The Pardon

Chapter 45

The parking lot at Jiggles strip joint was full from the Thursday evening crowd, so Rebecca had to find an empty spot on the street. She was wearing baggy jeans and a sweatshirt, her usual attire on her way to and from the bar. There was just one cramped dressing room inside for all the dancers, which was a hassle-but it was safer changing in there than walking the parking lot in some skimpy outfit that was sure to invite harassment or worse. Rebecca checked her watch. Ten after ten. “Damn,” she muttered, realizing she was late for her evening shift. She locked her car and started across the parking lot. In one hand she carried a gym bag, which held her dancing clothes and makeup. In the other was her mace, just in case.

“Hey, Rebecca,” came a low, husky voice from somewhere to her left.

Her body went rigid. Her name wasn’t really Rebecca, which meant that it had to be a customer calling. She quickened her walk and clutched her can of mace, making sure it was ready. She jerked to a halt as a man jumped out from between cars.

“Get back!” she shouted, pointing the mace.

“It’s Buzz,” he said.

She took a good look, then recognized him beneath his hat and behind the dark, wraparound sunglasses that he wore, even after dark, to conceal his irritated eye. “Let me by,” she said sternly.

“Wait,” he replied, his tone conversational. “I have a proposition for you.”

“Not now,” she grimaced, her jaws nervously working a wad of chewing gum. “I’m supposed to punch in by ten, or I can lose my job. Come inside.”

“Not that kind of proposition,” said Buzz. “This is something different. I want your help.”

“Why should I do anything for you?”

“No reason. But I’m not asking you to do it for me. I want you to do it for Raul.”

Rebecca averted her eyes. The name clearly meant something to her. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about revenge. I’m gonna nail the fuckers who put Raul in the chair.”

Her shoulders heaved with a heavy sigh, then she just shook her head. “That’s history, man. Raul was a punk. He treated me like dirt, even when I was giving it to him for free. Shit happens to punks.”

Buzz stifled his fury. He would have liked to put her in her place with the hard truth that to Raul she was just a free blow job, but that wouldn’t advance his purpose. “Fine,” he said with a shrug. “Just go on pretending you weren’t nuts over him. Don’t do it for him. Just do it for the money.”

Her interest was suddenly piqued. “How much?”

“Ten percent of my take.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard that one before. Ten percent of nothin’.”

“Yeah. But ten percent of a quarter million is more money than you’ll ever make sucking cocks.”

She flashed a steely look, but she was more interested in the proposition than in refuting the insult. “Don’t bullshit me. Where you gonna get that kind of money?”

“I’m not bullshittin’ you. I’m serious. We’re talking high stakes. And all you gotta do is make one phone call. That’s it. A cush job.”

She paused. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it. I’ve already conned sixty grand out of him. I’ll show it to you. Count it, if you want. It’s all right in my van. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So what do you say? You in?”

Rebecca pressed her tongue to her cheek, mulling it over. “Sure,” she said with a crack of her gum. “But I want ten percent of the sixty grand you already got, up front. Then I’ll know you’re for real.”

Buzz flashed a thin smile. “I’m for real. You can have your six thousand. But you gotta come with me now.”

She twitched, practically kicking herself for not having asked for the whole sixty thousand. “I can’t come now. I gotta go to work.”

“Six thousand dollars,” he tempted her. “You can come now. Fuck work.”

She cracked her gum, then sighed. “All right. I’ll go. But I want my money.”

He smiled and nodded toward his van. “Just get in.”

“And I want to know more about what I’m getting into,” she said as she heaved her gym bag over her shoulder and started walking. “I want to know everything.”

He focused on the wiggle in her rear end as she reached the other side of the van, his eyes narrowing and a smirk coming to his face. No way you really want to know everything, he thought.