“But even someone as powerful as Rouge can’t just bring a dead body through the front door of the club,” I say.
“Who says Mr. Calloway is going out the way we came?”
I lift an eyebrow. “There are other entrances to the club?”
But then I remember. Rouge told me that there is a separate entrance for the club’s waitstaff. Maybe she can take care of this with discretion.
“There are several. Usually the overdoses occur either in private areas like the one we’re currently in, or in the bathrooms. There are ways to move people around efficiently without disrupting the clubgoers.”
“Damn.” I rub at the back of my neck. “What the fuck kind of a circus have I gotten myself into?”
“A circus with only acrobats. No clowns.”
I’m not sure what she means by that, but now isn’t the time. We have a dead body to deal with.
“I’ll tell Rouge about the body,” I say. “You should get ready for your set.”
She darts her gaze from one corner of the room to the other for a moment before nodding. “Okay.” She gets on her tiptoes and kisses me on the cheek. “Thank you, my white knight.”
She heads back into the main area of Aces.
I follow behind her but split off as she heads to the Hearts section. Rouge is mingling with patrons in Clubs. I cross toward her, steeling myself for what I’m expecting will be another weird interaction with her.
She raises an eyebrow as I approach. “Dr. O’Rourke. Lovely to see you again. I trust you’re enjoying your evening?”
“I’m having a great time.”
Not a lie. Fucking Bianca was the most fun I’ve had in years.
She nods. “Wonderful.” She then turns back to the other patrons in the Clubs section and continues her conversation.
I tap her shoulder. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s an issue of some concern that I need to let you know about.”
“You can take your concern to one of the waitstaff and they can assist you.” She waves me away with her hand, her bright-green fingernails cutting through the misty cloud of smoke cloaking the space.
“Your sister specifically told me to find you,” I reply.
She blinks. “Ah, yes. Your”—her eyelids twitch—“date. Since she seems to be running things this evening, I suppose I’d better see what the matter is.” She nods to the guests flanking her. “My darlings, please excuse me.”
Rouge and I walk to a private corner of the club.
She narrows her eyes. “So what is this matter of such urgency that I had to leave a conversation with some of my most important patrons, Doctor?”
I lean in, my voice lowered. “One of your patrons has…passed away.”
“What?” She looks surprised, but there’s a glint of something familiar in her eyes.
Something I’ve seen in the hospital in patients dealing with the effects of a drug overdose.
When I tell them their bloodwork is showing traces of cocaine, or heroine, or whatever, they give me the exact same look of shock. As if they have no idea how the illicit substances got into their bodies.
But I can always tell by that strange glint in their eyes. The glint that tells me it’s all an act, that they’re not surprised at all.
And that’s exactly what I just saw in Rouge’s eyes. It’s subtler than in my patients, but it’s still there.
She’s not surprised by what I’ve just told her.
Maybe it’s just because she set her sister up with a man in his nineties. Odds were that something bad was going to happen if he overexerted himself.
