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The building housing htclub took up its own small block Once in a while I had to remind myself that this was indeed my place So what if the bankroll had come from stolen mob money? I&039;d more than earned it, washed it clean, and was an honest, taxpaying citizen, or so my accountant assured me People treatedStuff like that hter to fill the role

A wreck when I found it, I&039;d turned a burned-out hulk into a palace Since opening last suh to put a down payment on the next structure over, which had been empty for years and likely to stay that way I had that knocked flat and paved into a ot frorumbled, on occasion, myself, but no ht I glided my Buick into its own specially reserved space So far, the satisfaction had yet to wear off It always put me in a cheerful mood no ht it was the sirl who tookat his post behind the lobby bar I s into the tall, wide space with its polishedchro the route to the er-than-life portrait of Lady Cry to smile mysteriously down at lesser urehead for the club, giving custoht shebehind a stage name There was no reason to disabuse theuessing On special occasions I hired a look-alike actress to put on a red dress identical to the one in the painting and le with the crowds Believers and those who knew better loved the gimmick

The second shoas nearly over; it would soon be tiisters and count the receipts When I first opened, I had an excellent general er to sort out those ih, and I&039;d still not found quite as competent a replacement One of the bartenders took on so supplies, another irl I kneas a genius at accounting caht Still, there was always a big stack of paperwork and decisions only I could see to, which often meant scarce free time to play host, my favorite part of the job

Real work could wait though; the band was into a hot nu voice I passed under the portrait, going into the red-velvet depths of the main room About a quarter of the tables were occupied-busy for this late on a weeknight-people were on the dance floor trying to keep up with the fast rhythm the drummer had set It seemed like business as usual and felt like home sweet home I couldn&039;t have pulled the smile off rin (no doubt on the sappy side) when I spotted Bobbi Se she wasn&039;t belting out the song onstage but directing the show Instead of a spectacular sparkly gown, she wore a plain dark suit so as not to detract froreat; in a potato sack she was a stunner It made no difference to me

Whatever clothes she wore never failed to inspire in et her out of the the singer and likely thinking of ways to i acts and directing to help out at the club&039;s grand opening and developed a real taste for it Once she got herself noticed enough by the right people, she had plans to sing and act in Hollywood, though She&039;d been brushing close to it for over a year noith her talent, it was only a matter of time

I tried never to think about that It lanced toward the doorway, spotted

The way the place was laid out, everyone could see newcon I&039;d purposely worked into the plan of the roo with their back to a wall, having a view of the door, so I obliged them The booths were set out on three levels in a wide horseshoe shape e area Plenty of walls to go around for everyone

I took stairs to the topmost level, which was e

"You&039;re feisty," she observed when she surfaced for air "Does that ood news?"

She knew all about the kidnap case "The best Over, done, happy ending" I had a bear hug left inin a circle while her heels dangled Shesound but no other protest

"Good, I was getting tired of that long face you kept ain, she drew me toward an empty booth "Gi in the back row as any other red-blooded guy, so

"Not that!" she fiercely whispered, squirer

"I know" I reluctantly turned back into a gentleain but couldn&039;t shake the smirk

"Tell ue "gi it short, light in tone, and er past and the pressure off, I even felt heroic about having rescued the maiden and captured the villains No one else would ever hear of -do, but it didn&039;t matter, not when Bobbi looked at me like I was Galahad and Tarzan rolled into one

"You should use that stuff for one of your stories," she suggested when I finished

I shrugged "Charles see saw a movie and stole the plot

It&039;s probably already been written into a book Just about everything else has"

She pattedmyself into a fiction writer but had so far failed to sell anything or work onout news copy when I&039;d been a reporter tappedthe club, and so on and so forth

One of these nights I&039;d get tired of hearing et back to wordsoing well?" I asked "Adelle&039;s in fine form"

"She&039;s always better for the second set, warets the measure of the crowd she plays &039;em like a banjo"

Adelle Taylor, one-time silent movie co across and then soreat voice and would have done hen the talkies ca hit in the kisser with pies There was also her looks Nothing wrong with them, she was a classic beauty and kept herself triood or bad, for a wo on the wall and skipped over to stage work, where lighting and makeup could take off the years, and to radio, which didn&039;t care how you looked I&039;d heard her play Juliet and Lady Macbeth equally well

She had a local following of adh Cryhts, leaving her free on weekends for radio work Then I advertised big The ploy seemed successful; new faces appeared at the tables, perhaps to becoulars When not sidetracked by Escott&039;s cases, I didas many as I could when they first caht into their eyes with a confident statement they would enjoy themselves had donehypnosis to plant the suggestion Not a lot, just a gentle nudge If custoood time, they&039;d return for more My conscience was only a little tarnished The only tiht an entertainment reporter came in to do a review I reat write-up in his paper All&039;s fair in love and liquor sales

The supernatural edge was probably why I had a decent house even on weeknights An astonishing nuo needed slot es in their back rooms to stay alive I could havetheir road but didn&039;t want the bother of cop raids during election years and payoffs the rest of the tihtcraas seated on the lowest tier of the horseshoe, closest to the stage You couldn&039;t miss Gordy Weeer-than-life scale He&039;d been squiring Adelle Taylor around town since su bad caught up with her last escort that took him out of her life She&039;d been bruised by the experience, but had apparently found in Gordy a bit more than just a one for her

Despite the fact he was one of the o&039;s mobs, he proved a reh, that he should be here, even to catch Adelle&039;s act He had his own place and a lot of other businesses to run; usually you couldn&039;t blast hihtcrawler He was always there Period His bodyguards were scattered at surrounding tables, so this wasn&039;t a spur-of-the-

"Who&039;s the guy with Gordy?" I asked

Bobbi barely looked at hih to reot was there "I don&039;t know Probably o Adelle sat with the nose-to-nose a lot The guy likes whiskey straight, and Gordy&039;s kept even with his usual"

Which was tonic water and a shot of lime Some kind of business was afoot, then He never drank when he worked, but why here instead of his own place?

Maybe he needed my special talents It wouldn&039;t be the first time I didn&039;t mind

His mob authoritythe usual protectionfavors but was also a friend I was always ready to lend him a hand and vice versa

"Guess I better find out if I&039;m supposed to be there"

"He&039;d have sent one of the boys for you then," she said with a nod toward the bodyguards "They would have seen you co in"

"True" If it concerned me, I&039;d be notified For noas more than content to relax in a booth with eneral?"

"Good business, about half a house We lost a feeen shows So The whole band remembered their instruments and showed up on time, even that drummer who&039;s usually late"

I sht it "Jack did you do anything?"

"I had a little talk with him" It left me with a headache afterward because the man was fond of drink, but soh the booze into his brain He seeht

"What kind of talk?"

"Just a recoo easy on the bottle and pay attention to his job so he could keep it"

"Must have been some kind of recommendation"

"Irresistible"

Her lids went to half-ht you weren&039;t going to risk ali stuff"

"You think he&039;s helping himself much?"

"No, but the road to hell and all that"

"It&039;s only teet himself sober and stay that ith my help, but unless he wants it on his own, it&039;ll eventually wear off I can&039;t change a person&039;s basic nature; that&039;s up to hi as you&039;re not too disappointed if he doesn&039;t go sailing through it"

I lifted a philosophical hand "No skin off es in the line of duty"

She quirked one corner of her luscious mouth "Ain&039;t that the truth and a half?"

I&039;d told her aboutwith the ransom suitcase

The band played on; Bobbi announced she had things to look after backstage and went off to track theister and send the dooro when the last custo cleaned up except for a dark red stain on the floor behind the bar

Nothing would ever clean that

Years ago when this place was a different kind of a hot spot for booze, it becarenade through the front door, and a lady bartender naht shrapnel in the throat She dropped in her tracks and bled to death The stain behind the current bar marked the spot where she&039;d fallen and died

My maintenance man had chiseled out and replaced the tiles several tiain in the saave up Vauinary presence in the club had changed my mind

"Any problems?" I asked the bartender, Wilton He was the only one in the joint willing to work the front alone Oddball things went on here, but he didn&039;ta pay envelope was host

"She keeps switching the vodka with the gin," he said, jerking his chin at the rows of bottles lining the thick glass shelves "Trying to be funny, I guess"

"Maybe that&039;s how she kept the them in place"

"I did She switched the else?"

"She sliced up soot busy, and when I went back, they were all ready in their bowl What gets irl It bother you?"

"Nah I kinda like the coh, okay?-but when no one&039;s out here, I talk to her sometimes"

"Makes sense to otten Myrna&039;s na woman who i with being an actress she was also psychic and rattled on about mystical type stuff in the sa about the weather She was used to dealing with ghosts and assumed others were the same Escott dated her for a while, but I don&039;t think he was too easy with that facet of her talents Hypocrite He could share his house with a vairl

"How are you, Myrna?" I asked

No response One of her favorite gags was to flicker the lights or turn them on and off, which is what I half-expected to happen

"She must be someplace else," said Wilton

We counted ave ht I wrote the nued the cash, and went upstairs to hts inside cairl," I said to the eht with this rooic to paperwork, but nice surroundings reduced the symptoms Bobbi had picked out a couple of the luxury touches like the heavy, light -blocking curtains and an extra-long sofa but hadn&039;t gone overboard with pillows and frills

Some club offices looked like a brothel parlor; I didn&039;t want that Besides, fancy stuff didn&039;t combine ith multiple locks and bolts on the steel door or the wire-lass of the s The rooiant safe because occasionally I&039;d sleep the day through on the sofa When the sun was up I was dead-or so close to it-and thus vulnerable In that state I need all the sanctuary I could afford

I shoved the uised to look like a drawer-front on my massive desk, locked up, and returned to theMyrna wouldn&039;ther last bow to applause She threw a se He was still busy with his friend, who didn&039;t appear too friendly now that I got a good look at him A wide man with a red face, pronounced jowls, and a bad haircut, his suit was on a level with his hair, the coat too narrow for his fraht across his shoulders

So on with them They both seeh sign to come over, his focus on the man

Fine with me; I could ask him later orroom The band had two more nu version of "Good Night, Sweetheart," which told the customers the place was about to close Soathering up to leave

I took the long away around to get backstage There were four dressing rooht, each side sharing its own small toilet and shower in between, an unheard-of luxury for the talent Bobbi had helped with the layout, insisting the expense would be worth it She had plenty of show biz kno and kneas needed, so I gave her a free hand Since the opening the artists had only wild praise about their accoot it: that if they were happy, they&039;d make the audience feel the same

Adelle had the celebrity room, a red-painted door no different froraved into a chrome star mounted at eye level A slot beneath had a card with her na

Come the weekend, someone else&039;s name would be in place, but for now she was queen of the show

Her door ide open, and I heard her inside, apparently with a guest "Oh, for crying out loud," she exclai pleased

Her back was toShe&039;d plastered herself to the body of a tall, strongly builthim like tomorrow didn&039;t matter He returned the favor with interest, his ar her butt

I kept going and hoped Gordy stayed the hell out front

The band finished their last nu e curtains I had a nod and shts, and see ya laters, all the ti over Adelle&039;s little love scene

I&039;m in favor of affection of ed it off, since this was none of h he was a good friend, I didn&039;t know hi around on hione, there was no chance the handso-lost relative, not unless Adelle caed family

I pressed the button that drew the curtains They rattled sh-hat expense, but otherwise I&039;d have had to pay some union man to do it manually Once they were shut, I slipped out front by way of the side stage stairs, crossing the dance floor All the custouards The gri