Chapter 42
He took me by the hand and walked through the crowd towards the back. There was a VIP area there, a small section away from the main bustle of the club. A large bouncer stood guarding it, a clipboard in his hand.
I watched as Kyle stepped towards him and spoke. In the loud of the club I couldn't hear his words, but I saw him slip the man a note before he clipped the rope off the pole and let us through.
We walked in, the boom of the dance floor quieter now, and sat in a private booth away from prying eyes and ears. I waited for him to speak first, my own words still lost.
“You look beautiful Alice.”
I had no reply.
“If my father knows I'm here he'll probably have both our heads, so I'm sorry to put you at risk. But, I needed to see you.”
He was speaking so officially, like it was a business meeting. There was no tenderness in his eyes.
“My father - he told you what happened?”
I nodded.
“What did he say?”
I finally mustered my words. I felt like I was being interrogated. “He said that he set the Michael Cooper killing up to kill two birds with one stone. To kill him, and to set me up, use it as collateral against me.”
“To keep you dancing? To punish me by doing so?”
I nodded again.
“There's more to it Alice. Something I found out.”
I listened intently, leaning in. “What?”
“It's all linked. Me, you, Mr Cooper and....” he paused briefly...“Jen.”
“Jen?” I asked, my frown increasing. “What's she got to do with it?”
“The poor girl. It was her Alice. It was her who killed Mr Cooper.”
I was speechless. Why? How could she do such a thing?
He continued, seeing the look of shock plastered onto my face, my mouth hanging open slightly. “My father - he must have found her Alice, tracked her down. He probably knew where she was all along. He forced her to do it, threatened her family, her life.”
“I can't believe it. Poor Jen. Why would he force her into it?!”
“Because she ran out on the client when he'd paid to sleep with her. It was him - Mr White - who she ran away from. She told you this, did she not, when she came to you in the hotel that night?”
I nodded.
“It was a tidy way to close the loop then. Kill Mr White, or Cooper, and punish Jen for what she did by forcing her to do it. If she couldn't go through with it, or if she failed in her attempt, my father could pass it off as her own personal vendetta against him. If she succeeded, he'd win on both counts.”
The depths to which this man would go shocked me to my very core. He'd manipulated the entire situation to punish everyone at once. Killing Cooper, forcing Jen to do it, setting me up, and punishing his son as a result.
He'd not only killed two birds with one stone, he'd killed four.
“He knew that Jen would be able to get close to him in the hotel room,” Kyle continued. “He knew they'd be no guards, no security to protect him. It was all under the table, all off the books. A man like Michael Cooper couldn'tafford for anyone to find out that he indulged in such vices.”
“And that would allow her to get near enough to stab him?”
Kyle nodded.
“He was expecting more than just a dance though. He'd paid for sex once more, paid to finish the job with Jen. So she wouldn't just be dancing under the spotlight out in front of him. No, she'd be able to get close, move in towards him. Then she'd be able to strike. The knife, it was taped underneath the armchair. When she bent down to unzip his pants, she took it and struck him in the heart.”
He spoke as if recounting a story.
“But how do you know what happened? How did you find out?”
“Because I talked to her. I found her address on a file. I was encrypted, but I unlocked it. I suspected it might be her, so I went there. She didn't say anything at first, but I broke her down. She was distraught by it all. Hetold her if she ever stepped out of line again, he'd give her over to the police.”
His firm look was beginning to disintegrate as he spoke, a look of guilt riding up on his face. I knew why, so I didn't say anything. There was no point. As with me, he must have been consumed with regret at bringing Jen into his world. Another innocent life ruined.
A silence lay between us. It was as if we were the only two people in the club, its sounds drowned out by the weight between us. Eventually I spoke, looking at Kyle with his eyes trained on the floor.
“So, what are you doing to do?”
His lifted his head slowly, his eyes filled with anger, and stared right at me.
“I'm going to kill him.”