Exposed by Rage (4 page)

“You have that look on your face,” Poppy said, drawing me back to the present space I occupied.  “You’re puzzling over something.”

“It[s just I never really thought about Jillie having money and what all this must cost.  If I missed something like that about her, what else have I missed?  Something that might have cost her life?”

* * * *

Poppy and I had stayed up late, talking, tossing around ideas, who might have a motive to kill Jillie, could someone who tortured her the way they had, hide all that raw anger?  Look normal?  Nothing really jelled.  She did make me wonder if the police had found Jillie’s will.  I hadn’t seen it in the main safe, just a glance to see if anything was obviously removed, before they arrived, and I hadn’t opened the one in the kitchen, where I suspected she kept most of her more business oriented paperwork.  Had the crime techs discovered that safe?

I was just pouring coffee when Poppy walked in and took the cup from my hand.  “You going to the club this morning? I asked her.    There won’t be anyone to show you around.”  I grabbed a large mug and filled it.

“Yea, just like I want it.  I’ll bet I can find the password to the computer somewhere in the desk, and if not I can just do a quick inventory of the stock until someone shows up.”

I handed her the club keys and agreed to pick her up at one for lunch.  When she drove off, I walked over to the garage to look at the vehicles.  I’d called the rental company and they were sending out a driver to take my rental car back to the airport.

I began to wonder how well I knew Jillie.  The Lexus wasn’t what I expected.  An eco-friendly one-room mansion on wheels. I don’t know much about the Lexus but I sure didn’t expect a hybrid and I was pretty sure it had every bell and accessory available.  I was not going to be comfortable driving this around, but it was mine now, so I had been told, and I had the key to it.  Figured it would be less obvious than the T’s or even the truck, which was hot pink.

My cell vibrated and rang. “Hello?”  I listened. “Hi, Dylan, thanks for...

Are you okay, Ash?  I know this is really hard for you.”

“Yeah, I’m going to really miss her, Dylan.”

Dylan was the closest thing I’d probably ever come to a boyfriend, lover, fill in the blank.  Of course all that was history after I failed to perform in the lover roll.  Now he was my friend.

“Thanks for calling. I don’t know when the funeral will be.”

“Ashley, I’m not coming just for the funeral. I want to help you find this pervert.  Poppy told me how badly Jillie was mutilated. You don’t need to be doing this investigation on your own.”

Poppy needed to keep her nose where I asked her to put it.  We hadn’t even talked about Jillie much. I suppose she’d gone through my stuff and found the photos. 

“Look you just made the move into the Criminal--”

“I’ve already taken care of that, I’ll be on leave. I want to be there to help watch your back and keep Pop and you safe.  Don’t argue.”

I hate it when he did that, just steam rolls over me and wouldn’t let me finish a sentence.  Another reason we didn’t make it in the romantic dance. “The people I need to talk to aren’t going to trust you, Dylan.  If you’re with me, they won’t trust me either.”

“We’ll find a way. Where are you staying?”

I told him about the pool house. There was also a room over the garage, no reason for him to have to go to a hotel.  We talked a few more minutes and said goodbye.  He’d be in tonight, was driving his truck.  Good thing I now owned a place with more than a miniscule living area and a bedroom where you could hardly walk around the bed.  Not that I would let him anywhere near the bedroom.  And, as a bonus, parking was going to be easy.

I spent the morning visiting people who worked at the club and lived in North Dallas and Richardson, a suburb of Dallas. No one had noticed anyone unusual.  I had to ask myself, what was unusual in their business?  The regulars were really people from the fringe of normality, if there was such a thing.

I was going to have to go back to Trixie’s, and I knew I was stalling.  Might as well get it over with since we would be seeing each other that evening at the reading of the will.  I hadn’t told DeMarco everything. Jillie had been upset by the actors, something going on there.  I hadn’t listened because what she wanted to tell me had to do with Trixie.  Well, I still wasn’t ready to immerse myself into that world.  I hadn’t seen one of those movies since I pinched a couple of the videos from Trixie’s office when I was fifteen and she was out of town---again. But, when I looked at any of the actresses, with their balloons they called boobs, it made me hurt.  I drove to the strip club, which sat on a little piece of land on Highway 121 a bit northwest of Plano. 

“Ashley, this business is a mess,” Poppy said when I arrived in the office.  “I don’t know what’s going on but things are off here.  First, the inventory is twice what it should be for a place this size. You’ve got enough alcohol to carry you for the next three months.” 

“We’ll talk about this on the way to lunch,” I told her as we walked through the bar. 
Reaching the car, Poppy slid inside, took out her compact and lipstick, and began to freshen her makeup as I pulled out of the parking lot.

“Okay, so what does that mean?” I asked.

“I’m guessing Jillie was a little paranoid, maybe stockpiling.  She has three safes in this building that I’ve found.  Someone tried to jimmy the one in the office open.” 

“Who would--?”

“I already have my list of suspects for that one.  It’s really sad, the combination was taped to the back of the picture of you she kept on her desk, and now that pretty little safe has big gouges in it.”

“So you think someone here is responsible for the murder, someone who tried to open the safe?”

“No, I think you have some people who took advantage of your friend.”

“Jillie was easy to take advantage of.  I used to kid her about mothering me after I left home.  She did it because she didn’t have a family and she felt shame about the movies.”

“I never thought she was ashamed of it,” Poppy said. "She was very open when I talked to her, and even defensive of the actors and actresses out there.”

“She wasn’t ashamed she’d been in them, it was more that she knew there were some real predators in the business and she wasn’t doing anything about them.” 

We pulled into the parking lot at the Frisco mall, and made our way to the Cheesecake Factory.  Sharing their Chinese Chicken Salad made me feel less guilty when we ordered the Godiva® Chocolate Brownie Sundae.  Everyone needs to be wicked occasionally.

“Ash, I think Randi and Kevin have been doing a little skimming.  The dancers’ fees seemed to have dipped significantly over the last six months, but the bar receipts are increasing.  Randi collects the fees.  Kevin appears to be responsible for making the payments for the food and beverage deliveries.  These orders have gone up twenty-five percent just in the last two months and I can’t find paperwork to account for the difference.”

“Maybe it’s the economy.  Gas and delivery prices are rising faster than flood waters.” 

“I took that into consideration.”

I would have to think about what Poppy was telling me.   “Dylan called.  He’ll be here tonight.”

“He’ll want to help and offer you a shoulder to cry on, if you’ll let him.”

“Well, I won’t.  You know how I feel.  He’s a good guy, but men are--”

“Ashley, not all men are like the ones your mother has around her.  They aren’t--”

“No, some are like your brothers.  Big men.  They know more than you do because you’re a woman.  Always keeping you in your place.”

Poppy sneered at my words, she avoided talking about them the way I avoided speaking of Trix.

“Dylan’s not like the actors.  He’s a friend, and only a friend.  I don’t want anything else.  I can’t think of him in any other way.  If things were to change--”

“If things change, maybe you’d find out you can love.  Maybe you’d discover you don’t have to push people away.”

We’d had this discussion too many times.  I’d met Dylan in the army, he was still there, I was thinking I wasn’t going back.  “This isn’t helping me find a killer.”  I signaled the waiter for our check.  As I put my wallet back in my purse, my cell phone rang.

“DeMarco,” I mouthed as I touched answer.  “Detective, what can I do for you?”

“I thought I’d check in, see if you’d come up with anything.  Seems like you got to just about everyone I wanted to talk to before I had a chance.”

“Nothing.  So what next?”

“I have the autopsy preliminary report.  It will be a while before we get the results of the drug and other blood tests. Pretty sure she was drugged since we didn’t find signs of a struggle, but it will take some time to run each of the tests needed to ID which drug was used.”

Poppy followed me to the car as I continued my conversation with DeMarco.  “I know, it’s not like on television, so is there something else?” I asked him.

“I have some pictures of a, uh . . .”

“Spit it out, what else did that pervert do to her?”

“There’s a design that he burned into her shoulder.  It looks like some kind of flower.  It was a mess, so it’s hard to tell what kind.  You ever see anything like that?”

“I don’t know.  There are all kinds of flowers.”

“When can we get together, can you look at the photos?”

“I’ll be at the house later, about six.  Come hungry and Poppy will feed us both.”

* * * *

After lunch I dropped Poppy off at the club, so she could continue her review of the paperwork.  I told her I’d talk to Randi and Kevin later.  I couldn’t be sure Jillie hadn’t told them to help themselves to whatever they needed.  I’d have to think about how I wanted to approach them before I made a scene.  It was time to brave the viper’s nest again, this time alone.  I expected this visit to be very different from the one I’d made with DeMarco. 

The toy boys were not in evidence when I arrived.  No one answered the door, so I walked to the back of the house.  Several of the actresses were lying around the pool in various stages of undress.  I wondered what kind of life had brought them to this place.  I didn’t know these women, but I knew a lot of their predecessors.  Jillie said working for Trixie was as good as it could get in the business.  I didn’t buy it.

“If you’re looking for Trixie, she won’t be back until tomorrow or the next day,” the woman closest to me said. “You look a little old to be looking for work, honey.”

The others laughed.  “I’m not looking for work.  I’m here to ask you and your friends about Jillie Favor.  Did you know her?”

“You don’t look like a cop and we already talked to them.  I don’t know if we should answer your questions.  You got identification?” 

I seemed to have stumbled upon the voice of the poolside pillars of pornographic society.  “I’m...was a good friend of Jillie’s.”

“Old hag.  Probably got what she deserved.”

The words were acid poured over the pain of Jillie’s death.  Only my training allowed me to keep from slapping the brainless nitwit.  

The French door to the pool house opened.  “Mimzi, shut your mouth and go inside,” Eve ordered.  “The rest of you go in the house and get dressed.”

“Eve.  You?  Playing mother hen to the bimbos these days?”  I was surprised.  Eve was never one to lead, usually stayed well in the background and out of the sunlight at least that’s what I thought.  She had been around the films for the last three or four years.  She was five eleven, jet black hair, and the only color in her otherwise ivory face was the perfect rosebud pink of her lips and the startling ice blue of her eyes.

“No, I’m protecting them.  Trixie hears about this and, well, you know how she can get.”

“Didn’t know you could care.”  Eve was one of the most uncaring people I had ever met.  She had come from hell, and it showed when she wasn’t in front of a camera. 

“I don’t, but I was told to look after them.  What are you doing here, Ashley?”

“I need to find Jillie’s killer.”

“Well, whoever did it isn’t here.  I don’t think the bimbos, as you put it, have the intelligence to do something like that and get away with it.”

“Whoever did it is getting away with it.  They may know something—“

“The only thing they know is how to give a blow job and move their hair out of the camera’s eye.”  Eve pulled at the arms of the satin robe she had thrown on and cinched around her waist as she’d come out of the house.

“Don’t need to know anything else?  Doesn’t say much for your profession.” 

“Not much to say.  I’m trying not to offend your delicate sensibilities.  After all, you’re the one who doesn’t want anyone to know where you came from.”

I couldn’t argue and I was getting nowhere.  “When is Trixie due back?” 

“She’ll be back when she’s here.”  Eve shrugged, then followed her charges into the main house.  No one was going to talk to me unless Trixie gave the okay. 

Hell, I’m going to have to negotiate with mother, and I have nothing I’m willing to give. 

The toy boys drove past me as I walked down the drive to the front.  I’d talk to them later as well.  They couldn’t think for themselves any better than the smut darlings could.