Page 15 of Strip Search

M iles Carvello

I took the crack even though I could have easily avoided it. It stung, but I sold it by rocking my head to the side. If it made Dee’s mother feel good, and calm enough to explain the bullshit she was spewing, it would be worth it.

“She was going to be a chef. She was going to Cordon Bleu. Did you know that? Do you even care?”

“She was a shitty cook.” At least that’s what Liu always said. “Lazy in the kitchen and her knife skills just plain sucked.”

Yeah, that wasn’t the right thing to say.

So much for calming her down. Before she could swing again, Jackie stepped in.

I squared off on the mother and she blinked at me, probably noticing that I could break her in half and stuff her in the dumpster.

Not that I would, but she didn’t have to know that.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Jackie said soothingly.

“No, there hasn’t.” Eleanor’s eyes filled with tears. “She’s a hooker at the Moondust Cherry Ranch.”

“In Pahrump?” Jackie whispered.

“Yes.” Eleanor started to cry.

I hated when chicks did that. Jackie found some tissues in that gargantuan purse she carried and handed her some.

“Thank you.”

“My name is Jackie Mitchell. Miles is helping me look for my sister, Lisa, and I think . . .” Jackie took a shaky breath. “I think Lisa might be with Dee. Can we go inside and talk?”

Eleanor glared at me. “He led them to do it. It’s that damn club. I knew I should have forbidden her to work there.”

“No.” Jackie shook her head. “Miles is trying to find them. He cares about all his employees. When he found out Dee went missing, he went to Zeke’s place to track her down.”

“That boy.” Dee’s mother shook her head. “He’s trouble. If Miles didn’t convince her she could make more money selling her body, then Zeke did.” She scrubbed at her tears angrily. “You might as well come in.”

I nodded brusquely, but Jackie jammed an elbow into my side. “I wish we were meeting under different circumstances,” I said, absently rubbing my ribs.

Eleanor really looked at me this time and I could tell she liked what she saw.

Well, maybe that would help open her up to our questions.

I didn’t feel like smiling at her, but it seemed she didn’t need it.

Straightening her shoulders, she let the gauzy wrap flutter down her back and put a sway in her step as she led us inside her condo.

“Behave,” Jackie whispered fiercely to me.

I kissed Jackie quick because I wanted to, and she gaped at me.

She was still blushing when Eleanor led us to what she called the sunroom and bade us to sit on uncomfortable steel chairs that had been polished like chrome on a Harley.

“Can I get you something to eat or drink?” Eleanor rang a little bell and an honest-to-God manservant appeared out of nowhere.

He was dressed in a formal suit and jacket with tails. In this heat?

“We’re good,” I said.

“Nonsense, let me get you a drink. It’s the least I can do after behaving so horribly.” Eleanor leaned a little to give me a flash of cleavage, but I didn’t drop my eyes. Tits were a dime a dozen in my line of work and the only ones I wanted were Jackie’s.

“I’ll have a beer,” I said to the manservant.

“Oh you must try the lemon shandy.”

I winced. “Yeah, no. Fruit doesn’t belong in beer.”

I got elbowed again.

“That sounds very refreshing,” Jackie said.

I made eye contact with the manservant and he gave me a small nod and left the room.

“This is my sister, Lisa.” Jackie pulled out that damn photo and went into the whole spiel.

Letting my mind wander, I looked around the condo.

It was an expensive setup. I didn’t go much for high fashion, but the place had character.

There was marble and stainless steel everywhere, but one whole wall was a window that looked out over the desert and Lake Las Vegas.

The manservant in his ridiculous little outfit was back with the drinks almost immediately.

I took a sip of my beer. It was lemon free and surprisingly good.

“You must be terribly worried,” Eleanor said, putting a comforting hand over Jackie’s.

“Did Dee ever mention Lisa or Broadway? That was the name Lisa danced under.”

Eleanor snatched her hand back. “Your sister was a stripper?”

She said stripper the same way she’d said hooker .

I didn’t like how ashamed Jackie looked.

“My girls dance, nothing else,” I said. “Your daughter stayed in the kitchen. She got paid a decent wage, but the dancers make double her salary. Dee wasn’t talented enough to be a dancer, perhaps that’s why—”

Jackie kicked me under the table, and I amended what I was going to say.

“Perhaps she saw a faster way to pay for her Cordon Bleu tuition.”

“You could have paid her better,” Eleanor said, looking down her nose at me.

“You could have paid her tuition.” I circled my beer around, indicating the house.

Eleanor deflated. “I should have. But she’s always been so unfocused. I thought if I made her earn her tuition, she would appreciate it more. I never thought she would sell her body, though.” She gave a bitter laugh. “After all I’ve done to give her the life I never had.”

“Are you sure that’s what she’s doing?” Jackie said. “Maybe she just told you that to make you feel guilty or upset enough so that you would offer to pay the tuition.”

I hid a snort. “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt,” I muttered and moved away before I could get another kick. I got beat up less at Dalton’s on frat night.

Eleanor grabbed onto that like it was a lifeline. “You think so?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie said. “I’m just looking for my sister. Did Dee ever mention her?”

“No. She didn’t talk about work a lot. She hated her boss.” Eleanor flicked me a look. “Not you, the chef.”

“Is that why you told him you haven’t seen her in two days?”

Eleanor made a face. “I wasn’t about to tell him that she quit to become a hooker. I still have hope that I can talk her out of this mess and get her back into the kitchen. I just doubt it will be yours after what he put her through.”

“Liu can be a diva,” I admitted. He also didn’t suffer fools and ruled the kitchen like a medieval fiefdom.

Dee wasn’t completely incompetent, but she didn’t move as fast as Liu liked.

I hadn’t thought there was that much friction between the two, but maybe I didn’t see it because I didn’t want to.

“Dee should have come to me if there was a problem,” I grumbled, mostly because I was feeling guilty.

“She didn’t hate her job and, aside from Liu, she liked the people she worked with.

They would go out and party after work. I’d catch her coming in at all hours of the morning.

It’s possible that she knew your sister.

” Eleanor took a long pull of her lemon shandy and slipped the gauzy coverup completely off so she sat there in her bathing suit.

It was obvious now that it wasn’t her first drink of the day as she tried to catch my eye.

“I hope she didn’t lead Lisa down this path. ”

“You said she didn’t talk about work, but you recognized the name of one of my waiters, Zeke. What’s the story with him?” I asked.

“She went out with him a few times. I didn’t like him, but she seemed to have a good time with him. He called the house if she didn’t pick up her phone.” Eleanor rolled her eyes. “I had to have a good talking to him about boundaries and he wised up after that.”

“Did Dee ever mention someone threatening her at work?” Jackie asked.

Eleanor frowned. “Not that she told me, but there are bad elements that hang around clubs like yours.”

I clenched my jaw. “Not my bar.”

She shrugged with one shoulder and patted her turban delicately. “I’m familiar with the area.”

“Not lately.”

Jackie missed with her kick this time too. I was going to spank her ass red if she didn’t stop it. I tried to put that into a glare, but she wasn’t looking at me.

“Would you ask her about that the next time she calls?” Jackie asked. “And ask if she’s seen Lisa?”

“I’ll call her right now,” Eleanor said and pulled the latest iPhone out of the pocket of her coverup.

It had sparkles and glitter all over it.

I had to look away before I was blinded.

“Hello, darling,” she said into the phone after a moment.

“Your boss, Miles, came to see me. He’s offering to hire you back at double your salary. ”

I choked on my beer. What the fuck?

“I’m sure something could be done about Liu.”

There was a long pause while Eleanor listened. At least Dee was answering her mother’s calls, which was more than I could say for Lisa.

“I didn’t raise you like this, Deidre Marie Jones.”

Jackie raised her eyebrows at me. “She got the full name treatment. That’s how you know it’s serious.”

I kicked her in the shin.

“Ow,” she said, rubbing it.

“How do you like it?”

She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Keep it up,” I warned her in a low voice.

“I don’t care how much you make a night!” Eleanor shrieked, banging her palm on the table so hard the glasses jumped. “I don’t want to know anything about it. I just want you to come home. I’ll pay for Cordon Bleu. You won’t have to go back to that nasty bar.”

“Hey,” I said warningly.

“Dalton’s is a really nice place,” Jackie said.

I gawked at her in surprise. I hadn’t expected her to defend my club.

Eleanor listened intently to what her daughter was saying and then she gave a huge sigh. “You need to leave.”

“Ask her about Lisa,” Jackie hissed.

“Right.” Eleanor closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “Have you seen any of your coworkers while you’ve been there? Zeke or Lisa?”

“She might know her as Broadway,” Jackie reminded her.

“Lisa or a Broadway. You have?” Eleanor nodded at Jackie.

Jackie clutched my arm. “Is she okay?”

“Is she all right?” Eleanor repeated into the phone. She listened for a minute and then nodded at Jackie.