Tea Leafing: A Novel (24 page)

“MmmHmm.” Lucille
replied.

Sam half whispered,
half mouthed, “What’s up?”

“Grab the phone!”
Birdie panted quietly “She’s bloody doin’ it now! Roight now!”

Wide eyed, Sam spun in
her seat and started working the combination on her locker. Grace pulled
Birdie’s head closer “Now? What happened to letting us know?”

“Gio’s up in the box
with Fedya and they’re arguing. Turned Nikki away even. I was up to pay me fine
for groping the feature and couldn’t get in. When I realized they would be a
bit — hopefully that is — I let Mary Jane know and she took the
window.”

“Shit!” Sam muttered,
struggling with the combination. “I can’t get this thing to work!”

“Try your locker
instead of mine.” Grace suggested.

Sam rolled her eyes and
shook her head as she moved one locker over to her own and spun the numbered
wheel.

“We need to get
upstairs to stall him in case he comes out.” Grace whispered just loud enough
for both girls to hear.

Sam waved her hand in a
“go” gesture without looking away from the dial.

Birdie and Grace’s
shoes thudded against the cheap, low-pile carpet as they stood. “So, that bloke
from last year is waiting in
Sixteen
for us. When
you’re done primping you’ll join us, roight?” Birdie didn’t bother lowering her
voice.

“Gimme a few minutes
and I’ll be right up.” Sam replied, winking at the two.

Birdie grabbed Grace’s
arm
and ducked her head around the mirror to where Lucille
was parked, “Aye, is Nikki ok? I coulda sworn I saw ‘er bleeding like ‘ell a
bit ago.”

Without even looking up
from her crossword, Lucille replied, “I haven’t seen her in here so it couldn’t
be that bad. Probably in the bathroom.”

“Cheers!” Birdie pushed
Grace toward the door and they disappeared.

CHAPTER 49

“C’mon. C’mon.” Mary
Jane jiggled the key in the office door lock. She had decided to use the door
on the opposite side of the office from the Skybox.
That way
Fedya’s bodyguards
wouldn’t have a clear line-of-sight of her entry.

It didn’t seem to like
the fit and refused to budge. Pulling a small bottle of WD-40 that she’d swiped
from the supply closet earlier in the evening she threaded the red straw into
the mouth of the aerosol head. She stood with her back to the railing so if
anyone glanced up they wouldn’t instantly recognize her face. She wore her hair
in a ponytail for work but had removed the scrunchy to give her a curtain to
hide behind for her task. Tapping the button, the WD-40 sprayed in several
directions from the base rather than cleanly through the straw. Biting her lip
she adjusted the connection and tried again. This time it worked, and a stream
of lubricant shot into the keyhole.

Using the underside of
her apron, she quickly mopped up the overspray from her failed first attempt.
Sliding Grace’s key back into the lock she tried turning it gently clockwise,
then counter clockwise. The fit was better but the tumblers within wouldn’t
budge. She remembered seeing Gio pull up on the knob and pressing inward with
his hip. As a last ditch effort she mimicked his motion, and felt the lock give
way.

Her heart thudded. Just
being off the balcony was the first step toward success.
Now
for the real work.
She stepped into the office. Mary Jane pulled the
small hard drive out of her pocket and set it on Gio’s desk, being careful not
to move anything. The surgical gloves she slid from her apron were difficult to
get on. Sam had insisted on the powderless kind. Mary Jane now questioned the
wisdom in that. Fingerprints weren’t that much of a threat considering the
office probably hadn’t been cleaned. Ever. Dusting for prints in a strip club
would be about as productive as trying to teach a hedgehog to speak
Mandarin.
 

Pulling out a short
firewire cable, she plugged one end into the hard drive and the other into the
back of Gio’s laptop. The two machines clicked and hummed their greetings as
they began their conversation. A fairly one-sided chat it was, since the
smaller drive was designed to make an exact replica of the laptop’s
information, including erased files. The whole process should take only a few
minutes. But Mary Jane had only read about this, never actually tried it. She
hoped the books were right in their time estimate.

Mary Jane walked back
and forth in front of the wall of one-way mirrors positioned directly above the
main stage. Perfect for viewing the expansive club. She could barely see the
entrance to the Skybox off to her far left. But she
could
see the two thugs guarding the doorway. Whispering prayers
under her breath she listened to the click-humm noises being uttered by the
machines, and walked to the desk to check the progress.

“OFFICE!” a
static-obscured voice shrieked over a walkie-talkie sitting on the desk, which
Mary Jane had failed to notice.

Her heart raced. Had
she been found out? She dashed to the bank of windows expecting to see bouncers
rushing toward the office doors. She felt hot and flustered, but knew there was
nothing to do but wait. A rash move could make things much worse.

“HELLO! OFFICE!” the
voice growled again.

Mary Jane held her breath.
She dug in her apron for the cell phone that would link her to Sam.

Several moments passed
while Mary Jane sat with one hand on the still working hard drive and the other
on her phone. Ready to grab the drive and bolt for the door, she was
motionless.

“Office is in wit’ the
big guy. Can’t be bawthered now. You got a question?”

Mary Jane almost cried
with relief. But she stayed focused and checked her watch. Seven minutes had
elapsed since she left the bar, only eight to go before she should be back. She
was dying for a cigarette.

“Yeah, I need a
sign-off in VIP 16. This guy bought twenty thousand in funny money and I need a
manager’s signature.”

“Just give him the
money and I’ll send G. there as soon as he’s out.”

Mary Jane looked out
the window and saw one of the regular bouncers lingering outside the door to
the Skybox. He was built like the Incredible Hulk, but was dwarfed by the
Russian guards manning their stations at the sliding door. The contrast struck
Mary Jane since she’d never been side by side with the guards. Having seen them
from afar, she hadn’t gotten a sense of their size before now.

“Shit.” she muttered.

Room 16 was located
directly across the club from the office. Mary Jane’s eyes swept the balcony to
the doorway of 16 to see if the bouncer was standing outside. He was, along
with Grace and Birdie. Birdie ducked back into the room while Grace stared
directly at Mary Jane through the mirror. Forgetting for a second that the
glass was one-way, she smiled. Grace started messing with her hair as if
checking her looks in the far-off mirror. Mary Jane’s smile broadened, knowing
her friend was looking out for her.

The hard drive sounded
an alert and the whirring noises stopped.

“Thank you.” Mary Jane
sighed as she quickly disconnected cables and checked for anything she may have
overlooked.

With drive and cable safely
back in her apron, she glanced at the closet against the back wall of the
office. The Mahogany doors guarding a bank of closed-circuit monitors were
closed. Checking her watch, she knew she had a few minutes to spare and headed
around the large desk to try her luck at the closet doors. Tapping the
lever-style doorknobs, she found they were securely locked. Fishing the main
office door key out of her pocket, she slid it into the lock without believing
it would work. The key, still slick with lubricant slid easily into the keyhole
and clicked the tumblers free. Mary Jane couldn’t believe her luck as the doors
swung open to the wall of monitors.

“Bingo.”

Scanning the
electronics quickly, she found the DVD recording the club.
All
18 monitors.
Next to the recorder sat a stack of blank DVDs on a plastic
spindle. Without hesitation, Mary Jane ejected the DVD and replaced it with a
blank, pocketing the disk that might show her journey into the office. She
pushed the stop button on the DVD that recorded the office doors so her escape
wouldn’t be the first thing on the blank disc; she rubbed her apron across the
plastic faceplate, erasing her prints. The process was quick and a victorious
Mary Jane closed the doors. As she turned to leave, her heart sank and she
stopped in her tracks.

Through the glass, Mary
Jane saw Pietra exit the elevator at the far right corner of the balcony and
waddle toward the office door. The same door she needed to escape through.

Grace saw Pietra at the
same moment and rushed along the balcony toward her while every other employee
hurried away. Mary Jane moved to the door and held her breath, watching the events
unfold.

Grace caught up with
Pietra as she reached the corner of the balcony, the very corner Mary Jane
needed to pass to reach the doorway to the back staircase and safety. Pietra
pulled away from Grace, clearly afraid of a repeat performance of their last
encounter. Hearing Pietra’s voice rise above the music, she wasn’t able to make
out words. The two stood for a minute while Grace tried to get a hold of her
arm. Pietra’s voice lowered as Grace got control of the situation. Mary Jane
checked her watch. One minute left. She bit her lip and made silent promises to
God.

After what seemed like
eons, Grace slowly led Pietra back along the balcony toward the elevator.
One last glance at the floor.
Mary Jane saw scads of table
dancing girls and bouncers guarding their posts, each one also watching the
couple pick their way along the balcony. Each one was also, quite probably,
making silent promises to God that they would never keep.

Mary Jane slid through
the office door and pulled it silently closed behind her. She hustled along the
back wall to the doorway at the end of the balcony, keeping her head down and
her eyes trained on the baseboards. Her watch telling her she was two minutes
late. No problem this time, Bunny was cool.

CHAPTER 50

“Hi Grace! How are
ya’ll?” Amanda’s voice sounded faint on the pay phone, drowned out by the
background noise of the gas station parking lot.

“Everything’s fine
here, baby-cakes. The question is, how are you?”

“Good as can be
expected. My folks are starting to relax a little, although I’m still on a
pretty short leash. I think the shock is wearing off and they’re startin’ to
come to grips with Alex’s death.” she paused, “I wish I could make it easier
for them. Wish they could know how good ya’ll are and how much you loved her.”

“That may never come
Amanda, but it’s okay. We don’t have to be seen to be felt.”

Grace heard a faint
choked sob on the other end of the line. “I know. It’s just what I wish. So
have you found out anything new?”

“Well, we did manage to
find Lena’s mystery man, or rather, he found us.”

“What?”

“Yeah, and he’s hot. I
do mean HOT! Not that we’d expect anything less from Lena, but damn, girl,
you’re not gonna believe this guy.”

“Do tell.”

“He’s been working on a
case against the person we all think is behind this. You know who I’m talking
about?”

“Yup.”

“Sounds like Lena got
caught in the crossfire. He did everything he could to protect her but
you-know-who was just a little bit quicker. I think he really loved her,
Amanda. He wants the same thing we do, only he’s got more power. He wants us to
stay out of it but you know we can’t. We’ll do whatever we can to help him nail
this bastard to the wall.”

“What’s his name?”

“Joe.”

“Well, tell Joe I said
thank you. Is he gonna come here and talk to my parents?”

“I doubt it. I don’t
know that there’s much information they’d be able to help with. He’s got copies
of the reports from the Savannah PD concerning her disappearance. But since
they don’t know the suspect I’m guessing he doesn’t want to upset your folks.”

“Yeah, I understand.
Let him know if there’s anything I can do, I’ll be happy to help.”

“You just keep yourself
safe and watch your back, okay? If anyone gets wind of you finding those papers
I’m afraid you might be in jeopardy.”

“I thought about that.
I’ve been keepin’ my trap shut. I do feel a little useless though.”

“Don’t say that Amanda!
You’re the reason we’ve been able to get as far as we have. We’d be lost
without you!”

“Well, that’s very kind
of you but I don’t know how truthful it is.” Amanda smiled.

“Just sit tight and
we’ll stay in touch.”

“Sounds good. Oh yeah,
I almost forgot. Some photographer came by a few days ago. Said he wanted to
get some shots of the family for a piece one of the local magazines was doing
about Alex’s murder.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, but the weird
thing is, a few days after the photo shoot, the magazine called to schedule an
appointment for their photographer to come out. Don’t know if it was just a mix
up, but it made me kinda nervous.”

“What’d this guy look
like?”

“Kinda greasy, balding,
heavy ‘round
the middle like he was pregnant, thick glasses
with square brown frames. Not the best-looking man I’d ever seen. Smelled like
cigarettes, too.”

“Crap. I think he’s one
of the bad guys. We saw him at the funeral. Lemme call Joe. And please, please,
please keep your head down.”

“I will. I’m creeped
out now.”

“You should be. This
guy is no good. Be safe and do your best to keep your parents safe. We’ll be in
touch soon. You have the new phone number for Sam, right?”