A/N: Just to let you all know, I'm contemplating holding off on posting the following chapters until the site sorts out the issues with the stats. I know a couple of you have favourited and followed this fic, so I hope that means you're still reading and that's why I've carried on posting new chapters, but it is tricky to work out when the site insists you've had no readers at all. If I do have a break it'll also give me a bit more time to work on my Nano fic, which may possibly be a sequel to this story, so I really hope someone out there does enjoy this one or I'll have wasted this month!

Anyway, for anyone who is reading this story, either as I'm posting or at a later date, here's the next chapter.

*.*.*.

Chapter 7 – Truth

*.*.*.

Phryne stormed into the bar and poured herself a stiff drink. She didn't know what she had been expecting Jack to say really, she had just been keen for a repeat of last night and was completely unused to having her advances turned down. That was the trouble with good men, she decided, they never wanted women like her.

"Where the hell have you been?" Madam Lyon snapped at her as she entered the club's bar and saw Phryne standing there.

"Out."

"All night and half the day?"

"You don't own me."

"Don't I, now?"

Phryne supposed she did in a sense. She had taken her in, a grubby girl from the gutter and turned her into a glamorous woman who could at least pass as respectable for a while. She'd given her a home and food and never forced her to sleep with men she didn't want to.

Phryne fumbled in her pocket and brought out a watch. She hadn't wanted to take it but Jack was not her normal sort of man. Yes, he seemed far too honourable to hurt or blackmail her but she couldn't be certain of that, not completely. His honour might force him to confess what they'd done and then arrest her for all the things he knew she was guilty of.

So for her own security she had swiped his watch, just for now. If he proved himself as honourable as she thought he was, she would have returned it to him in time. She certainly wasn't going to hand it in at the club but she knew she owed Madam Lyon something for going missing and working with Jack behind her back.

"Copper's watch."

"Which copper?"

"That one trying to find Lavinia's killer."

Madam Lyon put her hands on her hips. "Did you hurt him?"

"What? No!" Phryne exclaimed, before adding with her usual blunt humour, "I don't think he's into that sort of thing."

"Peony, last I knew he got thrown out of here because you were screaming at him, now you're sleeping with him? After what happened to Lavinia? Are you insane?"

Phryne glanced down at the watch. Jack asked her a very similar question, one she had never really considered herself, in fact she had never once really considered the possibility of someone being able to kill her, not since that day she'd left home at least. Jack was too good for this. "No, I'm not sleeping with him. I tracked him down, had a word about his behaviour and we came to an agreement. I said we'd let him back in while working on Lavinia's murder if he was good. I took this as reassurance."

"If he's not a customer, then…"

"Then we can give it back. At the moment it's just our word against his anyway. He might behave if we can hold his watch to ransom."

"Fine," Madam Lyon replied with a sigh, knowing Phryne wasn't going to back down, and held out her hand. "I'll put it in the box."

Phryne kept hold of the watch. She decided that she couldn't trust Madam Lyon with Jack's reputation. She'd tell her it was there so she could earn a little extra trust and hopefully Madam Lyon would forget all about it before she looked and discovered that Phryne had never put it into the box in the first place. "It's not a problem, I'll do it."

"No. Give it to me."

"What's the matter?" Phryne asked. "Before you took Lavinia on you were happy to let me look after these things. What's changed?"

"Nothing but you vanished without a word last night."

"That's nothing new. It's not bothered you before."

"I've not had one of my girls murdered by a cop before."

"A cop's not going to hurt me, you know that."

"No, I don't."

"Yes you do," Phryne insisted, "or you wouldn't trust me with our security. So what's the real problem?"

Madam Lyon stared at her for a couple of seconds before giving in. "Look, I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry. It's the box. It's gone."

"Gone!" Phryne exclaimed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"What do you think I mean? Someone's stolen it." Madam Lyon leaned against the bar in despair.

"Under my nose?" Phryne almost growled in anger. "I mean, our noses…"

"Either way, you're right. I didn't want to worry you, I thought if I could get it back… how hard could it be? Only the girls knew about it."

"And only three of us had access to it," Phryne finished. "One of whom is dead. Do you think Lavinia …?"

Madam Lyon shook her head. "I try not to. But Father Blackburn got into her head. She was looking for redemption so maybe…"

Phryne sighed and looked back at Jack's watch, still in her hand. "I suppose the good news is that the cops don't have it."

"That your copper told you," Madam Lyon added with a sneer.

"True but he would have paid closer attention to his belongings if he knew about it, that's for certain."

Madam Lyon looked so despondent. Phryne tried to be positive. "So, we start a new box. What's the problem?"

"The problem is it's out there, Peony. All our secrets. You know the only thing to save us from these raids was Commissioner Hall's badge. Who has it now, eh? What happens the next time the police visit? Oh, this one right now is only interested in Lavinia's murder, I know. He's just one man, he's no bother. But what happens when he's locked someone up and declares the murder solved? When his wife wants a bigger house? Well, he knows this place now, doesn't he? Knows how we work. Knows to send his heavies in to get you first. We're sitting ducks without that box."

Phryne didn't think Jack would do that but then Madam Lyon wasn't wrong either. Wasn't Jack duty bound to do that?

"You should have told me the moment it vanished. I could have got it back. I will get it back."

"It's too late."

Phryne shook her head. "Never. It's never too late, we're all proof of that here. Society turned its back on all of us women a long time ago and look at us, we're thriving. I will get our box back and I will make whoever stole it truly sorry they ever set foot in this establishment."

*.*.*.

Phryne left Madam Lyon to set up for the night and went up to the safe room the box had lived in. Phryne searched the room, knowing that Madam Lyon wouldn't lie about such a thing but also not quite believing it either. She found nothing. It had gone.

Why hadn't Madam Lyon told her? Phryne had thought they were a team. She'd never been bothered by her interest in training up Lavinia, maybe she should have been. Had she been planning on kicking Phryne out? True enough other than Madam Lyon, Phryne was the oldest there. Most women only stayed until they hooked a rich husband. Oh, one or two found other jobs and sadly a few died of various ailments and rough customers. Phryne had no interest in marrying anyone, especially someone she'd meet in her current line of work. She hadn't really planned on going anywhere. She had a little money put to one side. Maybe if she had enough one day she might try investing it or buying a house, however mostly she just spent it on clothes, her true vice.

There were no clues as to what had happened to the box that Phryne could fine. Either Madam Lyon had thoughtlessly tidied any evidence up or the thief was very good. Phryne had to assume it had been Lavinia. Had she taken the box to someone who'd killed her to keep her quiet and then framed Sanderson for it? Phryne considered it possible.

She was still in the clothes she'd worn to track down Jack in last night, so with a resigned sigh she locked up and made her way to her own room. She hadn't put Jack's watch in there with what she assumed was Madam Lyon's feeble attempt at a new box. Phryne suddenly found herself trusting the detective a lot more than her business associate.

She heard a noise from one of the dressing rooms as she walked by on her to her room. Curious, Phryne quietly opened the door, and then fully opened it a lot more loudly when she realised what she had stumbled upon.

Burke, their doorman, swore as he stepped away from his companion and pulled up his trousers. From her prone position across the dressing table, Lola stood and straightened her skirts.

The rule of the club was no fraternising between staff. Phryne herself had broken this rule whenever Madam Lyon had hired some particularly attractive young man but it was there for a reason. Many men had applied for jobs at the club thinking they could get free sex from the women whenever they wanted it, and some got really mean when that didn't happen. So it was supposed to be completely off the table, both literally and figuratively.

"Miss Peony…I can explain," Lola begged

Phryne raised an eyebrow, trying not to stare at Burke's arms. Burke's tattooed arms. His sleeves were rolled up just enough that she could see the start of a scratch on one of them and the tip of a bandage peak out of the other. From everything Jack had told her, this was the man who had killed Lavinia.

Phryne's fingers itched to grab her gun and shoot him there and avenge Lavinia. He hadn't worked with them long. He'd come to Madam Lyon with a sob story about his brother being killed and needing more money than he'd been earning on the docks without his income to help pay the rent. He was fairly quiet and solitary but he kept trouble away, or so Phryne had thought.

"We're going to get married," Lola finished after a pause, completely unaware of what she was now in the middle of and the thoughts racing through Phryne's mind.

"That we are, Miss," Burke agreed. "This ain't just…"

She could kill him now or fire him on the spot but there was so much still unanswered. Clearly he wasn't planning on splitting just yet; there was more for him to do here which meant Lavinia's death hadn't been the end, just the beginning.

"Get out of here, Lola," Phryne ordered. "I won't let you lose your job for this."

Lola nodded and thanked Phryne furiously before running off. Leaving Phryne alone with her murderer.

Burke watched Lola leave, almost seeming relieved. For a second Phryne considered the possibility that his intentions to Lola were honourable. She was one of their newer girls, very pretty and very well liked by the customers. Phryne had seen a ruthlessness in her that she hadn't quite liked, so that Lola would settle for marrying the doorman rather than a rich businessman or taking over the club surprised her.

"Thank you, Miss Peony. I–"

"I said Lola wasn't going to lose her job," Phryne snapped at him. "Nothing about yours."

"I know she can do much better than me, Miss, but I've got some money. I inherited a bit from my brother, some I've saved up from working here and my other job–"

"What other job?"

Burke's face blanched then as he realised he'd said a little too much. "Oh, erm, just a little…"

"I don't recall you letting us know you had other employment." Phryne folded her arms and glared at him.

Burke swallowed. "No, well, er, job's maybe over stating it a bit. My old boss, from the docks, he had a couple of odd jobs, it was just a bit of money on the side…"

Phryne let him tail off under her glare this time. She wondered if the job was to kill Lavinia and steal the box. That would mean that someone else knew about it. It would mean that while Burke was the killer she'd been looking for, that there was something deeper going on here. A bigger villain for her to find.

As the women's protector she should kill him, or at least hurt him on his way to the cops. As a businesswoman she should fire him for breaking multiple rules of employment. Unfortunately, Phryne needed him alive, here, and not realising she knew what she did until she could find out about the man he was working for.

"I need to think about this," was her measured response. "If it was just sleeping with Lola, I could overlook that. There's a reason we ask that you have no other jobs, we have to know that your loyalty is to us. I need to know that."

Burke's face changed and he took a step towards her. Of course, he'd already killed one woman; he probably thought killing her would be just as easy. "Look, Miss Peony, I know what they say about you but–"

With one swift movement Phryne kicked out at him, knocking him to the floor. She pinned his arms behind him and kneeled on his back while he groaned in pain. She let him see the knife she held close to his throat.

"Don't misunderstand this situation, Burke," she threatened. "If it comes to you against me, I'll win."

Burke let out another cry of pain. She could, now, expose the cuts on his arms and ask where he got them but she already knew she needed him to think she hadn't worked it out. She pressed more weight into his back. She couldn't let him think he could threaten her, though.

"Do you understand me, Burke?"

"Yes, Miss," he spluttered in pain. "I wasn't gonna… I didn't mean…"

She stood up, dusted herself off, and then helped Burke onto his feet as if neither one had just thought about killing the other. "You said these were odd jobs, Burke. Can I assume that we have your full loyalty now?"

Burke looked like a petulant child. "Yes, Miss Peony."

"Who was it you worked for at the docks?" she asked, she hoped innocently.

"Why do you want to know?"

Phryne shrugged as if it didn't really matter. "Just to keep an eye out. If they come to the club hoping to solicit your help for another job…"

"Oh, er, a company. An importing company. SWF Imports it was."

Phryne hadn't really expected him to give her a name at all, she just decided she had nothing to lose by asking and besides, she was of sorts an employer concerned about her staff moonlighting. Him giving her the company name was more than she could have hoped for. She nodded. "Thank you, Burke."

He quickly opened the door, wanting to get away from her. "Oh and, er, about me and Lola…"

Phryne rolled her eyes. Love turned all men into fools. "Keep it in your pants while you're on the premises, Burke. What you do in your own home in your own time is none of my business. But if you hurt any of my girls…"

The knife was still in her hand and she simply twirled it between her fingers.

"Nah, nah, nah," he replied nervously, watching the blade. "I'd never hurt Lola."

Interesting, she thought. Phryne nodded and he ran away.

TBC...