The Blue Room Vol. 5 Read Free

reassigned to Xander Blue, who was, like
me, looking into corruption at the Blue Room. And the old Mr. X? Gone into the
ether – or else back into that alphabet soup.
                I
would have to get through twenty-five men before being sure that I had the
right one.  And maybe not even then. Not exactly the best of odds. And a good
way to do your back in, if nothing else.
                I
go to the office of Josephine Waters, madam extraordinaire, to put in my
official request for time off. I have it all planned out. I'm going to cite
family reasons: my mother's slow and unexpected recovery from her illness, my
father's reappearance. I'm going to ask for a weekend off, at least. And then –
maybe I can just disappear. Buy  a car in cash in Vegas and drive to where
nobody knows me. Where nobody can find me. Not even them.
                But
to my surprise, Josephine Walters refuses my request.
                “Terrence
may have given you special treatment,” she says with a little sniff. “But I'm
not in the habit of playing favorites. You've already gotten several days off
this month, and I simply cannot allow you to have another. Not after I've
already booked you a client.”
                “Mr.
X?” My mouth falls open. I hadn't expected him to book me again so soon after
our last steamy encounter.
                Mrs.
Walters rolls her eyes. “No, not Mr. X.,” she says, with a sigh. “Mr. O.
Someone new. It''s not good for you to become so reliant on a single...patron,”
she says. “You need to get used to diversification if you want to survive in
this business.”
                “But...”
I try to protest. I have enough on my plate at the moment without worrying
about sleeping with yet another man, especially one I've never met before.
Work's the absolute last thing on my mind.
                “No
ifs, ands, or buts,” she says sharply. “You do your job or you quit. It's that
simple. We're putting you up in this hotel – it's time you started to earn your
keep. I hate to be harsh, but this is the way the business is for all the other
girls here, the ones Terrence wasn't...ahem....seeing. And I have no interest
in being unfair to them by giving you extra time off. Do you
understand?”
                “I
understand,” I say, miserably, shuffling out of there. I feel like an unruly
student taken down a peg by a particularly sharp teacher. Why does Mrs. Walters
always have that effect on me?
                I
sigh as I make my way back to my room.
                Maybe
I should just quit, I think. Maybe I should just run. I've gotten all out of
the Blue Room I'm ever going to get, and every day I spend here makes me aware
of just how rotten this place is, and just how little I want to stay. I'm not
safe here, I know that much.
                It
would be so easy to just leave. Never come back. Forget everything.
                Then
I pass by a familiar hotel room, and my heart stops.
                The
door is open.
                I
see ghosts: images. Roz's back arched, her mouth an O of ecstasy. Roz's long
lustrous hair. Roz dead, her brains blown out, her glassy eyes.
                Just
as it was that day some weeks ago when I saw Roz with her lover, hours before
she was killed. Minutes, even. Just as it was the day Roz was killed, and
nobody ever found her murderer. Was it the man she'd been sleeping with?
Someone else?
                If
I left, I'd never know. The world would never know. And there would be no
justice. Not for Roz. Not for Rita. Not any of the lost girls that the Blue
Room takes in and destroys.
                No,
I think. I couldn't let them down. I couldn't betray their memory. I had to do
whatever it takes in order to get closer to the truth: the truth about what
happened to the woman I loved, to the girl who could