Last Diner Standing (9 page)

“Where is she, Freddy?”

He stared at me a moment, then shrugged. “She left a minute ago. You just missed her.”

I turned around to Roxy and Janelle. “Go to the parking lot and see if you can find her.” Then I entered the office. A Lil Wayne song pounded against the closed door.

“What did she want?” I asked. Crossing my arms, I gave Freddy my meanest stare that mostly involved looking into his eyes and not blinking. I think I ruined the effect when my eyes started watering.

“You’re not Crystal’s cousin,” he said.

“No shit, Sherlock. Now what was she doing here?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything.” He leaned back in his seat and laced his hands behind his head. “But because it will get you out of my hair, I will. She wanted her job back.”

I didn’t believe him. Freddy was as bad at lying as he was picking out clothes from this decade.

I turned my death glare into a smile. “Okay, great. Thanks.” I walked to the door, my hand on the knob. “Oh, by the way, there are a group of boys out front who are underage—I know a couple of them. Probably got in using fake IDs. I wonder what the cops will think of that.” Hey, it could be true. I opened the door.

“Wait.”

I turned back around. “Yes?”

He dropped his hands to the desk. “Crystal wanted money. I gave her a couple hundred and she left.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why would you give her money? Because you’re such an altruistic person?”

He appeared confused. Note to self: don’t use college prep words on a strip club owner.

“Because you’re such a generous guy?” I rephrased.

He shrugged. “I felt sorry for the kid. We had to let her go and now she’s hurting.”

Yeah, Freddy was a really crappy liar. I left without another word and met Roxy and Janelle in the hallway. “Did you find her?”

“That bitch was with Marcus. She hopped into his truck and they hauled ass out of here before we could even think about following them,” Janelle said.

“Marcus Walker?” I asked. What was Sheik’s friend, the muffler man, doing with Crystal?

Two men in suits entered the hallway from the main room and walked toward us. I knew there wasn’t a men’s room down this way, so what were they doing? One was older, bald. The other was younger, probably fortyish. He was wiry with weasely features and greased back hair.

They stepped past us and walked into Freddy’s office without knocking on the door.

“Clay, you’re early,” I heard Freddy say before the door slammed shut.

I raised my brows at Roxy. Then I turned and hightailed it to the bathroom.

“Where the hell you going?” Janelle hissed as she followed me.

Roxy trailed behind. “She’s trying to see if she can hear anything.” She glanced up above the stalls. “There.” She pointed at a vent.

“Janelle, you’re the tallest. Get up on a toilet and see if you can hear anything.”

Janelle walked into the stall and hoisted herself up on the toilet seat, trying to steady herself in the high-heeled boots she wore. Roxy and I crowded around her.

“Well?” Roxy asked.

“Shh,” Janelle said and waved her hand.

After a couple of minutes, she looked down from her perch and shook her head. “Can’t hear a thing.”

Damn. We helped her down and I told the girls I’d meet them at the car. I wanted to see if I could find Jess and ask her a few questions while I was here.

I stepped out of the bathroom, turned right, and walked to the dressing room. The ladies inside were in various states of undress. I’d never seen so many bare breasts and free-wheeling vaginas in my life. I wasn’t sure where to look. Plus, the whole room reeked of different perfumes, mingling to combine a truly overwhelming floral, musky, peppery stench. Made me sneeze.

“Hi, ladies. I’m looking for Jess.” I addressed my comment toward the ceiling.

“She’s on the floor, sweetie, what do you need?”

I lowered my gaze slightly to a tanned blonde who wore lots of eyeliner and not much else. “Oh, hi.” I kept my gaze on hers. Naked women flowed around me. One ran into my shoulder. “Did you see Crystal Waters earlier?”

She grabbed a bottle of oil and poured a generous portion into her palm. “God, her. Yeah, I saw her. She and Freddy were having it out. Don’t know what the fight was about, but Crystal was pissed.” She began oiling herself up like she was turkey getting ready for the oven.

I cast my eyes back to the ceiling. “Nobody overheard anything?”

“Hey,” she yelled. The strippers stopped yakking. “Does anybody know why Crystal was fighting with Freddy earlier?”

“Who cares?” a voice asked.

“She probably wanted to see who had the bigger dick, her or Freddy.” That garnered quite a few laughs.

“Sorry, sweetie,” said Oily McGee.

“Well, thanks.” I backed out of the room and shut the door.

Look, I’m fine with nudity. Really. Just not so much of it all at once. Finally, I lowered my eyes from the acoustic ceiling tiles and took a deep breath, my eyes stinging from the perfume cloud.

I walked down the hall and stopped by Freddy’s office. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was coming, then I put my ear to the door.

I heard muted male voices, but nothing distinctive over the loud music. The door suddenly opened and the bald man faced me.

“Who are you?” He had hard blue eyes and a bulby nose with huge pores.

“How are you?” I waved like I belonged there and then strolled toward the main room. Once I was out of the hallway, I wanted to run, but a large group of men—ten or so—stood in a circle and blocked the exit.

I started shoving my way through them, but they shoved back. I used my elbow to jab at them. I jostled through the throng and stumbled into the middle of the circle. Jess wore nothing but the thinnest of g-strings and a pair of reindeer antlers on a headband. She straddled a guy backwards so that she faced me. Reverse cowgirl style.

“Hey,” she said, glancing up. “Did you find Crystal?” She didn’t stop gyrating.

Jeez Louise, I was going to have to bleach my eyeballs. Too. Much. Boobage. “Nope, she was gone.”

Some dude with a bottle of beer tried to push me out of the way for a better view. I stomped on his toe and shoved back. “Do you know why Crystal was fighting with Freddy?”

The guy whose lap she rode stuffed dollar bills into her g-string. His eyes were glazed. “Yeah. I overheard them. She said she wanted money and he told her it didn’t belong to her. Said she’d go to the cops about it.”

“How did you hear all this?”

She raised her legs and spun around on his lap, shoving her breasts in the guy’s face. She glanced over her shoulder. “I was in the hallway and the door was half open.”

“Thanks, Jess.”

“You bet.” She focused on the guy and slapped her own ass.

I needed to get out of here. I fought my way back through the circle of men and staggered to the door and out into the night. Sweet, cold, fresh air with a hint of wood smoke from a fireplace nearby.

Janelle pulled her car up to the building. Roxy rolled down the window.

“Hurry up, I’m hungry.”

I climbed into the backseat and told them every salacious, boobtastic detail. “And I can’t unsee any of it.”

“Who the hell cares about that? What money is Chicken Licker talking about?” Janelle asked. She pulled into traffic. The roads were always congested this time of year. Christmas shoppers. She honked at the slow car in front of us. “Get your ass moving before I do it for you, pokey.”

“Maybe the money Asshat was throwing around?” Roxy asked.

“Exactly,” I said. “But where did the money come from? That’s the question. And why was Crystal asking Freddy about the money? Are Asshat and Freddy buddies?” I asked Janelle.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Janelle said. “But his brother, LD, might know.”

At Janelle’s, Tariq and Roxy flirted their way through dinner, feeding each other bites of meatballs. If they each started sucking a long string of spaghetti à la
Lady and the Tramp
, I was going to gag. Damon still wasn’t feeling very well and Janelle had a perpetual worried air. I was glad she was home, but I felt a pressing need to find that money. I was sure it was the key to finding Asshat’s assailant.

After dinner, I helped with the dishes and Sondra took her kids home.

“Listen, we should go see LD tonight.” Janelle stuck a lid on the plastic container of salad before sticking it in the fridge.

“It’s your first night home.”

“It won’t take that long. Tariq and Roxy can watch the kids. I’ll be home before ten.”

After we finished cleaning the kitchen, we took Janelle’s car. On the drive to LD’s apartment, she gave me Sheik’s family history.

“Well, LD’s the baby of the family and closest to Sheik. They’re thick as thieves.” That was the first time I’d heard her refer to her ex as anything other than Asshat. “LD has himself a little garage downtown. It’s profitable. When Sheik quit the muffler place, Little Donnell gave him side jobs.”

“Fixing cars?” I asked. That might explain the graveyard of dismantled vehicles in Asshat’s yard.

“Mmm-hmm. Off the books. That way, no child support. I’d always liked LD until then, but he helped Sheik dodge his responsibilities. What kind of a man quits his job so he doesn’t have to take care of his children?”

A really terrible one.

She pulled up to the Apple Creek Apartments, not far from my sister’s neighborhood.

“This place is beautiful,” I said, gazing up at the expansive brick building. “His garage must be doing really well to live here.”

“Like I said, off the books. If the IRS ever got a look at what he earned, his ass would be in prison before you could say ‘don’t drop the soap.’”

We took the elevator to the third floor, then Janelle knocked on the door. When he didn’t answer, she knocked again, louder this time. “Donnell, you open this door before I stick my foot up your ass. I know you’re home, I saw your Explorer outside.”

I heard a lock disengage and the door opened a crack. One big, brown eye framed with long lashes blinked at us.

“Hey, Janelle. Now’s not a good time.”

Janelle pushed her hefty breasts into the door and shoved him back. “Now’s not a good time for my ass to wind up in jail, either, but here we are.”

LD sighed and stepped back. A handsome man in his late twenties, he was tall with dark skin and a shaved head. But he also sported a black eye that was almost swollen shut and a dark bruise along his jaw. He wore track pants and no shirt. Judging by his six pack, LD did a lot of crunches.

“Who’s this,” he nodded, eying me up and down. With his one good eye.

“This here’s Rose. You step out of line, I’ll put you back in place.”

LD held up his hands. “Woman, you’re too violent. No wonder they arrested you.”

She glared at him. “But we both know I didn’t hit Sheik.” She marched over to the leather sofa, shrugged out of her coat and sat down. “We’ve got a few questions to ask.”

LD cast me a wary glance. “I don’t think we should be talking. The police said it wouldn’t be a good idea. Besides, I told you, it’s not a good time.”

A woman wearing a white t-shirt that almost reached her knees stepped into the room. She was pretty with mocha skin and long, dark, mussed hair. “What’s going on LD?”

“Get back in bed. I’ll be there in a minute.”

She shrugged and returned from whence she came.

“So let me get this straight,” Janelle said. “Your brother’s in a coma. I’m stuck in jail. And you’re getting knobbed?”

“Man, what can I do about any of that? Life is short. You got to live.”

“You could’ve bailed me out of jail.” 

He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “How would that look, bailing out the woman who put my brother in the hospital?

“I told you, I didn’t do it,” she said.

“But everyone thinks you did. You two should go.”

“No problem,” I said. “Come on, Janelle.”

She looked at me as if I were crazy. “We’re not going anywhere. Not until this fool talks to us.”

“We can’t force him,” I said.

When LD hitched up the waistband of his pants, a large, gold watch slid down his wrist. “That’s right,” he said. “You can’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m a grown ass man.”

I glanced around the apartment, took in the thick off-white carpeting, the soft terra cotta walls, the big tan vase filled with twigs in the corner. The furniture looked expensive and the mammoth TV screen rivaled the Jumbotron. Then my eyes met Janelle’s. “I wonder what this furniture’s worth. And you know, I think the IRS is going to love that watch LD’s wearing. Looks expensive.”

He held up his hands in protest. “Now wait, that’s not funny.”

Janelle stood and grabbed her coat. “Yep. And I’m sure they’d be interested in knowing Asshat’s getting paid off the books.” She walked toward him and reaching up, thumped his black eye with her fingertip.

He cupped it with one hand. “Ow! Goddamn it, Janelle, that hurt.”

“Not as much as it’s going to, you little fucker.” She jabbed his stomach with a long, yellow nail. “Are you going to talk or do I have to call the IRS?”

He dropped his hand. “Fine.”

She nodded smugly and poked him once more. “Good.” Returning to the sofa, she sank down and pursed her lips. “Rose, ask your questions.”

I walked over to where Janelle sat and plopped down next to her. “Tell us the name of the door you ran into.”