by Hadley Knox
The other three who I had most recently met were still enigmas to me, but it was still hard to picture someone who had been at my house as being a murderer.
There was one person that stuck out in my mind though. Lucas, the owner of the Steel Hammer, would certainly be angry if Hugh tried to leave. Lucas didn’t depend on tips for his income, so his stake in all of this was completely different. On the occasions I had seen the man, I thought he looked smarmy, maybe even a little overconfident.
I continued trying to get a hold of Adam, but his phone was off. I tried shooting off text messages, and even sent him an e-mail. I considered calling the Steel Hammer, but if an investigation was launched, then that place would certainly be under surveillance. Their phone records would likely be pulled, and I didn’t want any more connections to that place or the murder than already existed.
Thinking about the simple little gray cell phone that I had given Hugh caused me the most anxiety. That was the one connection to me that the police could find. It would be obvious that I wasn’t the murderer as I had a good alibi, but the police would definitely be interested in the Madam business that Hugh was a part of.
I thought about calling my parents or one of my siblings and sending the kids to stay with them. I didn’t want them around here if bad stuff was going to go down. After considering that there really wasn’t anyone that would harm them, I decided to let them just stay here. I didn’t want to worry them, and especially didn’t want my parents involved in this unfolding episode.
When Adam finally showed up, I was so upset, a mixture of anger and sadness. He didn’t call or text to warn me that he was coming, and instead just showed up on my doorstep like a lost puppy.
I was so mad at him, I could have punched him in the face. I threw the door open and just stared at him. My eyes were red from crying, and he knew that I was upset.
“Lana,” he said as he stepped through the door.
“Where have you been?”
“So I assume that you have heard?”
“Of course I heard,” I said.
I shut the door behind him and then led him into the kitchen. We sat down behind the small breakfast table. I poured him a cup of coffee, which was still a little warm.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t call you or text.”
“Why is your phone off?”
“It’s dead, and I don’t have the charger.”
“What is going on? What happened to Hugh?”
“I don’t know,” Adam shrugged. “I’ve been trying to figure it out all morning. I was with Kirk last night, and we didn’t find out about the murder until early this morning.”
“So any idea who would have done something like that?”
“No idea,” Adam shrugged.
I decided to run my theory by him.
“Would anyone have been upset at him for wanting to leave the show?”
“He wanted to leave the show?”
“I overheard him in the hot tub the other night telling some others that he was considering being an escort full time. Do you think any of the Hammer guys would have been upset that he was considering leaving?”
“Maybe,” Adam said. “I don’t think they would have been upset enough to murder him. They might have been a little sad that their friend was leaving, but honestly, the guys in the show are all replaceable.”
“What about Lucas?”
“What about him?”
“Would he be upset that Hugh wanted to leave?”
“His reaction would be a little different,” Adam admitted. “All the guys on the stage get money through tips. Lucas depends on the purchases at the bar and the door for his income, so yes; losing a guy might be a bit different for him.”
“So he would be upset?”
“Of course he would be upset, but he wouldn’t murder Hugh.”
“How well do you know Lucas?”
Adam looked a little wounded by the question. It was the first time I had ever seen him resembling even being close to angry with me.
“Lana, he is my friend. I’ve known Lucas for a while now, and he would never murder anyone. Why would you think that?”
“Lucas looks like a used car salesman. I don’t think you should trust him.”
“Lana, what if I told you that you couldn’t trust Mike?”
“Then I would say that you don’t know Mike that well.”
“Exactly. You don’t know Lucas that well.”
“There’s a difference. Mike is a good guy that has proven himself to me. Lucas has shifty eyes.”
“You’re being critical of my friend when you don’t even know him.”
“I’m just trying to make sense of this.”
“Then stop bashing my friend,” he said. “That’s not helping any.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just trying to wrap my mind around this.”
“What about your phone?” he asked.
“I’ve thought about that,” I said. “If the police find that phone, I’m in trouble.”
“Maybe they won’t find it.”
“How could they not? I’m sure they’ll search his entire place. He had to have it on him or at his place. They’ll connect it back to me for sure, and then I’ll be in jail.”
Adam put a hand on my arm. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’re making a lot of assumptions.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, they have to find the phone. Then they have to make a connection to you, which is not necessarily a definite. Then even if they make a connection to you, they would have to open up a completely different case to do anything about your business.”
“I see your point,” I shrugged.
“How did you find out about the murder?”
“Greg.”
“Oh,” Adam said. Again, he looked wounded, only this time, it looked a little more severe than when I had simply talked crap about his friend.
“He was worried about me,” I said. “He thought I would have already found out from you, so he just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
“Did he come over here?”
“Yes.” I studied his face a minute and saw the pain in his eyes. But I didn’t feel sorry for Adam one bit. I felt more angry, especially now that he was trying to turn this back around on me. “You can’t get upset about Greg coming over here. You know that he and I are just friends. And at least he had the courtesy to think of me.”
“I was thinking of you, too.”
“Oh really? Is that why you had your phone off? Is that it’s 11:00 AM, and I’m just now hearing from you? Was I the first person you called when you heard about this?”
“This is complicated,” Adam said. “I had to go and see Lucas, who was upset about the news. And we have stuff to take care of with the bar.”
“That’s fine,” I said, throwing my hands up. “I’m further down the list, so I’ll just sit here at the table and wait on you to get to me.”
“It’s not like that, Lana.”
“Of course it’s like that. That’s exactly what you’ve done. You can’t act like this, and then deny it when I say that I’m further down the list of priorities right now.”
“A man was just murdered.”
“I know a man was just murdered, and I’m not trying to have a pity party in light of that. I’m upset with you. He was one of my employees and has a connection to me that the cops could use to put me in jail. But I was one of the last people you thought about.”
“My phone was dead. I told you that.”
“And the bar phone was dead, too?”
Adam bowed his head. It was a few awkward, silent moments before he spoke.
“Look, I’m sorry that I didn’t call you. My mind was preoccupied with all of this, and I somehow knew that you would be okay. You’re a strong woman, and I didn’t feel like I had to be the knight in shining armor for this moment.”
“I wasn’t asking that you come over here and save me or anything. But a phone call
or something would have been nice. You sent me one text late last night that you were with Kirk, and that was all I heard from you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s not like you, Adam.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“I have a lot to do,” I said. “We can talk about this later.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“Right now? Yes. I need some time to think about this. I’m having a meeting with the guys later so that we can plan for some damage control if the worst happens.”
“Don’t be so pessimistic. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”
“You don’t know that. I’ve got to take care of me and my situation just like you had to take care of yours.”
We said an awkward goodbye, and then Adam left. I was a little relieved for him to leave as I had a lot on my mind, and I couldn’t deal with anger towards my boyfriend on top of all of that.
I wasn’t sure exactly why I was mad at him, but a good part of it was that he didn’t even call me once the night before or that morning. It was like I was the last person on his mind through all of this.
Something else about our exchange left me a little unnerved. He didn’t seem himself at all, and somehow I knew it wasn’t from mourning a lost friend. There was something else altogether about his attitude.
A thought bubbled to the surface of my mind, but I quickly suppressed it. It was a chain of thought that I didn’t want to consider.
Chapter Seven
Once Adam was gone, Pearl came running out of the office. She had left the headset in the room and came straight for me. When I started crying, she was right there, holding me and whispering that everything was going to be okay.
When I had finally pulled myself together, she led me back to the table.
“Did you hear?” I asked.
“I hate to admit to eavesdropping, but yes, I heard everything.”
“I can’t believe that Hugh is dead.”
“Me neither. He seemed like such a nice guy.”
“We have to figure out a way to get you all out of this.”
“We’re not going to let you go down by yourself,” Pearl said.
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you or the guys. Maybe you should take off. I’ll do what I can to eliminate a paper trail between me and you.”
“Honey, that ain’t going to happen,” Pearl said. “Even if I would let you do that, it’s just not possible. You’ve been transferring money into my bank account every week for the past three months. You can’t get rid of that. If the police are going to investigate, then they’ll see that.”
“I’m so sorry that I got you into this mess, Pearl.”
“Okay, Lana, listen to me. One thing that Adam said to you that was right is that you can’t be so pessimistic and defeated.”
“How can I not be defeated?”
“For one, you need to stop moping about like this. The Lana that I know went through some serous hell with her ex-husband and is raising two teenagers all by herself. She’s also running a business outside of her regular, full-time job.”
“I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but this is serious.”
“Not much more serious than getting blackmailed twice. And you held that together pretty good.”
“This is murder, though.”
“Maybe you just need to grieve. But when the guys get here, you need to put on your big girl pants. You are running a business, and those guys depend on you to be their leader.”
“You’re right,” I sighed.
“And let’s take this one day at a time. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
I fired off texts to the guys, each of whom could tell that something was wrong. I almost never called an impromptu meeting, and occasions where I had, something was wrong.
As I waited for the inevitable meeting, I pondered the turn that my life had taken. Before meeting Greg, I had a normal life. Sure, I was broke, but still, my life was just plain and mundane. Ever since becoming the Madam of Suburbia, bad things had started happening to me. Twice I had been blackmailed, although the second time had just been a harmless, crazy old neighbor that soon became someone I could consider a friend.
But the more I thought about it, both times I was blackmailed had nothing to do with the Madam business. Sure Dixie had used the Madam business against me, but that had not been the motive behind her threat. Even without working with gigolos, I still would have been blackmailed. In fact, Jeremy Towers had sent me the first note before I even met Greg.
But still, I couldn’t help but feel that none of these things would have happened to me without getting involved in the seedier side of society.
I had to pep myself up before picking the kids up from school. The last thing I wanted was for them to realize that something was wrong. There was no since in worrying them. It had been bad enough that I had to send them to stay with Pam during the time that Jeremy was blackmailing me.
In just two months, Jake would be sixteen. I would find a way to get him a car, but I still hadn’t figured out where that money would come from. It would be nice when he could drive himself and his sister to and from school.
The guys started showing up a few minutes before six. I didn’t have food in the house nor did I originally plan to feed them, but when I realized that I called the meeting at that hour, I decided to order pizzas. Pearl stuck around, and Betsy arrived. I hadn’t thought to text her, and I assumed that Pearl had taken care of that for me. Even though she was not affiliated with the business, other than being the occasional customer, she was still a friend.
I was surprised when Dixie showed up. I answered the door and thankfully, none of the other guys were around. She had read about the murder in the paper and when she saw everyone’s vehicles out front, she knew something was up. I quietly asked her not to say anything until after I told the guys, and she agreed, so I let her in to join us.
The kids fixed their plates and then headed to their rooms. I didn’t normally like for them to eat in their rooms, but that night was an exception.
Of the guys, the only one who had a clue was Greg. The others hadn’t heard about the murder, and I was glad that Greg hadn’t told any of them.
As they finished the pizza in the kitchen, we gathered around in a circle of chairs on the patio. I tried to put my best face on, but some of the guys picked up on the fact that I wasn’t my normally chipper self. More than a few of them noticed the absence of Hugh, but I deflected their concerns.
“Okay, I have some bad news,” I said gravely. “Late last night, Hugh was murdered in his apartment.”
I waited until all of them reacted. Their reactions ran the gamut, from upset, to angry, to throwing out ideas of who could have done it.
“We don’t know much,” Greg said. “I’ve tried all day to find more information, but the police are being very tight lipped. I had to snoop without drawing any attention to myself.”
“Wait a minute,” Mike said. “We all have those cell phones you gave us. That means the police probably has his Madam phone.”
I nodded. “Aside from the fact that a guy we could possibly consider our friend just being murdered, we also have to worry about the fact that the police might be onto us now.”
“Oh shit,” Ben muttered.
“I want everyone to know that if the police contact me regarding the Madam of Suburbia, I’m going to do everything I can to eliminate any trace of involvement with all of you.”
“I don’t like that,” Derrick said. “It’s not fair to you.”
“I agree,” Mike said. “We are in this together.”
“But why should all of you go down with me? It doesn’t make sense.”
“We’re not doing that to you,” Ben said. “This whole Madam thing is a mutually beneficial arrangement that we all agreed to. It just wouldn’t be fair for you to take all the heat.”
“But that’s stupid for all of your lives to get ruined.”
“Did you not hear them?” Ray asked me. I had never heard him use that tone before. He said his next sentence very slowly for emphasis. “We ain’t going to let you go down for all of us.”
“I appreciate the sentiment.”
“It’s not just a sentiment,” Hung said. “I’m with them. We’re a team.”
Greg looked at me and smiled. “See, I told you.”
“Come on, guys,” I said. “This is crazy.”
“Do we know if the police even have the cell phone?” Betsy asked.
“No, we don’t, but how could they not?”
“Then we’re all jumping to conclusions,” Betsy said.
“But we need to make plans,” I told her. “Just in case.”
“The only plan I think we need is a good cover,” Greg said. “If we are interrogated by the police, everyone needs to hold firm that our business is strictly companionship. All we do is go on dates with the women and give them somebody to talk to. We have never had sex with any of the clients.”
“They’ll want to interview clients, then,” Mike said.
“Good, let them,” Dixie said. “I’ve used the service several times, and I will tell them that I hired the guys to take me out to dinner a few times.”
“I’ve used the service, too,” Betsy said. “I’ll tell them the same thing.”
“See, now we’re cooking,” Ray said.
“Will it be enough?” I asked.
“We also have Chloe, too,” Greg added. “She will testify to save us if she needs to.”
“So at least we have some sort of defense,” Ben said. “Do you think it will be enough?”
“Who knows,” I shrugged. “But it’s all we have to work with now. I wish you would all just let me try to cut our ties and eliminate the paper trail.”
“That’s just stupid,” Mike said. “We’ve all established that we’re not going down that road, so put it from your mind now.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “I don’t like it, but it’s nice to know that I have you guys here.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Greg said. “Like Hung said, we’re a team.”
“What about you?” Ray asked Xavier. “You haven’t said anything?”