In which we hear one version of events...
After Axel was safely deposited in the service closet and the door locked, Sean rubbed his temples.
"I guess our next step is to talk to the dancers at the burlesque club, huh?" Nick, Bud, and Hank nodded in agreement.
"I can give the girl in yellow her boa back, at any rate," Hank muttered as they made their way back to the suite. Bud's stomach rumbled loudly.
"Do you think we can grab something to eat?" the Eisbiber asked meekly. "After all, it's almost 11..." Nick stopped at the door.
"This just isn't right... Monroe is usually awake around 6... do you think he might have gotten arrested? Or he's in a holding cell? I don't know if he knows any of our numbers off the top of his head..." Nick had tried to remain calm for the sake of his compatriots, but this was all getting to be a bit much. Sean laid a reassuring hand on Nick's shoulder.
"After we go visit the burlesque dancers, we can check the detention center; I've heard that with the volume of people who get in trouble around here, it could take hours for him to be booked, so he could still be in a holding cell without access to a phone..." Sean sighed, "At least if he's at the detention center, he's safe. If Eric has him, I don't know what we'll do..."
"Well, Axel didn't sound like he knew what was going on..." Hank began, pocketing the fluffy yellow strand of feathers, "What's his relationship to your brother, anyway?"
"Axel is, for lack of a better explanation, is Eric's chauffeur. They have always been good friends, since we were children, and Axel's always been a bit of a bully... only seems natural he joined the Verrat..." Sean groaned. "And his family is very adamant about upholding the purity laws, so if he finds out Monroe's marrying outside his species..." He shuddered and pulled out his phone. The other men instinctively did the same. "On the bright side, no angry or panicked calls from Rosalee yet, so we are still in our grace period. Let's hope it stays that way."
"Yeah, as stressed as she's been, this is the last thing she needs," Bud agreed. "I hope she's having fun,at any rate..."
XxXxX
Half an hour later, the men made their way into the X Burlesque Theater at the Flamingo. Some of the girls were already on stage warming up. A pair of twin blondes looked up, smiled, and waved.
"Hi, Bud!" they called together in a sing-song voice. However, when they saw Nick, their expressions changed and they both woged Spinnetod before turning and running quickly backstage. Bud looked terrified.
"Oh my God, Spinnetod? Really? I'm lucky I'm not dead!" A tall Asian woman came down from the stage.
"Hi, Hank," she said curtly. Hank pulled the boa out of his pocket.
"Um, hi, uh..."
"Destiny," she snapped as she all but yanked the boa out of his hand.
"Oh, sorry, Destiny... umm, listen, we need to ask a few questions..." she rolled her almond-shaped eyes.
"Let me guess: you don't remember last night, do you?" The men all nodded and she sighed, her head falling back, long black hair cascading off her shoulders.
"Ummm, yeah. Can we talk to those two blonde twins, too?" Sean asked, pointing toward where they disappeared.
"Lexus and Mercedes? I guess so. Aren't you guy going to flash your badges?"
"How did you know we were cops?" Nick asked. Destiny again rolled her eyes.
"You told us last night. Multiple times. You guys party pretty hard when you're off duty. Don't worry, though, we won't give you any trouble. I'll go get the twins..." she pranced lightly up to the curtain and disappeared behind it. She poked her head out a moment later.
"They don't want to talk to him," she pointed at Nick, "but they'll talk to Bud." Bud went pale, and he turned to Sean.
"Please come with me?" he whispered, clearly terrified. Sean nodded and followed Bud up the steps onto the stage as Destiny came back down to Nick and Hank. She regarded them coolly.
"Before we begin, Casanova, I do want to point out it's very poor form to work that hard to get a girl to agree to sleep with you only to fall asleep as you're taking your clothes off." Hank winced.
"Duly noted. How often do you go back with customers?"
"It isn't a habit, but Lexus and Mercedes were quite taken with Bud... And your friend Monroe is quite the charmer... Herculean alcohol tolerance, that one; I've never seen a man pack away that much booze! And you kept egging him on... You kept telling me he was a real beast." Hank froze.
"Oh, did I?" he chuckled nervously.
"So what happened?" Nick asked.
"Monroe kept talking about the hula hoop girl in the Zumanity show, calling her Rosalee; her name is actually Babs, she's a friend of mine. So I called her up, and she meets us to watch the fountains. She brings Bridget and Sylvia, the girls who do the water bowl act, and we watch the fountain show. Monroe's hanging on Babs and, honestly, I think Babs was looking to score. She likes big guys..." Nick and Hank shared a look. Destiny sighed. "Big like tall... Although we did find out later he was definitely packing... what's your name, again?"
"Me? Nick. Nick Burkhardt."
"Anyway, we get up to the suite, and Nick puts some music on while Hank raids the bar. Monroe is talking to Babs on the couch with his arm around her, and she's into it. It's a pretty good party, Bud's pulling people in from the hallway to join, lots of love going around... Then this group of girls come in, dressed like they're going to a rave, most of them are drunk as hell. Monroe apparently recognizes this one chick, and he leaves Babs to go flirt with her. I couldn't hear over the music, but he introduced her to Babs as Darcy or something? Anyway, Babs gets mad at her for poaching her game, so she takes a swing at this bitch... I shit you not, though, this Darcy girl could fight, and had her pinned to the ground. Monroe pulls her off and she lets Babs up. Babs leaves, and Darcy picks up where Babs left off, flirting and chatting..."
"Can you describe her?"
"Umm, didn't real get a good look at her... She was wearing a bright pink wig. Like, highlighter pink. Came in with girls wearing blue, green, red, and yellow wigs. All were wearing mesh shirts and fishnets, chunky heels and black skirts. The girl in blue seemed to be the leader, and she was wasted.
"Then Bud pulls this one guy in, and he's got a bottle of absinthe..."
"Isn't absinthe illegal?" Hank asked.
"The ban was lifted in 2007, but manufacturers can't advertise it as absinthe or advertise it's hallucinogenic properties. You know, no green fairies or anything like that." Nick and Hank stared at the girl, and she lowered her voice. "I'm studying criminal law with a specialization in narcotics. This is just me paying the bills."
"Oh. Well, thank you for that. Please, continue."
"So this guy is carrying this absinthe and when your buddy who is with Bud over there saw him, he flipped shit. You were all really sweet, affectionate drunks, but he yelled something that sounded like 'Not my grim!' and laid him out with one punch. However, a bunch of people in the party freaked out and there was a stampede, so whatever it means to be his grim, a bunch of people were scared shitless. He went through the guy's pockets and when he stood back up, you," she pointed at Nick, "grabbed him and kissed him like there was no tomorrow. It was actually pretty hot."
"What did the guy look like?"
"Kind of like a young Mick Jagger? A little bit?" Nick looked at Hank.
"Eric."
"Oops. Anyway, then what happened?"
"Hank puts the bottle of absinthe up on the bar, and he and Monroe and Darcy tie the guy up in Darcy's fishnets and you guys take him into the hallway. You were gone for a while, so I prepared absinthe shots for everyone who was left. Hank, Monroe, and Darcy come back laughing and you two guys stop making out long enough for everybody to take their absinthe shot. You guys all seemed to recognize Darcy, like you knew her." Nick gets a sinking feeling in his stomach as she continues. "Darcy and Monroe start making out in the corner, but Hank decides Monroe needs to be in the center of the party, so he pushes Monroe down in this chair. Then she pretty much gave him a lap dance."
"Really?"
"Oh, yeah. She was by no means a professional, but he was into it. He had his hands all over her. So he gets up and all but drags her toward the bedroom when Hank stops them again and tells them they should get married. Like, right that second."
"I did fucking WHAT?" Hank asked, a look of sheer, unadulterated panic on his face.
"You even polled the people at the party and the overwhelming majority said they should get married."
"Oh, shit..." Nick groaned.
"Then the girl with the blue hair threw up all over the chair. The rest of the highlighter wigs took her home, and Bud and Hank volunteered to stay and clean up while you and the guy you were making out with would escort Monroe and Darcy to a chapel."
"What did you do?"
"I was still intent on showing Hank a good time at some point. We washed the chair in the shower, and I guess we thought it would be funny to hang it up to dry. There were still some other people there, and we hung it up on the chandelier."
"Okay, that explains that..."
"You come back from the chapel, and Monroe and Darcy make for the bedroom. Everybody's pretty messed up, so I guess it took a while to figure out what they had in mind. Hank says something about not liking to hear other people having sex, so you guys break the door down. Like, pull it off the hinges. Monroe's pants are on the floor, he's on top of her, and you guys literally pull him off her and he rips the covers. And then she flips out. Like, screaming, calling you all sorts of names. Especially you." She poked Nick in the chest. And he's standing there, half-naked, watching her yell like it's the sexiest thing he's ever seen. She picks his pants off the floor, he puts them back on, and they leave."
"Did they say where they were going?"
"No, but Monroe said he'd call you."
"Then what happened?"
"Bud slipped in a puddle of vomit; he told the twins goodnight and went to take a bath. You," again pointing at Nick, "and the other guy start making out again, and go off to the bedroom. Hank and I crawl into bed, and I'm putting on a private show for him when he passed out. So I left..."
"Fuuuuuuuck." Hank moaned. Nick put his face in his hands.
"Oh, son of a bitch..." A look of genuine concern came over Destiny's features.
"Monroe... He never came back, did he?" Hank swallowed hard.
"No."
"Oh no! I hope you find him!"
"We're trying. Thank you for your time, Destiny. We appreciate you helping us out." She smiled sadly.
"Were you guys here for a birthday?"
"Bachelor party," Hank mumbled. Destiny's jaw dropped.
"Please don't say it's Monroe's." They nodded and Destiny covered her mouth.
"Oh my GOD! Did you call his fiancée?"
"Trying to avoid that... Do you remember what chapel we went to?" She shook her head.
"Sorry, honey..." At that moment, Bud and Sean came down the steps. Both looked a little ill.
"Thanks again, Destiny, and I'm sorry," Hank began. Destiny looked around and leaned in to them, speaking quietly.
"It's actually Rita. Rita Matapang. If you go to check out the Detention Center, ask for Joey Villarreal. Tell him I sent you. He'll help you..." The look of concern had turned to pity. "I hope you guys find him and I hope you can get that marriage annulled... Oh, good luck!"
"Thanks," all four men said in miserable unison as they made their way out the door.