“I can’t do that. My customers expect confidentiality.”
Alec glanced around the room. “How many customers will you have left when they hear women who play here are turning up missing?”
Pete’s face paled slightly.
“Want me to ask?” Leland offered. “I can take a quick poll.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Try me.”
“Capacity sign out front says sixty,” Alec said casually. “You’ve got at least twice that, which is a fire code violation.”
The owner stiffened. “That’s—”
“A problem,” Alec finished.
Leland pulled out his phone. “Let’s see what the fire marshal thinks.”
“Now, he’ll shut you down,” Alec warned. “Weeks. Longer, if you can’t cover the fines.”
The owner swallowed hard.
“What’s the going rate, Leland?”
“They charge per violation.” He glanced around and whistled softly. “This is gonna hurt.”
“If it’s a problem at one club, they’ll assume it’s a pattern,” Alec added conversationally. “Could mean visits to all three.”
Sweating now and likely imagining lost revenue in the tens of thousands, Pete finally broke.
“All right, all right,” he blurted. “I’ll get you what you need.”
“Security footage,” Leland said. “As far back as you’ve got.”
“It automatically purges after six months. That’s a lot of data.”
“You’ve got a system,” Alec cut in. “Use it.” He handed over a card. “Upload everything to this portal by start of business tomorrow. Login and password are listed.”
“That’s not enough time,” Pete complained.
Leland started dialing again.
“Stop! Jesus—I’ll get it done.” Pete raised both hands. “Just don’t call anyone.”
“Smart choice,” Alec said.
Pete dragged a hand over his face. “I’ll have to call my IT guy and start the transfer manually.”
“That sounds like a you problem,” Alec replied.
Pete muttered indistinctly and disappeared through the staff-only door.
Alec propped one elbow against the bar and surveyed the room. “Pretty package,” he muttered.
Leland’s gaze swept the scene area. The crowd packed around two centrally placed benches so tightly that the participants barely had space to breathe.
“That’s all it has going for it. One careless backswing with a paddle and someone loses a tooth. There’s no floor control,” he said in disgust. “No dungeon monitors in sight. If somebody uses a safeword in here, half the room probably wouldn’t notice.”
