Murder at the Stripclub by Lew Pit - HTML preview

Chapter 2

 

It was 3 am in the morning that Friday when I drove out of the parking of the strip club. Pushing the remote the sliding gate closed slowly and as usual, I waited until it was completely closed as lately a wave of break-ins had hit the area where the club was located. A number of my neighbors had been visited by burglars who’d taken cash or valuable items from their shops and if they hadn’t been able to get something of value had created a lot of damage. Despite the numerous cameras, we had installed over the past months, the police didn’t have a clue. There were even suggestions going around to set up a 24/7 guard system, most shop owners were willing to chip in to hire a professional crew. The next day I was very sorry to not have pursued it sooner and more vehemently.

After a reasonable night’s sleep, I drove up again to the club around 9 am the next morning and found the parking half filled with a bunch of police cars with flashing lights. When I wanted to go in I was stopped by a big guy who told me to get out of there. Getting out of the car, I told him I owned the place, and even when I told him my name he still became rather aggressive telling me to keep my hands where he could see them while grabbing his handcuffs. I was ordered to turn around and put my hands behind my back and was immediately handcuffed and marched towards what looked like the command vehicle.

“Chief this guy claims he owns this place, and says his name is George Gentle,” the big guy who had cuffed me said to what looked like the person in command. Before he could reply I asked what was going on, and where my cleaning lady was.

He looked at me and said, “You have a cleaning lady inside?”

“Yes, sir, she comes every morning and cleans the place for me.”

“And what does this cleaning lady look like?”

“She’s around 30, average height, black hair, she’s Polish, has a nice figure, she used to be a bodybuilder.”

“And she comes every day?”

“Not every day, but only when we have been open for business the day before, she’s got a key, she starts at 8, and by this time she’s usually halfway thru and when I arrive she has her break and we have a coffee together.”

“And you do that every time she’s here?”

“Yes and I would like to know what is going on, and what all of you are doing here, and why am I handcuffed, and why can’t I enter my own premises? Has there been a break-in?”

“We will be asking the questions here sir, but if you absolutely want to know why we’re here is because your cleaning lady called us.”

“So there was a break-in then?”

“That we don’t know, what we do know is that there is a corpse in there and it doesn’t look like an accident.”

“A CORPSE?”

“Yes, sir a dead woman.”

“What dead woman, where did she come from, who is she?”

“That is exactly what we’re trying to figure out, where were you last night?”

“I was at home, sleeping.”

‘Mmhhm, can anyone confirm that?”

“No, I live alone.”

“And what time did you get home?”

“I left here as usual around 3 am and I was home about fifteen minutes later, say 3:15 and I went straight to bed.”

“And you slept till now?”

“Not exactly, else I wouldn’t be here now would I?”

“This is no joking matter mister, what time did you get up and what did you do?”

“OK, I got up at 8, showered, had breakfast left home around 8:45, and drove here, where I was handcuffed by one of your officers without giving me a reason or a chance to explain why I was here.”

“You said you own the place?”

“Yes, for the past 15 years, you see it’s called George’s hideout, well George that’s me.”

“I see, and you never had any problems?”

“Not this far, I guess I was the lucky one as a lot of my neighbors had burglars visiting, but none had a dead person awaiting them when they arrived in the morning to open up.”

“Yes we know there’s been a wave of burglaries lately, but this is the first time a dead person was found.”

“Do you think I had anything to do with this dead woman, whomever she may be?”

“We don’t know yet, what you tell me makes sense at first glance but we have to be careful.”

“Is there really a need to handcuff me for that?”

“Maybe not,” looking at the big guy who had brought me to him he ordered him to remove the cuffs.

“Can I go in now, and can I please see Julia, this must be awful for her.”

“Why do you want to see this Julia and who is she?”

I wondered, was he trying to trick me and thinking I will tell a different story?

“As I said before sir, Julia is the Polish cleaning lady who works for me and I’m not only her employer but also a close friend, she must feel overwhelmed by all of this, as I presume she was the one who found the dead body?”

“Yes, and as you sort of claim to care for her and be her only friend, it is odd that she didn’t call you in the first place but us instead.”

“That is not odd at all, after the wave of burglaries started, I told her that whenever she found something strange arriving or entering or she didn’t feel safe she needed to call the police immediately and wait outside for you guys to arrive, which I guess is what she did?”

“Yes, she was outside waiting for us when we arrived, extremely upset. We immediately called for an ambulance to provide medical support.”

“Thank God, and how is she now?”

“She’s fine.”

“Can I see her?”

“We would first like for you to accompany us inside and see if you know the dead woman we found.”

“OK.”

“A word of warning, it’s not a beautiful sight, she was violently attacked and her whole body was badly scarred.”

Another car arrived and a young oriental-looking female driver stepped out and joined us. She greeted the chief and he took her immediately aside. They seemed to have a heated discussion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying. Later, much later I was to find out what this was all about. When, after about 10 minutes, they came back to me still discussing, both looking rather angry with the chief almost using hands and feet to make his point, to the young oriental woman, with whom he clearly had an argument and kept repeating they had received a call via 112 (the general emergency number in Europe to call the fire brigade, police and or ambulance similar to 911 in the US) from a woman with a strange accent telling them she had found a dead person in this bar. That they had rushed over and indeed found a dead woman, most probably murdered and half an hour later I had arrived claiming to be the owner of these premises, and we were on the brink of going inside to find out if I happened to know the victim or could shed any light on what had happened.

She looked at me, extended her hand, and said, “I’m Seiko Tashima and I will be the investigating officer for this case, and you are?”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance misses Tashima, I’m George Gentle, owner and operator of this place.”

“Miss Tashima, mister Gentle” she replied, “and do you know the woman who placed the call to the police?”

For the umpteenth time, I had to tell somebody else who Julia was and why she was there, and what my relationship with her was.

“Yes, she’s my Polish cleaning lady, Julia.”

“And have you known her long?”

“Yes, we go back a good number of years, she has cleaned for me for the past 15 years now, almost from the day I opened the club and she’s very dear to me, so I’m rather worried about how she’s feeling after discovering what it is she discovered.”

“Well Mister Gentle, we’ll find out together what she has discovered when she walked in this morning.”

Coming in I immediately saw that what the chief had told me was a serious understatement. A naked female body, covered in blood, was suspended from a beam with four ropes attached to her wrists and ankles, spread-eagled completely. I had a serious problem not heaving.

“Do you know this woman Mister Gentle?” The chief asked after he saw that I looked a little less pale.

Do I know her, God she is my best stripper and pole dancer, when she is performing all the men go crazy, throwing money on the stage to urge her to get completely naked as quickly as possible.

“Yes officer, this is one of the girls performing here, she’s my star attraction, her stage name is Rose, you can see her photos on display in the box at the door.”

“Is that her real name Mister Gentle?”

“No of course not, all the girls that work here do so under a stage name, her real name is Meredith, Meredith Taylor.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. Who in his right mind could mangle a woman as beautiful as Meredith in this way, it was pure horror. We were asked to stay at least 5 meters away from the body to avoid any contamination. She had cuts all over her body, with her back almost raw flesh, clearly from a vicious whipping. What looked like a champagne bottle was rammed up her pussy, and with rammed I mean not only the neck of the bottle but the whole bottle, there was barely 2 inches sticking out. Her boobs looked kind of brownish and from the remains of candles that were lying below her, I could only guess how that came about. This must be the doing of a sick mind. I could only hope that she hadn’t suffered too long and had died quickly. A machete had been planted in the middle of her abdomen probably explaining the huge puddle of blood just below her on the floor. Barely visible through all the coagulated blood covering her lower body I could discern the word Dyke, carved in her abdomen. Her forehead had also been adorned with the word whore but burned into it with a soldering iron.

There were a few people completely dressed in white coveralls, taking pictures and collecting evidence, from the body and the surrounding area.

I heard Miss Tashima ask one of these people in white, I guessed the head coroner what the estimated time of death and the possible cause of death might be after their first investigation. The man replied they estimated her death between 4 and 6 this morning and as for the cause of death, the machete was the obvious choice, but it could be that it was inserted post-mortem, but going by the amount of blood on the floor it was unlikely, the autopsy will tell us more he replied. With this information, we could leave. I was glad we could, after what I had just witnessed I desperately needed to get some fresh air and I wanted to see how Julia was doing if I could find her.

I thought the ambulance, which was still there, would be the obvious choice and it was, Julia was sitting in the open back door, covered with one of those gold/silver emergency blankets to keep her warm. She was clearly still in a state of shock shivering, which I could imagine after having seen what I saw inside just a few minutes ago, and I was accompanied by police people while she had been all alone and totally unprepared when she walked in this morning.

“Julia?”

“Oh hi, George.”

“How are you dear, are you OK? Is there anything I can do for you?

“Can you hold me for a second, please, I need someone I know to hold me.”

I put my arms around the shivering woman, I couldn’t begin to imagine how she must feel after seeing what she saw in the club. After a while, she calmed down and I let go when I saw Miss Tashima approaching.

“Could I have a word with you mister Gentle?”

“Yes Miss Tashima, how can I be of assistance?”

“Have you any idea who could have done this?”

“I’m afraid not, Rose was very well-liked, both by the male audience and by her colleagues.”

“What about the female audience?”

“As you can imagine there are not many women visiting the club, we only see the occasional lesbian wandering in, but they are usually accompanied by their girlfriend, just out for some fun and games.”

“Do you have any enemies that you know of, who could, in this way, cause you or your business harm?”

“There is always competition in this business of course and as my club, and I’m proud to say, is rather successful, there could be people that envy me, but nobody specific comes to mind.”

“Any jealous partners?”

“No, I’m single and I never have any kind of sex or amorous relationship with any of the girls that work at the club.”

“How many girls work at the club?”

“There are two working the bar, Daisy and Luna, and six that perform on stage, Apple, Peach, Eve, Ruby, Maya, and of course Rose.”

“And they were all there last night?”

“Yes, but not all at night they work certain shifts 4 days a week. The club is closed on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.”

“Did you notice anyone in particular last night at the club, someone you’ve never seen before, someone that was overly interested in Rose?”

“No again, everything was normal for a Friday evening, most of the people were regulars. Joe, the bouncer, was bored, so he told me when we closed up.”

“Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you drove off?”

“Again nothing springs to mind, with the recent wave of burglaries in the area I pay special attention when leaving to make sure the gates are closed, but nothing was out of the ordinary.”

“Why would Rose be at the club after you closed?”

“I have no idea, she doesn’t have a key, she can’t get in; basically nobody can get in.”

“I need to tell you that Julia told us the gate was not locked when she arrived for cleaning, it was closed but not locked. She told me that was a bit out of the ordinary, especially as she didn’t see your car in the car park. She thought that you may have forgotten to check if the gate was closed and locked when you left.”

“I always wait for the gate to close and it locks automatically, I don’t always check if it does though.”

“So could it be that the gate closed but did not lock when you drove off?”

“I have no idea, I didn’t check, but even when it was locked, any lock can be picked, by a specialist of course.”

“Yes that’s true, so you have no idea who could have murdered the girl?”

“No, as I said everybody licked her, she even helped the other girls regularly when they had a problem.”

“What kind of problem are you referring to?”

“Oh, you know boyfriend problems, financial problems, work permit problems, you see except for Rose and Maya the other girls came from countries outside the European Union.”

“So Rose was local?”

“Oh yes, she was born and bred here in Belgium.”

“Did Rose have a boyfriend or husband?”

“There was someone, as far as I know, she was married at one time but then she divorced the guy but that was, as far as I know, a long time ago and I have never seen him.”

“So Rose was single you say?”

“Of that, I’m not sure, but since you come to mention it, the past couple of months there was a woman I saw regularly who was showing a certain interest in Rose, but I didn’t think anything of it as Rose is, as far as I know, strictly hetero.”

“The word dyke carved in her abdomen might contradict that, do you know the name of this woman showing an interest in Rose?”

“I’m afraid not, one of the other girls might know it, but I don’t.”

“When can I see the girls that work for you?”

“Some of them will probably show up by the time we would normally open up, but after what happened I guess we won’t reopen today or even maybe any time soon?”

“No the place will be closed and sealed at least for a week if not longer.

“OK, the girls won’t be happy as I will have to put them on technical unemployment. As I said on a normal opening day, the first ones arrive just before 2, so in about 3 hours.”

“I don’t think it’s wise to let them come here, can you contact them and invite them to come tomorrow to the police station downtown instead?”

“Yes I can do that, and I also want to be there when they arrive, I won’t let any of them face this alone.”

“You can be there when they arrive, but we will not allow you to participate in the interrogation.”

“You’re going to interrogate them?”

“That Mister Gentle is standard practice, we interrogate everybody who is or was in any way connected to the victim. Is there a way I can see what the camera’s recorded?”

“Yes, but we’ll have to go back inside to my office.”

“OK, I’ll see how far forensics is with their investigation.”

She disappeared inside the club again, returning after 5 minutes beckoning me. I joined her and we went straight to my office. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Rose’s body had been taken down and put on a gurney in a black body bag.

“We have two camera’s outside, one facing the front and one checking the parking, they rotate and return to their original starting position after 3 minutes. Which one do you want to see first?”

“It’s not on tape or anything I can take with me?”

“No, I’m afraid the recording is on a hard drive, I can make a copy if you wish on a memory stick but that will take some time.”

“OK, well make a copy, but can we in the meantime take a look already here?”

“Yes, which one first, and from what time do you want to start looking?”

“Let’s go for the front one, starting from shortly before you left.”

The front view of the club appeared on the screen slowly going from left to right and back. I saw myself drive out and the gate closing. Then nothing happened, the picture kept on moving from left to right. Miss Tashima asked me to make it go a bit faster, but when we arrived at 4:30 on the time stamp, still nothing had happened.

“Unless the coroner was completely wrong about the time of death, we can’t see if anybody entered the premises through the front. Let’s look at the recording of the parking.”

“I don’t think you’re going to see anything there either as when someone drove in between me leaving and 4:30 it would show up.”

“Unless the person or persons driving in knew exactly how the cameras work and drove in when they could not be filmed unless, of course, the parking camera caught them.”

“I’m afraid there could be a one-minute window that neither camera could see them.”

“OK but what about inside cameras?”

“That one is movement activated when someone enters it will switch on.”

When we looked at the recording of the inside camera, it had started recording, starting from the front door sweeping the room at 3:30, but only for about 30 seconds, and then the picture went gradually black.

“Was the recording system stopped?” Seiko wanted to know.

“No, it kept on recording but only a black picture.”

“Ok let’s take a look at the camera itself.”

When we went to the main room it became immediately clear why there was only a black image, the lens of the camera had been sprayed with black paint. The person who did this knew exactly where to move inside and what the best time was to spray paint the lens.

“Now this, Mister Gentle, leads me to think who did this was very familiar with the premises, an insider maybe?”

“Who could know all this stuff about the cameras, as you can see they’re not obvious?”

“Basically everybody who works here, knows how the outside and inside cameras work, I even train them a bit, just in case something happens they know exactly how to behave to protect themselves. Doesn’t that make everybody a potential suspect?”

“Yes, I’m afraid it does, unless you can come up with someone else?”

“Well, basically any customer paying a bit of attention and wanting to know how it all works could figure it out easily.”

“Do you have anyone in particular in mind?”

“I guess they would have to come regularly to figure it out completely.”

“I would say so yes, are there customers that come almost daily?”

“There are a few yes.”

“Do you know their names?”

“From some, we know their Christian name, but not the family name.”

“Do they pay cash or electronically?”

“Aside from the bills the punters slip into the girl’s knickers or bra, we try to avoid cash payments, we don’t want to be associated with money laundering practices.”

“Wise decision, so could you get me the names of the regulars, let’s say the past month or so?”

“You mean, right now?”

“No, tomorrow will be OK. Maybe you can bring them when you come to the office?”

“OK will do, is there anything else I can do to help the investigation for the moment?”

“No, I think we’ve covered it. We will have a guard on the premises as long as the investigation takes, afterward we’ll seal the building and we’ll increase the patrols.”

“I’m sure my fellow businessmen in the area will be most grateful if you increase the patrols around here.”

Julia was insofar as possible after what she witnessed today back to normal so I could take her home. I managed to stick her bicycle with which she had come into the boot of my car and drove her home, telling her she needed to be at the downtown police station the next day at 10 am.