On the Streets for Alison

  Chapter Six

  We arrived at the sports bar around 3:30, which turned out to be okay because everyone from the lunch shift was still there. It was soon enough that we could talk to them all and then cover the other shift when they started.

  Mac was finishing up with the last of them when Toni came over and slid into the seat in front of me. I was in the last booth in the back. “Can you tell me more about what you two are getting into tonight? I am worried. I really like him and would hate for something to happen after just one date.”

  “As opposed to something happening after dating for a year?” Sometimes I can be just an ass.

  “Oh my god, no! I don’t want anything to happen at all.”

  “Sorry, sometimes I can’t turn off my filter. I take what people say to literal. Well, sweetheart, I will tell you I don’t want anything to happen to him either. We have been friends for a long time. If something happened to him I would have to invest time in finding another friend that can put up with my crap.”

  “Are you laughing at me? Because this should be a serious conversation, and it doesn’t seem to be one on your side,” she said seriously.

  “Toni, you don’t really know me or anything about what we are doing. So I will try and give you a little insight to our relationship.” I pointed to Mac while his back was still to me. “That man is my brother in more than one sense of the word. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep him out of harm’s way, but with saying that, I also need to say we are in a business that sometimes brings us in harm’s way. If I thought we couldn’t handle it, we would not do it. However, with what we do, there is no one I trust more to protect me and he knows I will do the same for him. Yes, I play sometimes, make jokes probably when I should not, but what we do is hard stressful work. We have to find laughter where we can, even if only to amuse ourselves.”

  She looked at me for a long second. Then she jumped up and sort of ran over to me and sat next to me, put her arms around me and squeezed my neck. “Okay, he told me basically the same thing, but I wanted to hear it from you. Thank you.”

  She started to run off, but I grabbed her wrist, “So last night, anything you want to tell me about?” I asked with a big grin.

  She looked around for a second then sat back in front of me. “Are you gay?”

  Now I looked around wondering if I missed something. “Well, that depends.”

  “On what?” she asked.

  “If I say yes, can we get naked and tell each other stories?” I asked.

  “That was the plan, yeah.”

  “Well then yesss…” I drew out the s as Mac sat down.

  He looked over at me, “What are you two up to?”

  She looked at him, “Raph was just telling me we could get naked and tell stories since he is gay. I told him we would.”

  Mac doesn’t miss a beat, “He’s right, we do it all the time. I mean we were naked in the same room just a couple of hours ago.”

  “That’s not entirely true.” I looked at Toni. “He took a shower, then later I took one.”

  “Oh well, then that means you’re not gay, so sorry.” She smiled at me, gave Mac a kiss on his cheek and jumped over him and ran over to the bar.

  “Wow, she has lots of energy. You have your hands full,” I said.

  “Yes, I know, and these are the only hands, she needs,” he said.

  “I know that, I was only playing.”

  “Yeah, you would have turned her down if she started getting naked.”

  “Well, who am I to stop someone’s way of life. Besides, I’m gay. She wouldn’t do anything for me.”

  Mac stood up. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Maybe you can get Sam to show you his works.”

  We walked over to the bar, I said to Toni. “I want to thank you for your help here. I don’t know what we got out of it yet, but I know you have been a great help. I hope to see you again soon.” I reached out to shake her hand.

  Looking over to Mac, “I’ll be in the truck.” He nodded. I sat in the truck for what felt like ten minutes but was probably closer to three before Mac came out.

  He sat in the truck, looked over at me as he started the truck. Took a deep breath and said, “Okay, let’s get you a naked girl fix.”

  “Oh my god, it was a joke. Leave it alone already,” I said.

  He turned to me, all teeth, put the truck in gear, and started driving.

  After a few minutes of being on the road, I asked. “So is everything okay with you two? I hope I didn’t make things shaky. She asked me some questions and I was kind of an ass.”

  “I know, she told me, but she explains it better. Says you were more upset that she would think you don’t care enough to have my back. Says you explained really well that the thought should not have entered her mind. I’m pretty sure it worked. I think she believes we’ll be okay now,” Mac said.

  “Yeah, I could have done a better job of not being an ass. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Man, don’t worry about it. She knows that we have been friends for a long time and now she knows that we will be there for each other. I think actually she used those words on purpose to get a reaction from you. Do you know what she is studying?”

  I thought about his statement for a few seconds, “Crap, I missed that. I would guess some kind of head work.”

  Mac nodded his head. “Psychiatry.”

  “That makes perfect sense, she seemed a little older than most students, but she seems to have her stuff together. How much longer until she is done?”

  “She’s in her third year of medical school at Emory.”

  “Sweet, so that puts her age at what, twenty-five?”

  “Twenty-six. She had a bad year and is paying for this on her own. That’s why she is working.”

  “Man, you are lucky she had time to go out with you. I have hardly heard of medical students going on dates,” I said.

  “Well, you are right, I am lucky, but mostly because she doesn’t have to study like most folks. She has an eidetic memory.” He gave me a smirk.

  “That can’t be good for you.”

  “Why not? She remembers what she reads. What does that have to do with me?”

  “Dude, she remembers everything, not just what she reads. Every little detail of every part of her day.” Mac looked over at me a little stunned. I nodded vigorously. “Yeah!”

  “Well, I can't let that get in the way.”

  “Certainly not, just something to keep in the back of your mind. You know, for every conversation you ever have.” I dragged out that last part.

  “You are not funny.”

  “Just not to you right now, but that’s okay. I think it’s funny.” Now I was grinning.

  “Yeah, you are an ass.”

  I chuckled a little. It was almost seven in the evening when we pulled into the parking lot of Wet Woody’s. Mac got all the info for the club; I had not even thought to ask. When I saw the name, I just shook my head. I said, “This should be fun.”

  “Maybe, if you go for this sort of thing.”

  “Yeah, there is that.” When we were in the service, it was always something to do with the guys, but we haven’t been since we left the Navy. Not something we were into, and since we were here on serious business, it would not be fun tonight either. Then I noticed what Mac was staring, at a large sign in the parking lot that read, “No weapons of any kind in the club.” We both just looked at it for a time. Then we reached for our guns and put them in the glove box, which doubled as a gun safe. Mac locked it and we got out of the truck. We got to the front door, which had a bouncer at it. I asked, “Freddy Monroe?”

  This guy was steroid filled if I have ever seen someone. Hugh and the glassy look of someone who wasn’t home. “Um, nope. You know Freddy?”

  “Yep, but only by name. Is he around?” I asked.

  “He’s inside, usually in the back at a booth.”

  Mac asked, “What about Marshall?”

  “I don’t
know about him, but Freddy should know.”

  “Thanks, Stegosaurus,” Mac said to him. “You know, Stegosaurus.” Mac puffed himself up and walked around like a stick man with his arms on his ribs.

  “Oh, you’re funny,” he chuckled.

  We started to walk inside. I heard Mac say, “Yeah, he’s just there for looks.”

  “You got that right. Probably couldn’t fight if you gave him instructions for a month,” I said.

  We stood in the doorway of a large bar, two stages that looked like runways, except for the dance pole down the middle of each. The mostly naked women dancing on them was another clue. There was another stage on the right that looked similar but with only one dance pole. For it being seven in the evening it was pretty crowded, but not yet as full as it probably will be later in the evening. Mac leaned in to yell in my ear, “Not bad for a Wednesday night.”

  “That can't be good for us.”

  “Probably not, but doesn’t matter now.”

  “Nope, it does not,” I said as I started walking to the back where there was a booth sort off to itself. There sat the guy in the picture James got us, but the picture was just a head shot. This guy was almost as big as Stegosaurus, but I guessed not as tall. The file said he was five-eight; I didn’t remember looking at his weight. Probably should remember to do that from now on. When we got to the table I leaned down, “Freddy?”

  “Who wants to know?” he asked, looking like he was not on the job. He didn’t have the same look on him. It was a look that was glassy, but from alcohol instead of stupid. I’d seen it before way too many times.

  I sat, “Great, had a feeling it was you. So you and the big guy outside go to the same gym or what?”

  “I never told you I was him?”

  I looked up at Mac, “You ever hear someone say ‘who wants to know’ and wasn't the guy?”

  Staring at Freddy very hard the whole time, “Not even in the movies.”

  “See what I mean,” I said back to Freddy. “Not even in the movies.”

  “Okay, you guys are hilarious. Now, do I know you, pal?” he looked up at Mac who was still staring at him. He did a double take at Mac. “Hey, this isn’t a gay bar if you can’t tell.” He gestured around the place. He looked back up a Mac and he hadn’t moved a millimeter that I could tell. Freddy looked at Mac again. “Hey, you got a problem you need me to fix for you, fella?”

  I slapped my hand on the table a little, “Freddy, I need you to stay with me a minute. Just ignore him for now, please; I need some answers. Is Marshall here?”

  “Marshall? What do you want with him?” Freddy was getting sloppy now. When he asked, he looked over my shoulder at the camera that was there. It was blacked out so you really couldn’t see it, but I have a habit of looking around for things like that since we started out putting in security systems for businesses.

  “That was the only other door I have seen,” Mac said as he nudged his head behind Freddy, but never taking his eye off him.

  “Okay, let’s go see Marshall then,” I said.

  “Okay, I’ve had enough of the crap you guys are dishing out. It’s time for you to leave.” Freddy stood up, Mac took a half step back to let him out but I was up before Freddy. Mac and I took him by an arm each, dragged him toward the door, and threw him at it. The door slammed open and he just laid on the floor holding it open.

  “See, the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” I said to Mac.

  He almost smiled. The door opened to a hall that turned left. There were two more doors, one on the left and another at the end of the hall. We got to the one on the left and waited a second to listen. Nothing. Mac opened the door. It was another hall, but now you could hear girls laughing. We looked at each other. I shook my head. He mouthed, “Come on.”

  “Later.” We moved out the door slowly and quietly. We got to the last door. I tried the knob. Locked. We went back and picked up Freddy. Dragged him and did the same thing again. The door flew open, there was a guy sitting behind the desk. His head came forward quickly as Freddy hit the ground. A nice looking blond-haired girl jumped out from under the desk. She was topless, with only a G-string on. “Honey, would you excuse us while we talk to Marshall for a while. I’m sure you have something else you could be doing besides the boss.”

  She turned to Marshall, “Mr. Jefferson?”

  “It’s alright, sweetie, we’ll finish later,” Marshall said while waving his hand at her. Then he zipped up.

  I stepped out of sweetie’s way, Mac put his hand out to help her step over Freddy.

  I looked back and Marshall still had his hand under the desk, I said. “I hope you are just finishing the zipper, we don’t want to have to throw Freddy here anymore. It might do permanent damage if we keep it up.” Mac was reaching down for him, he dragged him up and put him in a chair that was close by. Not one sound came from either of them. Marshall had his hands on the desk now. “You’ve done this before.” I pointed to his hands.

  “You guys, cops or what?” Marshall asked in a typical gangster tone.

  I looked at Mac, “No one has original ideas anymore,” he said.

  I put a picture in front of him of Alison Peterson. Looked for a reaction from him. He had been doing this a while, he gave us nothing. “You ever seen this girl before?”

  I sat, but Mac likes to stand and stare. If you ever were on the receiving end of the stare, you would see it is not the place you want to be. I’ve seen some interesting people freak out from that stare.

  “I don’t know this girl,” Marshall said. I thought I noticed a hint of a New York accent. I decided to hold on to that for a while.

  “Okay, but have you ever seen her is what I am asking you? Maybe if you would think about work more instead of getting some pretty girl you, um, employ to take care of you, you might have noticed on those screens behind me that we were busting our way in here with your man as a battering ram,” I said.

  Marshall sat up a little straighter, this time he glanced at the picture and looked at Mac and then to me. “I have never seen her before. You happy now? Who are you guys? What the hell do you want?”

  “Okay Mr. Jefferson, here is how it is. My name is Raphael Dawson and this is Connor MacClennen. We are private investigators. What is more important is that girl you have never seen is the sister of a good friend of ours. So far we know your unconscious friend over there was in the sports bar talking her up several times and now she is missing, and has been for a couple of weeks. We were asked to see what is going on. So far, we know about him talking her up, we know he works for you here. We know the FBI thinks this place is a front for sex trafficking. However, they can’t prove anything so you are a little better. I will tell you this, the FBI has been looking at you for six years and we have been on this case for a day and a half and we have caught up to them. Therefore, that gives you an idea of how good we are. Not saying they FBI isn’t good,” I lowered my voice. “They might be listening.” He looked around. “They are probably real good, but the difference is we are motivated. Now I am going to give you a day to think this over. We’ll be back tomorrow to see if something jogs your memory.” I stood up, turned around, and started for the door.

  Mac leaned down to get into his face. “If you can manage it, she should be here tomorrow, unharmed when we come back.”

  “Or what?” I hoped Mac would restrain himself. Nothing went well when stupid took over. He took a breath, stood up and started walking toward me, stopped at Freddy, who was just coming around and had his hands on the arm of the chair he was in. Mac punched one of his hands, you could hear bones cracking. Freddy let out a scream that was piercing. I was watching Marshall, he winced and turned a little green. Mac just kept walking out the door.

  “If I were you, I’d probably take him to the hospital. Pretty sure he will need help with that,” I said.

  Mac was already in the truck when I got to it, he was on the phone. I sat and asked. “Is that Toni?” He shook his head. I co
uldn’t tell whose voice it was but they were not happy.

  “I really don’t care, I told you that earlier today. You might want to catch him, but I need to find this girl now. She doesn’t have six years to wait. So you can either help us or shut up and stand on the sidelines.” Mac hung up his phone.

  “I’m guessing that was James, and he didn’t seem too happy,” I said.

  “It does not matter. He will probably be at the office in the morning,” Mac said.

  “Did he say that?”

  “Nope, but rest assured his boss was listening to us in there and he will send James to keep an eye on us,” Mac said.

  “You really think so? If that is the case, it will make it hard to do what we do.”

  “I am sure of it, but I will still do anything I feel needs to get done. I don’t really care who is watching or why.” He looked at his watch. It was barely eight. He picked up his phone.

  “Calling Toni?” I asked.

  “We still have time if she wants to go out.”

  “See what she’s doing tomorrow during the day,” I said. He glared at me. “I was just thinking we need to kill some time and could go to the lake.”

  “I’ll see.” He was curious.

  I don’t blame him, but this kind of work called for good time off spent with people we cared about. We felt it was always good to take time here and there to remember what life is all about. Sometime off right in the middle of a case like this is just what is called for. We couldn’t exactly do anything in the water, but spending time on the water couldn’t hurt. It would be chilly out, but that shouldn’t stop us. In addition, with the cool weather we would almost be assured to not have a crowd.

  Mac dropped me off at home. “What time?” He asked.

  “I was thinking you and I could meet at the boat at around six-thirty and have everyone else meet us at the dock at seven.”

  “Will do,” he said.