A bartender approached cautiously. “Are you guys cops?”
“Investigators,” Alec corrected and slid a business card across the bar.
The bartender picked it up. “Devlin and Associates? Aren’t you the guys who brought down that international sex trafficker a few months ago?”
“We’re investigating closer to home tonight,” Leland said, neither confirming nor denying.
He glanced toward the hallway where Pete had vanished then lowered his voice. “Are you looking into Anna?”
Leland’s attention sharpened instantly. “You know her?”
“Not really. Sweet girl, though.” He dried his hands on a towel. “Kept mostly to herself.”
“Did anyone here spend time with her?” Alec asked.
His hesitation was telling.
Leland rested a forearm on the bar top and leaned in. “If you’ve got something to say, say it,” he barked.
The bartender backed up a half step, asking Alec, “Is he always this way?”
“No. You got him on one of his mellow days.”
He swallowed, the gulp audible even with the noise level in the club. “There was a guy. A regular. Older. Not intense so much as… wrong.”
Alec’s attention sharpened. “Define wrong.”
The bartender rubbed his palms on his jeans, uneasy. “He watched. Not like the curious newbies or the voyeurs. He’d fixate on someone. Like he was studying where they’d break.” He glanced toward the far end of the bar, as if expecting to see the man there. “Some doms complained. Said his stare felt like he was taking the room apart piece by piece. Pete didn’t do anything because he never did anything—that we know of.”
Leland turned to face the room. “Is he here tonight?”
“I saw him come in about an hour ago.”
“Describe him.”
“Late fifties. Tall. Gray at the temples. Usually alone unless he’s playing, which isn’t often. Most nights he sits there with that look.” Another swallow. “He likes the ones who are still figuring themselves out. The ones who don’t know the rules yet.”
“Name.”
“Edward Mercer.”
Alec and Leland exchanged a glance.
“Where is he?” Alec asked.
The bartender tipped his chin toward the upper mezzanine. “He takes a seat by the railing.”
“Any subs ever file complaints?” Leland asked.
“Not officially.”
Meaning yes.
“I’ve got him tonight.” A waitress only a few feet away was waiting for the bartender to fill an order. She shuddered as she continued, “He gives me the creeps.”
Interesting.
Alec caught it too. “Why?”
