Another one up! Hope you enjoy and thanks!
C.J. just looked at him as he sat her, one of the deputies that had shown up at the bar that night to arrest her and Rhonda for allegedly soliciting as they called it. Just an excuse to round up two innocent women and cart them off to the detention center to add to the stable of prostitutes to be exploited by this arm of the justice system.
This deputy in particular, Chad, had forced her and Rhonda into the police van as soon as they realized that the street in front of the bar had been deserted. Both women were unable to scream and if they had, who would have heard it and come to help them?
No one, because as soon as they saw the uniformed deputies and the marked van, they would have assumed that they were getting arrested because they had raised a fuss or done something illegal at the bar.
Even though more than a few people probably suspected that the bar itself had been involved in something criminal. There had after all, been whispers since the arrest of the bartender in connection with the prostitution ring.
Chad had been burly that night and incredibly strong, holding onto the struggling Rhonda as if she were nothing but a featherweight. He looked as burly now out of uniform dressed in faded jeans and a tee-shirt advertising what looked like a strip joint on it.
Nice.
He gestured for her to sit down across from him in the empty room and offered to buy her a drink.
"No thanks," she said, brusquely, wanting to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.
He smiled, clearly realizing her discomfort.
"I assume you know about Paul's murder," he said, "It's all over the news. Some crazy woman stuck a knife into him and then split."
She just watched him.
"I assume that's not what you wanted to tell me."
"No, you're right Bunny, that's not what I wanted to tell you," he said, "It's about the day of the fire."
The one that she still didn't know who set it except that it might have been purposed to cover up Piser's murder not to mention a few other crimes that had been committed by several key players in politics.
After all, the now dead guy must have kept some of the incriminating information at his house, to protect himself in case anyone he worked with suddenly turned against him.
"What about it," she said, "A lot happened that day, could you be more specific?"
"Someone knocked off Piser pretty effectively," Chad said, "Not you though."
She frowned at him.
"You must know that I'm the number one suspect…"
"But it was someone from inside the operation who pulled the trigger."
C.J. had figured that much but the authorities really didn't appear to be interested in exploring that angle of the crime, just in hunting her down.
"You know after that party," he said, "I was going to kill you."
She looked up at him suddenly.
"It's true," he said, "They could never afford to keep a high profile person like you alive."
"You mean they knew who I was?"
He nodded.
"Some guy with an accent and looking like he came from money got on the airwaves and showed a picture of you, said you were missing and offered a reward."
That must have been Matt.
"Said you were some fancy lawyer that worked in L.A. and that he was a private investigator," Chad said, "Butz got wind of that and nearly flipped. That's why they drugged you."
"Why didn't they kill me then?"
Chad smirked.
"Because Piser saw you at the jail and wanted to get his hand on you so badly…and what he wants, he gets."
"He tried to kill me too," she said, "I didn't want his hands on me."
He chuckled.
"Oh come on…a woman like you…I imagine that you've seen all kinds of action in a city like L.A."
She ignored the innuendo.
"Whose idea was it to take the photos?"
"What photos?"
"Of the politicians, you know the well heeled ones with the women sitting on their laps by the swimming pool," she said.
He hedged.
"I'm talking about blackmail here…someone was threatening to expose the politicians who attended these parties at the ranch."
"I…I don't know anything about that," he said, "My job was to transport the women, keep them in line to make the boys happy…"
"And if we didn't, you killed us and buried us out in the desert."
"Only because we were ordered to do so…to prevent the others from trying to escape."
She took a deep breath.
"So I was going to make Piser happy before being killed by you and cast aside like roadkill?"
He nodded.
"Something like that," he said, "Like I said, with your connections, they couldn't afford to let you live."
She leaned closer to him.
"How many of us did you kill?"
The deputies had left and Matt sat alone finishing his food while the waitress came to clear the table. He knew she was Tabitha from reading her name tag but she had seemed wary of him. Maybe the women in town were suspicious of any men, not surprising considering the events that were unfolding in their sleepy berg.
"You finished here?"
He looked up at her and nodded so she took his plate.
"If I could have another iced tea that would be nice."
Her mouth quirked up into a smile.
"Why aren't you hitting the harder stuff like everyone else," she asked.
"This place seems pretty dry."
She made a face.
"The alcohol license is being restricted on account of my boss's arrest," she said, "Because the state agency believes that a crime was committed here."
"So all the usual drinking crowd goes elsewhere?"
"One of the two other bars," she said, "I'm kind of glad that they're gone actually. It got quite rowdy here at times."
"Your boss kidnapped at least two women," he said, "With the help of the sheriff."
"Never liked him," she said, "He seemed sleazy when he hung around. Always threatening to shut the place down if my boss didn't do what he wanted."
"Even engaging in kidnapping for the purpose of coercing women into prostitution?"
She shrugged.
"It wouldn't surprise me," she said, "I never saw too much of it myself but I heard stories."
"Did you ever try to tell someone?"
"No, in this town, a lot of people are telling stories about all kinds of crazy things," she said, "but in the past few days, they don't seem so crazy anymore."
"My best friend who works with me back in L.A. was kidnapped some weeks ago with another woman," he said, "She had a head injury from an accident and didn't even know her own name."
"Sounds awful couldn't have happened in a better place."
Matt sighed.
"It has been difficult for her," he said, "now that she's wanted for murdering a man who tried to hurt her."
"Did she…murder him?"
He shook his head.
"No…she just knocked him out to get away," he said, "then someone else came along and killed him."
The woman looked thoughtful suddenly.
"I hope they get to the bottom of this," she said, "Whatever has been happening in our town. I went to school with a girl who disappeared several years ago…after a party at the lake."
"Did they ever find her?"
"No…never...I know she's dead out there somewhere," she said, "she'd never just run away and worry everyone."
Matt stood up to pay his tab.
"What's the address of those bars?"
She told him before she handed him his change.
C.J. just stared at the deputy after he told her he didn't count the lives that he had taken. That they didn't matter because they had been told what they had to do and they had rebelled against that. It was their own fault.
"So who killed Piser," she asked.
He stood up suddenly.
"I've told you all that I'm going to," he said, "unless you do something to make it worth my while."
She stared at him in revulsion.
"Forget it."
"Oh come on," he said, "You were willing to show Piser a good time."
"I wasn't thinking…I was drugged."
And she had knocked him out cold to get away after he had put his hands around her throat.
"He disgusted me just like I do."
The man laughed.
"Coming from someone arrested for soliciting at a bar and recruited to be a common whore…"
She just looked at him wondering if he believed what he said. Maybe he did because he had to justify all the murders he had already committed.
But it didn't matter because he must have information that she needed. She thought quickly.
"Okay…I'll come to your place as soon as I freshen up," she said, "but if you're going to set me up, I'll know and you heard about what happened in the parking lot."
He swallowed noisily.
"I thought that was you."
She moved over to where he sat and put her arms around his neck forcing back the bile in her throat as he took her onto his lap.
"Why that's much much better," he said, "I can make it worth your while if you make it mine."
She forced a smile on her face.
"Okay but I just need a little time to…you know," she said, sliding off of his lap.
He jotted his address on a paper and she slipped it into her pocket.
She left him then and went into the bathroom to spice up her appearance a little not that she thought he would notice. But it bought her some time to think about what to do next. She had thought up this idea on the spot just to get inside his place to look for some evidence. Now she just needed to find a way to pull that off and keep his paws off of her at the same time.
Because after all, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that inside his place could be a copy of the mysterious surveillance video of Piser's murder. She most definitely wanted to find that, she thought, as she ran her fingers through her hair to fluff it out a bit. In her purse, she had rudimentary makeup so she used that to provide some color.
She would go into his place and find some excuse to get herself time alone to search it for any evidence including the tape if he had it. Now that sounded like a plan.
Matt walked down the alley to the first bar on the paper that Tabitha had handed to him. He hoped that by the time he arrived there any law enforcement officers coming off a work shift would have enough drinks in them to be helpful and perhaps a bit loose with the information.
He looked up ahead of him suddenly and saw a very attractive woman.