The Major Crimes Team - Vol 1: Lines of Enquiry (7 page)

Looking around she saw the young lad coming her way once more. She’d already danced for him three times but he seemed to be coming back for a forth turn. He was now so drunk he was slurring to the point of incomprehension, his eyes almost blank and unseeing.

Lauren felt guilty taking his money, aware that tomorrow morning would bring him nothing but a raging hangover and an empty pocket. If he was lucky he might be able to remember the first time she’d danced.

When the dance, Lauren exited the booth, to see a face which filled her with dread.

Walking towards the booths behind Katya was a face from her past. Ten years ago Mr Simmons had been her geography teacher. Bored by his turgid style of teaching she had spent most of his lessons giggling with friends.

Even at a young age she’d been aware of his attentions. Understanding he fancied her and some of her mates, she pushed the boundaries of acceptable classroom behaviour secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t administer any of his threatened punishments. The same behaviour in other classrooms would have seen her marched to the headmaster’s office, but “Creepy Simmons” was a pushover for a pretty face.

She looked at the floor as she passed him, more afraid that being recognised would fuel his fantasies than of being exposed. The lecherous fool would get immense kicks from the knowledge and while she could refuse to dance for him, it would raise suspicions. Besides, in light of the dance off, there was going to be no hiding from him.

I hope he buggers off before then.

Scruffy’s voice cut across the air with a booming excitement. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed that tonight’s dance off between the sultry Monique and Mistress Katya will take place in just five minutes. Fill your glasses and get ready to fill your boots. It’s gonna be awwwwesome.’

‘Have you time for a quick dance?’

The speaker was one of the builders. Figuring they couldn’t start without her, Lauren nodded. ‘Would you like a ten or twenty pound dance?’

‘How about a superior dance?’

‘Sorry. I don’t know what you mean.’ The builder’s face changed in an instant. ‘Erm a tenner.’

As Lauren danced for the builder, she felt a stab of exultant vindication. She’d been waiting all night for someone to ask for a deluxe, superior or executive dance.

The three words each represented a different kind of order. Her cousin Christopher had learned of this ordering system when visiting Shakers on a night out with friends. Unknown to him, the ecstasy tablet which came with his deluxe dance was from a dangerous batch.

Within an hour of taking the tablet, he’d suffered a neurological collapse on the right side of his brain. He now lay in a hospital bed in an induced coma while doctors waited to see if his brain could repair itself from the damage wrought by the toxins.

Since hearing the news, Lauren had bullied, demanded and coaxed information from those in his company on that fateful night. They’d told her how Christopher was fine one minute and on the ground fitting the next.

Now she’d been asked for a superior dance, she knew she was on the right track. All doubts about being here assuaged by confirmation of the stories she’d been told. Knowing for certain didn’t make it any less risky, to either her health or career if she was uncovered, but it did give her the confidence to see it through.

Returning to the club floor after the dance, Lauren saw Scruffy waving her across to where he and Katya stood at the bar.

Now she had confirmation, it was all Lauren could do not to claw Katya’s eyes out. Tempting as the thought was, Lauren knew a greater satisfaction was to be had from bringing down Nicholson and whoever was behind the supply routes.

Scruffy looked at each of them in turn. ‘Youse ready?’

Not bothering to listen to their answers he climbed onto the bar and raised the microphone to his lips.

‘Iiiiit’s here! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the time you’ve all been waiting for has arrived. We’re about to start a Shakers dance off between the sultry Monique and the devilishly dirty, Mistress Katya. The girls will dance to two tracks each and you can decide on your favourite. The loser will buy every one of you a beer while the winner will be crowned Shakers’ champion.’

A host of cheers rang around the bar, but now the moment was at hand, Lauren’s nerves had evaporated. Armed with the surety of conviction she felt invincible. She would beat Katya. She would gain the approval of Scruffy and Nicholson. The approach to deliver the more exotic dances would soon be made and then she’d have her evidence.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain having the evidence, but that was a bridge she’d cross when she came to it.

‘First up we have the lovely, the bow-dacious. Miiistress Katya.’

Katya made her way onto one of the podiums playing up to the crowd as she went. As the music began, she embraced the pole and effortlessly hauled herself towards the ceiling. Halfway up the pole she stopped climbing and sat in an upright position, held in place by the strength of her thighs.

Unhooking her bra she let herself fall backwards, flinging her arms towards the podium, the move leaving her topless and upside down. Retaking the pole in her hands she somersaulted backwards and went straight into a series of gyrations.

Lauren watched with an analytical eye. Katya had the moves and she was brazen enough to follow through on them but there was no grace or style about her, or her act. Once exposed from the bra, her implanted breasts sat immobile on her chest like half grapefruits, her moves were more look at what I’m prepared to do, than seduction or enticement.

Katya was naked for the whole of the second song and she used the time to display her prowess with the pole while making sure every man in the room got an eyeful.

Scruffy led the round of applause and the cheering before introducing Lauren to the baying crowd.

Taking her place on the other podium, Lauren was grateful Katya had warmed the crowd up first.

She took a different approach to Katya and went for subtle seduction rather than shock and awe, only starting to remove her clothes when the second song kicked in. When the last item of her clothing hit the floor it was greeted with a load cheer.

As the music faded out Scruffy stood on the bar and called for order. When the crowd had quietened down he raised the microphone to his lips.

‘Gentlemen, I have Mistress Katya on my right and Monique on my left. Please cast your vote by moving towards whichever girl gets your vote.’

It took a couple of minutes but soon all the men in the room had cast their vote.

Lauren’s podium was surrounded by two-thirds of the men in the room making her the clear winner. Katya face twisted into a vicious scowl when Scruffy announced the result despite nobody needing to hear the official verdict.

Lauren received several requests for a private dance and by the time she’d worked her way through those prepared to wait their turn, Scruffy and the barman had served all the beers Katya had to stand.

Scarlett and Candy were kept busy with dances but Katya was getting nowhere. Every time she approached someone they shook their head. Had she not hated Katya with every fibre of her body, she would have pitied the woman.

Once the free beers were consumed, the place started to empty out.

Having decided to take the bull by the horns, Lauren approached Scruffy. ‘I was asked for a superior dance earlier. What are those?’

His eyes flickered left indicating he was using the right side of his brain. The creative side. A lie was on its way. ‘I dunno. Maybe it’s what the girls call a two girl experience. Ask the girls. They’ll tell you.’

Lauren thanked him and turned away. She needed time to think about the best way to approach the girls.

Candy seemed to be the friendliest, but both she and Scarlett obeyed Katya’s every command. To get the answers she needed she’d have to engineer some time alone with Candy.

*    *    *    *

Harry Evans stamped through the corridors of Durranhill Station. Janet had endured another restless night interspersed with nightmares and uncontrollable sobbing fits. When he’d left their flat she had only just fallen into a dreamless slumber.

Finding Lauren absent he demanded Chisholm tell him where she was.

‘She’s on her way Guv. I reckon she’ll be here in five minutes.’ Chisholm followed his words with a pointed look at his watch. Their shift wasn’t due to start for another fifteen minutes.

‘She better be here soon.’

Chisholm kept quiet and refocused his gaze on the twin computer screens on his desk, while Evans scowled at the piece of paper clutched in his hand.

‘What the fuck is this supposed to mean? I mean what the fuck do Mungo and Martins think they are playing at? This report is so full of shite it should have been sent to a sewage farm.’

‘Morning all. Is there a problem Guv?’ Lauren greeted them with a smile and passed around the containers of coffee she brought in every morning.

‘Aye there’s a fucking problem. I should’ve been a proctologist the number of arseholes I have to deal with.’

‘The M&Ms?’ Lauren directed her question to Chisholm who nodded in confirmation.

‘Nevermind that just now.’ Evans pointed at the door. ‘Shut that and then sit down.’

Lauren took her usual seat and then looked at Evans with innocent enquiry all over her face.

‘What’s up?’

‘What did you learn at Shakers last night?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Don’t even try and deny it. I had Jabba trace your mobile yesterday. You went to Shakers for an hour in the late afternoon then you were there from nine until just after one.’ Evans took a sip of his coffee. ‘When you came to me with those allegations, I could tell you weren’t going to take no for an answer. I know what you’re like. There’s no way you’d let it go after what happened to your cousin. The next logical step for you was to get a job there and try to get enough evidence to convince me to look into it.’

Lauren’s face flushed with anger as she rose to her feet and leaned across the desk at Evans.

‘I thought you’d try to stop me if I told you what I planned to do. Instead you worked it out and let me do it anyway. I don’t like being used. I don’t like it one little bit.’

‘And I don’t like members of my team going behind my back taking unauthorised undercover roles. Especially when they’re stripping.’

‘Then why didn’t you stop me?’

‘Would you have listened if I tried to talk you out of it?’ Evans waved a hand. ‘Don’t even bother to answer. We all know you wouldn’t. The only way to stop you was to grass you up to the brass or to Nicholson. You’d have lost your career or Nicholson would have cleaned up his act. Yes, I have been using you. I’ll admit that. But what you don’t know is that I had Jabba watching the front of the club and Bhaki watching the back. If you’d left through either door with anyone, they’d have called backup and then stepped in.’

Lauren’s jaw hung open for a second before she recovered her composure. ‘So you posted lookouts? What do you think would have happened if they’d been spotted?’

Evans gave a non-committal shrug.

‘I’ll tell you what would have bloody happened. My cover would have been blown and then I’d never be able to prove where Christopher got that dodgy ecstasy tablet from.’ Lauren fixed Evans with a ferocious stare. ‘Either back me or sack me. But don’t ever use me.’

Evans looked down at his desk. ‘I was backing you Lauren. You were off the books investigating a lead which we didn’t have enough proof to follow. What would you have had me do? Send in a gang of plain clothes coppers from another area? They’d have been rumbled in minutes. The only way to handle this was to let you do your own thing and provide discreet support.’

Lauren slumped back into her seat.

‘Here.’ Chisholm extended his hand towards Lauren. A small jewellery case was between his fingers. ‘Gies your mobile.’

‘Why?’ The fight had evaporated from her as she realised Evans’s hands had been tied by bureaucracy and her actions.

‘I’m gonna put an app onto it which’ll let me listen to anything the microphones in these earrings pickup.’

Lauren’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’ve never heard of anything like this in the police tech armoury, where’d you get it from?’

Chisholm pointed at his computer. ‘Courtesy of a certain Mr Google and the guv’s credit card.’

*    *    *    *

Lauren walked into Shakers with a confident strut. Now she had the backing of Harry Evans and the rest of the team, she felt the odds of getting a result had taken a big swing in her favour.

Her shift last Saturday had passed without event. Katya had left her alone and nobody had asked her for anything other than an ordinary dance.

She had her suspicions though. Candy seemed to get more than her fair share of dances. Which considering her looks rang alarm bells. Coupled with the high number of people who came in, had one dance with her then left, it seemed obvious she was the main supplier.

Lauren had also noticed the men who took a dance with Candy often spoke to Katya first.