"How could you tell? Wasn't it dark?" asked King.

"There's an automatic trigger on the doors. At night when the doors go up, the lights come on in here."

"When you say he looked bad, how do you mean?" asked Michelle. "Sick? Drunk?"

"No, like he was really upset, worried."

"Did you ever find out what about?" asked King.

"No. Anyway, like I said, he looked bad, but then all of sudden he started smiling and then he started laughing. Laughing! Well, he did, until she showed up."

"She who, Remmy?" said King.

Sally nodded and said in a hushed tone, "If she'd had a gun, I think Mr. Battle would've been dead a long time ago."

"What happened then?" asked Michelle.

"They started arguing. Well, at first, she just was screaming at him. Not much of it made sense. But from what I could hear, there was another woman involved."

"Did it seem like Remmy knew who?" asked King sharply.

"If she did, she never mentioned her name, at least not that I heard," said Sally.

"What did Bobby do?"

"He started yelling, told her it was none of her damn business who he slept with."

"And to think I was halfway admiring the man," said Michelle in disgust.

"Well, he said something else I'll never forget," said Sally. She paused, drew a quick breath and looked at them anxiously.

"Go ahead," said King. "I don't think anything will surprise us now."

"Mr. Battle said he wasn't the only one in the family who practiced that philosophy."

"Of sleeping around?" said King, and Sally nodded.

Michelle and King looked at each other. "And you think he was referring to Remmy?" she asked.

"I just assumed he was. But Mrs. Battle always seemed so proper and…"

"Supportive of her husband," suggested King.

"Yes, exactly."

"Public faces can often be deceiving," he commented.

"And the Rolls?" asked Michelle.

"It just disappeared after that night. I don't know what happened to it. In fact, Billy Edwards-he was the mechanic who used to take care of the cars-he was gone too. That's when Mr. Battle lost interest in his collection. He never came down after that, as far as I know."

"You never saw this Billy Edwards before he left?"

"No, his place was cleaned out the next day. I don't know who came and took the car. It must have been at night, or else someone would have seen it driving off."

"Thank you, Sally, you've been a big help."

They left Sally and headed back to the front of the house.

"So what do you make of that?" asked Michelle.

"It creates lots of questions. Who was Bobby seeing back then? Was the reference to sleeping around actually directed at Remmy? And why get rid of the car?" King looked pensive. "I wonder if there's any chance of tracking down this Billy Edwards and asking him about it."

"What about going directly to Remmy?"

"She'd want to know how we found out about it. And Sally's obviously not good at hiding her feelings. One look from Remmy and she'd crack. We may have to at some point, but for now we'll look for another way."

"We keep uncovering more questions and no answers," said Michelle.

"At some point the tide has to turn. We just may not like the answers we find, though."

CHAPTER 39

DOROTHEA AND EDDIE BATTLE weren't home, so King and Michelle drove to the Aphrodisiac that afternoon to speak with Lulu Oxley about the murdered exotic dancer, Rhonda Tyler.

The parking lot was already filling up with the lunch crowd when they arrived. As they walked past one of the bar areas, they caught glimpses of the nearly naked ladies dancing and the men staring and catcalling.

"I just don't get the attraction," said Michelle.

"The product isn't exactly directed at someone like you."

"Come on, are you saying you find watching something like that enjoyable?"

"No, but I'm afraid I'm in a minority among my gender." He smiled and added, "That comes with being intelligent, sophisticated and sensitive."

They were directed back to Lulu's small, cluttered office, where they found her hard at work and not looking happy about being interrupted.

"I've told the FBI and Chief Williams everything," said Lulu as she snapped her lighter shut and took a drag on a fresh cigarette.

"Well, we're deputies now, so you can tell us too," said King pleasantly as he showed her his badge.

She sighed, took another puff and sat back in her chair.

"In case you hadn't heard, the surgeon general has proclaimed cigarette smoking really bad for you," said Michelle, waving the fumes away from her face.

"The surgeon general doesn't run a gentleman's club," Lulu shot back.

"We'll be happy to breathe the secondhand smoke so long as you tell us about Rhonda Tyler," said King.

"Okay, for the third time and counting, Rhonda Tyler aka whatever the hell her stage name was…"

"Tawny Blaze," said Michelle helpfully.

"Right, good memory," said Lulu, eyeing the woman keenly. "Anyway, she came to work here under contract. She stayed in one of the club's rooms, but shortly before her stint was up, she told us she had another place to crash. She did her contract time, and that was the last I saw of her. We'd used her before, and she'd always acted like a real professional, never any problem."

"Did she mention whether she had friends or family in the area?"

"Not to me. But with her line of work, family tends to shy away from you."

"How about a man she might have met?" prompted Michelle.

Lulu tapped ash off her cigarette into an empty paper coffee cup on her desk. "Not that I know of."

"Anyone else she might have confided in?" asked King.

"She might have talked to some of the girls."

"Can we speak with them?"

"If you can wake them up. The ones who work nights don't get out of bed until late in the afternoon. The lunch-shift girls are out onstage now."

"We'll give it our best shot," said King.

"You do that," said Lulu again, watching Michelle closely.

As they headed to the door, Michelle glanced back and saw Lulu's hand disappear inside her desk drawer. When Lulu pulled it out, there was nothing in it. Michelle looked away before the other woman could see her staring.

Lulu said, "By the way, here's a piece of information you might find interesting: the high-and-mighty Remmy Battle threatened Junior."

Both of them stared at her as she summarized the meeting between the two, including Remmy's offer to pay off Junior if he returned the stolen items.

"So she wanted something that was in the drawer, but didn't care about her wedding ring?" asked a confused King.

"Apparently, the lady has something to hide."

"Where will Junior be today?"

"Working a job in Lynchburg; you won't be able to see him. But this evening he'll be at the house he's building for us."

"Let me have the directions. And give me Junior's cell phone number." As she did so, King asked one more question. "Did Bobby Battle ever come here?"

Lulu seemed to be trying hard not to look surprised at the question. "I think I saw him around here a few times."

"Recently?"

"What do you consider recently?"

"In the last couple of years."

"I couldn't say for sure."

I'm sure you couldn't, thought King. "Well, thanks again for all your help."

"I'll show you where the rooms are," offered Lulu.

She led them upstairs and pointed to the hallway fronted by the red curtain.

"Good luck," she said in a tone that didn't sound like she actually meant it.

As King and Michelle started off, Lulu touched Michelle on the arm. "Uh, can I ask you a question?" she said.

"We've asked you enough, so go ahead."

"You ever consider pole dancing?"

"Excuse me!" said Michelle, clearly stunned.