Undercover in Six Inch Stilettos

by Carolyn LaRoche

  “Holy shit, Cyndi! You dance on a stage with a pole in front of horny men and get paid for it. Are you hooking too?” Jason started wearing his own path in the carpet. From where she stood, Cyndi could still see the vein throbbing on the side of his neck.

  “No! I’m not a whore, J.J.! I just enjoy the dancing. It’s fun, it’s great exercise, and I am really good at it. I wear a costume! It’s not like I am naked.”

  “Is that what you wear?” He demanded, nodding toward her sweatshirt and jeans.

  “Well, no. I mean, come on, Jason, you know what I wear.”

  “I can’t say that I do. Apparently there is an awful lot about my wife of over ten years that I don’t know.”

  “Don’t be like that.”

  “Like what?” His eyes narrowed as that vein continued to jump out of his skin. “I should be happy that my wife is a prostitute? I’m a damned cop, Cyndi!”

  “I am not a prostitute!” she shouted, and then clamped her mouth shut, waiting to see if she had woken Harper. Cyndi glared at Jason, but he refused eye contact. The vein was pulsing steadily and forcefully. She had no idea how she was going to fix this.

  “I don’t even know how to process this.” Jason walked over to the window and studied his reflection in the glass. “What will the guys say? How am I supposed to explain this at the precinct?”

  “Why do you have to explain anything? I am not breaking any laws.”

  “Cyndi…” he growled as he turned to face her.

  She threw her hands on her hips indignantly. “Well, I’m not!”

  “Like it or not, your behavior reflects on me. As a cop’s wife you need to live to a different standard. Dammit, Cyndi! You know that! You’ve been doing this a long time!”

  “That standard is to uphold the law. I am not breaking any. Whatever else I do with my life is my business, not the police department’s!”

  “I know you don’t really think like that. You understand how the media works—how the community will talk. I’ll lose respect.”

  “Whose respect? Hookers? Drug dealers? They don’t respect you! They fear what you can do to their businesses, but that’s about it, Jason!” she huffed.

  Her husband paced the room again. “You know that there is a certain expectation…”

  “Wait. Just wait here. I want to show you something.” Cyndi ran down the hall to the pantry and grabbed the oatmeal container off the bottom shelf in the back. Returning to the living room, she opened up the canister and dumped several thousand dollars in tens and twenties on the sofa. “I make a lot of money. Over three hundred bucks a night.”

  Jason stared at the bills scattered over the cushions. “And horny men fondle you for it, then you come home and let me touch you after they have had their hands all over you.”

  “Seriously, J.J., you ought to know me better than that. Sugar Shakers is a gentlemanly establishment. There is a strict no-touching rule, and no one, I repeat, no one gets naked or fondles anything! Except maybe Johnny the bartender…he might be fondling the citrus fruits behind the bar.”

  Her attempt at humor fell on Jason’s deaf ears.

  “Sugar Shakers? You’ve been dancing there? I’m sure your mom and dad would be so pleased to hear you are putting your years of dance lessons to good use.”

  Cyndi put her hands on her hips defiantly. “This is exactly why I didn’t tell you in the first place. I like what I do there. The people are nice, and I have four hours every week that are all mine. I love being home with our daughter, but once in a while, I need to do something for me.”

  “And prancing around half-naked on a stage in a dingy bar is what you need to do to satisfy that need? A manicure wouldn’t cut it, Cyndi?” Jason hid his anger with sarcasm. She recognized his M.O. instantly. Unfortunately, he was about to get angrier.

  “At this point, the fact that I work there is irrelevant. I only told you that first because it directly relates to an active investigation in the police department.”

  “What investigation?” Jason demanded.

  “You remember the purse I gave you?”

  “The one with the blood on it from that runaway?”

  “Yes.” Cyndi wrung her hands as she started pacing again. “She was a dancer at Shakers. She went by the name Jade. The night she disappeared I thought I saw someone coming out of the alley on my way home. I think she was taken, and the person who took her has his eye on me too.”

  They both stopped pacing and stood barely three feet from each other. “Has his eye on you? How do you know this?”

  “He—I am presuming it is a man—has reached out to me a couple of times. Left me some instructions to stop asking questions.”

  “Instructions?”

  “Yes. I started looking into Jade’s disappearance. I talked to the people I work with to see if anyone had any idea about what could have happened to her. I guess the killer got a little put out by that. He left me notes on my windshield advising me to stop.”

  “Do you still have these notes?” Jason’s face wasn’t nearly as flushed, and the vein in his neck had slipped back in between his skin and muscles. Little by little, he switched over to cop mode. Cyndi had retrieved the notes from her car earlier, put them in a Ziploc bag, and stashed them under a pillow on the sofa. Fishing them out, she handed the papers to Jason, who studied them through the plastic with a frown.

  “You should have given these to me.”

  “I know. I just didn’t think anyone would believe that someone had hurt Jade because she was a runaway. I wanted some concrete evidence. Like the tire iron.”

  Jason’s head snapped up. “Tire iron?”

  Cyndi nodded. “Yes. The one that we found by my car yesterday.”

  “What does that have to do with anything? The slashed tire was vandalism.”

  Not exactly, but she would get to that.

  “When I went to work on Friday night—” Jason scowled when she said “work,” but at least his face wasn’t an angry red anymore, “—there was a long line, so I had to go in by the alley door. I scared Roxy, and she almost hit me with it. When she set the tire iron down by the wall of the building, I thought I saw something strange on it in the light of the street light. I was going to grab it after work and give it to you in case it was somehow connected to Jade’s disappearance, but when I went back for it, it was gone.”

  “Who’s Roxy?”

  “Another dancer. She has been there forever, showed me the ropes.”

  “Poles and ropes…” Jason muttered, the vein in his neck started making an appearance again.

  “It’s not that big of a deal, J.J.”

  “Right.” He glared at her. “Maybe this Roxy left it here?”

  “Now why would she do that? I would know it was her. She’s not stupid. And why slash my tire?”

  “To send a message?”

  “I don’t know. Do you have another explanation?”

  “Possibly.” Cyndi pulled the necklace out of her pocket and handed it to Jason. He held it up, the tiny dancer pirouetting on the chain.

  “What does Harper’s necklace have to do with any of this?”

  “The slashed tire was a distraction.”

  “A distraction?”

  “After you left, I went into Harper’s room, and the window was open. I asked her why, and she said a man who knows me told her to open it, and he gave her that.”

  Jason’s face flushed a deep crimson. She could almost see the smoke rising from his ears as he boiled over. “A man came to her window and gave her this? What have you done, Cyndi?”

  “What have I done?” she shouted back. “I didn’t invite him here!”

  “You may as well have!” Jason was pacing again, the little dancer swinging violently in his clenched fist. “You put our daughter in danger because you had some perverted need to strut your stuff in front of a bunch of pigs! I spend my life trying to protect you and Harper from creeps like that, and you offer them lemonade and a sandwich!”


  “Calm down, J.J.! I didn’t invite anyone here. No one knows where we live.”

  “Someone does!”

  “Not anyone I work with. I am not a complete idiot.”

  “No. Not an idiot, but apparently a liar and maybe a bit of a slut.”

  “That’s not fair, J.J.”

  “I don’t care about fair.” Jason dropped the necklace in the pocket of his shorts. “I care about our daughter, and my wife putting herself in danger. Don’t you think that if you couldn’t tell me about that job then it probably wasn’t such a great idea to have it in the first place?”

  Cyndi threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “I don’t know! I guess so. But the truth is, as much as I love you, all your rules and tactical plans get so overwhelming sometimes.”

  Jason stepped in front of her and looked her straight in the eye. “You thought it was okay to lie to me because my keeping you and our daughter safe is overwhelming?”

  “Well, sort of. Yes.”

  “What the hell? I can’t talk about this anymore!” He marched down the hall and grabbed the keys to the car off the table. “I’m going out!” The slam of the front door echoed through the house as she heard Harper cry out from her bedroom. Cyndi peered out into the dark as the red glow of Jason’s taillights disappeared around the corner.

  “I’m coming, Harper,” she muttered as she went to their daughter’s bedroom.

  Jason running out of the house had taken her by surprise. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but her husband leaving wasn’t it. Well, there wasn’t anything she could do about it except wait for him to come to his senses.

  She hoped it wouldn’t be long. Jason had a penchant for holding a grudge.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, Cyndi heard the front door close quietly. From her favorite corner of the sofa, she stretched and opened her eyes, wondering if Jason would seek her out or go off to bed alone.

  She listened as her husband set the alarm and waited as he ran his usual series of security checks. Cyndi knew the process by heart—lock and bolt the front door, check the chain and lock on the door leading to the garage, throw the bar down in the slider in the dining room. Jason was as predictable as the sunrise.

  That was probably why she should have known exactly how he would react to her big announcement. In her heart, she really had known all along. If she hadn’t, there would have been no need to keep her Friday night destination a secret.

  Jason appeared in the door to the living room, his broad shoulders filling the dimly lit space.

  “Where have you been, J.J.?”

  “Just out driving around.”

  She glanced at the clock on the cable box. “It’s nearly four.”

  Jason sighed and walked toward her. “We have a bit of a problem, Cyndi.” Jason dropped down onto the sofa. “You aren’t the woman I thought you were.”

  “I think the problem is that I’m not the woman you thought you wanted, but I think if you get to know this side of me, you might like it. We have a lot in common, J.J. For instance, we both enjoy a good mystery.”

  “What does a mystery have to do with you shaking your ass for money?” he snapped.

  “Why do you always have to be such a jerk?” Cyndi shot back.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize not wanting my wife to work in a strip joint made me a jerk. Forgive me.”

  “Sarcasm has never been attractive on you, J.J.”

  He leaned forward, his palms resting on his knees, his expression serious. “I can’t believe you have been lying to me all this time.”

  “I didn’t know how to tell you the truth,” Cyndi admitted, studying her husband’s face. “I love the job, but I knew you wouldn’t understand that.”

  “I sure as hell don’t understand!”

  Cyndi shrugged. What could she say?

  “From the day we met, I always knew I could trust you. I don’t worry about all the hours I am gone because I know you are as honest as I am. At least, I always thought so. Now, I’m not so sure. Have I been wrong all these years? What else have you lied to me about?”

  “Nothing! I didn’t want to lie about this, but I didn’t have a choice.”

  “There’s always a choice, Cyndi, and you made the wrong one. I don’t know how to get past this.”

  “Come on, J.J., don’t say that. It’s not like I cheated on you or something. I just made some money doing something I really love.”

  “You are supposed to love me. You know, in sickness or in health, for richer or poorer. There’s nothing in those vows about working in a strip club and shaking your ass for every low life at the beach.”

  “I do love you, more than anything in this world. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. Come on, Jason! That’s not fair!”

  Jason sprang from the chair and leaned over so he was looking her straight in the eye.

  “Not fair? Seriously, Cyn? What’s not fair is that I will now be the laughing stock of the damned department! This could affect my future, our future! Have you thought about that?” He slammed his fist down on the coffee table. “What about Harper? Have you considered our daughter in all this?”

  Cyndi jumped to her own feet, fuming. “What does Harper have to do with this? She is a child. She has no idea about any of it!”

  “You still put her in danger! Your behavior brought some freak to our house. He could have hurt her, taken her! Have you thought about that? This nut job obviously likes them young! How young will he go? Is Harper on his list?”

  Jason paced back and forth in front of her, picking up speed with every turn. Cyndi had never seen him this angry.

  “What do you want from me, J.J.?”

  He stopped and stared her down. He had his cop look on. Cyndi hated that look.

  “Quit, of course. That’s the first step.” He resumed pacing, running his fingers over his crew cut. “I don’t know how we will get over this.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” A slight ripple of panic washed through her.

  “What do you think it means? You lied to me. Over and over again. What else do you lie about? Oh, God. Harper. Is she mine?”

  “Jason Jonathan Mills! How dare you!”

  “Well, how the hell am I supposed to know what’s true anymore? Our whole marriage could be a complete sham!”

  “You don’t really believe that, Jason.”

  “I don’t know what I believe.” He dropped back into the chair.

  “Believe this, aside from Sugar Shakers, I have never lied about anything.”

  “You could be lying right now. How in the hell would I know? I obviously suck as an investigator since I missed three months’ worth of lies.”

  She threw her hands into the air. “You are absolutely impossible!”

  “Baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  “I don’t understand you! It’s not like I committed a murder or had a secret rendezvous with a lover. I just danced to a few good eighties rock songs for a couple of hours a week.”

  “How do I trust you now?”

  Cyndi rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Jason, you are taking this a little too far, don’t you think?”

  “Tell me, Cyndi, how does one take it when his wife lies and does God knows what else?”

  “He takes it by sleeping on the couch. I’m done with this conversation. Have a good night, Jason.”

  Cyndi walked out of the room without another word and went to their bedroom. Once she closed the door, she listened to see if Jason followed her.

  He didn’t.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jason was sitting at the kitchen table with Harper when she entered the kitchen a couple of hours later. After their fight, Cyndi had spent the rest of the night staring at the bedroom ceiling, waiting to see if her husband would finally come to bed, and thinking about her plan when he didn’t.

  He barely made eye contact with her. Walking over to where Harper sat, she kissed her daughter on the head.


  “Hi, Mommy.”

  “Good morning, sweet pea.”

  “Daddy made me waffles.”

  “Mmm…Daddy makes good waffles, doesn’t he?”

  “Uh huh!”

  “Why don’t you go wash your sticky hands now and watch television for a few minutes while Mommy and Daddy talk?”

  “Okay, Mommy!” Harper climbed down from her chair and disappeared down the hall.

  “I have nothing to say to you right now,” Jason muttered when the little girl was gone.

  “Well, I have something to say to you.”

  “It better start with you quitting that job, because you are not going back there.”

  “Quitting? No way. Not until someone figures out what happened to Jade.”

  Jason stood up, his arms crossed over his chest. “What do you mean, ‘no way’? There is no reason for you to work there anymore.”

  “How about the fact that I like it? How about I know everyone and I could be an extremely valuable asset to a police investigation? Everyone at Sugar Shakers has secrets. They aren’t going to share them with just anyone, especially not the cops. But I have a relationship with them. And now that Lola has died—”

  “Who the hell is Lola?”

  “The girl they found under the pier.”

  “You know her?”

  “Yes. She was one of the dancers. She’s from Hawaii, but her family disowned her when she met a soldier and moved off the islands.”

  “How do you know all that?”

  “She told me. She trusted me.”

  “I need to call the LT and let him know we have a possible ID. I don’t suppose you know her last name?”

  “No. But you can get it from the club, I’m sure. As far as I know, Lola used her real information. She loved dancing, and never felt she had to hide anything.”

  “It doesn’t matter why she was there. At least now we have a place to start.”

  “Was she murdered, Jason?” She couldn’t even begin to hide the sadness in her voice.

  Her husband looked at her for a long time, obviously trying to reconcile his own emotions before speaking. Finally he responded, “Unfortunately, it is looking that way. I’m sorry, Cyn.”