“Yes!” I call back. “Just five more minutes.”
“All right! Thank you.”
“Better make this quick.” I hoist myself onto the top of the toilet and Harrison helps me up into the crawlspace.
It’s dark, so I shine my flashlight around. The crawlspace leads to a small room, maybe five feet by five feet. Concrete walls, and the only object in the room is a small table. I look it over. It’s a regular folding table, the cheap kind that would stick out like a sore thumb in the delicately furnished environment of Aces Underground.
But then my breath catches in my throat as I notice a few small drops on the table’s surface. Dark brown.
The color of dried blood.
I look under the table as my heart thumps in my ears. Underneath is a small cooler, light pink in color.
“Anything in there, babe?” Harrison asks.
“Yeah. A tiny cooler under a table. I think there’s drops of dried blood on the table.”
“Damn. What’s in the cooler?”
“I’m going to check now.”
“Okay. Just be safe.”
I get down on my hands and knees and remove the lid from the cooler. I shine my flashlight and view its contents.
And…
Oh, my God.
It can’t be.
It’s… It’s…
I gag, but nothing comes out.
What’s inside this cooler… It explains everything. It connects all the disappearances from Rouge’s clubs, the payments she’s received in red diamonds, the cruel deaths and dismemberments of her employees.
“Babe?” Harrison calls. “What’s in it? What’s in the cooler?”
I open my mouth to answer, but the words catch.
I can’t answer.
Because once I tell Harrison what I just found, we won’t be able to turn back.
And this… What’s inside this cooler…
It’s a hand not even the Ace of Clubs will be able to trump.
1
BIANCA
Hearts.
Inside the cooler are hearts.
As in the organ.
