“Okay.”
We sit at the kitchen table. “Have you or Gavin ever been to the bar Delirium?”
“Yeah, I went once. Does this have to do with him disappearing?”
“It might.” I open my notebook. “When did you go?”
“A couple of weeks ago.”
“Did you two go together?”
“Yeah.” She brings her hand up, subconsciously rubbing her neck. “It was Gavin’s idea.”
“You say that like you didn’t want to go.”
“I didn’t.” She shakes her head. “We have friends who like to go and they’re always trying to get us to join. I’m not…I don’t like…that stuff freaks me out.”
“What stuff?”
Heat colors her cheeks. “You know…freaky stuff.”
“Are you referring to the Gothic theming?”
“Kind of.”
I know exactly what she’s referring to since I now know what goes on behind closed doors, but I’m not going to egg her on. How the story unfolds can be just as telling as the words themselves.
“Can you explain?”
“I don’t know.” She looks at the floor.
“It might help me find him.” Another lie. Though I reallydon’tknow where his body is.
“It’s like a meet-up for people into BDSM. Like hardcore into it.”
So vampires like it rough. “And you two went?” I put my pen down and do my best to do that girl-to-girl bonding thing. I’m not good at it. “Look, whatever you’re into is your business. Going there to partake in whatever kind of sexual acts you want isn’t against the law. I don’t even need to put it in my report.” That part is true. Mostly because I haven’t decided if I should even write up reports on this yet. The fewer paper trails, the better, right?
“We tried it once. For Gavin’s birthday. It wasn’t my thing, and I got mad at him for liking it. He thought it would be fun, you know, and bring us closer together.”
“Did you go back?”
“No. It freaked me out too much.”
Her body language tells me there was more going on than freaky sex between her and her boyfriend. “Francine,” I say gently. “I need you to tell me exactly what happened to freak you out.”
She lifts her eyes, surprised I was able to pick up on her thoughts, and nods. “When I agreed to go, I thought it was like going to one of those couples’ getaway sort of things. You know, where they set the mood with a romantic room, a bottle of wine, and have chocolate-covered strawberries on a silver plate on the bed.”
“And it wasn’t like that?”
“No, not at all.” She shudders. “It was like a strip show, and the strippers encourage the couples to make out and go backstage with them. There were two people fucking in the back. Just out there in the open. And the strippers…they’re not just stripping. They’re, uh, involved.”
“Was it only couples watching?”
She shakes her head. “It was mostly men.”
“Did Gavin ever go back?”
“Not that I know of. He agreed it was way too intense for the both of us. Nipple clamps in the bedroom…yeah, I’ll try it. But getting naked in a dirty room full of strangers…no thank you.”
