Chapter 9

(Anchorage, Crazy Moose Saloon)

Upon Chris' arrival and the stir he would cause as a blind man in a strip club, and then threatening to invoke the Americans with disabilities act they figured as long as he didn't touch, he was welcome to sit drink and listen to the music. He and Echo became popular with the girls as well. They loved to pet Echo, and they would give Chris a lap dance that bordered on "illegal", since he was "unable to see them perform on stage." Chris kept his ones in one pocket, his fives in another, and so on.

One of the Fairbanks troopers was allowed to return to his Post and Chris was about as intimidating as a teddy bear in what he called his "Ray Charles" disguise. Once one of the customers tried to snitch a twenty that he left on the table for one of the girls and Echo let him know not to even think about it! Chris could see everything, although through dark sunglasses that had a receiver so he could monitor Mary, Faye and Lisa's conversations.

Although the troopers couldn't help but look at their co-workers, there were a lot greater things at stake than admiring their bodies. Somewhere among this crowd lurked a serial killer. To avert their attention at the wrong moment would mean not just another murder, but the murder of a fellow Alaska State Trooper. No dancer there was pretty enough to risk that.

After Carmen was released from the hospital, she was taken to her apartment and gathered her things to move to a safe location with Ember. Ember's disappearance was also faked in order to secure her release from her "contract" and insure her safety. The charges against Henry Bean were dropped upon her being found, and she was given a new identity. In fact, while she was locked in the small 12 x 12 cabin, for eleven days, she had even prayed that she would accept the kind little man's proposal if she were rescued.

Bean put his Aero Service at Lake Hood up for sale and he and the two girls moved to Sitka, Alaska to start new lives. Henry suffered a heart attack during a threesome one a couple of years later, and in his will left the two girls and their respective son and daughter everything. Needless to say they had all the income they needed from the new business, and twice the proposals from pilot customers as they ever had as dancers.

Howard Stone now thought he had some competition, and was not about to be outdone. While he was responsible for the disappearance of the first three girls, and Carmen's faked death, the fourth was not his doing. The next week, Stone sent a message to the "Tips Hotline". It said:

"The first three were mine, but number four was an impostor. The next one won't be.

You never caught Zodiac and will never catch Kodiak"

(Obviously he was trying to be an Alaskan version of the "Zodiac Killer".)

The DPS computers had a hard time unscrambling the computer-disguised voice for a print. Once they did, it was just a matter of recording everyone the girls spoke with until they could find a match. That however required a Search Warrant, unless it was to be thrown out of court. The Warrant was not going to be easy to get. At least not until the 5th victim was taken, and that is what they hoped to prevent.

It took some "psyching up" on Mike's part to get Mary to dance nude at the Crazy Moose. When she finally did, it didn't take long for Howard Stone to go back looking for Cameron's roommate Ember. Three nights, he came and went, carefully avoiding Belinda as to not arouse suspicion about his not calling her back, or returning her calls.

On the fourth night, he saw Mary, dancing as "Destiny" and couldn't take her eyes off of her. Almost under a spell, he approached the stage and took his seats on "pervert row". He pulled a roll of bills from his pocket, and peeled a twenty off and laid it on the stage. Mary waltzed over and squatted and picked up the bill between her butt cheeks! This blew Stone's mind!

That trick had been divulged to them in the debriefing of Ember and Carmen. Another was taking it between their breasts or in their mouth. None of the three lady troopers were too keen about that, not knowing "where the bills had been" so to speak! The man fit the general description of the man Cameron thought was the one that abducted her. Mary saw Dawson looking her way, and did a seductive "come hither" motion with her finger.

Dawson had to fish in his pocket for a dollar to give her, and Mary took this one in her mouth, as she then knelt and whispered, "Blue shirt, three-o'clock."

He had seen the man walk to the stage and take a seat. So had Belinda! Now she saw what he was up to, and began to seethe. "Just wait till that new bitch gets off stage," Belinda thought! I'll give her a lesson in "dancer etiquette".

Mary made over $150.00 in tips just from dancing the two songs! Not only that, she had the eye of the serial killer! Stone had set his sights on victim number five for real! He moved away from the main stage and returned to his table after giving Mary another $20.00, and requesting several private table dances.

In the interim, "Cricket" stopped by to "make small talk" and affix a "bug" to the underside of the table with her chewing gum! When Stone didn't seem to want her company, she left, but the transmitter was in place, and anything he or anyone else said at that table was being recorded. As far as anyone else knew, Stone was just another "frequent" customer.

In reality, the wires were not "approved" and nothing he said was admissible in court. It would however help catch him. First they had to hear his conversation with Belinda and why he never called her back. She was highly peeved about it, but in the end, decided he probably was not on the level. She excused herself, and then went to the dressing room to get ready for her turn on stage.

There she intruded on the three female troopers discussing the "suspect" but failed to catch anything that would give them away. "You shouldn't move in on another dancer's customer," Belinda suggested to Mary.

"I thought he was your uncle from California," Faye answered.

"Oops," Belinda said. "I guess I am busted there, huh?"

"Well," Danby commented, "It's not like you are the only one to ever entertain a customer outside of the club."

"What's his story anyway?" Mary asked.

"Supposedly he is a Hollywood talent scout," Belinda answered, and went to her locker to get his card.

"You ever think he could be the one nabbing the girls?" Danby asked. "I mean nobody knows what the guy looks like, do they?"

"No, he even called Natasha Henstridge, who told me he was OK," Belinda replied.

"I had a guy do that to me once in Fairbanks," Cricket commented, "dialed a number on his cell phone, and it went to his computer. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I had talked to Madonna herself. It's a computer program they call into. It's voice interactive, just like the surveys the telemarketers use! The pervert had recorded her voice from different movies, and cut and pasted words with an audio editor."

Belinda turned pale as a sheet. Then she ran for the toilet and threw up her lunch!

"Destiny," Cricket said, "run get the house mother and tell her Belinda is sick."

Mary went into the Office, where the middle aged former WAC sat, and told her, "We have a sick dancer in the dressing room. I think Belinda needs to go home."

"Do you get paid to think?" the woman barked. "Go mingle with your customers. I hear you did well your first time up. Got almost a hundred bucks to turn in, huh?"

"It was a hundred and fifty," Mary countered. "I had two twenties, three tens, eleven fives, and twenty five ones!"

"You better not be accusing us of stealing, you lying bitch!" the housemother shot back. "On the books it is ninety-eight, and ninety eight it is!"

"Oh, goody," thought Chris Mullins as he listened to Mary's conversation with the woman. "They steal from the girls as well. What nasty people."

The woman went back to the dressing room and chased Faye and Danby out onto the main club floor. Then she began to berate Belinda for getting sick. Belinda tried to tell her it was food poisoning and she had to go to the doctor. The woman wanted to hear none of it, and said, "If you go, you forfeit all of your money tonight. Is that what you want?"

"No," Belinda sighed.

"NO, WHAT?" her boss yelled.

"No Ma'am!" Belinda said, trembling as the big woman grabbed her by the left breast, and squeezed until Belinda cried out, "No, please, not tonight?"

"You're right there," the housemother said. "I'd hate to get the flu from you. Then again, maybe you'd better come to my office after you clean up, and we can discuss that extra three weeks I tacked onto what you owe the club!"

While Belinda pondered her fate, and resigned herself to not going near Stone again, Mary and Danby went to sit at his table and see what they could learn. As they sat with him, and the waitress swooped down on the table, Mary introduced them.

"I'm Destiny," she said, "and this is Tawny. How do you like our club?"

"It's the best," Stone replied, "I come here a lot!"

"You must make good money then," Tawny (Danby) observed.

"I do well enough," he answered, "not that it's any of your business."

"Hey, Dude," Mary said, "we didn't mean anything by it. I mean if you can't tell us what you do, that is OK by me. I'm cool with it. Maybe it's best we didn't know."

"Yeah," Danby added, "the boss told us when we started there would be people coming in that don't like you to ask questions. We better leave him be, Des."

"Oh, come on, Tawny," Mary replied. "This guy isn't one of them. The ones Bear was talking about are mobsters. You know? Like the Mafia?"

"Do what?" Stone asked, nervously. There were rumors that the "talent agency" that the girls had to hire through, was controlled by the mob. In fact he read something to that effect in "Fair Game". Committing kidnapping and murder was risky enough with the Police to watch out for. If the mob ever found out he had taken four of "their" dancers, Stone would be more than his alias. It would be tied around his legs as he went swimming in chains in Cook Inlet!

"It's just rumors, Dude," Tawny said, sensing he wanted to bolt. "If it was true, we'd be in just as deep for doing private shows for customers. Another rumor is that the mob is who made those five girls disappear. I heard Cameron and Ember did stuff on the outside." "I sure hope that's all," Stone said. "I'm Howard Stone. I didn't mean to seem rude, it's just that all the other girls are all money hungry."

"You don't say," Mary replied. "They did tell us if the guy didn't want a table dance within ten minutes to go find someone that does."

The two women began to stand up, when Stone said, "but I do. Just one though, from Destiny please? No offense, Tawny."

"Hey," Danby answered, "I was going somewhere else anyway. I have bills to pay."

Mary decided to see what the guy would do next. When the next song started up, she began to dance for him, and he stopped her, saying, "Why don't I just pay you, and you don't have to dance?"

"I guess that's cool," Mary answered. "I need to get used to it sometime though."

She sat back down and finished putting her top back on, when he said, "You know, I am a Hollywood talent scout, and you would be perfect for a movie we have coming up."

"That's what Belinda said you would say," Mary replied, watching his reaction. "Do tell why I should be so lucky, and not her?"

"You are taller, and have prettier, eyes," Stone said, "not to mention better everything else!"

"Uh-huh," Mary nodded, "and what movie would this be?"

"Well," he paused, "it's a new movie with Johnny Depp. It's a murder mystery type movie."

"Oh?" Mary asked. "What is the story line? Not that I could act anyway."

"Well," Stone paused, searching for a convincing answer, "they weren't specific. They already found someone and shot the scene in the Tom Cruise movie. I hated to tell Belinda that. In fact I came in tonight to do so, when I saw you. I was going to offer her the part, but you fit the role of the character so much better."

"Well, you really upset her," Mary told the man. "How about we do this? Why not take shots of both of us, and let your producers decide which if either of us they would use?"

"B-both of you?" Stone stammered.

"Individually of course," Mary replied. "Niether of us are into doing lez scenes if that is what you thought. That is if you are who you claim to be? I'll go ask Belinda. We'll be right back." Mary went to the dressing room where the "house mom" was still berating Belinda, and hustled her out under the pretext of doing a dance for a customer. Mullins caught on, and and readied for her "impromptu" appearance, just to make her escape from the bitch railing on her.

"We need your help, Belinda," Mary finally said, as the girl began to dance for the "blind" undercover officer. "I think this guy is the one snatching the girls. You and I are going to be the bait that catches the SOB!"

"How?" Belinda asked. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Girlfriend," Mullins whispered to her, "you are so covered in this, that if that guy even looks at you wrong outside the club, he is not only toast, he will be toast crumbs!"

"Just follow my lead," Mary said, as Belinda finished her dance for Sgt. Mullins.

They then went to Stone's table and sat down. It was then that Mary began to "cast the lure" that would catch this elusive, and slimy "fish."

"I told Belinda we should just do the test shoots together, and she thought that would be the best way too," Mary began. "Then they can have their pick, and come negotiate with us themselves if they want either or both of us."

"Well, I guess that is for the best," Stone said, thinking how he would subdue both women at once. Belinda he was confident he could overpower. Mary on the other hand scared him somehow. That wasn't unusual in itself, considering women in general intimidated him, most especially the really pretty ones. "I'll go contact my friend about his studio," Stone continued. "Where and when should I meet you?"

"Well, several of us meet for breakfast at the donut shop on International after work," Belinda improvised to Mary's approval. She looked at Mullins and Dawson who both nodded subtly, and agreed.

"What time?" Mary asked. "How about we just meet you at the studio? That would save everyone time."

"I don't know," Stone hesitated. "He lives a ways from here, and nobody is supposed to know he lets me use it."