.”

  “Best to go straight to the source of the problem.” Ruby edged away as the guy coughed up the contents of his stomach.

  “Speaking of problems, have you seen Dirty Dancer?”

  Ruby had been about to ask the same thing. Two of the girls who worked at this place, Lollipop and Dirty Dancer, had gone to Caribbean Dreams with Helen and Bridget.

  “No. She still hasn’t checked in?” she asked with a sinking feeling. She was already beginning to suspect that Bridget might be dead, and she really, really did not want to end up with two bodies on her hands.

  “Nope. Didn’t show up for last night’s shift and hasn’t shown up for her shift tonight either. Big Jim must have called a dozen times. No answer. He’s seriously pissed. Wants to fire her. I’ve talked him out of it, at least for the moment.”

  “Good man. I’m heading over to Caribbean Dreams in a minute. I’ll find out what I can. Is Lollipop around?”

  “Yeah, she’s on right now.”

  John opened the door and once again Ruby was hit by a wall of loud rock music blaring through a bad sound system. Not that The Pirate’s Cove had a better one, in fact it was far worse, but Neville didn’t try to compensate for bad quality with volume. It got so loud in the bar you couldn’t hear the music most nights anyway.

  Ruby entered the club, shot a warning look at a guy who took a step toward her, and turned to the stage.

  And froze.

  John said that Lollipop was on stage, and she sure as hell was.

  She looked Central American, a contrast to all the other girls who worked here, who were local. She was petite, and wore only a G-string. Her straight black hair was done up in pigtails and she carried a big lollipop that she was licking in a way that even the zombies in the audience could tell was symbolic.

  Despite her stage name and size, Lollipop definitely looked of age. She had large breasts and generous hips, shattering the schoolgirl illusion.

  A second look revealed thin lines about her face, visible even in the soft red light of the stage, and she had a weary way of going through the motions of her dance that showed she had been doing this job far, far too long.

  If the guys were sober and sentient enough to notice her true age, they didn’t let on. They howled and cheered, throwing money on the stage and making propositions.

  Ruby bit her lip. She knew that for the right price, those propositions would be granted.

  Why the hell did she have to work next to this place, and why did she always end up coming here?

  Ruby moved around the stage as Lollipop knelt down on the edge of it and allowed men to put bills in her G-string. Once Ruby got near the doorway that led to the changing room, she waited. Big Jim, the owner, was busy with a crowd at the bar and didn’t see her. Good. She didn’t have the patience for him right now.

  Lollipop finally came off stage to loud cheers and whistles and headed for the back, her body glistening with sweat. She looked even smaller offstage. As she passed, Ruby stepped to block her passage.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  Lollipop looked her up and down. “You’re the bartender next door. Oh, and you brought that cute little monkey.”

  Ruby blinked. Now she recognized her. Sometimes she came to the bar early for a couple of drinks, probably before starting her shift. Ruby hadn’t recognized her with her clothes off.

  “Yeah. Can we go to the dressing room?”

  “Sure. Is this about Dirty Dancer?”

  That was Ruby’s second surprise. John or Big Jim must have told Lollipop to expect a visit. Maybe even the Ufologist had mentioned it while inspecting her for alien probes. Probably everyone in both businesses knew her mission by now.

  She needed to learn a bit more subtlety. It had never been her strong suit.

  “Yes. I’m looking for her,” Ruby said.

  Lollipop’s face darkened.

  They passed into the small, empty dressing room. A couple of chairs, a rack of skimpy clothing, and a mirror with a shelf for makeup were all that was in here. It smelled of sweat and cheap cosmetics.

  I live on one of the most beautiful islands in the world and I spend most of my time in grubby back rooms.

  This life got her down sometimes. Well, most of the time.

  Lollipop sat down in front of the mirror with a sigh and started to remove her makeup. Every swipe with the Kleenex added five years to her age. Zoomer stared in fascination.

  “You know those tourists you left with? One of them hired me to find the other one, who’s missing just like Dirty Dancer.”

  “Crap,” Lollipop said. At first Ruby thought that was in reaction to what Ruby had told her, but then she saw one of Lollipop’s fake nails had fallen off.

  “Could you tell me what happened that night?”

  Lollipop shrugged, still wiping off her makeup. “John and Big Jim have already talked to me about it, and they told me you already got the story from them.”

  “I want to hear it from you.”

  “Sure, if that’s what you want. Those two came in like a pair of bats out of hell—drinking it up, flirting with the customers, and then getting on stage to dance, if you can call it that. Total amateurs, no good moves at all. The crowd loved it, though. They like seeing girl-next-door types getting raunchy. But only whatshername, Helen, really got into it. The other one just sort of followed along.”

  “Her name’s Bridget, and she’s the one who’s missing.”

  “I’m not surprised. In over her head and getting deeper. She has a bad friend in that Helen woman. I’ve seen it before. That Helen is the type who wants to be the center of attention, and needs some quieter person to come along as an audience, and to make her look good by comparison.”

  Ruby nodded. “Sounds like a fair assessment. So what happened? I already know about the coke, so please be honest about everything. I’m trying to get this solved without involving the police.”

  Lollipop showed no reaction to Ruby mentioning that she knew about her illegal drug use. “Ah, so Helen has a husband she wants to hide all this from. Like I said, I’ve seen this before.”

  “Bridget has a husband too, and he’s asking questions.”

  Lollipop didn’t seem concerned by any of this.

  “Once those two finished dancing, Big Jim put them at a table near the bar so he could keep an eye on them. Bridget looked a bit nervous having a whole club full of guys staring at her. Stupid. She flashed her tits on stage. What did she think would happen? Helen loved it, though. She kept waving to guys and Big Jim kept telling the guys to get lost. So he called for me and Dirty Dancer to solve the problem.”

  “Solve the problem? How?”

  “He figured
if they went in back for a session with us, the customers would calm down.”

  Big Jim failed to mention that little detail. Imagine my surprise.

  “How did Helen and Bridget react?”

  “That’s where it got interesting. Bridget got real close with Dirty Dancer. Helen picked me, but didn’t touch me much, only got all chatty. Wanted to know everything about the stuff I do with clients.”

  “Did Bridget and Dirty Dancer get a room?” Ruby asked, growing angry. She didn’t have a problem with people of the same sex getting it on, but cheating was cheating.

  It surprised her that it was Bridget, and not Helen, who was more into it. Looked like Helen’s daring was more for show. She began to wonder who really manipulated who that night.

  “For a while they got a room, yeah. Helen and I got another room but we didn’t do anything, just talked. After about half an hour, they came and knocked on our door. Helen asked if we had any coke. I didn’t have enough for more than a short line for each of us. Helen didn’t like it. Said it was cut too much and she could get better stuff at home. What did she expect in a place like this? You know how coke dealers are.”

  “Actually I don’t.”

  “Yeah, you’re more of a drinker. I’ve seen how you can put them away.”

  Great. Not only do I have a reputation at work, but at this place too.

  Lollipop went on.

  “Helen wanted to get some better coke. She figured she could score at one of the more top-end places. So she decided she wanted to go to Caribbean Dreams and take us along. Bridget complained that she was tired, that she had gotten what she really wanted out of the evening, but Helen pushed her into it.”

  A sleazy quickie and then back to the boring life for Bridget, eh? Why am I sticking my neck out for this woman?

  Because as bad as she is, she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her.

  “And she wanted to the two of you to come along?” Ruby asked.

  “Yeah. We were their dates.”

  “Big Jim let you go, even though it was your shift?”

  Lollipop laughed. “We were working, weren’t we? He knew he’d get a cut.”

  “Of the money or the drugs?”

  “The money. Big Jim doesn’t use drugs. Don’t look at me like that. He really doesn’t. Looks the other way when we or the clients use them, because it’s business, but he doesn’t like it. He had a friend who overdosed.”

  Ruby had a hard time imagining someone like Big Jim having friends. Another reminder of how little she knew about life on this island outside her little bubble.

  “So what happened at Caribbean Dreams?” she asked.

  “Not much of anything. When we tried to get in, the bouncer let them inside but not us. Must have scoped us for working girls and didn’t want their girls having any competition.”

  “So you didn’t see them after that?” This was beginning to look like another dead end.

  “I didn’t. We headed back to the nearest bus stop to come back here, but Dirty Dancer was really angry at how they treated us. Stupid. What did she expect? She wanted to go back and I told her no. Then she did something that surprised me. She called that girl, whatshername.”

  “Bridget.”

  “Yeah. Bridget actually gave Dirty Dancer her number. Wanted her as a thing on the side for her whole vacation. Dirty Dancer thought she’d be able to milk her for hundreds, thousands maybe. It happens sometimes. Some john will fall for you and keep you as long as he’s here. Tourist women do it with some of the guys who work at the resorts. Never heard of it happening with one of the girls at The Tropical Twerker, but whatever. You can make a lot that way. Plus get lots of gifts. Dirty Dancer wasn’t about to give up her cash cow. So she called Bridget and asked her to talk to the management.”

  “Did she get her in?”

  “Said she would. Dirty Dancer left me at the bus stop and went back there. That’s the last I saw her.”

  Ruby thought for a moment. So whatever happened to Bridget, Dirty Dancer might have been a witness.

  Or a culprit.

  The answers were at Caribbean Dreams. Two rich, drunk tourists like Helen and Bridget would have been pounced on by the girls there, and Dirty Dancer would have objected to sharing her prize catch. There might have been some sort of altercation, something the staff or customers would remember.

  Getting people to talk would be the real challenge.

  While she had no real idea how to go about doing that, it was time to head over there, and somehow root out the truth before everyone expected her to get on stage and be stripped by the men in the crowd.

  And those horrible managers.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Even though it was still well before midnight, Caribbean Dreams was already packed. The bouncer didn’t even question her as she passed through and came into the large interior space, although he did do a double take at seeing a monkey riding her shoulder.

  Right away she could tell that Caribbean Dreams was light years better than The Tropical Twerker, if you could ever call a strip joint “better.”

  The sound system was good enough for a nightclub, pulsing out techno as a beautiful young Bahamian woman danced on the main stage. Ruby stopped and stared. She was entirely naked, and gyrating with a gymnast’s flexibility and strength. Ruby had a good eye for physical prowess, and could tell this woman did a lot of cross training as well as intense dance sessions. She wasn’t just a beautiful female form baring it on stage, she was actually an artist of physical movement.

  “Like to see you up there with her,” a man’s English-accented voice said beside her.

  She turned to see a middle-aged man, his dress shirt unbuttoned, standing hold a beer and grinning at her with a sweaty face.

  Well, the crowd is the same.

  She noticed a Rolex on his wrist.

  Richer, though.

  “Like the monkey. So are you—”

  Ruby walked away.

  Yeah, this place had lots of money. The customers all looked pretty prosperous, obviously better off than the solidly middle-class Bridget, and everything looked new and clean. Whatever happened to Bridget, it wasn’t motivated by robbery.

  Moving through the crowd, she felt men’s eyes upon her, sizing her up, wondering why she was there and hoping she’d end up on stage. She was the only female in sight who had clothes on.

  The two smaller stages on the edges of the room had a different flavor—less of a show and more of an interactive experience. Built barely a step above the floor, and so small that anyone could reach the person dancing, they attracted eager crowds of men who showered the dancers with money in exchange for a grope. One woman had stopped dancing entirely and merely lay on stage, touching herself as men ran ten and twenty-dollar bills along her sweating flesh.

  Ruby curled her lip in disgust. How could someone lower herself that much?

  You’re one to judge. You ran out on the only family you had.

  The old guilt came back, tinged with embarrassment, if Dad could see the places she went to these days.

  Focus on what you need to do and then get the hell out of here, Ruby reminded herself.

  She headed over to the bar, where the diminutive co-manager was busy slinging drinks. He nodded to her and continued his work.

  While Ruby waited, she studied the bar menu. They had top shelf booze and top shelf prices. They even had Bahamian Gold. Ruby licked her lips.

  The co-manager came up to her, then blinked as he noticed Zoomer.

  “No animal acts here. If you want to do that, go to Guatemala.”

  “Huh? Oh! Ew! He’s a pet!”

  “Glad to hear it. He can’t come on stage with you at all. It’s the law.”

  “He’s not going on stage.”

  And neither am I.

  “You get one on the house because it’s your first night. What would you like?”

  “A shot of Bahamian Gold,” Ruby said without thinking.

  The little
man snorted. “Going for the good stuff, eh? Bet you’re a gold digger. You look like it. Washed up in a foreign country looking for a sugar daddy. Well, there’s plenty of rich stupid horny guys here. Play your cards right and you might just land one.”

  He poured a shot. Ruby noticed it was short. Even so, she stared at it like it was the Holy Grail. The bartender looked her up and down.

  “We got a nice costume for you tonight. Go see my brother about it.”

  “All right.” Ruby reached for a glass of the finest rum in the Bahamas, then hesitated. She longed for that rich, smooth flavor sending a warm wave through her body. Delightful.

  Zoomer hooted.

  “You take it, buddy,” Ruby said. The difficulty she had in saying those four words made her want to punch herself in the face.

  Zoomer scampered down, picked up the glass in his little hands, and started sipping. A couple of guys further down the bar laughed and pointed. One pulled out his phone to take a picture. Ruby, her mouth still watering, took a step back to stay out of the frame.

  Weak. I’m really weak. A moment’s tension and getting caught off guard and I almost go back to old habits.

  The bartender grinned. “Sharing with the monkey, eh? Guess you get lots of free drinks if you’re willing to waste it like that. You like the sauce, I can tell. Want another, one for you instead of your little boyfriend? We’ll take it off your tips. You get a 20 percent employee discount.”

  Ruby licked her lips.

  No, I won’t give this dirty little shrimp the satisfaction.

  “I’ll go see your brother.”

  She grabbed Zoomer, who was licking the last drops from the inside of the glass, and went to the back. The obese co-manager at his desk, tapping away on his computer. Ruby wondered if he ever moved.

  He looked up and frowned.

  “No animal acts here. If you want to do that, go to Guatemala.”

  “Don’t be disgusting. He’s a pet.”

  “You’re early,” he said. “It’s only ten.”

  “Yeah, just wanted to get a feel for the place first.”

  “Like what you see?”

  Hell, no.

  “Lots of money changing hands,” she said.