by Vivien Chien
I looked at Megan, “Now what?”
She took a deep breath. “Have you ever been to a strip club before?”
“No…” I said. “Have you?”
She looked out the window. “A few times.”
“Megan Riley!” I gasped.
Megan giggled. “It’s kind of funny,” she said, teasing me. “Don’t be such a prude.”
“I don’t want to spend the night looking at half-naked girls,” I huffed.
“Well, too bad, you signed up for this,” Megan replied. “Plus, if he is getting into fights at a strip club, this might be the one. So we have to see what’s going on in there.”
“If they kicked him out, why do they keep letting him in?” I turned in my seat to look at the entrance, panic setting in. “Are they going to think we’re weird for wanting to go inside? And what if Peter sees us?”
“Stop worrying. And no, girls go all the time.” She started to open the door. “Come on, you’ll see.”
Hesitantly, I got out of the car and squared my shoulders. “My mother would kill me if she knew.”
“Good thing she’s not here to see this then,” Megan said, walking a few feet in front of me. “Now let’s go.”
We headed for the entrance and stepped up to the bouncer who was watching the door. A scantily clad girl stood at a podium behind him. The bouncer looked us over with a stern eye and then gave a slight nod, which prompted the girl to smile brightly at us. “Hi, ladies, how are we doing tonight?” She held out her hand. “I just need to check your IDs.”
Megan stepped up with ease to the podium and handed her ID to the girl who viewed it under a black light. “You’re good, sweetheart.” She gave Megan a wink and handed back her driver’s license.
Nervously, I gave her my ID. She looked it over and then handed it back to me. “First time at a strip club, honey?” she asked with a syrupy voice.
I gulped and gave her a curt nod as she handed back my driver’s license.
Megan grabbed my hand and we headed inside.
“I don’t even know you,” I hissed.
She laughed and opened the door. Immediately we were bombarded with loud hip-hop music and a wave of smoke. The place was packed and there was hardly any room to walk. Megan held on to my hand and maneuvered us through the crowd to the bar. “You need a drink to calm down,” she yelled at me over her shoulder.
While she ordered, I looked around, trying to appear casual, but I had the feeling that I had a big ole sign on my forehead that screamed FRESH MEAT. From what I did notice, the ratio of women to men was almost split down the middle, which surprised me. Megan had been right, there were a lot of women here.
Megan nudged my arm and handed me what looked like a rum and Coke.
I gratefully took a healthy swallow.
“Do you see Peter anywhere?” Megan yelled over the music.
I shook my head. “Nope, it’s impossible to see anything in here.” The smoke in the room was coming from a fog machine placed right by what I’d call the main stage.
“Come on, let’s walk around a little,” Megan suggested.
I let Megan lead the way, and tried to keep my eyes down so I wouldn’t accidentally gawk. We circled around the room and we’d almost made it back to where we’d gotten our drinks when Megan stopped dead in her tracks, forcing me to run into her. She jerked forward and most of her drink splashed onto the floor.
I grabbed her arm to straighten her out. “Sorry!” I said, looking around us. “Why’d you stop?”
She didn’t respond, she just pointed. I looked to where she was pointing, but it took me a minute to see it. She was pointing to one of the cocktail waitresses, carrying a tray above her head. This particular one had stopped and was leaning down, talking with a man seated at a table with a few of his friends. The seated man was smiling up at her with a devilish grin. He grabbed her free hand and said something to her that made him and his friends laugh. I watched the annoyance creep up on her face and that’s when I realized who I was looking at. I’d seen that face before. It was Kimmy.
I think my jaw must have dropped to the floor as recognition flooded over me. This was Kimmy Tran, the girl I’d known since I was a little kid. The same girl I played Barbies with.
As if that weren’t enough to shock me, Peter came stomping out of nowhere, swatting the guy’s arm away from Kimmy. She stumbled back from the motion, and as she collected herself, she glared at Peter.
The seated man stood, and when he rose, he just kept going. The man must have been well over six feet and he towered over Peter, making him look like a scrawny teenager. However, Peter did not back down. He stood his ground, balling his fists at his sides.
The towering man took a step closer to Peter and said something through gritted teeth. I wasn’t a lip reader so I had no clue what he’d said, but I bet anything that it was a threat.
Megan grabbed my arm. “Come on, we have to go over there before Peter gets pummeled.”
We headed over to where they were standing. A crowd was forming around the two men, people egging them on.
Kimmy turned her head just as we were approaching and did a double take as she realized that it was us. She scowled, her drink tray falling to her side. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”
“I’d like to know the exact same thing,” a voice boomed from behind us.
I turned around and there in all his detective righteousness stood Trudeau with the most exasperated expression I have ever seen on another human being.
“We, um—” I started to come up with some kind of lie, but he didn’t even let me finish.
“I’d like to speak with you outside, Miss Lee.” He pointed to the door. “Right now.”
CHAPTER
29
“What the hell were you thinking?” Trudeau yelled, his nostrils flaring.
We were standing outside the Black Garter practically toe to toe, with his eyes burning daggers into me, and my eyes, well, I was looking at our toes. My brain scurried for a reasonable explanation. Megan stood off to the side trying to give us some privacy, but Trudeau’s booming voice was making it easy for her to eavesdrop.
I looked up at him from beneath my lashes, calling on all my powers of cuteness. “We were just having some drinks?” It came out more like a question than a statement.
He threw his hands in the air. “You’re unbelievable, you know that?”
“Why? You don’t think that I can—”
“Cut the cute act, Lana, I’ve been following you all night,” Trudeau said.
My eyes bulged and I risked a look in Megan’s direction. “You were following us?”
“To be more specific, I was following Peter, and I watched you and your little friend here tail him all the way from his apartment. What were you planning on doing? Confronting him?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and stared at me, waiting for an answer.
“We … just wanted to see what he was up to,” I mumbled.
“Oh, I see,” Trudeau replied sarcastically. “You thought that he was involved in this murder so you just wanted to see. No worries about whether he was the actual killer and might try to hurt you if you got too close?”
I chewed on my lip. “Well, we figured since it was a public place…” I looked to Megan for help.
“A public place helps you while you’re in it. This guy knows where you live, he certainly knows where you work, and I’m guessing he knows most of your habits. Were you planning on staying in the strip club forever?” With each word, his voice got louder.
“Okay, Detective,” Megan said, holding up a hand. “You don’t need to yell at her, we understand that it was silly of us—”
He pointed a finger in her direction. “Don’t even get me started on you, young lady. You went along with this and you’re just as careless as she is.”
Megan’s eyebrows scrunched together and she put her hands on her hips. “Listen here—”
Trudeau stopped her, holding u
p a hand. “You might want to think about the next thing you’re about to say. You’re still talking to a police detective.”
Her mouth closed and she took a step back.
Trudeau turned his attention back to me. “Now, I want you and blondie over here to go home and mind your own business. Is that clear?”
I heard Megan cluck her tongue in the dark. I nodded and we skulked to the car. I could feel Trudeau watching us the entire way.
“Want me to drive?” Megan asked. I handed over the keys and got in on the passenger side, moping like a child that had just been put in the corner.
Once inside the car with the doors locked and the windows up, Megan let out a heavy groan. “That guy is a jerk. Complete and total jerk. Blondie. Blondie? And he shouldn’t have talked to you that way. He acts like we’re a couple of criminals or something.” She started the car. “It’s not a crime for us to go to a strip club and look around. He doesn’t know that we weren’t there because we wanted to be.”
“He watched us follow Peter from his apartment,” I reminded her.
“Whose side are you on, anyway?” she asked.
“Okay, sorry.”
“Anyway,” she said, backing the car out of the spot. “He was tailing Peter for a reason, which means that we’re not far off from what we were thinking.”
“I don’t know anymore…” I said, looking out the window as we passed the Black Garter. “I think it’s as simple as Kimmy working in a strip club. Her parents would be mortified if they knew she was working as a cocktail waitress in a place like this.”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with Peter?” Megan asked.
“That’s what we still have to find out.”
* * *
Immediately upon waking up, I had the events of the previous night rolling through my head. Specifically the looks on Peter’s and Kimmy’s faces as they realized we had caught them in a place they shouldn’t be. The only thing of it is, Peter being in a strip club wasn’t really something that should be so strange for a male in his early thirties, but it was just plain out of character. Then again, what did I really know about Peter? As long as I’d known him, I’d never seen him in a relationship. He kept to himself and focused on his hobbies: video games, sketching, and karate. I didn’t know him to be any other way. So, what caused this sudden change of character?
I tried calling him on our way home, but he never picked up or returned my call. My guess was that he wasn’t exactly thrilled at having to explain what was going on, especially if Kimmy was on his back about it. I assumed that’s what all the arguing was about during the memorial. She must have thought that Peter had confided her secret to me. I kind of wished he had … it could have saved my first experience at a strip club from becoming a reality.
It was still early and my room was dark. I could feel Kikko under the covers, her fur pressed against my leg. I gave her a little nudge and she popped up, snorting her way out of the blankets.
After I got dressed in a thick sweater and bundled up, we went on our morning walk, which lasted about two minutes. The temperature had dropped drastically from the previous day. Kikko and I weren’t much for winter weather. When we got back, Megan was moving around in the kitchen, getting coffee ready.
“Morning,” she mumbled. “I slept like hell.”
I unleashed Kikko and she scampered into the apartment. “Last night bugging you?”
“Maybe the detective is right,” Megan said, filling the coffeepot with water. “Maybe we should just forget this whole thing. I mean, what are the chances we’re actually going to figure this thing out?”
My jaw dropped. “You’re joking, right?”
She turned to face me. “We’re going in circles, and things just keep getting more confusing. Don’t you think?”
“You can’t give up on me now. What about all the time we’ve already put in? And the lectures you gave me on how we don’t have to be professionals to figure this out?”
Megan smirked. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“What?” My confusion was bordering on agitation. I knew that smirk.
“I just wanted to make sure you were still serious about this and that the detective didn’t persuade you to stop looking into it.”
“So, you’re not being serious about giving up?”
“I wanted to make sure that you were telling me the truth.”
I put my hands on my hips. “You could have just asked.”
“I like to be creative,” she said, waggling her eyebrows at me. “And tonight … tonight, my friend, I think we should look into that mysterious key.”
I would have strangled her right there, but my cell phone rang. It wasn’t typical for me to get calls this early in the morning and I rushed to find my phone. Calls this early in the morning usually meant that something bad had happened. And if there was anything that I didn’t need, it was another incident.
I didn’t recognize the number on my phone, and I paused before answering, thinking that I should let it go to voice mail. But my curiosity won out. “Hello?”
“Lana?”
It was Donna Feng.
“Yes, good morning,” I said with hesitance.
“Sorry to call so early, but I’m on my way out for the day, and didn’t want to forget to give you a call. Do you think you could stop by my place after work today?”
“Sure, is anything wrong?” I asked, alarm bells going off in my head.
“Nothing like that, dear, just wanted to talk to you about something. Come by around six-thirty, okay?”
“Um, okay.”
“See you then, dear.” She clicked off.
I sat on the edge of my bed dumbfounded, holding my phone, staring at the blank screen.
“Who was that?” Megan asked, coming into the doorway of my bedroom. She held out a cup of coffee.
“It was Donna…” I said, taking the cup from her hand.
“Donna? What could she possibly want this early in the morning?”
“I have no idea, but she wants me to come over after work. Say, around six-thirty.”
* * *
Six-thirty couldn’t come fast enough, and I kept an eye on the clock through my entire work shift.
When my shift was over, I left so fast I almost forgot to take my purse. Vanessa gave me a weird look as I rushed out the door.
When I pulled into the driveway, I did a quick rundown of all the possibilities. Did she know I’d been snooping around? Had someone from the plaza told her that I’d been asking questions about her husband?
I hurried up the driveway and onto the steps. Before I could ring the doorbell, Donna opened the door with a pleasant smile. “Come on in, my dear.”
I smiled back, but wasn’t sure how convincing it looked. I was a ball of nerves.
She led me into the same sitting room we’d spent time in the day after Mr. Feng passed away. The room was perfect, as it always was, and she had set out a service of tea on the coffee table. She gestured to the chair. “Have a seat.”
I sat down, uncertain of myself, setting my purse on the floor at my feet. “I hope you don’t mind me cutting to the chase,” I said, my voice a bit shaky. “But why did you ask me to come over?”
Donna took her time getting comfortable, and poured two cups of tea. She handed one to me and I took it, cupping it in my hand, the heat traveling through my fingers.
She sat back on the couch and looked at me with perfect calm on her face. “I have known your family for a long time,” she started. “For as long as the plaza has been around, I have known your parents and have been friends with them for many years. And when they had you girls, I couldn’t have been happier for them.” She paused, blowing on her cup of tea.
I looked down at my own teacup and a thought passed through my brain about yellow jasmine. I didn’t feel very thirsty at the moment.
“And they’ve brought you up right. Both you and Anna May are exemplary models of what children should be. Even if y
ou may be a bit of a rebel yourself … underneath it all, I know that you’re a good person, with the best of intentions.” She stopped and looked at me, watching my reaction.
“Donna, I—”
“So you can imagine my surprise, when I find you have been snooping through my house.”
My heart sank … dropped … imploded … I didn’t know the word for it, but I was starting to wonder what the chances were of a twenty-seven-year-old having a heart attack out of the blue. “I’m sorry … I don’t…”
“Don’t play dumb with me, young lady,” Donna said with venom in her voice. “I know you were snooping around my house while I was in the hospital. And I know you know my secret…”
CHAPTER
30
I set the teacup down on the coffee table and rubbed my hands on my jeans. “I don’t know anything about secrets, I only brought in your mail, I swear.”
Donna sneered, setting down her teacup as well. “At least have the respect to tell me the truth, Lana. We’re both intelligent women.”
“I promise; I only came to put your mail away.” My eyes glanced toward the entrance, and I wondered how long it would take me to run out. She had heels on, so that would slow her down at least.
She smiled sarcastically to herself. “So I suppose my surveillance cameras are the liars then?”
Surveillance cameras? I took a moment to process that information.
She laughed. “You know, at first when I watched the tape, I laughed to myself, thinking you were just curious about what the rest of my house looked like.” She paused. “But then I realized you were taking too long. You must have gotten into something.”
The fact that she didn’t know for sure relieved me. It also told me that the cameras must not have been anywhere that would give away what I was really doing. “I had to use your bathroom,” I lied, hoping she would buy it.
“I know that you went through my vanity, and I know you saw my birth certificate!”
My heart was racing at full speed. So there was something strange going on with her birth certificate. While I thought of the possibilities, she continued to rant.