She enters the locker room, and makes a beeline for her station. She glances to her right, and finds Allie sitting next to her. Allie has long dark waves of hair.
"Cassie, you look exhausted."
"I don't think that I've slept in four days."
"Ghosts don't require much sleep," she jokes.
"That is easy for you to say. You don't have to try, and keep up with Q."
"How is that going, by the way?"
"He is about to be a dead man if he doesn't let me get some sleep."
"Are you excited to be headlining?"
"Not particularly."
"I don't blame you, it is a lot of responsibility."
"Who knows, maybe in a couple of months it can be you."
"I am just the new girl," she points out, "and I am not that good."
"I was the new girl not that long ago."
"Are you going somewhere?"
She shrugs, "According to Q the next order of business is marriage."
She grins, "He has really fallen hard for you."
"I haven't mentioned the other part."
"What other part?"
"He wants me to learn how to run the business, and provide him with heirs."
"Heirs? He wants you to procreate with him?"
"According to him the sooner, the better."
"You guys are moving awfully fast, don't you think?"
"Allie, you have no idea. He is insistent on 'putting a baby in me' by the end of the month."
"Casper, you know that he has six siblings, right?"
"He doesn't talk about them much," she admits.
"There are two sets of twins, they run in his family."
"What have I gotten myself into?"
"I keep asking myself the same thing," she admits.
"Allie, how did you end up here?"
"The bank roll. I ran into some debt, and so I came here. How much are you making a night?"
"Commission from the door, plus tips."
"Which equals what?"
"Fifteen to twenty k a night."
"That's not a bad night. I am sure that I couldn't live up to that. Until I came here, I hadn't danced before."
"You caught on really quickly though."
"I guess."
"Allie what did you do before your move to Chicago?"
"I was a cop."
"How do you go from cop to stripper?"
"It is a long story. I will fill you in sometime."
"It better be soon, I may not be around much longer."
"Cassie, be careful around Q. He has been known to use and abuse the women in his life, among other things."
"What do you mean?"
"His last beau disappeared, and was never found."
"I had no idea."
"Rumor has it she was having his baby."
Casper swallows hard, "I didn't know that. I knew the girls said that she disappeared, but they never mentioned that."
"There is a lot of talk."
"These girls do know how to talk."
"Sabrina said that Amelia threatened to leave him."
"Why?"
"She found out that they were having a girl, and he didn't react very well. He thought that his firstborn should be a son. I guess what I'm saying is, just be careful."
A look of terror washes across her face, "Tell me more."
"He coerced her into getting pregnant, too. From what I hear, she was reluctant to have a baby with him."
"How did he coerce her?"
"You know that he is a piece of work. He had unprotected sex with her and then wouldn't let her out of his sight. He was afraid she would take the morning after pill. He stayed on her like white on rice until the stick turned pink. He knew that once she was pregnant she would have the baby. It was just the kind of person that she was."
"How do you know all of this? I have been here longer than you have."
"Because he had you picked out from the moment you auditioned. He tries to isolate his girl from everyone else, so that they don't really know what's going on."
"What should I do?"
"Do you want to be with him?"
"I'm scared," Casper admits.
"I suggest that you jump on the next flight out of here. Change your name, change your appearance, and put all of this behind you. If you don't leave he won't stop until he gets what he wants."
"I've seen his temper."
"Nothing gets in the way of his business."
"The club, or the illegal one?"
"Both. If you want out I will help you."
"I have to do the show tonight. If I leave he'll know."
"Meet me at my place after work."
"I'll try, but I don't know if I can," Caper admits.
"We'll figure this out," Allie vows.
"How do I know that you're not working undercover?"
"You don't," Allie responds with a grin.
Maura is in her pajamas when there is a knock on the door. She pulls the door open, and finds Frankie standing before her.
"What are you doing here?"
"I brought you a gift."
"It's late."
"Maura it's nine o'clock."
"I go to bed early, because I wake up by four."
"Can I come in?"
"Yes," she nods in agreement.
He follows her to the living room. They settle on the couch. He hands her a bag.
"What is it?"
"Something I found for the baby."
Maura reaches inside. She pulls out a pink sleeper, "I haven't found out what the baby is."
"I kept the receipt."
"Thank you."
"I talked to Suzie earlier."
"Did you find something out?"
"Yeah. Qamar Malone is suspected of being a drug kingpin, and murdering his pregnant fiancé."
"Did you find any connection?"
"I combed through every single detail of the case. There is absolutely no evidence to link Jane to him, his associates, or Chicago. Maura, I think that it's a dead end. The match book was probably there, and got overlooked. I would guess that a visitor dropped it into the couch at some point, without realizing. I'm sorry."
"It's okay."