"Requiem For A Stripper" drabbles by Christopher
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 36
Requiem For A Stripper #36
She looked like she was going to be sick. She started shaking.
"Hey, calm down, kid. It's okay," I said as I pulled her to me. She started sobbing onto my chest.
"Why is this happening, Jake? Who is doing this? I didn't think anything drastic had happened to Honey but if five dancing girls have gone missing that can't be coincidence. Can it?"
"It would be a damn big coincidence if it was. But everything will be alright. I'm on the case now. I'll get to the bottom of it."
She was still sobbing. I just held her close...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 35
Requiem For A Stripper #35
"I need to ask you something else, Jen. Have you heard that other strippers have gone missing over the last few weeks?"
She was swallowing some bourbon and almost choked on it.
"What? No, I don't really have any friends other than Honey. And even we're not that close. I keep to myself when I'm not at the club. Unless it's someone who's danced at the Daffodil since I've been there or takes lessons at Hoofers I don't even know any other dancers in this city."
"Two girls at The Pink Pussycat have disappeared and two at The Giant Clam."
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 34
Requiem For A Stripper #34
"I think so. She was pretty tight-lipped about her personal life," Jen said. She got up from the couch and headed to the drinks cabinet in the corner.
"Care for a drink?" she asked.
I nodded, "Bourbon on the rocks if you have it."
"I think I'll have one too," she said as she poured two glasses. She walked to the kitchen and opened the icebox to retrieve some ice.
She came back and handed me a glass, then sat down beside me.
I took a shot of the bourbon and set the glass down on the coffee table...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 33
Requiem For A Stripper #33
She shook her head, "Not at the moment but maybe it'll come to me."
I nodded. "How about a dance studio called Hoofers?"
"Yeah, Honey and I both take dancing lessons there."
"Still?" I asked.
"Yeah. I just had one two days ago. That was the first one I'd ever had without Honey with me."
She had a thought, "Oh! That's where I know Madame Helga's name! Honey said she came to her after one of our dance lessons and asked her if she ever did private shows for paying clientele."
This was getting interesting.
"Did she ever do that?"
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 32
Requiem For A Stripper #32
I sat down on the couch and she came and sat beside me. I looked around her apartment. It was a bit more cluttered than Honey's was but still within the boundaries of clean living.
Jen had her hair pulled back in a ponytail but she still looked every bit as beautiful as she did in my office earlier that day.
"Have you ever heard of a Madame Helga? She may have some sort of business in West Covina?"
She thought for a moment and said, "Yeah. A couple of months ago Honey mentioned her."
"Do you remember the context?"
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 31
Requiem For A Stripper #31
I went to Jen Ann's apartment and knocked on the door.
"Just a minute," I heard Jen Ann yell before answering the door in a pink bathrobe.
"Mr. Randolph!" she exclaimed.
I raised my finger up in the air and she said, "I mean Jake. Come in!"
"How are you, Jen?"
She exhaled, "Uh, I'm okay. I just got out of the bath and I'm going to have a little nap before I head off to the club."
I nodded, "Well, I won't keep you. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions."
"Please, sit down," she said...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 30
Requiem For A Stripper #30
The name and number were in the same handwriting as the poetry and the mailbox name.
It said Madame Helga - Edgewood 6745.
Edgewood, or ED, was the telephone exchange for West Covina. I was going to have to ask Jen Ann if she knew that telephone number or if she'd ever heard of this Madame Helga.
I kept looking and found a business card for a dance studio called Hoofers in Hollywood. I took one of the pencils I found and wrote Madame Helga's name and the phone number on the back of the business card and left the apartment...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 29
Requiem For A Stripper #29
I started pulling desk drawers out and looking behind them to see if anything had slipped out of the drawers and into the back of the desk. I found a couple of pencils and a receipt for a hair appointment three months prior, but nothing that would indicate where Honey was.
I grabbed the wastebasket, dumping it out on top of the desk. There were crumpled up pieces of paper with the remnants of some badly written poetry, in the same handwriting on Honey's mailbox. There were several empty gum packs and their wrappers.
And a name and phone number...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 28
Requiem For A Stripper #28
I wanted to knock on Jen Ann's but decided to check Honey's apartment out first. I fished one of the hairpins out of my jacket pocket and started picking the lock. I broke the first pin and had to retrieve a second one from my pocket. After about 50 seconds I had the door open.
The apartment looked as neat as Honey's given surname had been written on her mailbox. Or at least as neat as it could have looked after several cops had repeatedly trampled through the joint.
I bypassed most of the obvious places that cops would look...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 27
Requiem For A Stripper #27
I pulled my foot out of the doorway and contemplated kicking the door open, but knew that was counterproductive, so I just turned and headed back down the hall. I heard the door slam shut as I got to the lobby. I looked at the mailboxes and found Davis with the number 7. If that was Jen Ann's place then Honey Comb's would either be 5 or 9. Box 5 had the name McGillicuddy scrawled on it almost illegibly. 9 had Hamm printed neatly on it.
I hotfooted it up the stairs to the second floor and found apartment 9...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 26
Requiem For A Stripper #26
"You reporters have got guts. I'll give you that," he said as he started to close the door.
I jammed my foot in it and said, "Reporter? What are you talking about? Is something wrong?"
He looked down at my foot holding the door open and then back up into my eyes.
"Your sister has been missing for a week, pal. The cops have been over the apartment like rabid bloodhounds and you're the third reporter that's tried to get in there. Now get your foot out of my doorway and scram before I toss you out on your ass!"
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 25
Requiem For A Stripper #25
"Hello," I said, going into actor mode, "my name's Jacob Hamm. My sister lives here. Her name is Molly Hamm. I just got in from Cleveland. I knocked on the door but no one answered."
He looked me in the eyes. I couldn't tell if he was trying to determine if I was telling the truth or if he just didn't want to tell me my sister was missing.
He kept staring so I said, "Do you think you could let me in so I can wait for her? I had a long journey and I'm tired."
He just chuckled...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 24
Requiem For A Stripper #24
I went into the lobby. It had a bland decor, dirty floors and an atmosphere that said This is where you wind up when life has repeatedly kicked you in the teeth.
I turned down a hall near the mailboxes and saw the janitor's closet and then a door that read Manager.
I rapped on the door a few times and heard someone yell, "I'm coming! Hold your horses!"
A man answered. He had a face like a mistake and an air of failure that hung around him like cheap aftershave. Or maybe that was cheap aftershave.
"Yeah?" he asked...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 23
Requiem For A Stripper #23
Harrigan and I finished lunch and headed back to the precinct. I picked up my car and made for Honey Comb's apartment, making a quick stop at a drugstore to buy a pack of hair pins. I figured if I couldn't con the manager of the building into letting me in Honey's place I'd just commit a little breaking and entering.
I got to the Kilgore Arms on Temple Street at about 2 in the afternoon. I wondered if Jen Ann was at home, since she wasn't on until 10.
But I didn't have anything to tell her. Not yet...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 22
Requiem For A Stripper #22
Harrigan said, “As I said, no frills. Debra Snow and Barb Winston. And if those are stage names then those girls aren't very creative."
"Is there any other thing they have in common other than being strippers? I mean, do they all have the same hair color? Or some other unifying theme?"
He shook his head, "Not that we've found out. And their hair colors varied."
"I guess you've been through all of their apartments?"
Harrigan sighed, "Yes, Randolph. We do know how to do our jobs."
Maybe. But I was going to go behind them. Just to make sure...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 21
Requiem For A Stripper #21
"Hello, Peggy," I said with a smile.
She looked over at me and said, "You're partly responsible for that little outburst too, Jake. So watch your step."
I slid down part way under the table as Harrigan placed his order.
"Peg, I want a hamburger. Ketchup, mustard, lettuce. And a small bowl of tomato soup. And a Coca-Cola."
She wrote it down on her pad as I said, "And I'll have the same minus the soup."
"Alright, boys. I'll be back shortly."
"So," I said as I slid back into an upright position, "What about the Giant Clam girls?"
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 20
Requiem For A Stripper #20
"How about the girls at The Giant Clam?" I asked.
"Oh, they're not as creative. You know what a dump that place is."
"Do I?" I asked with a grin. "Seems like you have more experience with it than I do."
Harrigan yelled, "I'm a police officer, Jake! Of course I've been in places like that!"
The waitress, a middle-aged lady named Peggy, came over and said, "Police officer or not, Harrigan, keep it down or I'll have the cook toss you out on your ear!"
Harrigan looked sheepish as I grinned like an idiot.
"Sorry, Peg," he said...
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 19
Requiem For A Stripper #19
Harrigan pulled up to the Bluebird Diner. I was sick of eating there but it was the first place Harrigan and I ate at when we got back from the war and it apparently held some sort of nostalgic sway over him.
"What can you tell me about the girls that went missing in the other clubs?" I asked as we went through the door.
"Well," Harrigan said as we slid into a booth in the back, "the two at the Pussycat were Candy Apple and Lily Padd."
I shook my head. Where did they come up with these names?
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 18
Requiem For A Stripper #18
I thought that might have been a little dig at me. I let it go.
"My client works at the Gilded Daffodil and she said Honey Comb disappeared but she didn't specify any other girls from there being missing."
Harrigan shook his head, "No, there are two from The Pink Pussycat Club, and two others from that dive near Huntington Beach, The Giant Clam."
"I'm gonna to have to do a little legwork," I said.
"Boy, wouldn't we all like to have a job where we get paid to frequent strip joints?"
"It's nice work if you can get it."
Jake Randolph in "Requiem For A Stripper" Pt. 17
Requiem For A Stripper #17
I raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
Harrigan nodded.
I guess that shot through the head my theory that Honey might have just run off with a beau.
He continued, "5 strippers so far have gone missing, including Honey."
I whistled. "I know L.A. is a rough place sometimes, especially in the circles that strippers run in, but I wouldn't think that was just a coincidence."
Harrigan shook his head, "It's probably a psycho killer that gets his jollies from offing strippers. But we haven't found many leads yet."
"You don't talk to the right people, Harrigan."
"Oh, don't I know it."
