Skin (21 page)

Paul looked straight at Lilith. “Everyone involved in the family business is.”

Grandmother and Paul giggled together. Lilith’s stomach churned. The smell of the liver getting to her, she pushed away her plate while Paul and Grandmother ate with relish.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Paul asked.

“Humph.” Grandmother pouted. “Probably hates my cooking.”

Paul reached over and patted her hand. “Impossible.”

Lilith used the first excuse that came to her – she didn’t want to be asked to leave before she had the opportunity to do what she came for. “I have to watch my calories or I won’t be able to fit in my uniform – one of the downsides of my job.”

“Girls, these days.”
Grandmother made a
tsk-tsk-tsk
of disapproval. “Always starving
themselves
.”

“Lilith won’t have to worry about that much longer if I have my way with her.”

Lilith hid her revulsion behind her linen napkin and wondered how long it would be before she could escape this place of death.

oOo

LILITH BROUGHT IN a stack of dirty dishes and piled them on the counter next to the sink. She checked to make sure she wasn’t followed.
Listened intently to the murmur of voices from the other room.

Going to the back door, she stealthily unlocked it and winced at the sound of the dead bolt sliding open. When she heard footsteps, she hurried to the sink and set the dishes in a pan of soapy water. No dishwasher here. This place hadn’t been remodeled in the last half-century. The cabinets were all metal, the refrigerator and stove avocado green. Wanting to orient herself, she quickly checked out the window so she would be certain of where to find the back entrance just before Paul joined her.

He stood too close. “Change your mind about going to service with Grandmother and me tonight?”

“I’m not the religious type.”

He placed his hands on her hips and pressed his groin into her buttocks. Wanting to gag, she had to fight her instincts to toss him. She needed the chance to search his place. She would do nothing to ruin it.

“You could be any type you wanted,” he said, his mouth practically in her ear. “You could take the opportunity I’m offering you.”

“Sounds like you’ve offered this opportunity to someone before.
Who?”

“Jealous? You’re not the first woman in my life.”

He started rubbing himself against her – not that it seemed to be doing much for him, at least not as far as she could tell. Remembering his sister saying he couldn’t get it up, she wondered if he’d resorted to torturing and killing women for sexual satisfaction.

She noticed the kitchen door opening slightly and realized the old woman was spying on them.

“So who was she, Paulie – the other woman?”

“She was not important.
You’re
important.” He wrapped his arms around her so he could cup her breasts as he pressed her against the sink.

Wanting in the worst way to flip him and press her foot on his windpipe, Lilith eased
herself
out of his grasp and said, “You know I’m scheduled to work in a half hour.”

“And I have to take Grandmother to church. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll be at the club to see you and Melinda as soon as I bring Grandmother
home
and tuck her in bed.” He tried to get in a position to kiss her. “We have a few more minutes.”

Lilith forced herself to smile. “I need to leave now. If I’m late, Sal will dock my salary.”

“I understand. But you realize once we’re together, you won’t be working at the club anymore.”

Paul opened the swinging door for her. Standing at the far end of the living room now, Grandmother merely watched her leave with a satisfied smile.

Lilith didn’t go far. Just across the street to a vestibule of an apartment house that gave her a view of the glowing mortuary sign and the entrance below.

“C’mon, c’mon.”
She really had to get going if she was going to go through with her plan for the night.

At last, Paul left the building with Grandmother. He helped the elderly woman into a car parked right out front.

As soon as they drove off, Lilith whipped out of the vestibule and rushed across the street. She went around to the alley and took the open stairway to the kitchen door that she’d unlocked.

Once inside, she began a frantic search, checking bookshelves, opening the drawers in the kitchen and then the dining room. In the living room, she searched the drawers in the old-fashioned end tables.

Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.

The small hallway off the living room gave her access to four doors. One revealed the bathroom, another Grandmother’s bedroom, the other two were closed. She tried one of the closed doors.

Locked.

She jiggled the handle. Felt above the door for a possible key.
Stooped to peek through the keyhole.

Complete darkness.

Frustrated, she tried the other door. It opened to the bedroom, and she rushed inside and attacked the chest of drawers. They were filled with nothing but the usual clothing.

Opening the nightstand drawer, she stopped short.

Irene’s stocking sat on Club Paradise souvenirs – flyers, ads and matches. She looked without touching the stocking. One of the flyers spotlighted Hannah. No heart-half. When she pulled the drawer open further, she found a few sex toys thrown in the back. Handcuffs and nipple clamps.

Proof?
Of what?
Murder or simple perversion?

A scuffle behind her threw her pulse into overdrive. She whipped around to find Paul standing in the hall doorway. His eyes flicked past her to the open drawer, then to his bed. “I didn’t realize you were so eager, Lilith.”

She tried to push past him, but Paul wrapped his arms around her and planted a big wet kiss on her. He grabbed both of her breasts and tried to back her into the bedroom. Still not wanting to use her Street Survival skills on him in case she needed to get to him again, she shoved him hard and whipped free.

“This was a mistake, Paul,” she called, racing through the living room. “I’m not ready for this yet.” And to
herself
, she muttered, “I’ll never be ready for this.”

“You can’t just go!”

But she was already out the door.

She exited the building, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Walked toward her car as if possessed, as if she could walk away her demons...

oOo

“IS HE GOING TO kill us?” Carmen asked, crying. “I think he gave me some drug that knocked me out, but he said terrible things.”

Hannah had to steel herself against the girl’s tears so she didn’t start crying, too. “You were having a nightmare.”

“No, I swear I heard him when he dumped me here. He said Lilith was your sister.”

Hannah stared at the girl Lilith mentored. She was only seventeen, without a clue as to how this was going to work. She was so naive. The killer said he might let her go, but Hannah didn’t believe it. He wouldn’t leave anyone who might be able to give the cops a clue. Hannah might have been resentful and jealous that day in the zoo, but now she pitied Carmen whose only crime had been to trust Hannah’s sister.

“He has no reason to kill you,” Hannah said, trying to allay the girl’s fear. This was her fault. “Me and Lilith... we’ll probably get out of this with nothing more than a scare, too.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Hannah lied.

The least she could do was make it easier on Carmen. Maybe he’d make the girl’s death swift so she wouldn’t even see it coming. Not so for her and Lilith. He was going to make Lilith watch.

“Lilith told me she had a sister, but that she didn’t know where you were. So she finally found you?”

Lilith had told Carmen about her? So Lilith hadn’t given up hope of finding her.

“Yeah, something
like
that.”

Despite her resolve, desperate tears slid from her eyes, bathing her cheeks.

Lilith had warned her she was in danger, and she’d ignored the warning.

Ignoring it had brought this hell down on them all.
Her fault.
All her fault.

“So how are we going to get out of here?” Carmen asked.

Hannah jerked her handcuff against the bedframe. “There’s a little matter of we can’t even move around the room.”

“Never?”

“He has let me go to that pit of a toilet when he brings food.”

“Then there’s a chance. If I can get free, maybe I can take him.”

She could take him?
Crazy talk.
She was a kid, for God’s sake.

Hannah shook her head. “You’re not very big. How are you gonna take him?”

“There’s two of us and only one of him. Lilith says it’s all in the body language. I wasn’t ready for him last time, but I will be now.”

Two of them...
was
it possible...?

Afraid to let
herself
hope, Hannah asked, “So what’s your plan?”

oOo

MUSIC SEEMED TO blare louder in the club when Lilith sought the sanctuary of the dressing room only to find Caresse searching through a case – Lilith’s case. Frowning, she stood and stared a moment as the other woman dug around just as she had with the other girls’ possessions.

“Looking for something?”

Caresse popped up and knocked over the case. Makeup and hair clips spilled onto the floor. Caresse immediately got on her knees and stuffed the loose articles back where they belonged.

“Sorry, Lilith.
One of my eyelashes came off, and I ran out of glue. I was gonna borrow yours. Hope that’s not a problem.”

Lilith saw she was telling the truth about the eyelash, but there was glue in full view on the counter.

“No. No problem.” She stepped forward, picked up the tube and handed it to Caresse, who had the grace to
looked
shamed.

“Lord, ain’t I the peabrain? Must’ve looked right at it and not seen it.”

“You must have.”

Not that Lilith believed it.

She took a big breath. It was time. Having brought one of Hannah’s costumes with her, she changed out of her uniform into the spangly gold number from the underwear to the boneless hourglass corset to the micromini that added a touch of modesty. She was going to do this, but she didn’t like it, and she certainly wasn’t comfortable getting on that damn stage.

“What the hell you doing?”
Caresse asked.

“What does it look like? I’m getting dressed.”

“To do what?
Not dance.”

She unfroze her lips to say “Yes, dance.”

She had to buy time for Hannah and Carmen. She was going to do this for them.

“Child, are you crazy? You can’t go out there looking like that. Like Anna.”

“Why not?
There must be good money in dancing or you wouldn’t do it, right?”

Lilith wasn’t about to play true confessions with Caresse. She didn’t trust anyone here, certainly not a woman who dug through other people’s things and took whatever she wanted. She’d made a deal with Irene, though, to dance to her music. Told the woman it was a one-time surprise for her boyfriend and asked her not to let anyone know lest word got around.

Her stomach clenched every time she thought about it.

“You’re asking for trouble,” Caresse said.
“As if you haven’t already.
There’s a killer out there who already has you on his radar. You taunt him, and he’s gonna come for you.”

That’s what she was counting on.

This time, she was stoked psychologically.

This time, she was ready for him.

oOo

DESPITE THAT, Lilith’s stomach still churned when she sashayed across the stage to hot music. Not the real Lilith. This one wasn’t thinking about what she was doing as she
strutted
her stuff, but her body was taking over where her mind simply wanted to shut down.

She went on auto-dance.

Inviting the men in the room to taste something they couldn’t have.

Taunting them.

When bile rose into her throat, she reminded herself she was doing this for Hannah and Carmen.
To save them for at least another day.
To draw out the killer.
Get him to make his move on her. Her body wasn’t sacred. Their young lives were.

Anyone who hadn’t paid attention to her before was doing so now, including several topless dancers with customers who stopped their lap dances to watch.

“I got something for you!” a man called out.

Another said, “Hey, baby, over here!”

“No, here!” insisted a third, who was waving a twenty.

Fake it. Fake it,
she told herself.

Lilith went to them
all,
let them tuck bills into her corset.
Steeled her mind against strange fingers touching her.
Removed the modesty skirt and let them put more in her g-string. There was nothing unnatural or stiff about the way she was moving, nor about the way
she was
smiling as if each and every man in the room were desirable. This wasn’t personal – not that most of them understood that.

This was for Hannah and Carmen.

To give them more time.

Her attention was only marginally on the enthusiastic customers around the stage as, all the while, she scanned the room for a killer. As if she could somehow identify him from his rapt interest in her.

Having a drink with a customer at his table in front of the deejay’s booth, Caresse sat stiff, her expression disapproving. Behind her, Rudy Barnes shook his head as he watched, arms crossed over his chest. On the other side of the room, Paul Ensdorf looked both seduced and aggrieved as he did when his sister Melinda danced. As usual, Michael sat at a table near the wall. She couldn’t begin to read him. Or Gabe,
who’d
stepped away from the bar to watch.

Still dressed in the corset and g-string, Lilith picked up the skirt from the stage floor with numb fingers and tossed it over her shoulder just as the music ended. A discontented rumbling set through the room.