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“I think she’s alive.”
“Just watch your back, okay? You have Collier with you?”
“He’s right here.”
“Is he behaving?”
“Impeccably.”
“Hmm.” She sounded a little surprised. “Good. Take care, and if anything feels off, step away. The Cavallaros aren’t people you want to mess with.”
“I promise I’ll tread carefully.”
Emmy smushed her face into shot again, and her colour looked more normal now. “Although if you are gonna get abducted again, could you hold off for a fortnight? That’s the week I’ve got in the pool.”
“Thanks for the show of confidence.”
“Hey, it happens to the best of us.”
“You got abducted?”
“It was on purpose,” Dan said. “It doesn’t count.”
“What about the time when I was hiding in the back of a truck and someone stole it?”
“Nothing was stopping you from jumping out.”
“Apart from a bunch of asphalt and the desire to avoid road rash and broken bones. Yeuch, half of these cakes have got bloody feathers on them.”
I left Emmy and Dan to their baked goods and bitching, and returned to more important matters: finding my quarry. Collier was looking at me expectantly.
“Why the cabaret club? Was Kaylin a dancer?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but don’t they have singers too? She was making a fancy corset for an audition, feathers and gems. That’s the kind of thing a woman would wear in a cabaret club.”
“Oh yeah?” Collier raised an eyebrow, and I wasn’t certain his interest was purely professional. “Maybe we should pay a visit?”
“To a seedy Mafia haunt?”
“It’ll be safe enough. Doubt they’ll start capping people with an audience.”
“You doubt? That means there’s a chance?”
“I’m almost certain there haven’t been any murders there, not in public anyway. If I thought there was a risk, I wouldn’t suggest it.”
I’d never dare to set foot in the place alone, but along with my new Blackwood family came confidence. I trusted Collier to keep me safe. And if we paid a visit to the cabaret club, we might be able to narrow down the suspect list further, perhaps even get a picture of any Cavallaro men present to show to Anisha. I could ask Charlotte to act as the middleman—or rather, the middlewoman.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever live dangerously the way Emmy did, but I was hella curious, and a night at a club with a tough PI might even be fun.
12
HALLIE
“Another drink, ma’am?”
At twenty bucks a pop? Thank goodness I had an expense account. The Starlight Lounge was classier than I’d imagined, dark but not dirty, no hint of the shadiness I knew lay beneath the sparkly veneer. The waitresses wore satin corsets, tiny shorts, and impossibly high heels, and the waiters looked as if they’d walked out of a strip club and into the vests and black tuxedo pants that appeared to be their uniform.
On the semicircular stage, a group of silver-spangled dancers were high-kicking their way through a song, complete with glittery ostrich-feather fans and an oversized disco ball. Tonight was burlesque night. The Starlight Lounge also offered a comedy club, circus shows, and jazz evenings, all accompanied by overpriced drinks, gourmet food, and access to an after-party when the entertainment had finished. Judging by the variety of accents around us, ninety percent of the audience were tourists.
