Mystery Noir

Sins and Lies Part 2

Across the freeway from the far end of the strip, the building we would be at for the meeting sat alone in a parking lot. It was a single story white building beside a gas station, surrounded by palm trees.

And judging from the exterior, there were no windows and a spare door out the back, though it was open to only one side.  The building was plain, but for the bar's name and Penny's amusement warred with her caution as we sat across the street in the parking lot of the donut restaurant, watching the place in the blistering desert sun.

"Frankie's Tiki Room." Penny said at last, before biting into the icing and sprinkle covered concoction that she had bought.

Even after eating a breakfast of pancakes and waffles, she still had room for more sweets, while I sat sipping my mediocre coffee and thinking over the night ahead. "I know. There's a basement, that's where we'll be meeting. That's where it was last time. No weapons, they check at the door."

Penny glanced over to me thoughtfully. "Unless they are the ones that are the danger. What if the people we're worried about are the ones who are checking for weapons?"

"I know." I nodded and started the car, putting the coffee between my legs as I pulled the car back out onto the road and in the strip's direction once more. "No one really cared about my existence the last time I was here, I kind of naively went in thinking it was a bunch of ghost hunters. Not nearly as paranoid about it as I am now."

"And now..."  Penny mumbled with a full mouth, before taking a drink of her iced coffee, watching me over the rims of her "Thunder from Down Under" Sunglasses.  We had not yet made it to a show, and she already had merchandise.

At least these things didn't have penises on them.

I thought about that implied question as I drove back to the hotel, frowning as we stopped in front of the Bellagio at a light. "Well, the two that attacked me in Mawaska are going to come up. They have friends. And I don't know why Rashel wanted me to come so badly.  I don't 'feel' like this is a trap, I just have no idea what it is. You can-."

Penny snorted to interrupt me and shook her head. "No. I'm not staying behind. I don't even think having me outside waiting in case would be of any use either. If anything happened in that place, it would be over before I could get in."

"I know, for the longest time, that location was chosen because the owner was one of us. And we always saw it as a safe haven against the bad guys, but it's not as simple as that." I offered finally.

"Mo, Ver and Enzo would murder us if they knew what we were going into, Sans weapons." Penny teased, drawing a laugh from me that allowed the conversation to move on to more light-hearted things.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around, going to the aquarium and a couple other shows in our hotel, along with the pool to lie in the sun. Supper that night saw us walking to another resort and going to their buffet, where we filled up on more varieties of food than I could name.

I slept well until about three in the morning.

Then I was up, my nerves raging for the afternoon ahead of me. I told myself that me going would give me a chance to see if anyone had heard of Mawaska. I could gauge people's awareness and the safety of the town just by listening to what they had to say about tweedle dee and tweedle dumb. It would also give me the chance to get caught up with the people who weren't douche bags, and I might be able to ask about the mystery employer, to see if they had contracted anyone else in a way similar to me.

But the anxiety over the dangers amongst people so violently opposed to the existence of the people and place I called friends and home respectively had me pacing. I went down to the gym and ran for a couple hours, then jumped into the pool and swam laps until my arms wanted to fall off.

By the time Penny was knocking on my door to go to breakfast, I had showered and gotten dressed. She gave me an understanding expression when I pulled the door open before she finished the second knock of her typical three.  There were bags under her eyes and she looked like she had been up a couple hours by then.

"Couldn't sleep either?" I asked softly as I grabbed my phone, wallet and key fob, before I followed her out the door.

"I kind of just want to get it over and done with, but at the same time, not." Penny shoved her hands in her pants pockets as we stepped onto the elevator and took it to the floor that the restaurants were on.

Despite time seeming to crawl by,  lunch time passed, and we drove back down toward Frankies. As we had discussed, I pulled into a parking structure I few blocks off and we took a long, circuitous route to the place on foot. The parking lot was packed, though I noticed several other notable vehicles parked in public lots in the blocks surrounding the bar, telling me that not everyone wanted to park at the bar.

Despite the earliness of the afternoon, there was a guard at the door. Large, muscled and very human, he had an afro that made his six and a half feet closer to seven. Sweat was beaded on his skin, but he impassively waved a metal detecting wand past us before waving us inside.

The small space of the bar was converted into a veritable grass hut, with the woven palms covering the walls and pillars. Red candles assisted paper lanterns of different colours in creating a dark, yet cheery environment.  A couple tourists, which was obvious from their Las Vegas shirts and hats, and the giant plastic slushy cups, sat at the bar chatting with the bar tender

On first glance, it appeared that there were only three people in the bar, five including Penny and I. The woman filled up the slushy cups from a picture before glancing my way and hitting a button under the bar. "Private party is that way."

"Thanks." I nodded and walked to where one booth along the far wall moves, exposing a door that swung open.

I glanced to Penny, giving her a firm smile that I hoped was reassuring, before we stepped through the door and walked down the stairs. The stairwell was dark, and when the door closed behind us, the only light was at the bottom of them.

The landing of those stairs had a cement floor and a small hallway, walls made of cement, with only one steel door. A couple lights hung on the walls, though they flickered as we stepped off the stairs and approached a slightly smaller bouncer guarding the next door. He had dark dreadlocks, orange contact lenses, and dark tattoos scrawled over every inch of dark skin that you could see. 

This one, I recognized from the last time, and he gave me a friendly enough smile as he pulled out another metal detector wand. "Hey Doc. Glad to see you back."

"Mike." I lifted my arms and gave him a nod. "This is Penny, my partner. How's the crowd tonight?"

"Hey Penny." Mike turned to her, scanning her over before offering a shrug. "You know, a lot of revved up hicks and a few scared crystal carrying 'clairvoyants'. But there's a lot of people missing this year."

I frowned softly, tilting my head to the side. "A lot? Just didn't show up?"

Mike paused for a moment, glancing to the door. "I forgot you kind of do your own thing most of the time. There's some that just didn't answer back, but a good dozen or so that are just gone. Not just the dumb ignorant hicks either. That's why the meeting is early. But be careful. There are a couple that think it's a human versus non-human war. And still more that disagree. I patted down the real idiots, found a couple knives and things, but things could get heated."

I nodded in understanding, then thanked him for his information. I trusted Mike, even though I had only met him a couple times. A part of my brain still cautioned me that he was just as capable of screwing me over as helping me, but there was something about him that I trusted. Maybe one day I would admit to him I'd had no idea that the meeting was early, as I didn't keep track of the dates.

Drawing a breath, I stepped up to the door and pushed it open, glancing back to Penny as the tumult of voices, already boisterous, washed around us.  This would not be easy, but I would have to do my best to convince people not to go to war.  While learning what the hell was actually going on.

I knew it wasn't supernaturals that were causing all the issues. Most of them were just wanting to be left alone in peace. And just as many of them had been going missing and having a hard time of it lately.