had one finger shoved in my other ear. I guess I was too close to the stage.
“What?” I said.
“Come…(inaudible)…now.”
“You have to speak louder. I can’t make you out,” I said. I was not going to understand him through the cell phone. “Why don’t I come upstairs?” He hung up.
I turned to Jeff, “I gotta go, man.”
“Me, too,” he said, looking at his pager.
“Nice talking to you,” I said.
“See you around,” I heard him say as I hurried up the flight of stairs.
Barnes moved past the bar and was standing in the middle of the floor. Where did he go? He looked around. Was he dreaming? He wasn’t sure what, but there was something familiar about this man. He just couldn’t put a finger on what.
He spotted the bald-headed man looking down at the corner of the left staircase. Still he couldn’t see his face. Barnes pushed and shoved past several patrons and made his way to the stairs. The man was not there. He looked down. He was not on the ground floor either. Barnes knew the bald-headed man could not be on the mezzanine level. He could only have gone down.
Barnes rushed down, skipping several steps. There were too many people. The lights were low and only when the strobes of beams dropped down onto the dancers could Barnes make out faces.
He decided to push forward. Go to the front of the club, near the stage.
On the mezzanine level I searched around. Barnes was not at the lounge. I moved further scanning each face. No Barnes. There was no way I could ask someone if they’d seen Barnes. How would I describe him? He’s tall, young and white.
I passed the soda bar and went to the left side of the floor. No sign of him. The Find-a-Friend machine was vacant. I hurried and grabbed the joystick.
My excitement fell as I realized this machine was just for the mezzanine level. I had already searched that level.
I pulled out my cell and dialed his number again.
Barnes passed a line of people who were eagerly waiting to dance on the mini stage. It was one of those interactive zones that he’d seen on TV. This one had the dancer’s body heat projected onto the screen.
Barnes went forward and something caught his eye. A door to the left was a little ajar. A stream of light appeared from the opening. Something inside him said to check it out. It would be impossible to search through the entire dance floor. So there was no harm in this.
Barnes didn’t have a gun. He didn’t need a gun. He was only there to check the place out.
He pushed the heavy door slightly and peered inside. There was a dark hallway with a door to the right. There was another door at the end of the hall. Barnes entered and, feeling along the wall for guidance, moved down the hall toward that door. He stopped when he realized there was a figure standing in front of that door.
The hallway was very dark and Barnes tried hard, with no success, to make out this figure. When his eyes adjusted he immediately recognized it was the bald-headed man, holding the door open.
Something hit Barnes hard on the back of the head. There was a subdued clung, like metal hitting flesh. Barnes fell forward and saw darkness.
Suraj stood above Barnes, holding a metal pipe. He had been hiding behind the door. There was a noise. The noise was coming from Barnes. Suraj looked at Kong. The noise sounded like the ringing of a cell phone. Suraj dropped the pipe and both he and Kong ran out of the House of Jam.
No answer. I hung up. This was not good. I decided to go down. I knew the place well now.
Downstairs was even worse. There were way too many people.
My heart started beating faster. The longer it took to find Barnes the more nervous I became. Barnes would never have called me unless it was an emergency.
I took a deep breath. I would find him.
My eyes caught the door on the left of the stage.
I remembered Cal saying,
I rushed to the door and pulled it open. The hallway was dark but I could make out something on the floor. I slowly advanced into the hall.
There was a body flat on the ground and I instantly knew it was Constable Michael Barnes.
My knees became weak and I was ready to fall.
FIFTEEN
“What the hell were you doing there?” Aldrich yelled.
It was the next morning and Beadsworth and I were in Aldrich’s temporary office. The police department had given him this office for the duration of the investigation. It had your standard: desk, chairs, lamp, cabinet, bookcase, and a few other items.
Aldrich was pacing back and forth.
“Will someone tell me what the hell you were doing at a club?”
He was talking to me.
“Scoping the place out,” I said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Checking the place out, sir,” I said.
“Who authorized you to check this place out?” he demanded. He was now leaning across the desk.
I glanced at Beadsworth.
“I did, sir,” Beadworth said.
Aldrich looked disappointed. “I expected more from you, Detective.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Beadsworth.
“It was my fault,” I said.
“Of course it was your fault,” Aldrich shot back. “Who else’s fault would it be?”
I’d been hoping Aldrich would say it was no one’s fault.
“I have an injured officer.” He shook his head. “The drug squad is already going through so much. We don’t need this. You know how hard it was to keep it out of the papers. If anyone questions us we have to say the officer was off duty. We would have to lie. You know why?”
Beadsworth and I didn’t answer.
“It would have jeopardized our mission.” He stood up. Adjusted his coat. “You were only supposed to observe and not get involved. What were you hoping to find?”
“RACE,” I said but then realized I should have kept my mouth shut.
“RACE?” he blasted. “What if you had seen RACE, what would you have done? Do you remember our mission?”
I did not open my mouth.
“Our mission is to find where Nex is being produced and distributed. If you had intercepted they would have realized how close we were. They would have become cautious. We DO NOT want them to be cautious.”
“How is Barnes?” Beadsworth finally asked.
“He’s at Toronto East General, recovering. He took a hard hit on the head and his memory is questionable,” Aldrich answered. “We were lucky to get him out of that place without anyone knowing.”
