Zachary and Rachel had both said strip clubs stayed open twenty-four/seven, but this one was clearly locked up tight.
“Let’s check the back.”Mendoza was already moving.I trailed behind him around the corner of the building, looking left and right.The parking lot was pretty much empty aside from Mendoza’s sedan.Zachary’s car was nowhere to be seen, but of course that didn’t mean he hadn’t been here last night.
“There’s the back door.”
Mendoza headed for it.I followed.
It looked a lot like the service entrance to the dry cleaners on Thompson Lane.Another steel door with a buzzer next to it, and nothing else.Mendoza put a finger on the buzzer and leaned.
Nothing happened.We couldn’t hear anything through the steel door and the cinderblock walls, but I assumed that somewhere, a bell was ringing.Or a light was flashing, or something was happening.Something to indicate that there were people out here.
Nobody answered, though.The door remained stubbornly shut.
“I don’t suppose this would fall under the same criteria as Araminta Tucker’s house,” I said.
He glanced over.“Excuse me?”
“You went into Araminta Tucker’s house to look around yesterday.”
“It was next door to a crime scene,” Mendoza said.
I looked around.“This might actually be a crime scene.If Zachary was attacked here.”
“We don’t even know that Zachary was here,” Mendoza said.
“We may not be able to prove it.But I’m pretty sure he was.I told him to check out any clubs he found where a Russian girl might work, or might have worked.It makes perfect sense that he’d check out this one.But we can ask him.”
“Later,” Mendoza said.He had his head tilted back, and was looking up under the eaves of the building.After a second, he pulled out his badge and opened it up.“Police.Open the door.”
I tilted my head back, too, and squinted up into the darkness under the overhanging eaves.After a second I could make something out.“Camera?”
Mendoza nodded.
We waited a little longer.Nothing happened this time, either.Either no one was inside—most likely—or Mendoza’s badge did nothing to convince them that they should open the door for him.
“Guess we’ll have to come back later,” I said.
He shot me a look.“I might be a little busy.I have an operation to set up at the Arena tonight.”
Oh.Right.I’d forgotten about that in the excitement.“Thanks for reminding me.What do you want me to do?”
“Go home,” Mendoza said, moving away from the door and around the building.Since he was still talking, I was forced to follow.“Take your little dog with you.Don’t come back here alone.If they beat up Zachary, they won’t be happy about you coming around asking questions.”
I trotted behind him toward the car.“I meant about the Arena thing.The money drop.Or the newspaper drop, I guess.What do you want me to do?”
He stopped next to the sedan.“Go home.Take your little dog?—”
“Thank you.”Sheesh.“I heard you the first time.You mean, I’m not supposed to be at the Arena tonight?”
“No,” Mendoza said.“I’ve got it.”
“Don’t you think Diana might want some moral support?”
He sighed.And then he unlocked the car doors and opened mine.Instead of getting in, I watched as he walked around the front of the car to his own side.“We’ll stay out of your way.”
“Sure you will.”He opened his own door and slid behind the wheel.The door closed with a decisivethump.I was just about to follow suit when a car took the turn into the parking lot and bumped to a stop next to us.
Thirteen
