Alibi (7 page)

“Yeah, I think her momma died. Trixie was saying something about Daisy. She’s trying to hold it together,” said Dallas as
he wiped off the bar with a clean rag. “You want another one?” he said as he looked at Calvin holding up his shot of Royal
Crown.

“Naw, naw, I’m good,” said Calvin after slinging the shot back. He got up and walked over to where Daisy was hanging upside
down from a pole on the left-hand side of the stage.

“Come on down here and let me talk to you,” said Calvin, yelling above the bass, looking up at Daisy.

“What, can’t you talk to me right here?” she hollered down to him.

“Your titties is hanging upside down,” he hollered back.

“What?”

“Your titties,” he said pointing.

“What about them?” asked Daisy as she tried looking upward at them dangling downward toward her chin.

“They’re upside down,” he hollered.

“What’s that got to do with your mouth?” she asked him back as he began to grow irate.

“Look, get down here so I can talk to you,” he said, watching her turn her body upright and slide down the pole.

“What, Calvin, can you talk to me now because my titties ain’t upside down no more?”

“Don’t be sassy,” he barked, pointing a finger at her. “Come on, let’s go in my office. I want to talk to you.”

“Aww, Calvin, come on, you just looked me over yesterday,” said Daisy, figuring he just wanted to get his rocks hard feeling
on her as usual. He could try it all he wanted, she saw the bulge from the crotch in his pants every time he pretended to
be some type of Mad Hatter gyn inspecting the goodies between her legs.

“Daisy, come on in here and sit down.”

Daisy went in his office, removed her thong, and sat down in the chair next to his desk.

She knew, like everybody else, that you weren’t allowed to wear clothes in Calvin’s office. Whenever you were in the office,
that meant business, and Calvin’s line of business was pussy, and while in his office, that’s what he wanted to see.

“What’s going on with you?”

“What you mean, Calvin? Nothing.”

“Man, I’m watching you out there and I don’t know what you’re doing. You look… awkward, off balance, no rhythm, no sex appeal,
just a body hanging upside down. What’s going on?”

“Calvin, I’m sorry. I just got so much going on. My momma died and I just been—”

“Your momma died?”

“Yeah, four days ago. She was all I had,” said Daisy, fighting back tears. “And I ain’t have no money, so I can’t bury her,
and my aunt is coming, but she don’t know I had Momma cremated.”

“Wasn’t no insurance to bury her?”

“Nope, the policy lapsed for nonpayment.”

“Well, don’t start getting sad on me. Pull yourself together, Daisy. It’s going to be okay. I’m sorry to hear about your momma.
I think it probably be best if I let you take some time. Sometimes, in cases of death, in this line of business, the two don’t
mix.”

“I can’t take off Calvin, I need the money. I need my tips. I have to work,” she said. She appreciated the gesture, but realistically
it just wasn’t economical.

“Don’t worry about the money. Here, take a hundred dollars from me. It’s something I want you to do for me.”

Daisy looked at the money as if Calvin were insane.
What the hell am I gonna do with a measly hundred dollars?

“Listen, I’ve been thinking. And with your mother passing and all, this might be just what you need right now anyway. Yeah,
this could work out better for you and for me,” he said, throwing out brighter possibilities her way.

“What, what you talking about, Calvin?”

“I think it might be better if I put you over in my new spot. What do you think?”

“The Honey Pot?” she asked, confused.

“Yeah, I need you over there. I really do. You got a good client base from here and they’ll follow you. Trust me, you’ll make
good money, more money than you make here, because you’ll get to keep your extra tips all to yourself.”

“For real?” said Daisy, thinking of Calvin’s greedy fingers letting her touch her money. “Okay, I’m in, I’ll do it, but Calvin,
I need more than a hundred dollars to get me through the rest of the week.”

“Aaww, damn, no you don’t. See, there you go, always got to mess up a good thing,” he said as he slid another hundred off
the wad of cash he had in his pocket.

“Thanks, Calvin,” said Daisy as she kissed his cheek. “You know what, Calvin. You sort of all right.”

“You just sort of be all right when you come back to work. Shit, don’t make no sense. All upside down on a pole, looking like
you the one that died,” he said, mumbling to himself.

Tildie and Kimmie Sue arrived two days later, just in time for the memorial service that Daisy had planned in her mother’s
honor. Tildie, a devout follower of the Trinity Spirit Worship House of God, was utterly dismayed by the fact that Abigail
had been cremated. She literally refused to sit in the same room with the ashes and was so angry at Daisy once she found out
what Daisy had done with her sister’s remains that she cried her heart out.

“Why did you do that to my sister!” she screamed at Daisy. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have buried her, I would have
buried my sister. Why did you do that? Why?” Daisy didn’t understand faith or beliefs and the principles associated therewith,
but she learned enough that day to know that the last thing her aunt would have done was cremate her mother.

After the memorial service, the three went out to eat. A small local restaurant that served soul food was only a few blocks
down the street. Kimmie Sue was taken in by the big-city streets and big-city signs. The lights, the colors, the fast-moving
traffic, and a brick on top of brick city opened Kimmie Sue’s eyes to a world that she hadn’t known existed. Her mother would
be packing up and leaving to head back to Tennessee in the morning, and of course, Kimmie Sue would be going with her. She
wished she didn’t have to. She wished she could stay and get to know her cousin, get to know Philadelphia. It seemed like
a nice town, with much to offer.

The next morning, Kimmie Sue and Aunt Tildie piled back into their Chrysler and made their way onto I-95 headed back to Tennessee.
Daisy watched the car as it traveled down the block.

In her head, she could see her cousin. “I sure do wish I could stay right here with you. You are so lucky living in this big
city and all. It’s sort of scary. You don’t get scared?”

“No, not scared, more tired than anything, I guess. City life is a harder life, I think, than living in the country. Just
something about the concrete that makes living in the city a little tougher, I guess.”

“I guess too,” said Kimmie Sue. “But, I’m fittin’ to come back here real soon.”

“I want to come and visit you too, Cousin Kimmie Sue.”

“Well, you’re welcome, just come on down and I’ll be waiting for you.”

They hugged each other and then Kimmie Sue pulled out a small button from her jacket pocket.

“This was Aunt Abbie’s.” She handed the button to Daisy, who stood looking quite confused. “It come off her shirt one day.
Momma said they were schoolgirls and it was the most embarrassing thing ’cause Momma said Aunt Abbie’s titties flew out her
shirt right smack in front of Wilson Carter, who everybody in the school had a crush on. Momma said Aunt Abbie wouldn’t come
out the house for a week, she was so embarrassed. Momma gave it to me and after she told me the story she said to always remember
to keep my buttons buttoned so I don’t reveal nothing that nobody needs to see.”

Daisy looked down at the button and closed her hand. She squeezed her hand tight before letting the button slip through her
fingers into the jacket pocket of her pea coat. She could hear her mother now, telling her she needed to button everything
on her body.
Oh, Momma.

“It’s a good luck button too. I tell you ever since I started carrying that thing, I just felt so safe and secure. I figured
since you’re up here in this big city all alone now, you might need it to keep you safe too.”

Kimmie Sue smiled and hugged her cousin before piling into the Chrysler. Daisy waved them off and turned back up the street
to the door to the apartment. It felt odd and strangely lonely inside the apartment she used to share with her mother. She
had never imagined life without her mother; she never had a reason to. But, now that she was all alone, she knew that life
without Abigail would be different. Up until this point, she had a mommy and was someone’s child. Now, those things had been
stripped away, and she was simply Daisy Mae. She looked down at her watch.

I better get going,
she thought to herself. Knowing Calvin with his constant five, five, five, she didn’t want to be late for her first day at
the Honey Pot.

P
lease, excuse me, my patient really needs her rest. I thought I was being polite when I told you that once she is up to visitors
and police interrogation, I would gladly call you,” said Dr. Sternberger, feeling offended by their disdain for hospital policy.
He was so riled, he began reaching for the phone to call security. The detectives in front of him would be removed from ICU.

“I’m sorry, Doctor, I just don’t think you understand the urgency. We really need for her to ID her assailant from some of
these photos. Really, this is critical, because he’s still out there,” said Detective Delgado, trying to remain calm, not
curse, throw a tantrum, or, worst case, hurt Dr. Sternberger.

“Really, Doctor, we just need the opportunity to try. If she can’t then she can’t, but at least, for her sake and her little
boy’s sake, let us try,” implored Merva, looking into the doctor’s eyes, not understanding him at all. “If someone shot you
and your son, wouldn’t you want to ID him… if nothing else?”

“She is our missing link for us to get a killer off the streets and behind bars,” added Detective Delgado.

The two of them spoke calmly to the doctor, with a hint of urgency. And of course it worked. The doctor gave them five minutes
alone with his patient. She was still under the watchful eyes of ICU attendants. She had tubes sticking out from her body
and connected to machines keeping all her vitals and stats for the doctors as they did their rounds. Detective Ross took her
time talking and speaking to Saunta. Slowly Saunta opened her eyes. She never said one word. She didn’t have to. The look
of fear that covered her face as Detective Ross flashed Bernard Guess’s head shot in her direction caused her to open her
eyes as wide as they could go. She pressed back on the pillow and tears formed in her eyes. She looked scared at seeing the
man’s face.

“That’s him,” she whispered with a faint breath, reliving the feeling of being gunned down, the bullet entering her chest,
piercing her rib, and lodging inside her. Leaving her in the Intensive Care Unit. She went into distress. Her blood pressure
went up and a machine next to her bed started beeping. Dr. Sternberger came rushing into the room.

“She’s losing pressure. Her heart rate is dropping. We’re losing her!”

Tommy Delgado and Merva Ross stood over to the side looking like Lenny and Squiggy from
Laverne and Shirley
as they watched the doctors and nurses trying to stabilize their patient.

“Doctor, she’s flatlined,” said a blond nurse as Merva and Tommy heard a solid, steady tone, instead of the beeps that had
been the echo of the ICU room.

“Oh, damn, she’s dead?” questioned Merva as she leaned in and whispered into Tommy’s ear.

“Yeah, I think we should get out of here before Dr. Sternberger comes back over here and chews off our asses for fucking with
his patient.”

“Damn, he did say let her rest.”

“Well, she will now,” said Delgado, looking as if he was in fact the bird that swallowed the canary.

“Jeez, you are the worst.”

“Yeah, come on, this looks bad. This isn’t good. Let’s get out of here,” said Delgado, grabbing his partner’s arm.

“At least we got our man, Bernard Guess,” said Ross, looking at the brighter side.

“Yup, we got what we came for.”

Once she got settled in at the Honey Pot, Daisy realized she had made the biggest mistake in her life. The Honey Pot was set
up like an apartment. When you first walked in, there was a vestibule where the gentlemen would wait, seated patiently, unless
they had an appointment scheduled. There was a receptionist, some tiny Asian girl who looked no more than fourteen, but was
actually nineteen years old. She would take each man who came in for services into a seating area where they could wait to
view the girls one by one. After viewing the girls they could pick who they wanted to give them a massage, if they had a preference.
And once they had made their choice, they would disappear into one of the massage rooms just like magic.

Daisy needed her tips, and when the doorbell rang she was always ready, wearing a see-through negligee. She did her sexual
seduction thirty-second lap dance for the gentlemen callers, letting them feel free to feel her up, or if she didn’t do that,
she’d take off her negligee and lie on the floor, sprawling herself wide open and making snow angels, but without the snow.
Those were her secrets, and she was constantly picked.

Once inside the room, she would undress them and lie them on the table. Then she would stand at their head and massage them,
always keeping her pussy in their view. As she rubbed them, they rubbed her, and when it was time to roll them over onto their
backs, they would be rock hard, ready to drive their swollen muscles into her moist pussy. The only problem was that all her
regulars, and the newcomers, were lining up, and as the weeks went by, Daisy found herself a sex slave inside the massage
parlor. They weren’t coming in asking for Daisy to just massage them, they expected the massage and a good quick fuck, all
within thirty minutes. It was like their afternoon lunch break or a quick to-do task before going home at the end of the day.
And they were lining up not just for Daisy, but for all the girls. Pretty soon, Calvin had to stop spending so much time at
the Honey Dipper, because too much money was being made at the Honey Pot, and Daisy was his headliner, fucking and sucking
more men in the course of a day than Vanessa Del Rio ever could in her life. It got to the point that liquor and e-pills simply
numbed her from it all. And she simply did what she had to.