Big Easy Escapade (13 page)

All the while, she concentrated, not on what
Sonu had said but on the face of the other man. She had seen him,
but it was foggy and she couldn’t remember where. She gave up her
escape attempt for the moment and sat at the desk. She checked the
seal on the water, cracked it open and took a sip. Then it hit
her.

Pink martini. Desert Glitter. He fucking roofied me!
She’d known others who’d been
slipped the date-rape drug.
I shouldn’t have taken that stupid
drink
.

She looked in the closet and found several
Middle Eastern-style, long-sleeved dresses and a black burqa neatly
folded. She flung the garments to the floor but did not find
anything useful to help escape.

How the hell am I going to get out of
here?

A glimmer of silver caught her eye, and she
knelt to look under the bed. Her Shoe-Be-Do shoe lay on its side,
wooden heel just asking to be beaten into the window. After several
blows to the glass, nothing happened except to flatten out the
little plastic tip on the bottom of the heel.

Must be some special kind of glass to protect
against hurricanes. Or prevent jumpers. Dammit!

Flinging the shoe to the floor, she walked
into the bathroom and took a closer look at her reflection. Her
face had been scrubbed of makeup. She touched the few freckles
across her nose, then looked at her hair. The black dye completely
covered her red. Not a speck remained.

She closed her eyes and sank to the floor in
heaving sobs.

***

“What a load,” Kate said, frustrated.
“Obviously that Voodoo woman didn’t have the gift. Or any gift
other than bullshit.”

Lucy and Vivian stood across the street next
to a walk-up daiquiri stop. “Whatcha drinkin’ there?” Wendy
asked.

Vivian swirled her frozen turquoise drink
around, then took a big sip. “Mmmm, it’s a blue Hawaiian, and it’s
fantab. Want a sip?” She took another big drink, then got a brain
freeze. “Ouuu! My dent!”

Vivian had an indention in the middle of her
forehead that was only noticeable in pictures, especially if there
was a flash. Everyone else in the picture would look great, but
she’d end up with a glowing circle on her head.

Kate walked to the counter. “After that
experience, I could use one of those.”

“Guess it didn’t go well,” Lucy said,
swirling her drink with the straw.

“No, it did not,” Wendy answered. “The lady
was just makin’ stuff up as she went along. She said Daisy was in
Mexico and had the runs!”

“Maybe she meant she’s on the run in Mexico,”
Vivian said, though she didn’t really think that.

“No, I fed her Mexico and Montezuma’s
revenge. She took it from there. It was a joke.”

Kate turned around sucking on a purple
concoction. She smacked her lips. “This is yum-ola.”

“If y’all are gonna be drinkin’ those, I vote
for some food,” Wendy said, then grabbed Vivian’s blue drink and
took a sip. “Mmmm, that is tasty.”

“Hang on to that while I text Adrienne and
tell her we’re going to Kitty City tonight. See if they want to
join the fun.”

They sipped and walked a few blocks and saw a
place on the corner at Dauphine called Deanie’s Seafood.

“I could go for some fried shrimp,” Vivian
said. “Let’s give it a whirl.”

There was no wait and the girls were seated
right away at a bench that lined a large aquarium displaying glass
fish, plants, crabs, shrimp and egrets.

They munched on the boiled potatoes that were
served instead of bread, and ordered an array of shrimp. Fried,
barbecued, blackened, stuffed. By the end, they were stuffed,
too.

Kate put down her fork. “That hit the spot.
We’ve got time to kill before Trikki comes on at Kitty City.”

“I’m not looking forward to this,” Wendy
said. “We better find out some good info on this chick.”

“I have a feeling we will,” Kate said.

Vivian reached for her phone. “Let me call
Jason, see if he has any updates.” He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Jason, anything new?”

“I think the cops have finally ruled me out
as a suspect. They’re trying to find that dipshit Harry and now
they’re looking into Vikki, too. Turns out she’s got two brothers
in town who are big like the two fuckers who took Daisy. They’re
trying to get warrants to look at Vikki’s financials along with her
brothers and boyfriend.”

“We’re going to Kitty City tonight. Kate had
a dream and we thought we should check Vikki out.”

“If the brothers are there, call the cops,
then call me, then get the hell out of there.”

“Ouuu, watching their sister strip? That
would be gross, but don’t worry about us, we’ll be on guard. Is
there anything we can do for you?”

“No, Daisy’s family should be here first
thing in the morning. My mom and dad will be here on the red-eye
tonight, and the guys from my band are all on their way. They live
local and we have a pretty big following. I’ve been doing a vlog
and everyone is sharing it on Facebook, Twitter and among the music
community. People are coming in from all over the country to look
for her.”

“I’m glad you’re pushing the issue. Based on
what little we’ve seen in the media, these other two girls haven’t
gotten much attention, and Daisy needs all of our help. But she’s
going to be okay, hang in there.”

“Thanks, Vivian. I’ve also gotten a local
printer to donate 10,000 fliers. We’re going to plaster this town
with her picture.”

“Damn, you’ve been busy!”

“She’s my everything. I’m going to find her.
In the meantime, you guys stay out of trouble.”

“We’ll be fine. We use the buddy system!”
That got a small laugh out of him and they disconnected.

Vivian shared the conversation with the
girls. “He’s on a mission and sounds fired up. He has a
purpose.”

She paid their dinner tab with their trust
fund card and they headed back to Bourbon. A few doors down was a
souvenir shop.

“Let me run in here and knock out gifts for
the kids,” Vivian said.

The doors of the shop were lined with funny
T-shirts. “I got Bourbon faced on Shit Street.” “FEMA – Fix
Everything My Ass.” “I put Ketchup on my Ketchup.”

Vivian took a minute to read a few before
moving to the kids T-shirts. She didn’t find anything for her kids,
so she went back outside empty handed.

“Strike out?” Kate asked.

“Nothing reached out and grabbed me. Gotta
keep looking.”

“There’s a neat shop on Royal that I’ve been
to before, Forever New Orleans. Let’s go there,” Wendy said and led
the way.

“So how are things with the kids, Rick,
the…uh hum…marriage?” Lucy asked.

Vivian threw her head back. “Uhhhh. It’s
stupid. The SPS interjects herself into everything. I swear she
goes to the kids’ activities just to make herself look like the
good stepmom. What she looks like is an idiot. A rude idiot, at
that.”

“Stupid swimming pool slut,” Lucy said.

“What do you mean?” Kate asked Vivian.

“She came to Audrey and Lauren’s dance
recital, but left early. She came to the Audrey’s PTA performance,
but looked beyond bored. I seriously think she’s going just to show
the world ‘I’m here so suck it.’ ”

“Is she nice to the kids?” Wendy asked.

“They don’t really talk about her, which I
guess means she’s not beating them or anything like that.”

Kate gasped. “You don’t think?”

“No, Rick wouldn’t let that happen.”

Kate was relieved. “Okay, good.”

They
arrived at Forever New Orleans which had an excellent, kid-friendly
section. Vivian picked out a cute
Alex the Alligator
book for Ben, a stuffed sea
turtle for Olivia, hair bows with crawfish on them for Lauren, and
a Mardi Gras mask decorated with peacock feathers for Audrey. “The
kids are going to love these.”

“Good job, momma,” Wendy said. “I was
thinking about getting something for Lizzie.”

Wendy’s niece, Lizzie, had been diagnosed
with a rare form of adrenal cancer at six-months old and not given
much of a chance to live. Her parents didn’t accept that fate and
took her to the Burzynski Clinic where she had been getting
Antineoplaston treatment for the past two and a half years.

“How’s she doing?” Kate asked.

Wendy smiled and showed them a picture. “The
tumors in her liver are gone and there are only two left in her
lungs, but they’re shrinking. She’s going to beat this!”

Lucy took Wendy’s phone and enlarged the
picture. “Wow, she looks great. Doesn’t even look sick.”

Wendy looked at the picture again. “She
doesn’t act it either. Into everything.” She turned her attention
back to Vivian. “What do you suggest for her?”

“Look at the little book I bought.” Vivian
pushed a lever on the side of the alligator head at the top of the
book and its mouth opened and closed. “Hours of entertainment.”

“Special book for a special niece. Sold.”

S
hopping
out of the way, Vivian, Wendy, Lucy and Kate walked to Bourbon and
down a couple of blocks, and there it was. Kitty City. Hot pink
neon lights reflected off the murky puddles in the
street.

“This isn’t going to be one of those live sex
act places, is it?” Lucy asked.

“Guess we’re about to find out,” Vivian
said.

Standing outside the door and trying to lure
in dollar bills was a dancer in high-heeled, black patent leather
boots with a string around her neck, the middle of her back, top of
her waist, around her thighs and down her crack. She turned to
greet the girls when they walked up, revealing the thin strap in
front, barely covering her nipples, and a small flap of fabric
covering her coochie.

“We love the ladies, no escort needed,”
String girl said and handed them a postcard of Trikki Vikki. “We
have a special treat tonight, but there is a two-drink
minimum.”

Vivian said thanks while Lucy snickered and
Wendy started to laugh, then tried to cover it up with a cough.

Once inside, they found a table close to the
stage. The current feature, a spiky-haired, flat-chested girl,
looked stoned. She was using the pole more to hold herself up than
to dance.

Vivian
couldn’t help but think of Josh Weathers’ song, “What Does It Mean
To You,” as she looked around. His lyrics rang true for the girls
here,
You know your momma raised ya better
. None of them looked happy to be
there.
Eight hundred dollars a night, opens up your days.
And you got them bills you just…got to pay. Brand new Benz
sittin…in the driveway
, but
that’s probably why they were.

Vivian
laughed to herself.
I doubt these girls are pulling in
$300 a night, much less $800
. Her attention was diverted by the waitress in a red
pleather dress with keyhole cutouts around the navel and cleavage.
The girls ordered a round of beers, and Vivian looked at the
waitress like she must have misunderstood the order when she set
glasses not much bigger than a shot glass in front of
them.

“Sixteen dollars, please,” Pleatherette
said.

“Uhhh, we ordered four beers,” Vivian
said.

“Yep, that’s it. Sixteen dollars.”

The girls paid, shot their beer, then ordered
their mandatory second round. Vivian scanned the crowd for big
guys. Instead she saw two big girls in matching shirts, Bitch 1 and
Bitch 2. They sat stage left and had their attention focused on the
stoned dancer. One of them noticed Vivian looking at them and
waved.

Vivian gave a hesitant smile.

The music changed to Marcy Playground’s “I
Smell Sex and Candy.” A big-busted, solid black dancer sauntered on
stage wearing a candy-striper outfit and carrying an oversized
candy cane, the kind in yards around Christmas. She shimmied,
swiveled and swung, never dropping her prop.

The Bitches were front and center, ready to
give Candy a treat. Bitch 1 was tall, probably 5-9, with dirty
blonde hair. She frantically waved a dollar in the air as Candy
danced over, removing her striper layer and revealing a G-string as
yellow as a banana Laffy Taffy.

Lucy leaned over to Vivian, nodding her head
in approval. “You have to admit, that’s a good color for her.”

Bitch 2 was shorter with dark, country-girl
plain Jane hair. She was more discreet with her dollar, gently
placing it in Candy’s taffy string.

Instead of walking back to their table, the
matching Bitch set took the spot next to Vivian and the girls, who
all looked at each other and shared a moment of mortification.

It won’t last long,
Vivian thought.

Bitch 2 leaned over to Vivian. All Vivian
could see was the giant cold sore on her lip.

“Hey there, I’m Tereza. This is Susie.” Bitch
1 lifted her chin in a nod. “Are you here to see Trikki Vikki?”

“As a matter of fact, we are,” Vivian
answered, trying to look at her eyes and not her nasty lip. “We saw
her last night, too. She’s something else.”

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Vivian held up her shot glass of beer. “I’m
set. Thanks, though.”

Bitch 2 rubbed Vivian’s arm. “If you change
your mind, let me know.”

Bitch 1 hit 2’s arm. “What the fuck are you
doing? Flirting with this straight bitch right in front of me?”

Bitch 2 shoved her chair back, which fell
over. “I’ll talk to whoever I want to talk to. What’s your
problem?”

The bouncer was suddenly between them.
“That’s it. You’re out.”

Bitch 1’s eyes flashed and she shoved her
girth against him. “This is bullshit. We haven’t done anything. We
bought our two stupid drinks.”

“Out.” The bouncer stood his ground and
pointed to the front entrance.

Bitch 2 stormed off and Bitch 1 got in his
face. “You’re messing with the wrong bitch.” She turned and walked
out.