Where The Devil Won't Go: A Lucas Peyroux Novel (13 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Real? Fake? Let’s see.”

“They’re real.” Cozy lifted her shirt and
Tabitha gently tested each one from underneath.

“Amazing. The men are going to empty
their wallets for you.”

“When do I start?”

“Knowing your financial situation, I
won’t put it off. Come in tomorrow night. We’ll start you off on the stage
until you get used to the kinds of customers we get. Plus, you have to come up
with a stage name. Something
dirty
, dangerous,
provocative or intimate.”

“I have no idea.”

“Spitfire came to mind when I first saw
you.”

“I like that.”

“Oh, yeah. I can see a girl and pen her
name in seconds.”

“There’s rules about touching, right?”

“That’s right. You’ll learn about what’s
acceptable and what’s not. There’s a difference between a creep putting his
hand on your ass during a personal dance and a lonely husband.”

“I get it.”

“And you do not make arrangements to
leave here with a customer and take money for sexual favors. Believe me, it’s
the easiest thing to do, but if Ray hears about it, you’re gone. Got it? We
don’t want any trouble from the cops.”

“Where do I get my stage clothes? I don’t
have any money, except for this forty dollars I just made.”

“No money?” She paused for a moment.
“Normally, here’s where I’d say that’s your problem, but Ray has never taken to
a girl so quickly.”

“You took that as liking me?”

“Sugar, half of these girls have never
heard word one from him until he says
pack
your things
. He wants you here and it’s my job to make sure you are. Meet
me in front of the Cathedral tomorrow for eleven. We’ll get you an outfit and
have lunch. You can owe me. For now, why don’t you sit here, have a burger on
me, watch the girls and learn. You do good and Ray will take good care of you.”

“And if I suck?”

Tabby’s face finally softened and became
feminine. “Sugar, I have no doubt you can do the job. It’s the politics
offstage where I worry for you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Famous last words, Spitfire.”

Chapter 20

Cozy spent no extra time in bed, and
snuck past Sal in the recliner. She stopped at a local cafe for a Danish and
coffee before her second day of staking out Porter’s apartment. Things appeared
to be quiet, with empty sidewalks that made her nervous for potential muggers
or rapists, even with the sun shining bright. She kept her hand on her weighted
purse.

Where
are you, Porter?

#

The firing range represented anxiety and frustration.
I almost convinced myself it was the building itself that was the problem. The
pulley spun and the rope snapped, rushing the target toward Tara and me.

“Bloody hell.”

Tara pulled the sheet from the clips.
“Your issue is that your mind is not trusting your body.”

I crushed it into a ball and chucked it
at a nearby trashcan. “I hate when that happens.”

“Trusting yourself is the main issue. I
don’t think practicing is going to do it. There’s a wall in your head and
psychologically, you have to jump over it or knock it down before you can move
on.”

I put away my gun and headphones and
stepped from the partition. “A shrink?”

“Or – you can have that heart-to-heart
you promised Cozy Robicheaux.”

“Thanks, Mick.”

“Hey, if Stallone had seen a
psychiatrist, he might have stopped with Rocky III.” She gave a quirky smile.

#

Cozy’s focused on the apartment building
like a terrier that found the foxhole. I sat on the opposite stoop and watched
her for a moment without her noticing. She turned at the sound of my sipping coffee
and nearly fell to the sidewalk. “Lucas! Shit, you scared me.”

I handed her a coffee. “What’s going on
here?”

She took the cup. “What are you doing
here?”

“I wanted us to have our talk, so I
called your house and your mom took ten minutes to tell me you hadn’t come
back. I figured you were still at Haley’s apartment, but saw you sitting here
when I drove by.”

“Oh.” She took a sip and glanced at the
apartments.

“I know a stake-out when I see one.”

“Landlord kicked me out. I’m just
wondering if I could sneak back in. I’m really not ready to go home yet.”

I leaned back to get comfortable. “So,
let’s talk… About that night.”

She squinted, seeming to choose her
words. “You saved my life and then avoided me.”

“I may have saved your life, but I almost
ended it, too.”

“Can’t live thinking about the
what ifs
. That’s fantasy, not reality.”

“This is actually a huge step for me.”

She closed her eyes. “If my sister hadn’t
been killed, you’d still be avoiding me.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I’d like to think I
would’ve gotten my shit together sooner or later.”

Cozy moved to my stoop and sat to face
me, taking my hands. “I’ve thought long and hard about that day of the shooting
and I’ve come to one conclusion… you need to stop being such a baby.”

I reared back. “What?”

“You’re being a baby – a cry baby.
Stop it.” Her intense eyes willed her message into my brain.

“Wow.”

“Everyone’s tap dancing around you and
you’re just not getting it. That day when you found me and he had his arm
around my throat… I knew the moment I saw you that you would save my life. I
had never seen you before, yet I trusted you and I was right. Man up. Own it. Be
proud of what you did that day. Can you do that for me? Huh, you little baby?”
She poked me in the ribs playfully.

I laughed and felt tears welling at the
same time. She clutched my hands as if to keep me from running, waiting for me
to answer. “Okay. You make a great argument.”

She raised one of my hands to her throat
and brushed my fingers over the scar like a blind man reading Braille. She held
it there. “Say this for me. I saved your life… Say it.”

“I saved your life,” I managed under my
breath. My fingers felt the ridges of her skin that had healed. What I felt was
the pulse underneath.

“
Mean
it.”

“I saved your life.”

“Make me believe it.”

“I saved your life,” I announced as if
speaking to an audience.

“There you go.” She put my palm against
her cheek and closed her eyes with a sigh, but for only a second. She stood up
beside me. “Now give me a hug like you’re happy not to be visiting my tomb.”

“I can do that.” My arms wrapped around
her and for the first time, I could feel relief overtaking the guilt. For the
first time, I smiled while thinking about her and actually meant it. “Cozy, I
can’t tell you how badly I want to catch that guy. I dream about nailing him
and putting him away for life. I want to do that for you.”

“I owe you my life, so I think I owe you
this.” A tear ran down her face. “I should tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“I’m sitting out here waiting for that
landlord, Porter. I’m waiting to kill him.”

#

I told Cozy to wait outside the gate. If
she was right about Porter, and he was her kidnapper, then it couldn’t possibly
be a coincidence that he was the landlord of Haley’s building. No, Cozy had
been targeted. I’d be willing to bet there were other victims, and some of them
were probably single women with no family who’d rented in this place.

Porter didn’t answer the doorbell or when
I pounded on the door. I did smell something sour, however. According to Cozy,
the man who liked to peep out his window hadn’t been seen in days. With my gun
at my chest, I entered the unlocked door and stepped into the living room,
inhaling the decomposition right away. There were no signs of a struggle.

Cozy appeared at the front door in my
peripheral. “I told you to wait outside.”

“I know that smell. Is he dead?”

I continued forward to the hallway. “I
don’t know. Wait there.”

My nose led me to the main bedroom where
I saw Porter lying on his bed with a portion of his head missing and a gun by
his side. I bent to see that his eyes were still open, staring at the light
fixture. By all accounts, it looked like a suicide. Cozy had found him out and
he might’ve felt he had no other option. Sure enough, his forearm showed the
scar from my bullet. With hair and no beard, it could be him, but I wasn’t sure.

“Oh, my God,” Cozy said behind me. “Did
he kill himself?”

“Looks like it. Don’t come in here, Cozy.”
I pushed her back through the doorframe. “This is a crime scene. Go wait
outside and don’t touch a thing.”

“Okay.” An expression of
surprise and glee flashed across her face, like she had spied her Christmas
present before it got wrapped.

I turned back to the scene. The mass of
blood on the bed and the splatter against the headboard told me CSU would come
to my conclusion, but it seemed all too convenient. The expression on Cozy’s
face and the fact she had been waiting for him told me she was innocent. I
stepped outside to call dispatch, and Cozy was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 21

Cozy ran at first,
then
power-walked the rest of the way, panting, to meet Tabitha at the St. Louis
Cathedral. When she had seen Porter’s body, she figured he wasn’t the only one
involved. If Porter hadn’t killed himself, his bosses would have. He just
avoided the torture. The strip club was the only other connection. Lucas would
probably have every cop in the Quarter searching for her, so she had bought a
Saint’s cap and sunglasses.

It only took an hour of shopping for
Tabitha to find the right clothing stores. When her adrenaline had subsided,
she found herself enjoying the experience. Cozy’s bag contained a slutty Catholic
high school girl uniform and a hot pink, glitzy bikini. She and Tabby strolled
through the French Market next to the river. Tables in the Market displayed an
eclectic assortment of cheap merchandise that fit into the category of local,
knock-off, or Made In China. Tabby predicted that Cozy should make enough money
tonight to buy a month’s worth of costumes, but using that money to get another
place to stay was first priority.

They crossed over to the sidewalk and
stayed parallel to the river, coming to a restaurant with outdoor seating and a
chalkboard menu containing a varied list of fried seafood available on French
bread. The glare prompted them to lower their sunglasses as they fell onto
metal chairs with groans.

Tabby emphasized every word. “I
love to shop.”

An attractive waiter with a ponytail came
to take their order, keeping his back to the sun. His attention stayed on Tabby
like a magnet needing a place to stick. She flirted effortlessly and with
class. When he left, Tabby watched his ass. A jazz quartet could be heard on
the next block.

“You warned me about the club politics.
Anything specific I should watch out for?” Cozy asked out of the blue.

Tabby pulled down her glasses to expose
her eyes. “Number one, dancers can’t date the bouncers.”

“I’m not in a place to date anyone. You
dating?” Cozy asked, but retracted. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”

“Are you kidding? I miss normal girl
talk.”

“So, spill.” Cozy slid the metal chair
across the concrete to get closer.

“Well, it’s strange. When I was the number
one dancer at Molly’s, I was with Ray. When he saw I had a brain, he made me
manager, and we stopped. It was like I wasn’t bimbo enough for him. The weird
part is he doesn’t want anyone else to date me, so I’m kind of still his in a
way.”

“That is so Alpha Male.”

She grimaced. “He fucks whoever he wants,
of course.”

“Of course.”

The waiter brought two sweet teas and
they raised their cups. “A toast. To the absence of men.”

Tabby stopped drinking to focus on
something from behind her glasses. “Hey, that’s a nice alligator pendant. Funny—it
looks familiar.”

Cozy screamed in her head. How could she
be so stupid as to wear it in front of Tabby? “Thanks. I’ve actually seen about
ten of these since I bought it. There’s a whole box of them at the Market.”

“Yeah, I know I’ve seen it around.” She
leaned back and took a drink, searching for that waiter with the cute butt.

“Any personal advice you give to the
girls you like?” Cozy primped her hair for effect.

Tabitha laughed. “I do like you. You
remind me of another girl that used to work there, but…”

Cozy froze. “But, what?”

“Don’t freak out, but one of our girls
was found dead in the Mississippi last week. Right over there by the Moon Walk,
in fact.” She pointed through the shops blocking their view. “From what I
understand, no one claimed her body.” She shook her head and lowered her gaze
to the table. “Sad.”

“What’d you tell the cops?”

“They don’t know that she worked for us.
She was off the books, like a contractor.”

“Like I am right now.”

She nodded. “Ray doesn’t want the bad
publicity or have the cops scaring off the customers.” She nodded at me. “But lots
of our customers are off duty cops, mind you.”

“So, none of these cops recognized her?”

Tabitha laughed. “Like those drunk
bastards look at the face. These girls wear so much make up. And if they add a
wig, they’re practically in disguise.”

“Makes sense.” Cozy bit her nail, then
stopped as if Tabitha wouldn’t approve.

“It’s a shame about her. Haley was her
name. I never heard about a funeral, but I wanted to pay my respects. She was a
really good friend, and I can’t say that about most of these girls.”

“What do they think happened?”

“Well…put it this way. Regarding that
advice you wanted, I’d stay away from Vince. Even though we don’t condone
dating the bouncers, they try to poach the girls behind our backs. He’s a bit…
overbearing.”

“You think Vince was involved in that
girl’s death?” Cozy leaned sideways in the chair.

“I didn’t say that. They dated without me
knowing when she was first hired, but they broke up long ago. And then Jeanie…”

“Another dancer?”

“Vince and Jeanie were chummy. Jeanie
quit a couple weeks ago.”

“Vince did something?”

“She just quit without telling anyone. Dancers
tend to do that. Just… don’t fraternize, okay? Vince can be a cliché, you
understand?”

“You can’t fire him?”

“He’s Ray’s favorite, loyal and good with
the customers. It’s his career. He’s not just passing through.”

“Thanks for the advice. You don’t know
how much that means to me.”

“I survive on my instincts. There are
some girls that you just know will do this until they’re sagging and can’t pull
a buck anymore. I don’t think that’s you. I see you figuring things out and
leaving at some point.”

“I would like to think that.”

Tabby stirred her tea with the straw.
“Your gears are spinning.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’re thinking about something.”

“You’ve just made me think of where I
might be a few years from now. I’ve never thought that far ahead.”

“This becomes the life for some girls.
It’s hard to watch, but it’s kind of like running a dog shelter; you just know
some of these girls aren’t leaving until they have to, and you can’t save them
all.”

“How many well-adjusted girls do you
hire?”

“Ha.” Tabitha agreed with a toast. She
tilted her head and swung around to pat the waiter’s ass.