Emilie was planning strategy in her head. She had to get
Stacy Carter to give a full report of her idea of events with Esmerelda on the
night of her death before Melina could interrupt and call a halt to the whole
thing. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and caught
Stacy Carter was pacing the room, her fingers still twirling her hair, when
Emilie, Kendall, and Melina walked in the room. She looked over at them and
stopped pacing immediately. "I didn't do anything."
"Stacy, before you say anything, we need to read you your Miranda
rights."
"Why?"
Stacy Carter moved around the table slowly and sat down.
Stacy Carter nodded. "Yes."
"And in the presensce of your attorney, do you agree to tell us what
happened on the night of Esmerelda Lowenstein's death?"
"Yes."
Emilie stepped up to take her place as the head of questioning. "I want
you to tell us, from the beginning of the evening, everything you did two
nights ago at work." She sat next to
Stacy Carter nodded. "Okay." She took a deep breath and started in.
"I got to work about fifteen to eight . I wanted to get in and make sure
my costumes were lined up properly. The night before the guy that was supposed
to set them up got them in the wrong order, and I almost missed a set. I got
into the dressing room, and Esmerelda was there. She was already dressed, and
she was reading. I didn't say anything to her because she was reading one of
her law books, and I figured she didn't want to be disturbed. I sat down at my
area of the dressing table and checked my make up, and then I went to check on
my outfits. They were fine."
I changed into my first outfit; it was a cowboy outfit, and sat back down at my
space at the dressing table to put my shoes on. Esmerelda was still reading.
She closed her book when I was brushing my hair and said hi. I said hi back.
She asked me how I was. I said I was fine. I asked her how she was, and she
just shrugged and said money was tight but it wasn't anything new. I asked her
if her tips had been bad that week, and she said they had been fine, but it
would be easier if she didn't have to give so much to Mr. Zucker. I asked if
she'd talked to Mr. Zucker about keeping her tips. She said she hadn't."
I left the dressing room to get ready for my first set, and Mr. Zucker was
there. He asked me if I wanted to keep my tips that night. He asks about once a
week, and sometimes I said yes, and sometimes I decided I didn't care. I said
yes, and I agreed to meet him in his office to give him a blow job. It was
usually the way I paid him off. I did my first set, and then I met Mr. Zucker
in his office. He wanted me to get under the desk to get him off. I think it
excites him more when he can pretend I'm some sort of naughty secretary. So, I
got under the desk, and I was getting him off, and I heard the office door
open. Mr. Zucker put his hand on the back of my head and made me keep going. I
could hear him talking to Esmerelda, and I heard her ask to keep her tips. I
heard Mr. Zucker tell her she could keep them if she'd 'perform' for him after
the club closed that night. I heard her agree. I heard her leave, and I came up
from under the desk. I told Mr. Zucker I'd let him have the usual cut of my tips
if he let me 'perform' with Esmerelda that night."
Emilie cut into Stacy's story. "Why did you want to 'perform' with
Esmerelda?"
Stacy flushed a little. "I thought she was cute. I thought after we
finished getting Mr. Zucker all hot and bothered I could ask her if she wanted
to go out and get some coffee."
"Charming." Emilie sounded slightly disgusted. "Continue."
"I got up from under the desk and went back to the dressing rooms. I found
Esmerelda, and asked her if she'd talked to Mr. Zucker. She said she had, and
she told me that he'd agreed to let her keep her tips if she 'performed' for
him. I offered to 'perform' with her since I knew she didn't like to do it, and
she said okay. Then she went out to perform her set."
Kendall interruted this time. "Where were you most of that evening? We
know from a customer who was there that you only performed your first
set."
"I worked in the back the rest of the night giving lap dances and private
shows. I didn't want to get up on stage in front of everyone because I was
nervous about the whole thing with Esmerelda. Mr. Zucker knew where I was, and
he came and watched me work a couple of times."
"You were in the back the whole night?" Emilie asked.
"Yes. I got back there around nine o'clock and stayed until we closed. I
went back to the dressing room when everyone started to clear out, and I met
Esmerelda at the dressing table. She was nervous and said she wasn't sure if
the extra forty bucks in tips was worth it. I offered her the money she thought
I was going to keep, and she told me she didn't want it, but I talked her into
it. I have my own place and everything, but I'm not going to school, so I knew
I could afford giving up part of my tips to her. She finally said yes, and then
Mr. Zucker came into the dressing rom to tell us that they were ready for
us."
"They?" Kendall gave Stacy Carter a quizzical look. "Was there
another person watching that you were aware of?"
"Not until I got back there."
"Who was there?"
Stacy Carter shrugged. "I didn't recognize who it was. It was a woman. She
was wearing a mask, though."
Emilie's eyes narrowed in suspision. "What kind of a mask?"
"It was a puppy mask, like kids get for Halloween."
"What happened, then?"
"Esmerelda and I walked back to the back room, and Mr. Zucker was there
with that woman in a mask. He told us to act like it was just him who was there
and proceed like we wanted. So we did. We had sex, and Mr. Zucker got off, and
the woman left, and then Mr. Zucker left, and I went up to lock the front door.
When I came back, Esmerelda was dead."
Kendall and Emilie exchanged a look. They hadn't heard of a third person in the
room before then, and it made their radar ping loud and clear. Emilie looked
back at Stacy Carter. "How long were you and Esmerelda back there?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Melina, who had stayed
quiet all through Stacy's recalling of events, finally spoke up.
Emilie gave her a look that clearly read 'You are a dumbass'. "I'm just
making sure Ms. Carter's time frame matches the one we have."
Melina looked over at Stacy. "You may answer the question." She
missed the disgusted look Emilie gave her.
Stacy thought for a few seconds. "It was a little before three when we
finished."
"Are you certain?"
"Yeah. I checked my watch when I got up because I wanted to ask Esmerelda
out for coffee like I said."
"You close at two, correct?" Kendall waited for Stacy to nod
confirmation. "Does it usually take an hour for Mr. Zucker to finish his
voyeurism?"
Stacy shook her head. "Usually, he's done by two-thirty. I think he had
performance issues because that woman was there."
"Did that woman do anything with Mr. Zucker?"
"No. She just stod there like she was trapped or something."
Emilie stood up from the table. "I'll be right back." She excused
herself from the room.
Kendall looked from Stacy Carter to Melina. "We want her to wait here for
a few more minutes just in case we have any other questions."
Melina looked peeved. "My client has other places she needs to be."
Kendall stood up from the table. "It's nearly one in the morning, and she
works nights. I'm sure we're not tiring her out. I'll be back." He left
the room and found Emilie standing at his desk going through a file. "What
is it?"
"How is it Stacy Carter never mentioned the mysterious third person
before? She didn't bring it up in the hospital at all."
"She was stoned on downers in the hospital. You know you can't take
anything a drugged witness says for fact."
"Still, don't you think you'd remember something as out of place as a
woman in a dog mask?"
Kendall shrugged. "She probably thought it was a hallucenation when she
was under the influence, so she didn't mention it."
"So, she's coherent enough to recall the events of the night, but not
coherent enough to remember that the person in the dog mask was actually
there?" Emilie shook her head. "It doesn't gel."
"So, go in and ask her."
"I can't. She's got more red flags going up then a used car dealership
sale. I want to check her story against Zucker's." Emilie closed the file
she had been looking at and turned around. "Patrick!"
He craned his neck around to see her from his desk. "Yeah?"
"Come here."
"You could come over here, you know."
"Just get over here."
Patrick stood up and walked over. "What's up?"
"I need you to get a full recount of events from Mr. Zucker about the
night Esmerelda died."
"What am I looking for?"
"Stacy Carter just told us that there was a woman in a dog mask in the
room with Zucker when she and Esmerelda were 'performing' for him."
Patrick laughed. "You're shitting me."
"I shit you not." Emilie cocked her head at him. "We've got to
corraborate this and figure out why it hasn't come up before."
"I'm on it." Patrick turned and walked towards the hallway.
Kendall rocked back on his heels. "We better go talk to the other dancers,
see if any of them have ever 'performed' for Zucker with a crazy lady in a
puppy mask watching."
"Yeah." Emilie pulled at the ends of her hair. "Let's go give
Nickolas the good news of our masked person who's name no one knows."
"You want to double-check with Stacy Carter and make sure there's not a
one-armed man out there who watched, too?"
Emilie gave him a dirty look. "Just for that, you get to tell
Nickolas."
"Oh, no." Kendall held his hands palms out in front of himself.
"No way. I gave him the bad news about Dennis Tyler half an hour ago. I'm
not throwing kerosene on my pants leg and striking another match."
"You brought it on yourself."
"Bullshit. You're just chicken." Kendall watched the fire flare in
Emilie's eyes. "Bwak."
Her eyes widened. "Did you just make a chicken noise at me?"
"Yeah. Bwak."
"You are fucking disturbed, you know that?"
"And? Bwak. Wak. Wak."
Emilie threw up her hands. "Fuck it. I'll tell Nickolas, but don't think I
won't throw you in front of me for a human shield if needed."
"Fine. Bwak."
"Shut up, Doll."