[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (215 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:19
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html
And any of the faces Hank saw could have been the guy. Staring at Jess the way
they were, they all looked like a bunch of perverts. He could have gone around
the stage kicking the shit out of every man there and he wouldn't have lost a
minute's sleep.
Which was why he and Jess couldn't get involved, he told himself. He was ready
to kill complete strangers for looking at her, and he'd only kissed her once.
Imagine what would happen to his judgment if the two of them were actually
sleeping together. If they were involved. If, God forbid, he fell in love with
her.
Her set ended and he caught a glimpse of her hurrying off the stage, and then
the deejay did a big lead-up to a firecracker redhead in a belly-dancer
outfit, and
Hank realized that someone backstage could have touched Jess before she came
out. Were there any men back there? Security guys or bouncers or boyfriends,
maybe?
Then he remembered that Jim had told him the UC guys couldn't get back there
during work hours because it was absolutely, unconditionally, no-exceptions
dancers only. Otherwise Jess's participation in this thing would not have been
so critical.
The harem girl had gotten rid of only the veil when Hank waved his money at
her. She shimmied over to him, and all he could think was that next to Jess,
she
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (216 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:19
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html was invisible. He slid
the bill into her costume.
Without warning, violent, nightmare horror washed over him, so brutal and so
sick that Hank sagged back into his seat, lost in the killer's rage. She was
Page 93
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
next.
This girl this dancer she was going to die this night. He knew which park the
killer was going to dump her body in, and that the killer had a stage set. For
her to dance on. One last private dance, after pain and torture and abuse.
Everything was ready.
Tonight, Hank thought. Tonight.
The ferocity of that fresh rage, the bastard's intense feelings of betrayal,
and the hunger to degrade, destroy, pervert, hurt, and then slaughter, tore
Hank up inside.
He got to his feet, fled into the bathroom, and puked, his head hanging over
the bowl, his hands on the stall to either side. Bad. This was bad as
ferocious, as horrible, as any crime scene he'd ever touched.
The restroom attendant was watching him when he came out of the stall wiping
his mouth on a strip of toilet paper. "Are you all right, sir?"
Hank raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, sure. I usually toss my lunch like that, don't
you?" He washed his hands and face, cupped water in his hands and rinsed his
mouth out with it, and took the towel the man offered him. "Something I ate
didn't agree with me."
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (217 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:19
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html
"Something you ate& here?"
"That's why I was here," Hank said. "Lunch and titties."
"I'm sorry, sir. If you tell your waitress "
"Don't worry about it," Hank said. "I feel fine now."
"Yes, sir." The guy started to ask him something else, then stopped. "Are you
a member?"
"No."
Hank got out of there as fast as he could. He headed back to his seat, but his
beer was gone and someone else was sitting in his place. He took a table along
the back wall and called Jim.
Jim picked up on the first ring.
"I got the next victim, Jim," he said. "He intends to kill her tonight, dump
her body in Piedmont Park." Hank swallowed against another wave of nausea and
closed his eyes for a moment. "Dancer named Ginger Rose. She's on the stage
right now."
"You sure? Tonight?"
"Positive. At least as positive as I can be. This one hit me so hard I tossed
my lunch."
He was having a hard time hearing Jim over the noise of the club. The girl was
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (218 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:19
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html dancing to "Genie in a
Bottle," and with the way he felt, the music was drilling straight through his
skull. But he thought Jim had told him to hang on.
Jim came back to the phone a moment later and said, "Our guys in place have
her, and they'll hand her off to mobile surveillance when she leaves. We won't
let anything happen to her."
Hank managed a mumbled, "I hope not," but he was still so weak, so sick still
shaking so badly that what actually came out of his mouth had to have been
incoherent.
Jim's voice in his ear was calm and reassuring. "It's okay. We're ahead of the
curve on this one, Hank. We can save this girl."
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%...y%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20G
Page 94
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
irl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html (219 of 435)8-12-2006 22:49:19
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Danci...20Dancing/
Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html chapter 10
Jess leaned against the wall in the dressing room, her hands shaking, her
whole body weak from a combination of nerves and exhilaration and
embarrassment.
And fear. Mustn't forget fear.
The killer had been out there, had seen her dancing, had even touched her, and
she had looked into those faces and smiled her smile and hadn't seen anything
in even one of the men out there that she could point to and say, "He's it.
He's the one who's killing them."
They'd been a bunch of relatively clean-cut guys in suits or work shirts and
loosened ties, as well as one guy she was almost sure was an actor on a TV
series that filmed in Atlanta. He'd had a dancer right up close to him, but
he'd still put a big bill in Jess's G-string. She checked.
One hundred dollars from him. The rest were ones and fives. Mostly ones.
A dancer who'd been out on the floor poked her head in the dressing room door
and said, "Jason Hemly wants to meet you."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]