Page 37 of Strip Search

I hated when chicks did that. Jackie found some tissues in that gargantuan purse she carried and handed her some.

“Thank you.”

“My name is Jackie Mitchell. Miles is helping me look for my sister, Lisa, and I think . . .” Jackie took a shaky breath. “I think Lisa might be with Dee. Can we go inside and talk?”

Eleanor glared at me. “He led them to do it. It’s that damn club. I knew I should have forbidden her to work there.”

“No.” Jackie shook her head. “Miles is trying to find them. He cares about all his employees. When he found out Dee went missing, he went to Zeke’s place to track her down.”

“That boy.” Dee’s mother shook her head. “He’s trouble. If Miles didn’t convince her she could make more money selling her body, then Zeke did.” She scrubbed at her tears angrily. “You might as well come in.”

I nodded brusquely, but Jackie jammed an elbow into my side. “I wish we were meeting under different circumstances,” I said, absently rubbing my ribs.

Eleanor really looked at me this time and I could tell she liked what she saw. Well, maybe that would help open her up to our questions. I didn’t feel like smiling at her, but it seemed she didn’t need it. Straightening her shoulders, she let the gauzy wrap flutter down her back and put a sway in her step as she led us inside her condo.

“Behave,” Jackie whispered fiercely to me.

I kissed Jackie quick because I wanted to, and she gaped at me. She was still blushing when Eleanor led us to what she called the sunroom and bade us to sit on uncomfortable steel chairs that had been polished like chrome on a Harley. “Can I get you something to eat or drink?” Eleanor rang a little bell and an honest-to-God manservant appeared out of nowhere. He was dressed in a formal suit and jacket with tails. In this heat?

“We’re good,” I said.

“Nonsense, let me get you a drink. It’s the least I can do after behaving so horribly.” Eleanor leaned a little to give me a flash of cleavage, but I didn’t drop my eyes. Tits were a dime a dozen in my line of work and the only ones I wanted were Jackie’s.

“I’ll have a beer,” I said to the manservant.

“Oh you must try the lemon shandy.”

I winced. “Yeah, no. Fruit doesn’t belong in beer.”

I got elbowed again.

“That sounds very refreshing,” Jackie said.

I made eye contact with the manservant and he gave me a small nod and left the room.

“This is my sister, Lisa.” Jackie pulled out that damn photo and went into the whole spiel.

Letting my mind wander, I looked around the condo. It was an expensive setup. I didn’t go much for high fashion, but the place had character. There was marble and stainless steel everywhere, but one whole wall was a window that looked out over the desert and Lake Las Vegas. The manservant in his ridiculous little outfit was back with the drinks almost immediately. I took a sip of my beer. It was lemon free and surprisingly good.

“You must be terribly worried,” Eleanor said, putting a comforting hand over Jackie’s.

“Did Dee ever mention Lisa or Broadway? That was the name Lisa danced under.”

Eleanor snatched her hand back. “Your sister was a stripper?”

She saidstripperthe same way she’d saidhooker. I didn’t like how ashamed Jackie looked. “My girls dance, nothing else,” I said. “Your daughter stayed in the kitchen. She got paid a decent wage, but the dancers make double her salary. Dee wasn’t talented enough to be a dancer, perhaps that’s why—”

Jackie kicked me under the table, and I amended what I was going to say.

“Perhaps she saw a faster way to pay for her Cordon Bleu tuition.”

“You could have paid her better,” Eleanor said, looking down her nose at me.

“You could have paid her tuition.” I circled my beer around, indicating the house.

Eleanor deflated. “I should have. But she’s always been so unfocused. I thought if I made her earn her tuition, she would appreciate it more. I never thought she would sell her body, though.” She gave a bitter laugh. “After all I’ve done to give her the life I never had.”

“Are you sure that’s what she’s doing?” Jackie said. “Maybe she just told you that to make you feel guilty or upset enough so that you would offer to pay the tuition.”

---