“Course not, baby.”
“Well, then?” She looked at him expectantly.
Junior very reluctantly gave the names and addresses.
“Now, Junior,” said King delicately, “I need you to be straight with me here. We’re working for your attorney, so everything you say is confidential, it goes no further.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “Did you have anything to do with that break-in? Not that you did it yourself, but might you have done something to help somebody else do it, maybe even unknowingly?”
Junior stood, his hands balled into big fists. “Okay, asshole, how ’bout I mess up that face of yours!” he roared.
Michelle half rose, her hand sliding to her holstered gun, but King motioned for her to stop. He said calmly, “Junior, my partner here was an Olympic athlete, holds multiple black belts and could kick both our butts with her feet alone. On top of that she’s holstering a nine-millimeter cocked and locked and could put a round between your eyes at fifty feet much less five. Now, it’s been a long day and I’m tired. So sit down and start using your brain before you get yourself hurt!”
Junior glanced in surprise at Michelle, who stared back at him without a trace of concern or fear on her features. He sat, but his gaze kept skipping to her as King continued. “We don’t want to be surprised down the road. So if there’s anything you haven’t told us or Harry, you need to correct that right now.”
After a long moment Junior shook his head. “I’ve been straight with you. I didn’t do it and I got no idea who did. And right now I’m gonna go see my kids.” He rose and stomped into the trailer.
CHAPTER
21
WHEN KING AND
Michelle walked back to their car, Lulu went with them.
“Junior’s a good man. Loves the kids and me,” she said. “He works hard, but he knows things don’t look good for him, and it’s drilling a hole right through his belly.” She let out a long sigh. “Things were going good, maybe too good. My job’s going great, and Junior’s got more work than he can handle. We’re building a new home, and the kids are doing real good in school. Yeah, maybe it was all going too good.”
“You kept your maiden name?” said Michelle.
“I don’t have any brothers,” Lulu replied. “My sisters took their husbands’ names. I just wanted to keep the Oxleys around at least so long as I’m alive.”
“You work at the Aphrodisiac, don’t you?” asked King.
She looked a little startled. “That’s right, how’d you know?” She suddenly smiled. “Don’t tell me you been there.”
King smiled back. “Once. Years ago.”
“When I first went to work there, it was more a whorehouse than anything else. It was called the Love Shack back then, you know, after the B-52’s song. But I saw a lot more potential than that. Over the years we’ve turned it into a nice club. Okay, we still have the dancers and stuff, but that’s only in one section, the original part of the place. Junior did a lot of the new construction work. You should see some of the millwork in there now, wood columns, nice moldings, classy drapes and wallpaper. We got a real nice restaurant, with linen and china, a billiards room and a place to play cards, a movie theater and a first-class bar with a special ventilated place so the men can smoke cigars; and we just started a club for local businesspeople. You know, a place to come and network. We got Internet access, a business center. Revenue up eighty-six percent over last year, and last year was the best year we’d had in the last ten. And I’ve been pushing to change the name to something a little more…”
“Tasteful?” said Michelle.
“Yeah,” said Lulu. “I own a piece of the place, so that’s me and Junior’s retirement. I want it to be as profitab
le as possible. I got the costs in line, manageable debt levels and strong cash flow with little direct competition, and our target demographic is golden: male high income earners who don’t care how much they spend. You should see our EBITDA level compared to what it was.”
“You sound like quite the businesswoman,” said Michelle.
“Didn’t start out that way. I didn’t even finish high school. My daddy had an aneurysm when I was only sixteen. Dropped out to help nurse him. Guess I wasn’t much of a nurse; he died anyway. But then I married Junior, went back and got my GED and took business courses at the community college. I started working at the Love Shack part-time. As a waitress,” she added quickly. “I don’t have the necessary physical equipment to be one of the dancers. Worked my way up, learned the business, and there you are.”
“And one of your dancers was just killed,” said King.
Lulu stiffened. “How’d you know about that?”
“We’re sort of informal consultants to Chief Williams,” explained King.
“She was one of our former dancers,” corrected Lulu.
“Did you know her?” asked Michelle.
“Not really. We got lots of dancers come through. Most don’t stay all that long, nature of the business. And we play it by the rules. We don’t allow anything but the dancing. We’re not looking to lose our license to operate because some girl wants to make some cash on the side by spreading her legs.”