Perfect Gentleman

You won’t like me.

Whatever. I’ve stopped caring.

I’m not a bad guy, but you’re not going to believe that. People like you never do. You hear about what I do. You see how I live. You think, sleaze or deviant or something like that. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m all those things. I certainly don’t think God’s waiting for me to show up at his front gate.

Again, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t really about me, is it? It’s about Joseph Perdue.

Now there was a guy you should really hate. A real asshole. But you people only choose to see one side of him. You made him out the hero. Someday you’ll probably call him a martyr for the cause. For the American way. That’s what happens to the dead, isn’t it? No one cares about the truth.

I remember the first time he came into the bar.

That’s not really surprising. I remember every time someone new comes in. It’s part of my job. First I need to make sure the guy (they’re always guys) doesn’t look like an obvious problem. If he’s too drunk or too belligerent or has got a bad rep, I point him to another bar and say they got a special show that night and he shouldn’t miss it. Works every time. If he doesn’t seem like he’ll be a problem then I size him up, figure out how much we can expect to get out of him and what he might be looking for.

On the evening Perdue came in, the usual pop crap was blaring out of our far too expensive sound system. Occasionally, I’ve been known to sneak in an old Skynyrd album or TheDark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. God, I love that record. But the girls always protest and I seldom make it through “Speak to Me” before I have to flip back to Lady Gaga or Gwen Stefani or the Black Eyed Peas. When Perdue walked in, I’m pretty sure the song playing was “Perfect Gentleman” by Wyclef Jean.

Perhaps I should have taken that as a sign.

It was a slow night, a Tuesday. Our big nights are Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays-the first two because around here everyone is ready to start the weekend a little early, and Mondays because that’s when we hold our weekly body-painting contest. Nothing like some fluorescent paint, some beautiful young women, and a few black-light tubes to fill up the place and bring in the cash.

Event evening or not, we still had a full complement of girls, somewhere between twenty and thirty at the beginning of the shift. That number would depend on how many girls were sick, how many had found someone for an extended absence, and how many just didn’t show up.

No idea what our exact total was that night. I do know that Ellie was there. She was up on the stage with five or six others grinding away. But I’ve gotta say, whenever Ellie was on stage, it was as if she were dancing alone. That was her power. She was a superstar. The killer body and the killer personality and that killer something that wouldn’t allow you to take your eyes off of her.

You don’t see a lot of superstars. Maybe one or two per bar. Ellie was our one.

In strip bars in the States, the girls had routines, elaborate moves choreographed to the latest hip-hop favorite. But not here.

Of course, my place really isn’t a strip bar. And it’s nowhere near the States. It’s in Angeles City in the Philippines. Perhaps you remember Clark Air Base? Used to be the biggest U.S. base outside of the States. The old main gate is only a couple miles from the door of my bar. But then there was Mt. Pinatubo erupting ash over everything, and the Filipino people threatening to erupt in anger if the U.S. didn’t withdraw.

We withdrew.

Well, the government did. Us ex-pats, we stayed. And over the years we’ve been joined by more.

This is the part where you realize you hate me. Yeah, my bar is one of those kinds of bars. A go-go bar. At my place, you can watch them dance, buy them a drink, talk to them, and then take them out for the night or for a week if you want. You just gotta pay the bar fine, and it would be nice-but not necessary-if you tipped the girl after.

And this is the part where I tell you I take care of my girls. I try not to let them go out with jerks. It happens, but not as much as it does at other bars. I do what I can to protect them. I try to keep them out of too much trouble. I know it won’t matter, but there are a hell of a lot worse Papasans around than me.

So go ahead and hate me, but the business will still be here. The guys will still come. And so will the girls. Because for them the money’s better here, and there’s always a chance they might get taken out of the life to live in Australia or the UK or the States.

Perdue, if I remember correctly, glanced at the narrow stage-more like a runway down the center of the room back before I remodeled-then took a seat in an empty booth on the far side.

He wasn’t alone for long. That’s not why people come to the bars in Angeles City. They come for the laughs, for the cold bottles of San Miguel beer, but most of all they come for the brown-skinned girls so willing and available.

A couple of my waitresses in their uniforms of tight pink hot pants and white bikini tops approached him together. Only half interested, I watched the encounter, still unsure if the guy was one of those who was only gauging the talent and would soon be leaving, or was someone we could milk a few pesos out of, maybe even hook him up for the night.

One of the waitresses, Anna, giggled while the other one, Margaret, I think, looked over in my direction and said something to our new guest. Perdue looked at me, then removed a wad of bills from his pocket and handed a couple of notes to each of the girls.

Now I was intrigued. Guys usually didn’t pay for anything the moment they arrived. What happened next surprised me even more. Perdue got up from his booth and walked around the stage to where I sat at the bar.

He nodded at the stool next to the one I was sitting on. “May I?”

“Please,” I said.

“Thanks. I think the view’s better from over here.”

Indeed it was. Superstar Ellie with the do-me-now looks was swaying back and forth less than ten feet away.

“Joseph Perdue.” He held out a thin, rough hand.

“Wade Norris,” I said.

His grip was stronger than I expected. Whoever Perdue was, he was more powerful than he let on.

“You American, too?” he asked.

I nodded. “Ohio. Columbus.”

“Never been there. I’m from Wyoming, myself.”

“Yellowstone?” I asked. It was the only place I knew in Wyoming.

He smiled at me. “Nah. Laramie. Cowboy country.”

Anna walked over and handed Perdue a San Miguel, then set a cup on the bar behind him with a slip of paper inside noting the beer.

He held his bottle out toward me. “Cheers, Wade.”

I obliged by clinking the bottom of my bottle against the bottom of his. We both took drinks, his deeper than mine.

“I hear you’re the Papasan. You run things.”

Run would be a good word for it, I thought. I wasn’t the owner; he was thousands of miles away in the Netherlands. But I was the decision-maker. And gatekeeper.

I shrugged, then said, “You enjoying Angeles?”

“It’s not bad. But, you know, all these bars around here seem pretty much the same. You all got the neon, the mirrors with all the names painted on them, the big bells. The only difference I can see is the girls. Some places have a better group than others.”

I couldn’t argue with his assessment. There are over a hundred go-go bars in Angeles City, all offering pretty much the same thing: pre-recorded music and liquor and women.

“So how does ours rank?”

“About average.” He nodded toward Ellie. “Except for her. She brings your score way up.”

I couldn’t help but smile. The fish was circling the bait. Now all I had to do was hook him.

While Perdue took another drink, I caught the attention of Kat, the bartender. With a quick, almost undetectable motion, I indicated our new customer’s interest in our superstar. Less than a minute later, Ellie made her way off the stage and walked across the room to where we were sitting.

“Hey, Ellie,” I said. “How you doing?”

“I was getting hot,” she said. She pulled at her bikini top, like she needed to get air between the flimsy fabric and her C-cup breasts. She looked at Perdue and smiled. “Who’s this?”

“Another Yank,” I said. “Joseph Perdue.”

She held out her hand and gave him a look even the most disinterested man would be hard pressed to resist. “Nice to meet you. I’m Ellie.”

“Hi, Ellie,” Perdue said. Instead of shaking her hand, he kissed it, the whole time his eyes never leaving her face.

I knew the deal was done then, and twenty minutes later I was proved correct.

“He wants to pay bar fine, Papa. What do you think?” Ellie asked me. She and Perdue had moved to the booth he’d occupied when he’d first arrived. Now she had walked back over to me alone while her potential boyfriend for the night waited.

“He seems all right,” I said. “What do you think?”

“I think he has money,” she said.

“Then, by all means, have a great night.”

It didn’t surprise me when Perdue came in the next night and bar-fined her again. And I wasn’t particularly shocked that he’d decided to bar-fine her not just for that evening but for the rest of the week. The fish had not just swallowed the hook, but the hook and the line and the rod. Ellie was a hard one to resist.

Of course, the deal was good for everyone. I was happy to collect the cash. Ellie was happy to be out of the bar for more than just a few hours, and was definitely happy about her cut of the bar fine. And Perdue, presumably, was happy to be spending time with a beautiful girl at least twenty years younger than he was.

Honestly, after that night, I thought I wouldn’t see the guy again. I figured he’d probably bar-fine her for the remainder of his trip and when she came back to work, it would mean he was on the long flight home to the U.S. But two days later, he showed up in the middle of the afternoon.

It was Friday, but we wouldn’t get really busy until after dark. At the time, we only had two customers so the day-shift girls-about half as many as I’d have on that night-were huddled together in clicks talking or sitting alone texting their boyfriends, both foreign and Filipino, on their mobiles.

I had only been there thirty minutes, but as usual, my ass was glued to my favorite stool at the bar. If anyone else ever tried to sit there, Kat or one of the other bartenders made them move. “Papa Wade’s chair,” they’d say.

When Perdue came in, he took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine outside to the dim interior, then spotted me and walked over.

“Alone?” I asked.

“Ellie said she had to run home to take care of something. I’m meeting her at Mac’s in an hour.”

Mac’s was the main restaurant in the district, and where most everyone ended up at one time or another. But Perdue didn’t sound happy about it. In fact, I’d say he was pretty annoyed. But I didn’t push. My job was to make the customer feel as good as possible about his time in Angeles. Getting into the middle of a relationship between one of my girls and her honey ko was never a good idea. Unless, of course, it was because he was treating her badly.

Whether you believe it or not, we’re a family. And a hell of a lot better one than those most of my girls had grown up in back in the provinces. We watch out for each other. We’re there when times are good or times are bad. We know enough to give each other room when we need it, when to let hope simmer and not discourage it, and when to snap each other back into reality-albeit our reality-when we have to.

But what we really have to do is be careful not to crush the dream. In this make-believe world of faux love and real sex, it’s the dream that keeps a lot of the girls going. It’s the chance that maybe, just maybe, the guy they’ve got temporarily wrapped around their finger might fall for them hard. Maybe they can get him to spend his entire vacation with them. Maybe they can get him to call them, and email them, and send them money after he’s returned home. Maybe-and this is the big one-maybe he’ll even marry them and take them away from the islands.

It happens all the time. Only with thousands of girls working the business, a few a month leaving for better lives is a small percentage. Still, the dream is there. And I have always been careful not to get in the way of even that narrow chance.

“So you having a good time?” I asked.

I figured the only answer could be yes. He would have sent Ellie back by now if he wasn’t.

“Took her down to Manila yesterday. Had a little business to deal with. Thought she might like to do some shopping.” Perdue cracked a smile. “I guess I was right.”

I laughed. Take one of the girls shopping and she’d stay with you for free. It was their religion, but one they seldom indulged in unless it was on someone else’s dime. “So I’ll take that as a yes.”

The smile slipped again. “For the most part.”

We drank in relative silence as the perpetual soundtrack of Justin Timberlake and Robbie Williams and even vintage Spice Girls played on, only at slightly reduced, afternoon levels.

“Can I trust you?” Perdue asked.

I looked over at him, a knowing grin on my face. “Of course.”

It was my standard answer. Truth was, I already knew what he was going to tell me. It was going to be some variation of “Ellie’s not like the other girls,” or “I haven’t slept more than an hour at a time since I took her home,” or “Do you think you can meet someone special at a place like this?” They were all a prelude, a set-up to talking oneself into believing he’d fallen in love. Perhaps Ellie had actually found her ticket out of town.

But even as the thought came to me, I questioned whether it would really pan out. After you’ve worked here as many years as I have, you get a sense of the guys. And my sense of Perdue was that he wasn’t looking for a wife.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Can I trust you?”

I lifted up my beer. “You can tell me whatever you want. It’ll just be between us.”

For a few seconds, I thought he wasn’t going to say anything. He leaned toward me. “I’m Homeland Security,” he finally said, his voice barely audible above the music. In fact, it was so low, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.

“What?” I asked.

“Homeland Security. You know what that is, right?”

I’d been living in the Philippines since the late nineties and hadn’t actually set foot Stateside since before 9/11. But with CNN International and the large American ex-pat community-most of whom were former military-you couldn’t help knowing a little bit about what was happening back home.

“That’s, like, anti-terrorism, right?”

“That’s just part of it. But, yeah, that’s our main focus.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean, we get all types in the bar. Maybe he was trying to impress me. Homeland Security-it did sound important. Maybe I should have been impressed. But I wasn’t.

“I’m here looking into a few potential rumors. We want to neutralize any problems before they develop.”

“Neutralize?” I repeated. I think it might have been the first time I’d ever heard it used like that in conversation. “That’s why you’re in Angeles? Or why you’re at my bar?”

“The Philippines,” he said. “Mainly in the south. Two months now. I came up here for a little relaxation.”

Now we were back on familiar territory. “Glad we could help you with that.”

The corners of his mouth went up and down in what I could only describe as a quick smile. “When I was in Manila yesterday…” He let the words hang as he took a sip of his San Miguel.

“On your business,” I offered.

He nodded. “On my business. I heard something disturbing. It came to us through a very dependable source. But you know how these things are.”

No, actually, I didn’t. And I had no idea why he was even telling me any of this. But he was the customer, so I wasn’t about to stop him. Besides, it wasn’t just the girls who fell into a routine. Someday, I could tell this story to my other Papasan friends. They’d love it. “The secret agent confesses all to Papa Wade.”

“Seems there might be trouble here in Angeles,” Perdue finally said.

I almost laughed out loud. Terrorism? Here in Angeles? Gangs, yes. But terrorists?Something that would concern the government of the United States of America? Not possible.

“I think maybe your source is screwing with you,” I said.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Perdue said. “But I did a little checking this morning, and now I’m not so sure.”

“We’ve never had any of that kind of trouble. And I’m sure we’re not about to, either.” I suddenly had no desire to continue talking about this. I didn’t want to know. I was happy with my beer and my girls and my life. Terrorists were problems for someone and somewhere else.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t have that kind of trouble in Bali before, but we all know what happened there.”

That stopped me.

Bali was the thing someone always brought up on those rare occasions when conversation turned to terrorism. And Bali scared the shit out of me. That had been in 2002. Two bombs at nightclubs in the tourist district. A couple hundred people died. All of us in Angeles knew at the time it could have just as easily happened in front of one of our places. And then, over weeks and months, we forgot about it, pushing it out of our minds and returning to the belief it could never happen here.

“I’m not sure you should be telling me this,” I finally said.

Perdue leaned in. “I’m telling you this for a very good reason. I need your help.”

“My help?”

“I got a name and picture from my source in Manila. He’s been involved in kidnappings and executions in the south, but it appears his commanders have ordered him to set up shop here in your part of the country. The funny thing is, when I saw the picture, I knew I’d seen him recently. Here.”

“In Angeles? It’s a big city.”

He shook his head. “On Fields Avenue.” Fields was the main street that ran through the bar district. “I want you to look at the picture. Tell me if you recognize him.”

I could feel a bead of sweat growing on my brow, not unusual for hot and humid Angeles City, but definitely unusual in my bar where I kept the AC on all the time so it was always comfortable.

Perdue reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph. He handed it to me.

“Well?” he asked.

I looked at the picture. It was fuzzy, like it was out of focus. To me, and I’m not expert at this, it looked like the picture had been taken from a distance using a zoom lens.

The subject was a man. A Filipino. I guessed anywhere from twenty-five to thirty. He was sitting on a motorcycle facing the camera. His brown skin looked extra dark, probably from spending too many hours in the sun. Other than that, there was nothing to distinguish him from a couple hundred other guys who drove motorcycles in the city.

“I don’t know,” I said, honestly. “Could be familiar, but it’s not a great photo.”

“His name’s Ernesto de la Cruz. Does that help?”

Acting is a big part of being a Papasan. You’ve got to always be happy, always on. You’ve got to act like your patrons’ jokes are really funny. You’ve got to pretend there’s never a bad day on Fields Avenue.

So when I heard the name and looked at the picture again, I didn’t flinch.

“Never heard of him,” I lied.

Perdue looked at me, a stupid little smile on his face, his eyes on my eyes. It was like he knew I was lying, like he was waiting for me to take it back and tell him the truth.

“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t know him.”

He hesitated for half a second more, then broke off his stare. “You keep that picture. Maybe you can show it around. See if any of the girls know who he is. But don’t tell anyone I’m looking for him.”

“And if someone does know who he is?”

Perdue picked up his beer. “See if you can find out where he lives.”

“I don’t know if I want to get in the middle of anything here.”

“You’re a good American, right?”

I didn’t respond right away. I didn’t like the direction this was going, but when he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, I said, “Sure.”

“Then finding out where he lives isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

“I didn’t say I could find out.”

“I have faith in you.”

After he left, I asked Kat for a match, then burned the photo. I wasn’t able to relax until the last of the image blackened then turned to ash.

I knew who Ernesto de la Cruz was. He was a local. Helped me out sometimes at the bar-washing glasses, stocking beer, that kind of thing-when one of my regular guys needed a day off. He was a good kid. Smiled a lot. Always respectful. As far as I knew, he’d never been south of Manila.

A terrorist? Not even remotely possible. Of course, the moment Perdue mentioned Ernesto’s name, I knew this wasn’t about terrorism.

Ernesto de la Cruz was Ellie’s boyfriend. And I would bet everything I own that Perdue knew that, too.

That evening, I asked Marguerite-one of my girls and Ellie’s best friend-to text Ellie and tell her I wanted to talk to her. I’d trained the girls to know if they received a text like that, they were to stop by the bar at their next opportunity and see me.

I didn’t expect to see her until the next day, and I was right.

It was just before noon. The bar wasn’t open yet but I was already there. Ellie knocked at the front door and I let her in.

“You want me, Papa?” she asked once we were alone inside.

“How is everything?” I said.

She hesitated only long enough for me to notice. “Okay. Fine.”

“Mr. Perdue’s treating you all right?”

“Joe took me to Manila. He buy me lot of things.”

“So he hasn’t hurt you?”

There was that pause again. “No. Why?”

“When was the last time you saw Ernesto?”

“What?” My question obviously surprised her.

“Have you seen him this week?”

“No. Of course not.”

It was a pat answer. If the girls were on an extended bar fine, the house rule was no contact with any boyfriends. The reason was to avoid exactly the problem that seemed to be developing here.

“Ellie. Tell me the last time you saw him.”

“Last weekend,” she said quickly. “Sunday, I think.”

The girls were as good at lying as I was. But unlike their temporary boyfriends, I’d long ago developed the ability to discern whether they were telling me the truth.

“When, Ellie?”

The sparkle in her eyes disappeared as she realized she’d been caught. “Yesterday,” she said. “Joe went out for a while in the afternoon. I meet Ernesto at his place. But only for an hour. I don’t lie.”

That had probably been around the same time Perdue had stopped by the bar. “And before that, when?”

“The day before Joe take me to Manila.”

“Jesus, Ellie. You know the rules.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Perdue must have seen you. He was asking about him.”

“Joe wants his money back, doesn’t he?” She looked horrified. “I’m sorry, Papa. I shouldn’t have seen him. I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

I shook my head. “It’s not the money.”

“Then what?”

I contemplated stopping right there. I should have, but I didn’t. “He wanted to know if I could find out where Ernesto lived.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think Perdue is a good man.”

The true meaning of my words took a moment to sink in. When they finally did, she stepped away from me and turned for the door. “I have to tell Ernesto!”

I grabbed her arm, stopping her. “You can’t go anywhere near Ernesto.”

“But Joe will try to hurt him.”

“Tell me how to find Ernesto. I’ll tell him to get lost for a few days. Maybe he can go down to Manila.”

“You’ll do that?”

“Yes,” I said. “Do you know when Joe’s leaving town?”

“Monday, I think.”

She told me where Ernesto lived, then, almost as if she didn’t want to say it, added, “He pushed me.”

“Who?”

“Joe,” she said. “It was late, but I wanted to go out dancing. He said he was tired. I teased him, and he pushed me into the wall.”

I held my tongue as a surge of anger grew inside me.

“He said it was an accident. That he was just teasing back, but he wasn’t. He pushed me. He’ll hurt Ernesto.”

“Go to your place,” I said. “Stay there until Perdue leaves town. I’ll tell him you got sick. I’ll give him back his money if he asks.”

“What about Ernesto?”

“I’ll find him. It’ll be okay.”

Only it wasn’t okay.

Ernesto shared a room in a dingy building about a mile from Fields Avenue. When I got there, the normal chaos of a typical Angeles street had been replaced by something much more sinister.

White vans blocked off each end of the street, but it didn’t stop the curious from walking around them to see what was going on. The real action was toward the middle of the block, in front of Ernesto’s building.

Whatever had happened seemed to have just ended. A dozen soldiers stood near the entrance. They were wearing full battle gear and held machine guns at the ready. At first, I thought they were all Filipino, but the closer I got, I realized that though they were all wearing identical dark uniforms, most of the men appeared to be either Caucasian or African American.

My immediate thought was Americans.

I moved with the crowd, reaching a spot almost directly across the street from the building’s entrance. I knew enough not to put myself out front, so I held back, allowing others to stand in front of me.

After about ten minutes, two men appeared in the doorway. They were carrying a stretcher, complete with a sheet-draped body on top. By the way everyone was acting, I knew the dead man wasn’t one of theirs. And when Joseph Perdue emerged from the building a few moments later to the backslaps of his colleagues, it was pretty evident who was on the stretcher.

Homeland Security had gotten their man.

It was nearly 10 p.m. when Perdue showed up again in my bar. For the first time in a long time I wasn’t sitting on my usual stool. Instead, I’d taken over the back booth and left instructions not to be bothered unless it was really important.

Perdue spotted me right after he came in. He got a beer from Kat, then walked slowly back to my table, not even glancing at the girls on the stage. That was probably a good thing. While I hadn’t told any of them what had happened, most had found out through other means that Ernesto was dead and had a pretty good idea Perdue had something to do with it. The looks they gave him were nothing short of venomous.

“How ya’ doing, Wade?” he asked.

“Fine. You?”

“Doing just great.”

He slid into the other side of the booth without waiting to be asked.

Figuring ignorance was the best route to take, I said, “Haven’t been able to get anything about the guy in your picture.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Problem’s taken care of.”

I said nothing.

“Look. I’m going to be leaving town a little early. Heading out in the morning. Don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Have a good trip.”

“Actually, I came by to thank you. I had a great time. Lots of fun.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” I said, less than enthusiastically.

He took a deep swig of his beer, then set the bottle on the table. “Goodbye, Wade.” He stood up. “You take it easy, all right?”

I shook his hand. Didn’t want to, but there was no sense in causing a scene. He was leaving town so I wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.

“Have a safe trip wherever you’re going,” I said.

“I’m heading home,” he said. “Well, D.C., actually. I’m getting promoted.”

“Good for you.”

“Yeah, it is.”

I’d been so wrapped up in wishing he’d just get out of the bar that it wasn’t until after he left that I realized he hadn’t said anything about Ellie. Not one word.

Kat was the one who found her. We actually shut the bar down and I sent the girls out searching in every direction. But leave it to Kat to hunt her down.

Ellie was only a few blocks from the dorm-like room she shared with over a dozen other girls. She was in an alley-Angeles is rife with them-on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chest, and her head lolled back with her mouth open. There was a long gash running from her left temple nearly all the way to her mouth. Blood ran from the wound so I knew she was still alive.

The story I got later was that when she heard Ernesto was dead, she went crazy. All she could think about was killing Perdue. She got a knife and went to Perdue’s hotel. The rest is pretty easy to imagine. She was no match for him. The only reason he didn’t kill her-and I’m guessing here-is because he thought damaging her would be a worse fate.

As it was, what he did to her in less than fifteen minutes took three operations and several months to repair. Even then it wasn’t perfect. The scar that ran down the side of Ellie’s face would always be with her. A reminder not only of Perdue, but of Ernesto.

“Can I ask you a few questions?” the man said.

It was a Monday evening, and in less than an hour the place would be packed for the weekly body-painting contest. But at that moment, we were only half full.

“Of course,” I said.

“Something to drink?” Ellie asked the man. Since returning to work a couple weeks earlier, she had asked if she could work behind the bar with Kat. Who was I to say no?

“Just some water, please,” the man said.

He was the nervous type who probably felt a lot more comfortable in a suit than in the casual wear he had on at that moment.

Ellie set a cold plastic bottle of water in front of him.

“Thanks,” he said.

“I’m Wade Norris,” I said.

“Curtis Knowles.” He held out his hand and we shook.

“What can I do for you, Curtis?” I said.

“I’m with the FBI,” he said.

“A little out of your territory, aren’t you?”

He smiled. “I’m just part of an investigation, that’s all.”

“And your investigation brought you here?”

Knowles looked around. “It is one of the more unusual settings I’ve been in, I’ll tell you that much.” He unscrewed the top of his water but didn’t take a drink. “I’m looking into the disappearance of a federal agent.”

“Don’t tell me,” I said. “Joseph Perdue, right?”

“I realize someone’s already talked to you about this.”

“You’re the third person in two months. One of the others told me Perdue’d been kidnapped.”

“We don’t know anything for sure.”

“He said it was in retaliation for that kid he killed, if I remember right.”

“Terrorist.”

“What?”

“The terrorist he killed. Perdue had uncovered information that linked the man to potential attacks that would have happened right here on your street, Mr. Norris.”

“Really?” I said. “Hadn’t heard that part.”

“It was in the paper.”

“I stopped reading the paper years ago. Too depressing.”

Knowles removed a small notebook from his breast pocket and opened it to one of the pages. “According to my notes, you said you remember Perdue coming into the bar twice, is that correct?’

“I haven’t thought about this since the last time one of you guys came by. But that sounds about right.”

“People have reported seeing him with…a woman.”

I smiled. “So he was getting in a little fun while he was here.”

“The woman was not someone he was seeing,” Knowles said. “Perdue was a good family man.”

“Was?”

Knowles paused, caught by his own words. “At this point, we believe he is most likely dead.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“We also believe he was in contact with this woman as a potential information source. One of the people we talked to thought she might work here.”

“Get you another beer, Papa?” Ellie said.

“Yes, thanks.” I looked at Knowles. “She wasn’t one of ours. I remember everyone who takes one of the girls out.”

“Everyone?”

“It’s my job.”

Ellie replaced my old bottle with a new one.

“Maybe he connected with her after hours.”

“I would have found out,” I said, then took a drink of my beer. “Mr. Knowles, there are a couple thousand girls who work in the bars here. Who knows where she came from?”

Knowles nodded. “You’re right.”

“Why do you think she’s so important?”

“We don’t know for sure, but we think maybe she set him up.”

“Sounds like you’re reaching,” I said, trying to appear sympathetic.

Another nod from Knowles. “I won’t take up any more of your time.” As he pushed himself off the stool, he said, “If we have any more questions, we’ll get back to you.”

“I’ll be here,” I said, then saluted him with my bottle.

Knowles smiled, then walked around our new stage and out the front door.

I knew Perdue was trouble when he stared at me after I told him I didn’t recognize the picture of Ernesto. There was no bluff in his gaze, no false toughness. What I had seen was the look of a man who didn’t like to be crossed. It was something I’d seen before, back in my service days in the Corps. Marines who were more like machines than real men. In their minds, they felt like all they had to do was look at the enemy and their adversary would crumple to the ground.

They were hard. They were single-minded. They were dangerous as all hell.

And I’d been one of them.

After Kat found Ellie and we’d gotten her to the hospital, I’d gone alone in search of Perdue. I found him easily enough. He was in his room at the Paradise Hotel. I knocked on his door, told him I was looking for Ellie, and wondered if he knew where she was. Of course he let me in.

I eased the door closed behind me, then I took the pointed metal rod I’d been holding against my leg and buried it under his rib cage and into one of his lungs. I watched his face for a moment as he realized too late the danger I represented. I was just a lazy old Papasan, after all. Drunk half the time and mellowed by the women who surrounded me.

He tried to grab me but he was already too weak.

I should have probably said something damning, something to sum up his failures as a human being. Instead, I pulled the rod out and shoved it up again. This time into this heart.

See, I was Homeland Security, too. It was just that my homeland extended only a couple miles beyond the door of my bar.

By morning, the old stage in the bar had been ripped out and a hole dug deep into the ground beneath. Perdue went into the hole, along with some dirt and rocks and concrete. Then we got to work on the new stage. I made this one a little wider, something I’d been meaning to do anyway.

The girls loved it.

“Thanks, Papa,” Ellie said after Knowles had left.

“Nothing to thank me for. How about a dance?”

“Not today,” she said. But this time, unlike all the previous times I’d asked her to try out the new stage, she actually smiled.

I was breaking her down. One day, she’d get up there and she’d dance again.

On that day, drinks would be on the house.