Extra Dirty Read online

  “This is a great business. The doorman give you any trouble?”

  “No, why would he?”

  The manager shrugged. “Don’t get many foreign women coming in here.”

  “I bet you get some slumming. They probably cause a lot of trouble.”

  The manager frowned. “Slumming? This is one of the most successful independent businesses in the Bahamas.”

  “Yeah, but you know how these tourists are. I work part time in a bar, and not a very nice one. Sometimes they come in wanting a little danger, a little excitement. Even a high-class place like this is the danger zone to your average middle class housewife.”

  The manager’s eyes flickered with … something. Suspicion? Fear? Anger? Ruby wasn’t sure what.

  Instead of answering, he gestured toward a clothing rack. “We’ve picked out a costume for you. The one on the end.”

  Ruby went over to take a look at it. It was a female business suit that looked about her size, but it was tattered and torn.

  “Why’s it all messed up?”

  “Adds to the fantasy. They’ll be tearing it off you, after all.”

  Ruby’s stomach turned. She remembered someone else trying to tear her clothes off, a long time ago.

  She’d been in high school, and a boy she thought was a friend and a good date decided that paying for a couple of hamburgers gave him the right to feed on her body as well.

  She had broken his collarbone for trying that, and got expelled from the school. The school didn’t punish him at all.

  Ruby really, really wanted to break a few bones in this guy’s body too.

  “Um, nice,” Ruby managed to say.

  “There’s a scarf and an overcoat on the next hanger. You’ll put those on too. You won’t get very big tips for those, but every little bit helps.”

  “You’re quite the businessman.”

  “Sure am. You want some special underwear or will you just use your own?”

  “Mine will be fine.”

  “Plain cotton?”

  “Yeah.”

  The manager chuckled. “Don’t see much of that around here but it fits with the costume. Look for Lulu. She’s one of the dancers and a whiz with makeup. She’ll give you a couple of fake cuts and a fake black eye.”

  “I’m sure they’ll lap it up.”

  “Hell, yeah. It’s a great idea you had. Works well with an unknown. Why don’t you go take it easy for a while. Meet some of the girls. The employee lounge is just down the hall.”

  Perfect. I need to talk to those girls, and I really need to get out of here before I pound you into hamburger.

  “Cool, thanks.”

  The manager pulled a fifth of whiskey out of a desk drawer.

  “Want a snort before you go?”

  Ruby’s mouth watered.

  What difference does it make? You need to blend in.

  With a conscious effort she said, “No, thanks.”

  She hurried out the door before she changed her mind. Zoomer clutched her neck, staring back at the bottle.

  The employee lounge was just a few steps down the hall. To her surprise, it was pretty nice, with a couple of comfortable sofas and a few armchairs. The walls even had a few bright watercolors of the kind you saw sold in stalls next to the beach. A television gameshow babbled in the background, ignored by the half dozen scantily clad women chatting away. They were a mix of Bahamian and Asian. They all turned as she entered.

  “Oh, you must be the new girl,” one of the Asian women said.

  “Yeah, I go on at midnight.”

  “Oh, what an adorable monkey. Does he bite?”

  “No, you can pet him.”

  A couple of the women got up and gave Zoomer some hesitant pats. Zoomer chittered and leaped onto the shoulder of the nearest one, making her shriek. Zoomer shrieked too and jumped back on Ruby’s shoulder.

  “Don’t worry. He’s safe,” Ruby said with a laugh. All the others joined in.

  “Nearly gave me a heart attack,” the women replied, but smiled as he said it.

  Ruby gave Zoomer a scratch.

  You sure know how to break the ice, buddy.

  She handed him over to the woman who had shrieked, who gently took him. Pretty soon he was chittering away on her shoulder and playing with her hoop earrings, turning them this way and that and watching how they caught the light.

  “Sit down, want a drink?” one of the Bahamian women said. She was a stocky woman, a bit older than the rest, and seemed to carry an air of authority. Ruby noticed a bottle of vodka and several glasses on the coffee table. Zoomer hopped onto the table and grabbed a bottle, looking around expectantly.

  “He likes a little nip every now and then,” Ruby explained, sitting down.

  The Bahamian woman who had offered her a drink poured a little bit of vodka into a cup. Zoomer hooted and drained it.

  She turned to Ruby. “Do you want one too?”

  “No thanks. Do you have anything stronger?”

  “Stronger?” one of the women asked.

  Ruby shrugged and gave a sly smile. “You know, a little bump.”

  A slim, younger Bahamian woman next to her shook her finger. “No girl, you don’t get to do that on the premises. They’ll freak. They got busted a few years ago because of that. One of the girls was using pretty hard, and selling to the customers on the side. The government shut them down for a month and gave them a big fine. You do that here and your ass is on the streets.”

  “There’s plenty of this, though,” one of the Asian girls said, pouring Ruby a glass of vodka. “Want some orange juice with it?”

  “Sure,” Ruby replied, figuring she’d drink the orange juice and not the vodka. That vodka sure looked tasty, though. Amazing how beautiful a simple clear liquid could be. She found herself staring at it …

  “ … here? And what did you say your name was?”

  Ruby snapped out of it. The slim woman next to her had asked two questions. Ruby had caught only the second one.

  “I’m Ruby.”

  “Not a bad stage name.”

  Ruby bit her lip. She should have made something up. Ruby was her real name, the name given to her by her dead mother because it was her favorite gemstone.

  “She wanted to call you something precious,” Dad always said. “Something beautiful. Every time I say your name, I think of her.”

  The Asian woman went to a fridge and came back with a carton of orange juice.

  “Here you go.”

  Ruby looked around for a spare glass to put the orange juice in but didn’t see one. She poured a hefty amount into the vodka glass.

  I’ll water down the vodka enough that it won’t affect me much. Just take a sip. I need to put these girls at ease.

  “Cheers,” the Bahamian woman said, raising her glass.

  “Cheers,” Ruby replied. She took a small sip, then a big one. The vodka gave the orange juice a delicious tang.

  Damn, that’s way too good. At least it’s only a single shot. That’s doesn’t count as slipping, right? And I need to fit in for the case. I’m sure every stripper in the world drinks. All these women are.

  Zoomer drained his glass and belched.

  “So what’s it like working here?” Ruby asked.

  A couple of the strippers laughed. “The million-dollar question. Well, they’ll tell you some rules, but we’ll tell you the real rules. First off, no drugs. You already know that. If you see a customer taking drugs, turn the other way. If you see someone selling drugs, turn the other way. Anybody asks, you saw nothing. Just don’t touch the stuff yourself and you’ll be fine. Even if a customer wants to do some with you, walk away. The management would rather lose the business than get in trouble with the law again.”

  “What about upstairs?” Ruby asked.

  One of the other Bahamian women shook her head. “There is no upstairs. This isn’t like other places you’ve worked. Management is terrified of liability. You know there was some crappy dive on the o
ther side of town that got investigated just a couple of weeks ago? A dead man was found in the dumpster out back.”

  Ruby choked on her drink.

  “Yeah, I heard something about that,” she mumbled, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

  The police had kept it out of the papers for several days while investigating, and only told the press after they had caught the killer.

  Actually, after Ruby caught the killer.

  Thankfully the police had left her name out of it. They had wanted to take all the credit for themselves. Fine by Ruby. She wanted to remain as anonymous as possible.

  “So if you want a date with a customer, you go with them. It’s a flat $50 fee to the management.”

  “I have to pay to have a private date with a customer?”

  “Hell, yeah! You’re leaving your shift early. Ain’t nothing for free here, not even these drinks. They charge us a monthly fee for refreshments, so drink up girl, you’re paying for it.”

  Ruby remembered the way those two managers had looked at her. It still made her skin crawl.

  “What else to they try to get from us?” she asked.

  Everyone laughed.

  “What do you think?” one of the Asians asked. “The same with managers at every place. Don’t worry, you can wrap them around your finger. Those two can’t get it any other way, so you can get them to give you better shifts, or paid time off, or nice gifts too.”

  The slim Bahamian woman held out a cheap ring with a tiny emerald. “Got that just last week. I had to be on top, of course. Otherwise, I would have suffocated to death.”

  Ruby felt like she was suffocating just thinking about it.

  They drank and played with Zoomer for a while and the conversation drifted to other things. Ruby allowed them to pour her a second drink. She wanted them to feel at ease before springing the question. And, she had to admit, she needed to feel at ease in this weird situation. The second drink went down without a thought, and before she knew it, a third drink sat before her.

  She set it down with a deliberate motion.

  Too damn easy to slip back into it, she thought.

  Strippers drifted in and out as the stage shows cycled through. Ruby was impressed at how big of an operation this was. There must have been thirty girls working here, plus the heavies at the door and the two managers, plus a DJ.

  Just as she was finally getting comfortable talking to the constantly changing circle of women, she noticed the time. Almost eleven. That late already? As usual, knocking back a few had made her lose track of time. She drained her glass. She shouldn’t drink any more.

  No, she wouldn’t drink any more.

  “Want a fourth?” one of the girls asked, holding up the vodka bottle.

  Fourth? Wouldn’t this be the third?

  Time to get to work.

  “I shouldn’t have any more. Got to do my first set at midnight.”

  “Good luck.” Several of the women toasted her. That made Ruby feel both good and bad. They seemed pretty supportive, and here she was deceiving them.

  “That last place I worked was pretty rough,” Ruby said. “The guys always tried to cause trouble. Anything like that here from the clients?”

  “The usual stuff,” one of the girls said with a sigh.

  “I work part time at a bar, and we’ve had some problems with slumming tourists causing trouble lately. We even had two women in the other night who tried to do a strip tease right on my bar as I was trying to pour some rum,” Ruby said.

  “Yeah, we had a couple of white American women in here night before last. Drunk as Russians. Wanted to join the show.”

  Ruby’s skin prickled. “Did you let them?”

  “Hell, no. This is a professional place. People think they know the moves, but when they get on stage they end up looking like clumsy fools. And management doesn’t want the liability. Drunk as they were, what if one of them fell off the stage? And the clients like to cop a feel. What if one of them got all tight-assed about it and put it on Twitter?”

  One of the other girls sucked her teeth. “Those two looked dumb enough they might have even called the police.”

  “Maybe they were the same two who were at my bar. What happened next?”

  “Nothing. Never got on stage, thank God,” the woman next to her said.

  “I saw them buying from Star Man,” one of the others said.

  “Star Man?” Ruby asked.

  “He deals in the crowd.”

  “I thought drugs weren’t allowed,” Ruby said.

  The Bahamian woman put a hand on Ruby’s leg. “We’re not allowed to do drugs. The customers can do what they want. Management can pretend they know nothing about it.”

  “And management gets a cut?” Ruby asked.

  The woman took her hand off Ruby’s leg. “I wouldn’t know nothing about that. And you don’t know nothing about that either, you hear?”

  “I hear. Why do they call him Star Man?”

  One of the Asian girls giggled and pointed to the ceiling. “Because he takes you to the stars. His stuff is the shit.”

  “He’s got the best joints in town,” another added, pouring Zoomer some more vodka. He hooted and started drinking.

  “I thought they called him that because of those dumbass glasses he wears,” said a third.

  Ruby had a flash of recognition. As she had passed through the crowd, she had seen a Bahamian man in a red silk shirt and matching top hat sitting at one of the tables. He had been wearing gold-rimmed glasses in the shape of stars.

  She hadn’t thought anything about it. There were a lot of flashy dressers in this town, especially in its underworld. But now she knew she had spotted the man who might hold the key to Bridget’s disappearance.

  Ruby rose. Zoomer slugged back the rest of his drink and scampered up to her shoulder. “I better check with the big man about my costume.”

  “If he wants to examine the merchandise, make sure it ain’t free,” the Asian girl who had admitted sleeping with him said.

  If he tries that, he’ll pay with some broken bones, Ruby thought.

  She left, quickly passing the open office door and making a beeline for the club.

  The lights had changed. Now they flickered as loud, rapid Techno pulsed through the sound system. The women on the three stages made quick movements that the lights caught like a series of photographs. Zoomer screeched and tucked his face into the crook of Ruby’s neck. She gave him a reassuring scratch and headed to where she had last seen the Star Man.

  He wasn’t there. Scanning the crowd, it took her a minute to spot him sitting at a table with four white guys. His hands were under the table. A moment later, the man next to him put his hands under the table too.

  A deal in progress. Ruby headed for them.

  The dealer and his customer didn’t notice her, both pretending to stare at the stage while transacting their business beneath the table. Not a bad dodge, Ruby thought. Several customers had their hands under the table, conducting “business” in the low visibility.

  The customer’s three friends stared at the stage, equally unaware of her. She would be able to sneak up on these people no problem.

  Ruby made it halfway there when the situation changed.

  For the worse, as usual.

  The music reached a crescendo and cut off sharp. The lights blasted on. The crowd roared. People quickly took their hands out from under the table.

  Star Man looked right at Ruby, now exposed plain as day headed right for him.

  He rose. Something in Ruby’s eyes must have tipped him off.

  “Wait a minute,” she said.

  Star Man backed away. The lights faded down to their usual red. Ruby started to follow.

  She got cut off by the Star Man’s customer, who stood and got in her path. His face glowed with the superficial enthusiasm of alcohol.

  “Wait a minute. Don’t I know you?”

  “No. I’ve never danced here before,” Ruby said, t
rying to step around him.

  The guy shook his head. He was American, young and fit. Ruby wondered why he and his friends would be in such a place. Couldn’t they get women the normal way? He pointed a finger at her.

  “No, not here. On TV. Although not with the monkey. That would have been cool.”

  Ruby tensed. “I’ve never been on TV.” She glanced over his shoulder. Star Man hurried for the men’s room.

  “Yeah you have. You used to be a fighter, the one that got injured. Yeah, something Wayne.”

  “You’re mistaken. Get out of my way,” Ruby growled.

  “She is!” one of the guys at the table said. He turned on the flashlight on his phone to shine in her face. “Totally! You sure changed professions.”

  Everyone laughed. The nearby tables turned to look. Star Man had almost made it to the men’s room.

  “Out of my way,” Ruby said, trying to shove past without using real force.

  “Whoa! Easy there,” Star Man’s customer said, suddenly getting angry from being pushed. “You think you’re still a fighter? You washed up years ago.”

  Washed up.

  Rage seethed inside her. It must have shown in her face, because the guy’s face cracked into an arrogant smile.

  “Come on, show us some moves. I got a purple belt ju-jitsu. Let’s see if you still got it.”

  Ruby gave him her combat face. He blinked, suddenly more sober than he had been a moment before. She could see him waver.

  “No mid-level gym jock is going to intimidate me,” she told him, the words coming out hard and sharp. “I don’t have time for you. I got things to do. Get out of my way.”

  She stepped to the left so far that her hip bumped the next table, and moved to pass him.

  Then he did the worst thing he could have done, for both of them.

  He grabbed her and went for a flip.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ruby needed to get this done quick and easy. The guy had grabbed her arm with both hands, trying to lock her elbow while his leg went for a sweep. She shifted and dropped her weight so the sweep didn’t budge her, then gave a quick jab to the bridge of the nose with her free hand.

  Even over the renewed music she could hear the cartilage snap. Zoomer did a back flip and landed on the table, hooting with glee.