Big Easy Escapade (15 page)

She ran her hand down Antonio’s muscular arm.
“You look like a pervert out here, by yourself watching everyone.
Come on.” She grabbed his hand and drug him to the dance floor.

Clint and Vikki were on the far side of the
floor, so Vivian and Antonio stayed on the other.

Antonio leaned in close. “What are you
doing?”

His breath on her neck gave Vivian chills.
“You can be under cover right here. It actually looks more
convincing than you being a stalker outside. Trust me, I’ve had
one.”

He laughed and went along with the charade.
He had some good moves. Excellent hip action.

Vivian stepped in a little closer and worked
some hip action of her own. She noticed Vikki and Clint moving
closer on the dance floor.

“I better go outside,” Antonio said, close to
her ear and tingling all the right places.

She reached up, wrapped her hands around his
neck and drew him in for a kiss. Their bodies moved together for a
few beats. He pulled back and looked at her with passionate green
eyes. She’d hit the nerve she was going for.

A grin spread across his face. “This is my
kind of undercover work.” He glanced up, looking for Vikki and
Clint, who were walking out of the bar. “But I better get back to
it.”

Antonio walked Vivian to the table and
squeezed her hand before walking out the door.

“What was that?” Lucy exclaimed.

Vivian grabbed her purse from Kate. “Hooker
Vikki left. We gotta go!”

The girls walked out of the club just in time
to see Vikki and Clint turn on Toulouse. A few doors down they
walked into The Dungeon.

“Oh my gosh, I’ve been here,” Wendy said.
“It’s super dark inside. We can definitely follow them.”

They waited a few minutes, then went through
a door and into a courtyard, passing a tall, bearded, nose-ringed
guy who didn’t ask for any IDs but grunted at them as they entered
the bar.

Because of the darkness, Vivian stopped after
a few steps. Lucy ran into the back of her, then bounced into Kate,
who helped steady her.

“Dammit, it’s like a dungeon in here! I can’t
see anything!” Lucy grabbed onto Vivian’s shirt. “Lead me,
seeing-eye bitch!”

Vivian’s eyes adjusted to the reddish glow
that barely shone on the bar. No Clint or Vikki. “Where could they
have gone?”

Wendy took the lead. “Follow me.” She weaved
through the crowd to the back of the bar and led them up a narrow,
wooden staircase to a dance floor. A D.J. played alternative rock
in one corner, and a bar was in another.

Vivian still didn’t see them.

Wendy pulled them onto the dance floor and
nodded toward one of two jail cells at the far end of the small
room. “There they are, making out.”

Sure enough, Clint and Vikki were goin’ at it
like an inmate and a visitor at a conjugal.

The girls danced for a few songs while Clint
and Vikki did their own jailhouse rhumba.

“Isn’t that the bellman from Harry’s hotel?”
Wendy nodded toward a guy standing by the bar, alone.

“I knew he was a cop!” Kate said.

They kept dancing until the song transitioned
to a new one. Vivian stopped. “My legs are tired, they’ve had
enough, and I’ve had enough of the jail cell rock over there.”

“Only way out is down the stairs,” Wendy
yelled over the music. “We can hit Tropical Isle and still see the
entrance here if y’all want to go there.”

Everyone agreed and they made their way out
of the bar and across the street.

Weird Al and his band were on stage again,
singing Van Morrison’s “Moon Dance.” The Blue Ball special had been
replaced by the Pink Pussycat, which made the girls giggle.

“I want one of those!” Lucy yelled.

Kate insisted, no, she would not be having
one.

Instead, Wendy ordered a round of beers and
two bags of hot nuts for snackage. They staked out a spot at the
bar where they had a clear shot of The Dungeon door.

“These hot nuts rock,” Vivian said, peeling
and popping two peanuts into her mouth.

Everyone agreed, digging in.

After about 45 minutes, another round of beer
and hot nuts, Vikki walked out looking disheveled. Her pigtails
were no more and her miniskirt was sideways. Clint was right behind
her, shirt unbuttoned and wearing a smile.

Lucy pointed to the street. “There they
are!”

Vivian shoved her hand down. “Shhhhh! We’re
being spies here!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot, we’re secret agents.”

The girls followed behind, being loud with
the crowd, stopping to grab the occasionally tossed beads from up
above. Eventually the couple turned off Bourbon, walking toward
Rampart.

“I don’t like the feel of this area,” Kate
said. “It’s spooky.”

“I can’t believe you, of all people, think
this is spooky,” Vivian said. “Ooooooooooo…”

Kate nudged her. “It is. I’ve got goose
bumps.”

“It’s just not the touristy part of the
Quarter,” Wendy said. “We’ll be fine.”

V
ivian,
Lucy, Wendy and Kate stood in the shadow of a giant oak tree in
front of Louis Armstrong Park. Clint and Vikki went into a room of
a small motel across the street. Some of the windows of the motel
were covered in foil, and clothes hung off the second-floor balcony
that ran the length of the timeworn building. Cash was probably
king.

The light
in their room clicked on and shadows passed back and forth in front
of the window. Vivian heard them yelling.
So much for the
lovey-dovey act from moments ago.

“We need to see if Daisy’s in the room,”
Wendy said. “Let’s go try to peek in the window.”

“No way, José,” Kate said. “I’m not
going.”

“You have to,” Vivian said. “Clint is more
likely to recognize me than you. Please?”

“I’ll go!” Lucy yelled, then stepped off the
curb.

“Hold it there, Lushy Lucy,” Wendy grabbed
her arm and pulled her back. “We’ve got to be discreet, and right
now, you’re not. I’ll go with Kate. You stay here with Viv.”

Wendy and Kate ran across the street and hid
behind a hedge of boxwood bushes that stood between a sidewalk and
the concrete stoop.

Wendy heard loud voices on the other side of
the sliding glass door. “Unless Vikki’s voice now resembles that of
Barry White, I swear that sounds like two guys in there.” She
concentrated for a moment, then asked Kate, “Can you make out what
they’re saying?”

Kate tilted her head. “Somebody’s definitely
mad. I think I hear Vikki yelling.”

“I’m getting closer,” Wendy said, then she
started to get up. Just as her head popped over the bush, the door
opened. Her heart pounded ninety to nothing as she ducked back
down.

“
You’re
such a screw-up, Kevin,” Vikki yelled into the room, holding the
door open. “Get the hell out of here. We’ll clean up the fucking
mess you’ve made.”

Wendy craned her neck, looking through the
bush, but couldn’t see anything inside.

A voice came from inside the room. “Sorry. I
fucked up. I’ll fix this.”

“No, don’t do anything, just leave.” Vikki
slammed the door, then muttered to herself, “Stupid idiot. I can’t
believe we’re related.”

A lighter clicked several times, and the
scent of a freshly lit cigarette wafted through the air.

Panic started to set in about the same time
Wendy’s thighs started to burn and quiver from the awkward position
she was crouched in. She reached over to Kate to steady
herself.

Kate mouthed the words, “Oh my god!” She was
in a less precarious pose, sitting on her knees.

A bottle crashed across the street and Vikki
looked in that direction, squinting, then went back to her
cigarette.

What are those girls doing over there? They’re going to
blow this!
Wendy
thought.

Two or three long minutes passed and the fire
in Wendy’s legs was too much. She fell back onto her butt, her
shoulder brushing against the bush. Rustling started, and a moment
later a bird flew out of the bush, right over their heads,
startling them.

It took everything in Wendy not to scream,
and Kate looked like she was about to lose it. Vikki did scream,
loudly, and a second later Clint poked his head out.

“What’s going on?”

Vikki flicked her cigarette over the bush,
landing it in Wendy’s lap. “Dumb-ass bird scared me.”

“Come on, we’ve gotta take care of this
shit.”

Wendy heard the door close, so she jumped up,
swatting at her pants. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Kate was already on her feet.

Vivian heard footsteps and hoped it was Wendy
and Kate. She and Lucy were hunkered down behind the oak tree and
too scared to look.

“What are y’all doin’ back here?” Wendy
asked.

They stood up and Vivian butt-bumped Lucy.
“When Grace here knocked over the beer bottle we decided to move
around back here.”

“Who leaves a beer bottle on the sidewalk!”
Lucy defended. “I mean, come on!”

Kate looked petrified. “Wendy almost caught
on fire and a bird almost gave us away. I thought we were
goners.”

“Did y’all see into the room when Vikki came
out?” Wendy asked.

“Not really, too far away,” Vivian answered.
“Just the TV flickering in the background and a guy, I think Clint,
standing beside it.”

“We couldn’t see from where we were sitting,
but we heard two guys and a girl.”

“Who was the other guy?”

“I think it might have been one of her
brothers. She called him Kevin, then mumbled something about them
being related,” Kate said. “More importantly, Clint said they had a
mess to clean up.”

“What kind of mess?” Lucy asked. “Think it
was something to do with Daisy?”

The door to the motel room opened and a big
guy in a T-shirt and athletic shorts stumbled out.

Vivian said, “He’s big like one of the guys
who took Daisy. Do y’all think she’s in there?”

“I think you should text Adrienne and let her
know what we heard,” Kate said.

Vivian typed out a quick message, and they
watched Kevin slowly work his way toward Bourbon.

A minute later Vivian’s phone vibrated.

Antonio said they’re on it and that y’all
need to LEAVE. NOW.

Vivian looked around. “The cops are watching
us watching Clint and Vikki. Adrienne says we need to leave.”

Kate hitched elbows with Lucy. “Well, if they
don’t want us here, let’s follow the other guy.”

They set off after Vikki’s brother. The
streets were empty, and following him onto Bourbon wasn’t a
problem. He stopped at a pizza-by-the-slice place.

“Oh my gosh, that sounds good,” Lucy said,
walking faster. “I’m so in.”

Kevin sat at a small table in the window,
working quickly through three slices. Lucy drug Kate into the line
while Wendy and Vivian grabbed a table.

Kate ordered a slice of cheese, but Lucy
ordered a slice of Italian sausage from a muscular, baby-faced
slice of Italian sausage behind the counter.

Lucy was in love. She couldn’t get enough of
her Italian stallion, Jonathon. She flirted with him at the counter
while Kate picked up the pizza and took it to the table. The
sausage slice slid off the paper plate and onto the floor.

Kate looked at the slice on the floor, then
up at Vivian and Wendy. “Whoopsie.”

Wendy hopped up. “It’s okay, five-second
rule.” She grabbed the plate from Kate and used it to scoop up the
slice. It had fallen crust-side down.

Vivian was horrified. “We can’t let her eat
that.” No telling the last time the tile floors were cleaned.
Bourbon Street black-traffic tracks made clear paths through the
place. Tomato sauce and God only knows what else was stuck under
their table.

Wendy sat back down. “It’ll be fine. It’s
nothing her immune system can’t handle.”

Kate laughed and sat down with the pizza.
“She’s too wrapped up in pizza boy to notice.”

“I think he’s outside the decade rule,”
Vivian said. “He is awfully cute, though, and I bet he’s spunky and
energetic.”

Kate took a bite of her cheese slice, then
offered it to Wendy and Vivian. “This is pretty good.”

Lucy walked over, Jonathon in tow. “Let me
check out your handiwork.” And with that, she took a big bite of
her Italian sausage. “Mmmm, fantastic.”

Vivian tried not to cringe as Lucy playfully
fed Jonathon a bite. She also tried not to laugh.

Jonathon reached for a packet of red pepper.
“I like to spice things up.”

“Pour some pepper on me, baby,” Lucy said,
then took another big, dramatic bite.

Wendy got out her phone. “Lucy, you and lova
boy skooch over to the left a little so I can get your
picture.”

Jonathon picked up the piece of crust and fed
it to Lucy. “Open wide.”

Wendy angled the camera just right and
snapped a couple of shots. “Got it.”

“Let me see,” Lucy asked and reached for the
phone. “You chopped off Jonathon!”

Kevin got up, leaving his trash on the table,
and walked onto the side street. Vivian followed him out. He hailed
a cab and was gone a second later. She looked for another cab, but
none was around. She went back inside and sat down. “Dammit, that’s
the end of that.”

Wendy held up her phone. “I got a picture of
him, though.”

Kate finished her slice. “What we need is his
address.”

“I’ll call Adrienne in the morning,” Vivian
said, then looked at her watch. It was 4 a.m. “Or maybe right about
noon.”

Wendy yawned and stretched. “I think it’s
time to call it a night. I’m done.”

Lucy ran a hand down Jonathon’s arm. “We have
to go.”

“I’ll walk ya back,” he said and stood.

Jonathon didn’t bother to let his boss know
he was leaving; he just walked out with the girls and escorted them
to their hotel. By the time they were in the lobby, he’d gotten a
text. He glanced at it and said, “I’m fired. But it was worth it,”
then he bent down and gave Lucy a kiss.