I recalled then a rumor from last year, some kind of falling-out between Joey and Peter. “Didn’t you and Peter get in a fight last year?”
Joey wiped his mouth with his knuckles. “Yeah.”
“What was that about?”
He frowned and shook his head. “Nothing.”
I stared at him, and he stared back. His eyebrows lifted like he was waiting for me to say something. Beating me at my own game. Something had gone down between the three of them last year, and I suspected Dare was involved too. None of them wanted to talk about it, though. I’d need Tameka’s help to get to the bottom of this.
Joey’s alibi was airtight—if the killer was working alone. But if Joey knew where Mason was headed the night he was murdered, he could have alerted the killer to his whereabouts.
“You were pretty close to Mason, weren’t you?”
“Best friends since kindergarten,” Joey said with a sigh.
“Your friendship must have had its ups and downs.”
“Ups, mostly.” He swallowed and closed his eyes. It looked as if he was trying to stop himself from crying. Sorrow or guilt?
Joey was the one to determine whether a new member was allowed into their circle. It was something less stated and more understood. But what if Joey felt threatened that Mason might gain a new best friend?
“Mason was pretty popular. It must have been hard to keep his attention, huh?”
Joey looked up, perhaps realizing the nature of my questions had taken a turn.
“If you’re trying to say I was jealous of Peter Orr, I wasn’t. Peter’s a tool.”
“What about Dare’s relationship with Mason?”
“Dare’s my friend too. The three of us are like brothers.”
“But they’re not your actual brothers. Did you ever feel left out?”
“Sure, but that’s the way it goes, right?” He glanced past me to the rapidly thinning crowd of guests. “Looks like the party’s over. I’d better go check on Dare.” He patted my shoulder on his way past me. “Keep up the good work, Dick.”
I couldn’t tell if Joey was mocking me or encouraging me. I was still ruminating about a possible motive while he and Dare said their goodbyes.
“You still want to make the trip to Micanopy?” I asked Dare after all his guests had left. It was late. He must be exhausted by the day.
“Absolutely. It’s the only thing getting me through this.”
The fight was still on my mind, though, and even though Dare had stonewalled me last time I asked him about it, it couldn’t hurt to try again. “Joey and Peter Orr got into a fight last year, didn’t they?” I studied Dare closely as I said it.
“Yeah,” he admitted after a long pause.
“What was that about?”
He shook his head. “It was stupid. Not important.”
“It might be important to the case. You have to trust me, Dare.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder, his eyes crinkling at the corners. He really knew how to gain my sympathies. “I do trust you, Charlie, and I want to be honest with you, but some secrets aren’t mine to tell. This is one of them.”
I narrowed my eyes, wishing again for the superpower of mindreading, so I could know exactly what was going on inside that beautiful head of his. Instead I opened his front door to guide him out into the eerily quiet night.
So many secrets.
WE HEADED out into the inky, starless night, southbound on I-75. All along the stretch of interstate between Gainesville and Ocala, Café Risqué billboards promised great food in a welcoming venue where “We bare all.” The billboards used to have a picture of this blonde woman from the eighties with feathered hair, which could have easily been mistaken for a teen pregnancy hotline or a missing persons advertisement. But in recent years, the business rebranded to feature silhouettes of busty women in provocative poses, and one in particular of a woman gripping a pole in ecstasy.
It seemed we were all chasing some ridiculous fantasy.
A trip to Café Risqué was something like a rite of passage for central Florida teens on the cusp of manhood, and one I’d always assumed I’d happily forgo due to my sexual orientation, and yet, there I was, racing to the famed truck stop with Dare in his sleek silver Jaguar, intent on looking for clues to the identity of Mason’s killer.
We arrived at about 10:00 p.m. Dare gave me Mason’s ID, which could pass for my own if the lighting was dim and the bouncer didn’t look too closely. Still, I was nervous about potentially breaking the law. The first place they’d call was the local police, who would contact my mom. She’d probably send someone to arrest me just to scare me straight.
The bouncer in question roved his flashlight over Dare’s ID and then over his person. Dare’s height made him look older, along with the scruff of a few days without shaving that had accumulated on his jaw. It was pretty sexy, actually, and I scolded myself for even looking at him in that way.
When it was my turn, the bouncer inspected me a little closer.
“You’re twins?” he asked while side-eyeing the both of us. “You don’t look alike.”
“Fraternal,” Dare clarified. He made a motion to move past the bouncer, who held out his hand to block him. The man turned to me.
“What’s up with your hair?”
“It grew out.”
“What’s your sign….” He squinted at the ID. “Mason?”
“Scorpio,” I said easily. I’d memorized that a long time ago.
“Where do you live?”
I recited the Chalmerses’s address. I had a knack for memorization. And riding past their house on my bike when I was at the height of my stalking phase didn’t hurt my recall either.
“You been drinking?” he flashed his light in my eyes, blinding me.
“No, sir,” I answered.
“All right, then.” He passed the ID back to me. “No funny business, and make sure you tip the ladies. They aren’t here for their health.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I entered into the surprisingly well-lit Café Risqué. It was kind of like when you built something up in your mind so much that the reality couldn’t possibly match up to your expectations. I wasn’t disappointed by the interior, not exactly, but it seemed so much smaller than I’d imagined. Other than the poles, it really did resemble a Denny’s or some other greasy spoon. There were booths along one side of the dining area and a bar that butted up to a small empty stage, where I assumed the main event would take place. There was also a side shop that sold ladies’ lingerie and pornographic DVDs, but overall, it was pretty underwhelming.
There were a few truckers in the booths, being served by women in revealing outfits, something like a costume you might pick up on a discount rack after Halloween—naughty nurse or curious co-ed. So far, nothing that lived up to the motto of “We bare all.”
Dare suggested we sit at the bar and soon after, a waitress approached us. She appeared to be in her late thirties, dyed red hair, heavy on the makeup, with her ample, freckled bosom squeezed into a cropped leather bustier. “What would you handsome fellas like to drink?” she asked with a salacious grin.
I knew from the signs out front they didn’t serve alcohol, which seemed a little strange to me, but if this venue really catered to truckers, then I supposed it wouldn’t do to get them liquored up while pulling an all-nighter. In fact, the idea of a place where truckers could get a square meal while also admiring naked women to help pass their long and lonely rides had an almost wholesome appeal.
“Cherry coke?” Dare asked, looking at me. He seemed perfectly comfortable with our situation and not at all put off by the strange mix of fry grease and sex pheromones circulating in the air.
“Coke’s good. Regular for me,” I said as I steered my eyes away from our server’s chest. I’d kind of zoned out there for a minute. She left us with two menus, and Dare scanned his dutifully.
“This is not what I was expecting,” he said in a low voice.
“No,
me neither,” I admitted.
“I really can’t believe this.” He studied his menu with a look of deep concentration.
“What is it?” I thought perhaps he’d stumbled across a clue.
“The food’s actually very reasonably priced.”
I laughed out loud at Dare’s practicality. He glanced over with a small smile that acknowledged the sheer oddity of our situation. Our waitress, Cherry, returned soon after and took our order. Mine was a hamburger and curly fries. Dare’s was soup and salad, and I remembered what he’d told me before about how greasy food upset his stomach. As she was leaving, Dare grabbed her arm. “Wait a minute, if you would.”
“No touching, sweetie,” she said in an almost motherly fashion.
Dare released her immediately and apologized. “I was wondering if you’ve ever seen this man.” Dare pulled up a photo of him and Mason on his phone, the one taken from the pep rally with Mason in his singlet.
“You a cop?” she asked with dismay.
“No, ma’am. It’s my brother. He’s gone missing, and he used to come here from time to time, over the summer, I believe. I was wondering when he might have been here last. If you might have seen him?”
His sincere desperation came through in his appeal and Cherry took another hard look. “I don’t recognize him, but one of the late-night girls might.” She pointed to the stage, which was really just an extension of the bar and less than two feet in front of us. “They come on in about a half an hour, if you want to ask them.”
The place had a definite between-shift vibe. Cherry herself said she’d close out our order when she brought us our food. “It’s past my bedtime,” she said, yawning unapologetically as she collected the money for the food and her tip. Dare insisted on paying for my meal, but it wasn’t like we were on a date. More like he was paying my expenses.
We were just finishing our meal when the jukebox kicked on. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it stood in a dim corner of the room. There were a couple of burly men going over the choices with an almost academic fastidiousness.
I recognized the song after the first couple intro bars of a searing guitar riff: “Sweet Child of Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Dare grabbed my arm. “Charlie, look.”
I turned. Onstage, among a cloud of fog and strobe lights, five women of varying ages, ethnicities, and statures entered the spotlights, wearing stilettos and nothing else.
“We bare all,” Dare said with wonder. As it turned out, Café Risqué’s motto was absolutely true. Dare handed me a stack of bills. “Time to splash some cash, Charlie.”
And then with a look of childlike glee, Dare made it rain.
I DIDN’T realize until after their performance, Dare was baiting the dancers. When they finished their set, the women circulated through the bar, offering up private dances to the patrons. All of them had their eyes on Dare. The first two women he slipped a twenty and showed them his phone, asked them if they’d ever seen Mason. They hadn’t but were happy to take his cash nonetheless. One of the women told Dare she’d give him a deep discount on a private dance on account of him being so easy on the eyes. It actually took quite a bit of the Chalmers’s charm to let her off easy.
The third woman, who was blonde, or perhaps wearing a blonde wig, was the closest to our age. She looked from the picture to Dare and said, “Private dances are forty bucks.”
I thought she was only angling for an upsale, but Dare seemed on board with it. “My friend Charlie here wants a dance. And I want to watch.”
“Each dance is forty. No freebies,” she studied me with a peculiar expression. I wiped my mouth, thinking there might be ketchup on my face.
“Lucky for me, I’m a rich bastard,” Dare replied.
The woman introduced herself as Crystal and led us to a back room where there were booths covered in red vinyl, kind of like a Pizza Hut. Easy to wipe clean, I thought and then shivered with disgust. About five feet away was a video camera recording everything that happened in the room. I prayed my mother never saw this footage.
“Don’t worry,” Crystal said, perhaps noticing my unease. “It doesn’t record sound.” She then gave us a list of rules, which included, among other things, no touching.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I assured her, sweating profusely. I’d never seen a naked woman this close before, and even after watching Crystal grind and gyrate on the pole, having her practically on top of me felt criminal. Her boobs were everywhere. I didn’t know where to put my hands so I wouldn’t accidentally touch her, so I shoved them between my legs.
“Are you sure this is legal?” I asked Dare.
He gave me an amused look. “You’ll have to excuse my friend, Crystal. Charlie has a girlfriend, but like I told him, so long as there’s no touching, it’s not cheating. Am I right?”
“That’s right, baby,” she said, winking at Dare. A rap song came on, something fast with a deep bass line. Crystal straddled my knees, which were pressed tightly together. “Just relax now, baby. Crystal will make you feel all right,” she cooed in my ear. Her hair tickled my neck, and her heavy bosoms nearly brushed up against me.
“Maybe you should take this one,” I said to Dare, who sat to the side of us, watching with complete rapture. His arms stretched out along the top of the booth like this was an everyday occurrence. Funny thing was, his attention seemed more focused on me than the naked woman on my lap.
Dare shook his head with a huge smile on his face. He was really getting a kick out of this. “It’s your birthday, Bud. Just sit back and enjoy it. Let’s see what turns up.”
I gulped and pressed back as far as I could into the slightly reclined seat. It felt a little bit like being at the dentist’s office when you’re trying really hard not to get any of your bodily juices on the dental hygienist. But the more I retreated, the more Crystal advanced. She gyrated in lazy circles, cupping her boobs and pinching her nipples to perhaps add to the excitement. She moaned a little, trying to sell it. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and count in my head until it was over, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“Did you recognize my brother Mason?” Dare finally asked, studying her critically. He didn’t seem aroused in the least by her performance, just deadly focused on getting answers.
“I saw him in the news,” she said. “Is he… dead?”
“Yes, he is.” Dare ducked his head so that she wouldn’t see his face. Still, Crystal seemed sympathetic to his pain.
“I’m sorry. He seemed like a nice guy.”
“He was,” Dare said quietly. “So, you met him?”
“He came in here a couple times while I was on shift.” She reached down to spread my knees open, as though she could force me to relax. She grabbed my hands as if we were dance partners. I probably resembled a very stiff puppet.
“I thought there was no touching,” I said, feeling a little panicked.
“You can’t touch me, but I can touch you,” she said with a teasing smile. It made absolutely no sense to me. Touching was touching, but I didn’t want to argue the point with her.
“Did you see him with anyone else?” Dare asked.
“Yeah, a beefy red-headed kid. Bad attitude. He complained about the girls being fat. He was kind of an asshole, if I’m honest. Not your brother, though. He was a good tipper, just like you.” She dabbed Dare’s nose with the tip of her finger. He went cross-eyed for a moment and then drew his finger along the end of his nose where she’d touched him.
“Did it seem like my brother was just here to enjoy the entertainment, or was he meeting someone?” Dare asked.
Crystal turned around so I could get a full view of her bulbous butt, jumping up and down to the beat with practiced efficiency. At least now she couldn’t see me cower.
“There was another man here with them. Older. White hair and a fake tan. Looks like he works out a lot. He’s a regular.”
Dare leaned in closer. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“He’s here tonig
ht,” she said. “He was sitting next to you at the bar.”
My mind flashed back to the guy she was describing. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a red bandana and his arms were grossly huge, like a Hulk Hogan wannabe. I suddenly knew what pills Mason had been taking.
“Steroids,” I said aloud.
Dare slumped back into his seat, realizing my meaning. A speaker piped up in the room. “Crystal, finish up. The cops are here.”
I glanced over at Dare. “It might be GPD.” As I was indisposed, Dare poked his head out of the room to take a look down the hallway. He turned back to the two of us, both of us having given up this charade and awaiting his word.
“One more favor, Crystal. You’ve got to get us out the back.” Dare laid a stack of bills on the red vinyl booth.
“Is it your girlfriend?” she asked with exasperation, as though that sort of thing happened frequently.
“Nope,” Dare said. “It’s Charlie’s mother.”
CRYSTAL LED us out through the kitchen. Thankfully the kitchen staff wore all their clothing and bared nothing. Crystal didn’t go any farther than the back door because she was nude and it was a bit nippy outside. Before she shut the door, Dare said to her, “We’re going to hang out in the woods over there until the cops leave. If you can get me the name of that muscle-bound guy, I’ve got another hundred-dollar bill with your name on it.”
She smiled. “Sure thing, baby. I owe you a free DVD too. What are you boys into?”
We glanced at each other, and for once Dare was as tongue-tied as me. Crystal rolled her eyes. She really had no patience for our naivety. “Forget it. I’ll pick you out something good.”
We jogged across the parking lot and into the woods behind the dumpster, just in case the police did a sweep of the perimeter. I wondered if my mother was here checking out a lead, or if GPD was making a routine stop to make sure no one was underage. I didn’t think it was the latter because Micanopy was outside GPD’s jurisdiction, and my mom typically wasn’t sent on those runs anyway. She must know something of Mason’s visits to Café Risqué.
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