by Mia Gold
John was on duty out front.
“You’re back?” he asked.
“Miss me?”
“Not me. My boss. He’s talked about nothing else. He really thinks he’s got a chance of getting you to work here.”
They both laughed. Ruby kind of liked this guy. Compared to some of the people she’d met in the past few days, he seemed surprisingly normal.
“Is Bimini working tonight?”
“Yeah, she’s on right now.” John opened the door for her, letting out the thudding of rock music through cheap, buzzy speakers. He made a mock bow and ushered her in.
“Always the gentleman,” Ruby said with a smile.
She entered, and found that the bar was about half full. She glanced at every table, seeing that none of these lecherous men were threats to her, at least not for the moment. It didn’t look like any had even noticed her enter. They all stared at Bimini, who was completely naked on stage, wrapping herself around the pole and …
“Whoa!” Ruby averted her eyes.
A movement caught in the corner of her eye gave her something else to look at. The owner waved from behind the bar. Ruby moved in that direction, standing by a free barstool between two customers. The two guys leered at her. She glared back. They still leered.
“Hey, girl! You reconsider my offer?” the owner said. She still hadn’t learned his name. Not that she cared.
“No, just here to talk to Bimini.”
“She’s working.”
“I can see that.”
“Amazing, isn’t she? She studied gymnastics in high school. Wanted to be an Olympic athlete. Her career took a different direction.”
The strip club owner and the two customers all laughed, sounding like Beavis and Butthead. That gave her a sharp memory of her father, one of whose guilty pleasures was that dumbass show.
“Is she coming off the stage soon?”
“In a few minutes. Why?”
“I’m still on the case.”
The man grunted. “Well, I guess it’s for the common good. That sort of thing is bad for everyone’s business. Sit down and enjoy the show.”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to sit on the barstool. God knows what was on it.
One of the guys next to her sidled a bit closer.
“Hey, baby, you wanna—”
“Don’t,” Ruby warned.
“Don’t,” the strip club owner warned.
The guy edged back.
The owner slid a beer across the counter to Ruby. “On the house.”
Ruby looked at it, suspicious. The man laughed, took it back, and opened another bottle in front of her. That one she took, not because she liked beer—too many empty calories for too little alcohol content—but because a bottle made a nice weapon. She sipped slowly as Bimini finished up her set.
Once she finished and stepped off stage to a chorus of catcalls and whistles, Ruby moved to cut her off before she disappeared into the changing room.
“You again.” Bimini sounded irritated.
“Can we talk in private?”
The woman sighed. “It’s not like I can say no.”
Bimini led her to the back where the dressing room was. A woman wearing only a G-string was just leaving. The DJ was already announcing her. Bimini sat on one of the rickety wooden chairs before a cracked mirror, toweling the sweat off her bare body.
“I need to meet Silver.”
Bimini snapped a look at her. “Why? How do you know about him?”
Ruby decided to play her trump card. “The King told me.”
Bimini gaped. “You know the King?”
“Me and him are tight.”
Bimini studied her for a moment. The light was better in here, and the stripper could see her bruises.
“Damn, you’re a fighter down there? You’re even crazier than I thought.”
“How do you know about the fights?”
Bimini shook her head and went back to toweling herself off. “Silver’s big into them. He took me once. Made me sick to my stomach.” Bimini gave Ruby a nervous glance, as if this disapproval might put her in danger.
“Silver drove that murdered man to the fights. I need to talk with him. Find out what else happened that night.”
Bimini shook her head. “I don’t talk with Silver no more.”
“But your friend does, the working girl who slept with Richard. She works for Silver, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, and he’s no good, not for her and not for me. I used to work for him. Beat me everywhere except my face. Wanted to make money off of that. That’s why I came to work here. Big Jim had to front me five thousand dollars of my pay to get rid of him. Charged me ten percent interest too. Took ages to get free of that. I don’t want nothing to do with Silver.”
“But you can get in touch with him.”
“I could, but I’d have to call my friend. I don’t have his new number.”
“All right.”
Bimini stared at Ruby a moment, realized she wouldn’t be budged, then took out her phone with a shake of her head. She hit a number and waited. The phone rang several times but did not pick up.
“She’s with a john. You’ll have to wait. I have another set in fifteen minutes. When I get off I’ll call again. Come back in an hour.”
“This is important,” Ruby grumbled, impatient.
“There’s nothing I can do, but I can tell you one thing. Silver didn’t drive your dead tourist friend to the King’s. He doesn’t have a car. That chump change loser never has the money for one.”
Damn it. Another dead end. I don’t have time for dead ends.
Ruby thanked her and headed out, passing John at one of the tables trying to calm down a drunk complaining about something. She figured she could do a bit of free work at the Pirate’s Cove as an apology to Neville and come back in an hour.
As she exited the strip club, she saw Reece and Perry, arms over each other’s shoulders and laughing their heads off, just going inside the bar a few doors down. Ruby felt a warmth inside. It was so much nicer there than this crappy brothel. A real community where people didn’t exploit one another. If she got through all this with her freedom intact, she would never complain about her job again.
Well, she would complain about Reece’s nightly spewings on the floor, but nothing else. At least not much.
Ruby stood for a moment outside the club, breathing in the fresh evening air. The atmosphere in that place smelled foul, both literally and figuratively.
She scanned the street by instinct. Besides a man a block away walking the other direction, and a car just passing by, no one else was in sight. She started walking toward the Pirate’s Cove.
And that’s when she heard stealthy footsteps following her.
Ruby cocked her ear, all senses alert.
The footsteps quickened, approaching. She heard the metallic click of a switchblade opening.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
The person following her must have been waiting right around the corner next to the door to the strip club. Ruby spun, launching a roundhouse kick.
She misjudged the distance, and her opponent’s reaction time. The young Bahamian man just managed to jump back, her foot passing close enough to his face to knock off his cap.
They stopped and stared at each other, both blinking in recognition.
Ruby didn’t know his name, but he had tried the same move on her right outside the bar about six months ago. She’d kicked his ass then and he’d avoided her ever since.
Her would-be mugger took a step back, gripping his switchblade. “Oh shit, you again!”
“That’s right, me again!”
Of all the things she didn’t need right now, this idiot was on top of the list.
Then she paused. He stood six feet tall and had a normal build. His skin was paler than the usual Bahamian, showing mixed race heritage.
Pale enough that in worse light than this, she could have mistaken him for white.
Sh
e glanced down at the cap her kick had knocked off. An old baseball cap, tattered at the brim.
The same as I saw on the figure in the alley that night.
Oh my God.
The mugger followed Ruby’s gaze. His eyes widened in realization.
He turned and ran.
Ruby caught up with him in three seconds. He turned, brandishing his switchblade, too late. Ruby kicked his legs out from under him and he went sprawling on the pavement, the knife skittering into the street.
Before he could recover, Ruby gave him a kidney punch, flipped him over, and smacked him across the face. Then she flipped him over again and pinned his arm behind his back.
John the bouncer burst out the front door.
“You OK?”
“Yeah,” Ruby said.
“I saw him following you out of sight of the security camera. I could tell what he planned to do.”
“I didn’t do nothing!” the mugger bawled.
“You were sneaking up on me with a damn switchblade,” Ruby snarled. She turned to John. “Call the police.”
He hesitated. “This is bad for business. Yours and mine. Can’t we—”
“This is the guy I saw in the alley. He’s the murderer!”
“I didn’t murder nobody!”
John moved off, pulling his phone from his pocket.
“You mugged him, didn’t you?” Ruby said, twisting his arm a bit more to draw out a hiss of pain. “You mugged him for his money and his Rolex and slit his throat. Then you put him in the dumpster.”
“No way! I ain’t no killer.”
“I saw you.”
Damn it, all this trouble for this loser. Here I was going into the Valley of Hell and getting tied up with crime bosses when it was all a simple mugging. Jesus, why does everyone have to complicate my life? Why can’t things go right for me for once?
“No! You got it all wrong. I, um, I was passing by and saw a car peeling out from next to the alley. I figured something was up. I went into the alley and didn’t see nothing. Then you came out and I took off. I didn’t want to tangle with you again.”
“Bullshit,” Ruby grumbled. “You know how much trouble you’ve caused me?”
John strolled up to them, putting his phone back in his pocket. “The cops are on their way.”
Ruby kept the mugger in a hold until they did, smiling the whole time. This felt better than when she pinned her first champion to win a title.
Because instead of winning a trophy and some money, she was winning her freedom.
The police came and she and John gave their testimony, the mugger professing his innocence all the while. Just as they were putting him in the back of a patrol car, Detectives Anderson and Pinder appeared. Ruby let out a gust of relief. She never thought she’d be happy to see those two. The police filled the detectives in, and they walked over to where Ruby waited by the strip bar.
“You’ll need to come with us to the station to make a statement,” Detective Anderson said.
“Um, all right. But I already gave a statement to your officers.”
“A very convenient statement,” Detective Pinder said, glaring at her. “Too convenient for you.”
***
Two hours later, down at the station, Detective Anderson ushered her into his office from the waiting room where she had been fidgeting for far too long and sat her down. He rang the buzzer.
“Ayanna, could you get us some coffee, please?”
He turned back to Ruby.
“The man’s name is Leonard Chipman. He’s got a sheet as long as your arm. Petty stuff, mostly. Been in and out of jail for years. This is his first murder charge.”
Ruby perked up. “You’re charging him?”
That was as much a surprise as a relief. All he had on the guy was her say-so.
“We will. Currently we’re charging him with attempted armed robbery on the basis of the camera footage and your testimony. But that’s just an excuse to hold him and search his apartment. Detective Pinder just came back from there. She called to tell me she found some American currency and a gold Rolex. We’ll get a positive ID on the Rolex from Elaine Wainwright in the morning.”
“Perfect.” Ruby felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off her shoulders.
Detective Pinder came in, carrying a tray with three coffees. Ruby gave her a smug smile.
“Detective Pinder! How nice it is to see you!”
The homicide detective gave her a sour look. “We still have some questions.”
Ruby scoffed, then glanced at Detective Anderson, who wore a serious expression.
She stopped scoffing.
Instead, she took her coffee cup, took a sip to hide the pained look on her face, and waited for the other shoe to fall.
“We did a little digging,” Detective Anderson said.
Oh, great.
Detective Pinder took her usual place right behind her, but it was Detective Anderson who asked the questions. The female detective simply loomed.
“First off, we checked your address, and found that you aren’t actually registered as living there.”
“I pay rent.”
“In cash. Your landlord expressed surprise that you had left the previous tenant’s name on the mailbox. He says he didn’t know.”
“It’s not like he comes around to do repairs very often. Or ever.”
“And you made sure he didn’t by going to his house every month to pay the rent. In cash, as I said before. Because you don’t have a bank account here.”
The detective fell silent. Ruby knew she was supposed to say something, but nothing came to mind.
“I like my privacy.”
Great one, Ruby. That’s really going to convince him.
“Your landlord says you’ve been living in that place for a year. But it appears you’ve never received mail there. The utilities are in your landlord’s name. You were supposed to switch them over to yours but didn’t. Instead you just pay them off, presumably in cash, and your landlord is none the wiser. You haven’t even hooked up the place for Internet?”
“The Internet is a waste of time.”
“As is a cell phone under your name? Your phone is a burner you top up regularly. You have no proper phone account, no name on anything anywhere. Oh, and your boss pays you in cash too. So while you arrived legally in the Bahamas and applied for and received a residency card, there is otherwise no record at all of your existence in our country.”
Ruby, heart beating fast, tried to sound confident. “Is any of what I’m doing illegal?”
Detective Anderson gave a little concessionary shrug. “No, but it’s more than a little suspicious. Care to tell me who you’re hiding from?”
“I was in an abusive relationship back in the States. The guy has turned into a total stalker. I came here to avoid him.”
Detective Anderson cocked his head. “Why not give him a roundhouse kick followed by a few hammer blows? Like you do with rough customers at the Pirate’s Cove?”
Ruby felt like sinking through the floor. He was getting way too close.
“It’s hard to do that with someone you used to care about, and he’s plenty tough.”
Detective Anderson made a little shake of his head. “I’m in the habit of believing women when they say they have been victimized by men. Nine times out of ten they’re telling the truth.”
“More like ninety-nine times out of a hundred,” Ruby grumbled. This was the guy who made a female detective serve him coffee while he called her by her first name. He needed to wake up to the twenty-first century.
Detective Anderson gave her a little smile. “Oh, there are plenty of hysterical women out there who make up stories. But you’re not one of them, are you, Ruby? No, you can handle yourself.” He raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “But I can’t make you answer these questions. As you say, you’ve done nothing illegal. But it is all very irregular and we need to get to the bottom of it. I’ll be in touch. Soon. The next time we hav
e this conversation we’ll be having it with an official at the American Embassy.”
Detective Anderson said more, but Ruby no longer heard. All she could hear was the sound of her life crashing down around her.
It was over. It was all over. She had avoided a jail cell in the Bahamas, only to exchange it for a federal prison in the United States.
At least she had been of use to someone before it all ended. At least she could go see Elaine and give her some closure.
It was the first time Ruby had felt a sense of accomplishment since before Senator Wishbourne got assassinated.
A bittersweet consolation.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
The Coast of Dreams was as beautiful as ever the next morning, but Ruby couldn’t appreciate it. She couldn’t even appreciate the final part of her payment, which Elaine had given her as soon as she entered her suite, then went back to eating her breakfast at the coffee table. The window was open and Ruby could hear the soft distant surf and the swish of the wind through the palm trees overhead. It should have soothed her.
But nothing could change the fact that this was one of her last days of freedom.
Elaine Wainwright failed to notice her mood. She was ecstatic.
“You’re brilliant, Ruby, brilliant! The police brought me the Rolex, and I identified it as Richard’s. They even got one of his fingerprints off it as proof. That man is going away for life, I hope. An open and shut case. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”
Elaine reached over the coffee table and put a hand on Ruby’s. “And I’m so happy that the police didn’t charge you with the murder. I just knew they were wrong about you.”
Ruby could not share her happiness, knowing that far worse was to come. Even so, she still had room in her heart to pity Elaine. She might be riding high right now on the news that the murderer had been caught, but the reality of what happened would come crashing in again soon enough.
It would take a long, long time for Elaine to get over this.
“So I suppose you’ll be going back to the States now,” Ruby said.
“Soon. The police have a few things to wrap up. They have to formally charge that horrible man and I have to give a final statement. Then I think I’ll stay here for a time. We … I mean I … still have a few days left on the reservation. I might as well use them.”