Mistress of Justice

sure.”
    The woman took the card and asked, “Do you have any special requests?”
    Taylor said, “Actually, I was thinking about something a little unusual. Could I have the, uh, model that Ralph Dudley sees?”
    The hostess, trained to be unflappable, didn’t look up from the charge voucher but hesitated for a millisecond. “You’re sure?”
    Thinking she’d never been less sure about anything in her life, Taylor Lockwood gave a slight smile and said, “Positive.”
    “There’s a premium. Double.”
    “No problem.” Smiling, Taylor took the credit card slip and a pen.
    See the steadiness of my hand as I sign for the
two thousand Jesus Christ what am I doing dollars.…
    The hostess disappeared into the back room. Muzak played quietly, a guitar rendition of “Pearly Shells.” She returned a moment later with a key. “I’ve talked to her. She hasn’t been with too many women but she’s game to try.”
    “Good.”
    “I think you’ll find her quite nice. Up the stairs, last room on the right. Liquor’s free. Coke we can give you at cost.”
    “That’s okay.” Taylor walked into the cool corridor.
    Topsy-turvy …
    She knocked on the door. A voice called, “Come on in.”
    Taylor took a deep breath, exhaled and pushed into the room. She stopped, total shock in her eyes—an expression that perfectly matched the one on the face of the girl who stood, topless, in the center of the room.
    It was the teenage girl she’d met in Dudley’s office, Junie. His granddaughter.
    The garter belt in the girl’s hand fell to the floor with a dull clink. She said, “Oh, shit. Like, it’s you.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
     
    “You gotta, like, close the door,” Junie said, regaining some composure. “It’s a rule. Johnny, he’s the bouncer, comes around and gets pissed, you don’t.”
    Taylor stepped into the room, shut the door.
    Junie said darkly, “Like, Ralph isn’t going to be so happy this happened, you know.”
    Taylor whispered, “You’re his granddaughter?”
    “Like, helloooo. Whatta you think? Of course not. That’s only what he tells people.”
    The girl was heavily made up, with dark streaks of brown and blue eye shadow that made her face sleek and serpentine. She retrieved the garter and began untangling it. “What it is, he’s one of my oldest customers.” Then she laughed. “I mean one of the dudes I’ve been seeing for the longest time. But, you know, he’s one of the oldest, too. Probably, like,
the
oldest.”
    Taylor looked at a plush armchair. “Can I sit down?”
    “It’s your hour. Have a drink, you want.”
    Taylor poured sparkling wine into a crystal champagne glass. “You want any?”
    “Me?” Junie looked horrified. “I can’t drink. I’m underage, you know.”
    Taylor blinked.
    The girl laughed. “That’s, like, a fucking joke. Of
course
I drink. Only they don’t let us when we’re working.”
    Taylor said, “You mind?” as she eased her shoes off. A swell of pain went through her feet then slowly vanished.
    “Mind? Usually people take off a lot more than their shoes.”
    “So tell me about you and Ralph.”
    “I guess I oughta ask why.”
    “He could be in trouble. I need to find out whether he is or not.”
    The girl shrugged, meaning: That’s not a good enough answer.
    “I’ll pay you.”
    This was a better response.
    “I guess I oughta see the duckets.”
    “The what?”
    The girl held her palm out.
    Taylor opened her purse. She hadn’t brought much of Reece’s bribe money. She wadded together about two hundred dollars, keeping twenty for herself for cab fare home.
    “I get that as a tip for a blow job,” Junie said. “If the son of a bitch’s cheap.”
    Taylor handed her more money. “That’s all I have.”
    Junie shrugged and put the money in a dresser drawer. She pulled out a T-shirt and worked it over her head. “So, Poppie—that’s what I call him—he likes girls my age. He came to the house last year and we had a date. It was like totally bizotic but we kind of hit it off, you know?” She whispered, “We started meeting outside the club. They get really pissed, they find out. But we did it anyway. He brought me some totally def clothes. Nice shit, you know. From the good stores. Anyway, we did some weird things, like, he took me to this art museum, which was a real bore. But then we went to the zoo.… Like, I’ve never been there before. It was waywild. We just kept hanging out more and more. He’s lonely. His wife