Skye's Trail (12 page)

“Yes.”

Skye sunk further into that other world. She took Callie into the endless blue again. Then with the gracefulness of a deer, they moved through the woods, heard the calming voice of the trees as wind moved through their leaves. She could feel the little girl’s joy as nature wrapped its arms around her.

“Are you afraid of the woods now?” Skye asked.

“No.”

The sunlight faded and darkness surrounded them. They flew as an owl does. Saw the forest in all its nighttime glory. The little girl’s eyes got wider as she saw the night as she’d never seen it before.

“Are you afraid of the dark now?” Skye gently asked.

“No.”

They circled the woods one more time. Night faded to day. And the illusion dissolved as Skye let little girl thoughts of dolls and balloons and bubblegum-flavored ice cream fill her mind. Then with a blink, it was done.

“Can we go to Baskin-Robbins now?” Callie asked in the carefree voice of childhood. “I want an ice-cream cone.”

* * * * *

Rico and a stone-faced Detective Caldwell were waiting for them as they stepped out of the police interrogation room. Callie never stopped talking as they walked out to the family’s rental car.

Once again Karen hugged Skye. When she was done, Jon offered his hand. “If there’s anything we can ever do for you, let us know. We’re in Richmond, Virginia. We’re in the phone book.”

“I’ll remember,” Skye told him, then stood with the two detectives as the Armstrongs climbed into their car and left.

“Do you know anything about a strip club named Bangers?” Skye asked Rico.

He shook his head. “Not my beat. But I don’t remember hearing they’ve been raided. Why?”

“A kid I’m looking for may have been seen there. Want me to flash Brittany’s picture around when I hit the strip club scene tonight?” Skye joked.

Caldwell’s reaction was immediate and predictable. Her entire body stiffened while her lips almost disappeared from being pressed so tightly together. Rico put his cop face on. “Do you have the picture with you?”

“No.”

The look he gave Skye told her that he didn’t believe her. But he let the subject drop. “Are you going to Bangers?”

“It’s my first stop.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

Remembered intimacy simmered between them as their eyes met and held. It wasn’t a good idea for them to be together in a place that existed for sex.

He knew it. She knew it. Yet neither of them voiced the thought.

* * * * *

As soon as Skye walked into Bangers she knew that if Amy and Brittany had frequented strip clubs, this was probably one of them. The clientele was diverse, everything from bikers to out-of-town tourists. Scattered in among them were more women than you’d expect, all of whom seemed to favor the solid-black, silver-studded, heavily body-pierced, Goth look. One of them sported fangs.

Rico and Caldwell were already there. They sat at the bar, backs turned away from the action taking place on stage as they talked to the bartender. Everything about them screamed cops.

A thick-necked black man with bulging arms covered by tattoos approached Skye. When he got to her he jerked his head in the direction of a table near the stage and said, “Big Daddy wants to talk to you.”

Skye nodded and followed the muscleman. Another black man was sitting at the table, his hair a mass of dreadlocks. As soon as Skye got to him, he turned to the four women sitting with him and said, “Get scarce.” They left without a word.

“Must be my lucky day. Big Daddy was just sitting here thinking about conducting some business with his friend, Skye.” The man stood and offered his hand. She took it and they went through a series of intricate moves before the handshake was done and they both sat down.

“What kind of business?”

Big Daddy laughed. “Can’t do no business without being a good host.” He snapped his fingers. A bare-chested waitress came over immediately. “Baby, get a beer for my friend.”

The waitress disappeared. When she returned and sat the beer down on the table, Big Daddy pushed a couple of bills into her green g-string. There was barely enough fabric to cover the money.

Skye put the bottle to her mouth and took a swallow as she waited for him to begin. He eyeballed her. “A couple of Big Daddy’s girls got hurt real bad. Big Daddy is trying to find the motherfucker who did it.”

“What happened to them?”

“Got their faces beat in. Then got
whore
carved on their stomachs.”

“They live?”

“Yeah. But they ain’t gonna look the same and their value to Big Daddy has been greatly reduced. They was good-lookin’ girls. Now I’m gonna have to send them where the clientele ain’t so picky.”

“When’d it happen?”

“One a little while back. One two days ago.”

“The cops have any leads?”

Big Daddy slapped the table and laughed so loudly that heads turned in their direction. Then with a mercurial change he stopped laughing and looked straight at Skye. “I got my own kind of justice. And it don’t involve cops.”

Skye shrugged. “Can the girls describe the guy?”

“No. Nothing besides the fact that he’s a vicious motherfucker.”

“There’re a lot of those around.”

Big Daddy laughed again. Then he snapped his fingers and the muscleman reached into his pocket and pulled out a collection of pictures. He dropped them on the table in front of Skye. She studied them. The faces barely looked human. The carved-up stomachs a further testament to how vicious the attacks had been.

She looked closely at the picture that had both girls standing side by side before they’d been attacked. They were young, underage or just barely legal. Both were white with a drugged-out runaway look to them. Both had stringy brown hair and green eyes.

“They related?” Skye asked.

“No.”

“Looks like he goes for the same type.”

“Yeah. Big Daddy thought so too. Big Daddy’s got protection on some of his girls just in case.”

Skye separated out the picture taken before the attack. “This one for me?”

Big Daddy flashed pearly-white teeth. “If you think you’re gonna need it to help Big Daddy with his problem.”

“What’re their names?”

“The piece on the right is Tia. The other one’s Angel.”

“They staying with your other girls, down by the biker bar?”

“That’s the place.”

“I’ll need to talk to them.”

“Big Daddy will tell all his people they can talk to you about this.”

“I’m working a couple of cases right now. I’ll fit it in when I can.” Skye pulled the pictures of Jen, Brittany, and Amy out of her pocket and laid them side by side in front of Big Daddy.

“Mmm, mmm. These two wouldn’t bring in much money.” He pointed at Brittany and Jen, garbed in black and covered in body-piercings. “Big Daddy don’t let his girls do themselves like this.”

Skye tapped the picture of Amy. “She probably has the same look. This is an old picture. They may have come around here.”

“Big Daddy can’t be everywhere at once. He doesn’t personally keep an eye on the girls at this club.” He studied the pictures a moment longer then looked at his bodyguard and nodded.

The other man leaned forward and flipped the picture of Brittany over. “Used to see these two every night.”

“They hustling?”

“No. I may have seen them once or twice with a couple of guys. But they weren’t working girls.” He flipped the picture of Amy over, leaving Jen’s picture faceup. “Another dude’s been around here a couple of times looking for this one.”

“Red hair, short, wiry?”

“That’d be the dude.”

So Kyle had been looking for Haley’s sister. It answered one of Skye’s questions, but opened the door to another question—whether or not he’d ever found Jen.

“A friend of the family,” Skye said as she scooped up the three photos plus the picture of Tia and Angel and put them in her pocket. Then she turned to Big Daddy. “I’ve got to go visit with my friends at the bar about these other girls. The sooner I find out what happened to them, the sooner I can turn my attention to your—” she gave a half-smile, “—quest for justice. Maybe to help things along, your friend here could call me if he sees my girls. And maybe you’d let your girls know it’s okay for them to look at my pictures and tell me what they know.”

“So Big Daddy helps you find your girls and you help Big Daddy find the motherfucker who damaged his girls.”

“Something like that.”

“Big Daddy will let his people know.”

Skye finished the rest of the beer then put the bottle back on the table. “Thanks for the drink,” she said as she stood. “I’ll stop by and visit the girls as soon as I can.”

“Big Daddy’ll be in touch.”

For once Rico and Caldwell wore identical frowns when Skye joined them. “How can you sit at the table with that scum?” Rico asked. A muscle twitched in his cheek.

“Think of it as being undercover,” Skye answered.

His frown deepened. “It looked like you were doing business with him.”

“My business, Rico. And I’m not a cop.”

The bartender came over and asked her if she wanted something. She ordered another beer. “Get anywhere flashing Brittany’s picture?”

“You’d better not be carrying it.” Caldwell’s voice was hostile.

Skye grimaced. “This is getting old. For the record, the kids I’m looking for disappeared before Brittany did.”

“Who are they?” Caldwell asked.

“That’s privileged information,” Skye answered and the detective’s lips pressed together in annoyance.

“But they were into this vampire shit, right?” Rico asked. His expression was all-cop.

“Yeah,” Skye agreed. “They were.” She knew he’d run a check for missing persons when he got back to the station. She also knew he wouldn’t find anything. “Don’t guess you’d want to exchange information,” she ventured.

Caldwell’s frown was immediate. Rico’s eyes narrowed.

“Stay out of the Armstrong investigation. It’s an open case.” Rico’s voice was terse.

Skye studied him, wondered if he was uptight because he’d seen her with the pimp or because Caldwell was with him. She paid the bartender and took a swallow of beer. Rico’s phone hummed and he walked away without a word.

“Thanks to your stunt with the kid, the captain reamed his ass this afternoon.” Caldwell’s voice was hostile.

“And I thought aiding citizens was supposed to be a police priority.” Skye looked over at the detective, amused at how quickly Caldwell averted her eyes.

“Doesn’t it bother you that Rico got in trouble because of something you did?”