The Referral Game

“That’s right Randall, we know who you are. We’re kind of a new neighborhood watch committee and we like to keep up on everybody to make sure they don’t get into trouble like you keep doing. Now how about our reward? And since we had to help you out twice better make it a hundred.”
    “Sounds reasonable,” I said.
    I reached up as if to get my wallet with my right hand and struck out as hard as I could at Jimmy with my left catching him a glancing blow on the temple. He staggered back, but didn’t fall as I turned my attention to Frankie. He was already in motion with a hook aimed at my head. I ducked it and countered with an uppercut that connected to his jaw. I moved in to press my advantage and Jimmy jumped on my back. I fell to one knee and he rolled off to one side as I heard a siren.
    “Cops Jimmy,” Frankie warned. “Let’s get outta here.”
    “Right,” said Jimmy. “ We’ll be seeing you Randall.”
    They took off down an alley and the darkness swallowed them up.
    A squad car screeched to a halt next to me. A uniformed office got put and helped me to my feet.
    “Been in a scuffle, have you? He asked.
    “Yeah, if you call attempted robbery and assault a little scuffle,” I said with some heat. His flip tone put me off.
    “Looked like kids to me. You should be ashamed of yourself. A grown man wrestling with kids, you might have hurt them.”
    “You wouldn’t say that if you had spent any ring time with them,” I said. He was grinning now.
    “Do you want to file a complaint? He asked.
    I was on a tight schedule so I declined. He thanked me for saving him the paper work and stayed there for with me for a few minutes until a cab came by. My car was around the block, but I didn’t feel like walking through a dark parking garage with the wad I was carrying. I hailed the cab, said my good-byes to the cop and got in.
    “Club Control on 14th,” I said.
    The driver flipped the meter over and took off. The temperature was continuing to fall and the cab felt warm. I pulled my coat up to my chin and almost drifted off to sleep. There was soft jazz on the cab radio.
    “Mind if I catch news? The cabbie asked, jolting me awake.
    I grunted a reply that he took for a yes and he flipped the dial. The top story was still the Hanson abduction, nothing new. They were going over the same ground for the forth time when we pulled up in front of the club.
    It was a typical basement hole in the wall with a neon sign out front that announced ‘GIRLS’. It was real classy.
    I paid the driver and started to get out.
    “Hey buddy,” he started with a knowing leer. “If you like this kind of joint for fifty I can take you to some real action. If you know what I mean.”
    “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. If that’s what I wanted, that’s what I would have asked for. Got it.”
    “Yeah, I get it. Sorry buddy, I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said.
    I got out of the cab and started towards the door of the club.
    As the cab was pulling away the driver rolled down his window and stuck his head out.
    “Hey buddy,” he called. Then he used that two-word phrase you hear in the movies all the time that ends in ‘you’.
    I was so upset that I thought about it the entire ten feet to the club door.

Chapter 4

The Club

I walked in the club after paying the cover charge and looked around. It was about what I had expected a bar at one end of the room with about fifteen stools and a large mirror behind it running the length of the wall. A stage on the other side of the room with two poles and a runway that stretched out into a small sea of tables crowded together. A sign above the door into the room said maximum capacity 150 people. I’d have to take the fire marshal’s word on that. It looked to me like half that number would suck all the oxygen out of the place. It wasn’t even eight yet, but the place was filling up fast. It was a normal strip club crowd. Mostly young men with eager faces scattered among businessmen trying to impress clients with the entertainment that they couldn’t find in the small towns they all seemed to come from.
    I walked over to the bar where a bored looking bartender took my order and then I found my way to a table. The show had already started, but neither of the girls on stage could be Susan Maxwell if what I had heard about her was true. Both of the young ladies were attractive, it was hard not to be in pasties and a g-string, but they didn’t have the assets I