Scottsdale Squeeze: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 2) (13 page)

Why can’t I think of anything else?

I hit the beeper and unlocked the doors. I got in the driver’s seat while Reno took the passenger’s side. I tossed my purse in the back seat then looked at Reno. He looked back at me for a moment then took me by the shoulder and bent over to kiss me.

As soon as his lips touched mine, my heart sped up another notch and I suddenly felt warm all over. I had a bad case of the butterflies and a pleasant tingling had started to climb up my thighs. When I felt his tongue touch mine, my libido hit the red zone. I grabbed his body and smashed it against me. His kisses became deeper and I felt his body growing hot. At my not-so-subtle prompting, he started to gently touch and tease.

After two or three minutes of this, I literally started to squirm with sexual frustration. I knew there was no way I was letting Reno out of the car without him giving me some sort of relief.

“I want you Reno,” I said, my words coming out in gasps.

He was breathing hard and his face looked flushed. I reached my hand down and felt he was also ready.

He let out a low moan. “I want you too,” he said. “Do you have enough time to come to my place?”

I looked at my watch. I had told the girls I would meet them in less than half an hour.

“Not enough time,” I said.

“Cream-puff, we talked about this not twenty minutes ago. You need to fix your schedule so we can actually be together, at least occasionally. Can we plan on tomorrow?”

“Maybe, but you aren’t getting away yet. I need you to make me happy -- now.”

“In Frankie’s parking lot? What did you have in mind? It wouldn’t be a good idea to be bouncing in the back seat like a couple of teenagers. What if someone was to walk by? We should probably think of, umm, something else.”

His fingers were gently touching my lips and I knew what he had in mind.

“Well,” I said, “there is one magic thing you do to me.” I then took his hand and lightly kissed the tips of his fingers.

“Sure, great for you. But what about me? I’m a guy. I have needs too. Maybe more than you.”

“I seriously doubt that. Besides, I’m wearing a skirt and you have on a ton of clothes. It’s not my fault you didn’t plan better.”

“Like how? Wear a kilt?”

I took one of his fingers and sucked on it for about ten seconds, sliding his finger in and out of my mouth, to give him a nice mental image.

“Make me happy now and I’ll make it up to you,” I said in my sexiest voice. “I promise.”

“Oh yeah? When?”

“Soon.”

“Soon’s not an answer.”

“It’s the best I can do right now. Take it or leave it.”

~~~~

Twenty-five minutes later, I pulled into the public parking lot two blocks from the Maya Day and Nightclub. In a way, I felt much better. But in a deeper way, I was more frustrated than ever. Maybe there’s something wrong with me, but I always look at the first one as a quick warm-up before the main event. Having the one, and then stopping, was causing me to have some weird twinges and spasms. In a way, it was worse than getting nothing at all.

SEVEN

The Maya Day and Nightclub is a beautiful place sitting on the site of where the nightclubs Myst and Suede used to be. It’s on the same street as Nexxus and ever since it opened, it’s been one of my favorites. The inside is beautiful with great dance floors, hidden alcoves, and several VIP rooms, which I’ve only seen from the outside.

The thing setting Maya apart from the other Scottsdale clubs is the resort-sized swimming pool set in the middle of a huge outdoor patio. Seemingly floating in the middle of the pool is the main DJ stage.

Surrounding the pool are date palms, tropical plants, pool bars, soft lounge chairs, and a dozen beautiful cabanas. It’s a great place to relax, listen to music, or to watch the beautiful people of Scottsdale.

The girls weren’t hard to find. Even in a club this crowded, they seemed to have carved out a space of their own in a double sized cabana next to the pool. Annie, Sophie, and Pam were there along with four others. I was introduced to Elle, Shannon, Sonia, and Cindy.

Of the new group, Elle was the most striking. She had dark wavy hair that went halfway down her back, deep green eyes, and a smile that was infectious. Between Pam and Elle, they were clearly the leaders of the group.

Seeing them together as a group was an impressive sight, as if they belonged on the cover of a fashion magazine. Their make-up, hair, and nails were perfect. With the exception of Annie, each had on forty or fifty thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry. Each had on an expensive pair of heels between five and six inches high. Each was beautifully dressed in an outfit saying she had both money and class, but also gave out a passionate sensuality. As I walked closer, I caught the subtle mingling of several high-end perfumes. I noticed there was a causal effortlessness about them. They all looked approachable, yet somehow unattainable.

I tried to get to know the new women and I talked with each of them. When I told Elle I liked her name, she looked at me, a little surprised.

“Thanks, but it’s actually Lynaé. For some reason the club bouncers never liked my name. Maybe it was too hard for them to remember, I don’t know. They shortened it to ‘L’ and I’ve been Elle ever since.”

I next chatted with Sonia. She was very tall, athletic, had dark wavy hair down to her shoulders, flawless coco skin, and large brown eyes. I told her she looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her.

“It’s OK,” she said. “I get that all the time. Up until last year, I was married to one of the Phoenix Suns. I was always the girl in the background whenever he had a TV interview, so you probably saw me a lot on the ten o’clock news. When I found out my husband had a half a dozen girlfriends on the side, I dumped his ass. I’ve known Jackie, Pam, and Elle for years. After my divorce, I started hanging out with them whenever they went to the clubs. They are all my best friends and I’d do anything for them.”

I asked Pam how she was holding up. She said she was OK and now she only wanted to help get Jackie back. I saw she had used make-up to skillfully cover the bruise she had gotten earlier in the day.

The conversation in the group quickly turned to Jackie. I shared what I had, but it was nothing they hadn’t already heard from Pam. Before coming to Maya, three of the women had met for drinks and dinner at Mastro's, a high-end restaurant in downtown Scottsdale. Although they had talked to several people there, no one knew anything about Jackie. Everyone in the group had a different theory about what had happened but there wasn’t anything said that brought a new flash of inspiration.

As we talked, I noticed there were several men in their twenties casually milling around our group. Each man apparently was waiting for an opportunity to talk to one of the ladies, yet each was doing his best not to look like he was hovering.

At one point Shannon held up her empty martini glass in the direction of one of the men. He sped away, only to reappear at Shannon’s side two minutes later with a fresh drink. They sat together and chatted for a minute. From what I could catch, he was not so subtlety propositioning her. She then bent over and gave him a soft kiss. Shannon then smiled and caressed the man’s face as he continued to talk. At some signal I did not catch, the man got up and resumed his place in the hovering crowd of men. A few minutes later, Sonia held up her glass to a different man and the process was repeated.

After about a half hour of this warming up, the girls got up to work the crowd and ask about Jackie. Shannon, Elle, and Pam went straight to the entrance to the VIP lounge. They briefly chatted and joked with a huge bouncer, a bill was discreetly passed, and they were admitted.

Sonia and Cindy went back in to the main dance floor. Annie and Sophie took off together and I went out on my own. I walked around the club, talking to the handful of people I recognized. Although everyone knew about the kidnaping, no one had any new insight on what had happened to Jackie or who had set her up.

After about an hour, we gathered back at the cabana. No one had anything new to report on Jackie. We then decided to walk across the street to Nexxus. 

It was approaching eleven on a Friday night and there was a line of about fifty people at the door to Nexxus. Apparently, cougars don’t ever wait in line. The girls casually walked up to the entrance and spent a few minutes chatting and laughing with the three huge bouncers, who they all seemed to know by name. The bouncers seemed to have pet names for each of the girls, except for Pam, who was known by everyone as Pammy.

Sophie and I were introduced as potential pumas, which seemed to amuse the bouncers. They said they were sorry to hear about what had happened to Jackie-D and they’d be willing to help any way they could. A bill was discretely exchanged, a bouncer then lifted the red velvet rope, and we were all admitted.

We walked into the cocktail lounge side of the club. After a brief discussion with the hostess, we quickly had an entire corner alcove to ourselves. Within five minutes, a different group of men in their twenties began to hover around our group. A waitress appeared with a tray of drinks, apparently paid for by the men. We sat as a group and talked for about fifteen minutes.

Sophie looked over at me. “I’ve gotta try it.” She then looked at one of the men and waved him over. He was tall, athletic, and looked Nordic or maybe German. He had long blond hair, dark green eyes, and a great smile. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-one or twenty-two. He hurried over and slid into the booth next to her. They talked for a minute with her hands resting on his arm as she gave him a drink order. He then took off like a shot.

“Oh, I do like this,” Sophie said. “Maybe we should be pumas full time. Did you see him? That boy has an amazingly firm body. I like to get a peek at his six-pack. I bet his butt is firm too. I wonder what it’d be like to spank a butt that firm. No way I’d use my hand though. I’d be sore for days. I should probably use some sort of paddle, maybe even a belt. You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize I need to find a leather ass-spanking paddle. I’m thinking I could get a paddle in the shape of a heart so I could smack little red hearts all over his ass. Maybe even get a paddle with my name embossed in it so he’d have my name slapped onto his ass for a day or two.”

“I’m thinking that might not be such a good idea when you date a married guy. Wives tend to get fussy about that.”

“Nope, after the way the last guy kept canceling dates to be with his wife, I’m done with married guys. I don’t care how cute or rich they are. From now on they can figure out their lack of sex issues with their wives and leave me alone.”

“Well, what about if they already have a girlfriend? Are you going to stop dating those guys too?”

“Hell no, girlfriends are a completely different issue. If a girlfriend can’t keep her man’s interest up, then it’s time he finds a new girlfriend. At least for a few dates.”

Two minutes later the man appeared with a drink in his hand. He again slid into the booth next to Sophie and started talking low into her ear. Within a few minutes, her face had acquired that soft pink glow she gets when she mixes alcohol and men.

After another five minutes, she dug out a card from her purse and handed it to the man. He took the card, and then bent over to give her a kiss. Sophie grabbed him roughly by the shirt and pulled him in. She then spent a good thirty seconds with her face smashed against his.

Everyone at the table cheered and clapped as Sophie took control of the helpless man. When she finally allowed him to leave, we all held up our glasses in a salute to Sophie’s amazing sexual needs.

After everyone had a fresh drink, the girls took off in pairs to hunt down any information they could get. Sonia and Elle disappeared into the VIP longue. Shannon and Cindy went over to the dance side of the club. Sophie went with Annie again.

Pam and I started off together but she kept running into her friends. Each one wanted to know all the details on Jackie but none could provide any new information. After having the same dead-end conversation with three of Pam’s friends, I struck out on my own. Unfortunately, I was having as little luck as Pam.

I worked my way around the club one more time but I didn’t find anyone else I could ask for information. My head was starting to spin from the loud music and from the people laughing and talking. I was dead tired and was thinking about calling it a night. I started looking for Sophie and the girls to tell them I was leaving.

The first one I saw was Annie. She was talking to a woman in a sparkly green dress and platform pumps. Sophie was standing about ten feet away from Annie, talking to a guy in his twenties.

Annie saw me and waved me over. She then introduced me to Jasmine, a friend of hers from college. Jasmine was a tall Asian, with long black hair and large dark eyes. She had the thin and graceful body of a dancer. She was somewhat older than most of the crowd in the club, but not yet old enough to be one of the cougars.

“Jaz,” Annie said, “tell Laura what you just told me.”

“Sure,” Jazmine said. “I was telling Annie, that if you don’t count a few pissed off girlfriends, the only person that’s ever said something bad about Jackie-D was Howard Spencer.”

“Who’s Howard Spencer?” I asked. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“He’s a guy that hangs out at the clubs sometimes. He’s not a regular. He’s creepy old, but he’s loaded and he always buys our drinks and munchies. Sometimes he goes home with a girl, but usually not.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“OK, so this was about three weeks ago. We were all out at the Roxy when someone started talking about Jackie-D. For some reason, that set Howard off. He called her a scheming bitch and said she needed to be taught a lesson.”

“Any idea what he was talking about?”

“None at all. I didn’t even know Howard knew Jackie. Probably it was nothing though, we were all pretty drunk. I wouldn’t even have remembered anything about it except it’s the first time I’ve ever heard a guy say something bad about Jackie-D. It sorta stuck in my mind.”

“Do you know where I can find Howard?” I asked.

“No, but he shouldn’t be too hard to find. Like I said, he’s seriously rich. I heard he has a house on the side of Camelback, or Mummy Mountain, or somewhere fancy like that.”

“Anyone else you can think of? Did you ever hear anyone actually threaten Jackie?”

“Well, no. There was this one woman who came into the club one night, probably six months ago. She looked like she was a housewife, but she was totally pissed. It seems she’d been hoping her son would still be a virgin when he got married and Jackie sort of prevented that from happening. I remember this woman was being pretty descriptive about what she was going to do to Jackie-D when she finally got ahold of her. It was the talk of the clubs for a week. But no, nothing else.”

“Thanks,” I said. I handed her my card and asked her to call me if she thought of anything else.

~~~~

I drove back to my apartment and took the elevator. I was too tired to take the stairs. It was slow but I eventually made it up to my floor.

I was met at the door by Marlowe, who demanded to be picked up and held. As soon as he was in my arms, he went limp and started purring.

I walked with Marlowe in my arms into the bedroom. I put on some soft Phoenix Suns jammies, brushed my teeth, and then collapsed onto the bed.

The last thing I remember was the sound of Marlowe purring as he fell asleep against the side of my leg.

~~~~

I woke to the theme from the Love Boat, the old TV show from the eighty’s. It took me a few seconds to realize the sound was coming from my phone and it was ringing. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Max. At this, my heart took off. I answered with a voice I hoped sounded both sexy and awake.

“Hi Max, um, how are you today?”

“Laura, it sounds like I woke you. Forgive me. I should have realized you’d have been up late on a Friday night, chasing down the kidnappers.”

So much for sounding awake.

“Not a problem,” I said, as my heart rate climbed further. Laying in my bed and hearing Max’s voice was starting to make me tingle in a really nice way.

“Have they found Jackie yet?” Max asked. “The Saturday morning news didn’t have any new details.”

“Not that I’ve heard. Maybe the police are getting somewhere, but I’ve run into nothing but dead ends.”