Sin City

Catherine said, 'Sara and I'll get hair and blood from the dancers, and I thought you might want to re- interview.'

'Yeah,' Conroy said, 'probably a good idea. But maybe you should chat with the owner some more.'

The two CSIs gathered their equipment from the Tahoe, Conroy giving them a hand, and headed into the club. While Sara and Conroy kept a respectful distance, Catherine approached Ty Kapelos, who ruled the roost from behind the bar, wearing what appeared to be the same white long-sleeved shirt as the other evening.

'Hey, Ty,' she said.

'Hey, Cath…knew you couldn't stay away-missed me, didn't ya?'

'That's it, Ty,' Catherine said. 'You're irresistible.'

The club was quiet, only a handful of college-age guys, hanging out near the stage, and a few white-collar types at tables, whether conventioneers or local businessman 'working late,' Catherine couldn't hazard a guess. The music was thankfully silent-Worm in his booth, going through CDs looking for tunes, reminding her of Greg Sanders examining clues-and no women were currently on the stage.

'Jeez, Ty,' Catherine said. 'I'd like to have the tumbleweed concession in this place, about now.'

Kapelos shrugged. 'Changeover time, Cath. You know how that is. Girls are in the back.'

'That the whole story, Ty?'

His good humor evaporated, and he answered her, but in a hushed tone. 'Nothing like a murdered dancer to chase business away.'

'Sure-your patrons like things discreet. Murder happens, you never know when the cops are going to show back up.'

'You said it, Cath, I didn't-at least, the sheriff had the decency to send around pretty cops.'

'You're still a charmer, Ty,' she said, and explained what they needed.

'Sure, go ahead,' Kapelos said.

Catherine turned to Conroy, who gave her a look. The CSI nodded just a little, getting it, and said, 'You two go ahead…. I'll catch up.'

Conroy smiled a little as she and Sara moved toward the hallway in back.

Returning her attention to Kapelos, Catherine asked, 'Which of your dancers makes the most money?'

He shrugged as he polished a glass.

'Come on, Ty-I'm not the IRS. I don't want to bust anybody's chops, particularly not yours-I just want to know if Jenna was the object of jealousy.'

Another, more cooperative shrug. 'Yeah, some-she was really cute, y'know, had this girl-next-door kinda thing goin'. She did pretty well even before her boob job, which came out great, and made her even more popular…. Some of the girls didn't like that. You know how it goes.'

Catherine was aware that Jenna's life at Dream Dolls wouldn't have been easy. Under the added pressure of her jealous boyfriend, Jenna couldn't have been very happy; no wonder she'd wanted out. 'Had Jenna ever talked about quitting?'

Kapelos waved off the question. 'Yeah, sure. They all do.'

'So, you didn't take her talk of quitting seriously?'

'Question is, did she take it serious. I mean, hell, I knew this boyfriend, Lipton, wanted her to quit…even though he met her here…and she usually talked about it, right after they argued. 'Maybe Ray's right, maybe I am prostituting myself.' I learned a long time ago not to put too much stock in that kind of talk. These are messed-up kids-you know, Cath…low self-esteem, high drug abuse, and more incest victims than a week of Springer.'

'Was Jenna a drug user?'

'I don't know about her private life. I don't have to tell you, I don't allow none of that shit in here, not in my business…but what they do on their own time, how they spend all this money they make, that's their business.'

'Jenna ever mention anything about her and Lipton getting married?'

'Yeah, but I figured she was just talkin' about that to keep Lipton on the hook. Sure he's a hot-headed prick, but he's also a good-looking fella with a successful small business.'

'So you figure she did want to marry him?'

'I think so, but my take is, she wanted to work a few years, and put a little money away, of her own, before she walked away from show biz to be a baby-making machine.'

'Did she say that? Indicated Lipton wanted a big family?'

'Yeah. She'd be a normal housewife, those were the words she used. Look, I don't have to tell you Dream Dolls and even the glitzier clubs, like Showgirl World and Olympic Gardens, ain't exactly Broadway or Hollywood… but it's still show business, and Jenna was a star, in her little universe…and it's hard to walk away from that kind of attention.'

'But Jenna did want to marry Ray,' Catherine said, pressing Ty, 'if not now, eventually?'

Kapelos turned up his palms. 'Who can say? You ever know anybody talkin' about marriage didn't have their head up their ass?'

Suddenly her ex-husband Eddie's face popped up in her memory, like a jack-in-the-box, and she shook her head to dismiss the image.

'Damn straight,' Kapelos said, misreading that as a gesture of agreement with him.

Catherine didn't bother to correct him. 'Which of these dancers would you say disliked Jenna the most?'

Kapelos harumphed. 'Hell, take your pick. It ain't like the old days when you girls watched out for each other. These days, these girls just as soon spit at each other as say hello. This is a more lucrative business than when you left, Cath. Some of these girls are makin' a good six figures.'

Catherine squinted-had she heard right? 'You serious?'

'As a heart attack…and Jenna was one of those girls. She did the circuit, made some serious green, but this was home for her…. Y'know, when she did L.A., she had the porn producers hounding her, all the time.'

'She interested?'

A groove of thought settled between his thick eyebrows. 'Frankly, I think she mighta been considering it. She told me that some of the top girls in the adult industry work a few years, and retire millionaires.'

'Did Lipton know she was considering a porn career?'

'If he did, well…'

'Well what, Ty?'

'I was gonna say…he'd kill her.'

Their gazes held for several long seconds, then Catherine twitched a smile and said, 'Thanks, Ty. I'm going to the back, to help out. I know Detective Conroy's going to have some more questions, possibly about regulars. I'd appreciate if you'd be as open with her as you have been with me.'

Kapelos grinned. 'Not a chance, Cath…not a chance.'

She chuckled, as Kapelos turned his attention to one of college kids, who'd ambled up to the bar.

Pushing through the curtains at the corridor's end, Catherine entered a different facet of the world of Dream Dolls.

The dressing room was much brighter than the dark bar and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. Once the tiny stars dissipated, she found herself in a room deeper than she remembered, going back a good thirty feet and leaving space for nine tiny dressing tables along each side wall. Globe lights on four ceiling fans ran down the center of the ceiling. At least, Catherine thought, Ty had finally got rid of those fluorescents that painted the dancers a ghostly white. Walls a pastel green, the room felt soft and inviting compared to the overbearing blackness beyond the heavy curtains.

Conroy was in the far left hand corner interviewing a lithe, chocolate-skinned dancer wearing a red sequined g-string and nothing else. About halfway back on the right side, Sara was taking a blood sample from a blonde woman in red bikini lingerie, a voluptuous girl of maybe twenty.

Seven or eight other women stood around in various stages of undress, none of them the least bit modest or seemingly even aware of the three fully clothed women in their midst. The unforgiving illumination revealed cellulite, stretch marks, scars and other imperfections that the low, blue-tinged lighting out front would conceal; a couple of them wore a shiny patina of perspiration that told Catherine they had been dancing recently.

A redhead with breasts as fraudulent as her hair color strode forward on spike heels that lifted her to a