Agent with a History Read Free Page A

could have passed for one.
Whatever it was he hoped it would stop, because he could see that
she was starting to wear thin emotionally. She’d even lost a little
weight he thought. He was worried for her. He hoped something good
would break out in her life soon to slow her down, because the way
she was going through it, it didn’t seem that enjoyment of her life
was even a concept she recognized.
    Lisa was about to bust her way through the
backstage door when a tall weasel of a man stepped in front of her.
“Is there something I can help you with honeylicious?” He asked,
giving Lisa an openly appreciative look as he eyed her up and
down.

    I wasn’t in a good mood and the piece of
walking human garbage in front of me was wearing out what little
patience I had left.
    “Step aside!”
    “Whoa! Whoa! No way miss! I own this joint!
To go backstage and view the lovely ladies is a paying venture
only.” He finished with.
    My fist tightened at my side, but I flipped
up my badge instead. He read it and his face creased into a
lopsided smile. I wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t high on
something.
    “Lisa Candace Tauranto, NYPD detective. Woo
we! That sure is a mouthful, but without a warrant you’re not
getting past that door. But hey, I’ll tell ya what I’ll do. If
you’d like to make some extra money with that hot bod of yours I’d
be willing to let you strut around my stages and peel off a few
layers, if you know what I mean. You’ll get all the access to the
dressing rooms and the girls that you want then.”
    His look of confident egotism skipped a beat,
when I abruptly took him by the throat and slammed him back against
the door, as my other fist drew back to smash his ugly stained
teeth inward.
    “Candace!” Rafferty’s voice broke
through.
    My little watch dog always used my middle
name when things got out of control, and things had certainly
gotten out of control.
    I let out a big sigh and relaxed my drawn
back fist. The beady eyes of the weasel I held reflected the
inherent cowardice that lay within his outwardly braggadocios
demeanor. I brought both hands to his shirt at his throat and
pulled him closer to my face. “Step aside, and stay out of my
business, or so help me I’ll arrest you for resisting an officer
and make sure you get thrown into a private holding cell with a
seven foot tall Russian thug, who’d rather peel the clothes off of
you than any girl you have in this place.” I finished in a sibilant
whisper, as I watched the full impact my words were having on
him.
    He nodded and stammered, as he tried to blurt
something out. Disgusted, I shoved him to the side and pushed my
way through the door to the backstage area.
    The girls were in various stages of undress,
as they were scattered out in front of the mirrors. They came to an
awareness of us quickly and turned to see what we wanted. Rafferty
turned a little pink and shifted slightly to stare at the wall, as
most of the dancers were topless. I held up my badge.
    “All right, I have a feeling you all know why
I’m here, but if there’s any doubt, I’ll explain. The warehouse
down by the east pier, what do you know about it and what happened
there?”
    Most of the girls nervously glanced among
themselves. I knew I had found my prey so I went in for the
kill.
    “Failing to answer my question could land you
all as accessories to a murder investigation I’m working on.”
    They were all talking at the same time, which
didn’t help my headache any.
    I held up a hand, “All right, one at a time!
Starting with you.” I finished, pointing at a topless brunette.
    She blabbered out words at the speed of
light. “We were offered a large sum of money if we showed up at the
set and did the same thing we do here. That’s all we did, I
swear!”
    The rest of the girls either nodded their
heads vigorously or echoed her statement. I held up a photo of
Ahmed Sazzar
    “Have any of you seen this man?”
    Down to the last one they nodded no.