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?”
“Yes, now ya’ll be careful too. Okay Grace?”
“Absolutely. Bye for now.”
“Buh-bye.”
CHAPTER 51
“So is the Colonel gonna be back in tonight?” Sam nudged Birdie and smiled.
“Better be. The bread and honey is nice, but more than anything I’m just to lazy too work the floor.”
“Bread and honey?” Grace looked up from her reading, highlighter pen poised.
“Bread and honey, means money.” Sam said.
“Catchin’ on are yeh?” Birdie smirked.
“This is fucked.” Mary Jane shuffled through pages being spit from her printer. “This can’t be right.”
The four sat on the soft flokati rug in Mary Jane’s living room, pouring over the sheaves of paper — files stolen from Gio’s laptop. Each of the girls had a highlighter pen of a different color, looking for any discrepancies in the books.
“What can’t be right?”
“There are extra accounts here. No big shock, but two of the account numbers don’t jibe with the standard numerical system of US banks.” She paused, still studying the papers, “Huh. Weird.”
“Well, we know he had a Moscow account, so maybe he had two?”
“Yeah, but Lena had only recorded one in her notes. Besides, the alphanumeric coding on the two don’t match. They’re not only from different banks. They’re from different banking systems. Different countries.”
“Where’s the other one from?”
“That’s the big question, isn’t it?”
“Let’s keep going and see if something is in this file. Where’s the biggest place for numbered accounts in the world?”
“Do you really think it could be Swiss?”
“I shoulda copied his fuckin’ Rolodex while I was in there.”
“Wif that extra bloody hour you ‘ad in the office, roight?”
“Yeah, I know. But it might have been helpful.”
“It’s okay, we’ll figure it out.” Sam turned her attention back to the stack of papers in front of her. “Between Lena’s notes and these files we’ll crack it. It may just take some time.”
Mary Jane stood, stretched and headed toward the kitchen. “Who’s up for a nice hot bevvie?”
“Me.”
“Me.”
“That and a fag’ll do nicely.” Birdie began ransacking her purse for tea bags.
“Has anyone talked to Ursula?” Grace asked, setting the ashtray stacked with cigarette box and lighter next to Bird.
“Yeah.” Sam said, flipping back and forth between two pages, “She agreed to do her fire show, although she doesn’t know why. The fewer people who know anything in advance, the better our chances of pulling this thing off. I also don’t want her caught in the middle of this.”
Grace chimed in, “If anyone asks her about why a fire show on that night in particular, she’ll tell them that an old and dear customer of hers begged her to do it.”
“And you swear she doesn’t know why?” Birdie asked.
“Ursula isn’t stupid. She knows that she doesn’t want to know.”
“By the way, ‘as everyone brought their al-yoo-min-i-um cans?”
“It’s pronounced al-oo-min-um, Birdie.” Grace teased, knowing full well that Birdie was using standard British English for once.
“Only for the daft, love.”
The girls nodded and Mary Jane pointed to a large plastic garbage bag sitting next to the front door.
“Ours are in Sam’s trunk.” Grace said, referring to the cans she and Sam had gathered.
“Fingerprints?” Birdie asked, placing a cigarette between parted lips and touching the flame to the business end.
“Wiped clean.” Sam said as if marking an item off a list, which made her beam with satisfaction.
The other two nodded in unison.
“Don’t let me forget to collect those before I go. Need to go by storage and finish me tasks for the day.” Birdie drew deeply on the cigarette and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER 52
Nikki flitted around her apartment, throwing lingerie, toiletrie
s, and clothing into her Hartmann carry-on. Busta Rhymes chanted lyrics through the speakers of her Bang & Olafson stereo. Dancing, as she packed, she was completely unaware that this would be the last vacation she would ever take with Fedya. In fact, it was quite possibly the last vacation she would take with anyone.
Pausing by the glass-topped bedside table, she lifted a gold-plated straw and aimed the tip at one end of a thick line of coke she’d arranged in a dollar sign. Making pictures out of drugs was something she considered her trademark. She felt like it was a clever touch that she and she alone was cute enough to do. Snorting the powder, she tilted her head back and felt the numbing trickle seep down the back of her throat. She swabbed the glass with her index finger and rubbed the excess onto her gums so she could taste the tart and tangy flavor of the coke. Rubbing her tongue across her teeth, her blood surged and her mind race to places only the truly important would ever venture.
She bounced in time with the music, catching a glimpse of herself in the full-length framed mirror, which leaned against the wall next to her walk-in closet. She posed and twisted in nothing more than a bra and panties. She started dancing again and stripped for herself, feeling, no, knowing she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
The coke had flushed her face red and dilated her pupils, giving her a sexed up glow. A small freckle of red on her chin caught her attention and pulled her into a crouched position at the base of the mirror. She spent the next twenty minutes or so picking and examining every pore on her face.
Her cell phone rang the lyrics to the 80s hit Der Kommissar. She snatched the phone, realizing she’d lost track of time and was running late.
“Hey, sexy!”
Her grin faded to a bored look as Fedya lectured her about her lack of time management. She was supposed to be at his penthouse fifteen minutes ago. Oops. He instructed her to get her shit packed and be waiting in front of her condo in twenty minutes. The limo would swing by to pick her up on the way to the airport. The phone clicked loudly as he disconnected in her ear.
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