Serial Saturday: All The Queens Men, Part Four by Robert Gabe

Part Four

Jaques Mallick was married to a woman who was a nightclub singer at a joint called The Pleasure Point. The dress code was a strict business casual or cocktail attire. At the motel I put on my Tom Ford suit and Rose slips into a dress resembling something out of the roaring twenties. “It’s a modern place” I tell her. “You’re gonna stand out.” She ignores me and puts on black lipstick in the bathroom mirror. 

“We are going into the belly of the beast.” I tell her. “Are you ready for this?” She approaches me and runs her fingers through my hair. “Are you ready?” She reveals to me she has a gat in her garter belt strap. 

We approach the club which is a two level speakeasy and from outside I can hear the music pulsating from inside the congested establishment. A long line of guest waiting to get in wraps around the corner. Since I’m with Rose, couples are first to enter. We pass the bouncer and once I’m inside I’m met with a bustling dance floor of swampy people dancing to The Sisters of Mercy’s “Dominion.” The singer chants “Some Day, Some Day, Some Day…. Dominion.” Neon spotlights shift up and down and every which way casting vibrant colors all over the walls. On the high stages, two half-naked women dance in cages with Venetian mask and perform faux-sexual acts on each other. Rose and I approach the bar and order a drink. “What’ll it be?” the middle aged bartender ask.

“Two Heinekens” I tell him. 

“That’s twelve.” he responds. I pay him and he hands me two ice cold drinks and I turn around and lean up on the bar soaking in the rich atmosphere. I notice the VIP booths on the top floor. The members all fat-cat big suits, out of shape and repulsive, laughing like hyenas next to a group of beautiful women who only see them as ATMs. I tell Rose the woman we are looking for is named “The Siren.” The song continues – “In the land of the blind, be a king, a king, a king.” In the midst of the crowd I see a stunning woman, her gown a cascade of midnight blue wrapped in elegance. She has dark red hair and a large diamond necklace. 

A man turns once he catches a whiff of her perfume – Jasmine and danger. And she walks past him towards another intimating, more serious minded male figure who signals to her from the top of a spiral staircase to follow him into an employees only room. I ask the Bartender who she is. “That’s Big Jaques’ wife…” He raises his eyebrows suggestively. “Dream on, college boy.” They exit the main floor and retire to the back rooms.  I tell Rose to stay put. I approach the door and when no one is staring at me I go to see it’s unlocked. I swiftly enter it and close the door behind me, the music now becoming dull reverberations of throbbing bass. I’m in a narrow dark hallway. The light ever so red-dim and I can barely make out what’s in front of me. I hear a couple laughing. I follow said laughter to find the woman and the man, who I assume is Jaques intimate with one another in an office. He’s taking her from behind. I look away until I feel fingers tracing the hairs on the back of my neck. I jump and scream and turn around only to see It’s Rose.

“What the fuck.” I whisper. 

“Oh shit, he’s really giving it to her.” She says.

Rose accidentally touches shoulders with a shelf of metal cocktail mixers to our right which prompts a loud crashing noise. The couple are alerted. I lift up Rose’s dress and take the gun and barge into the room and point it at them. 

“Don’t move” I say “Are you Jaques?” I ask the man.

“Who wants to know?” he says angrily.

“You’re Mr. Henry’s right hand man.” I say. The couple laughs and the woman looks to me and speaks.

“What’s the matter young man? You want some young tail? I don’t think you can afford me.” Rose emerges from the darkness and comes to my aid.

“You shot Tana Molnar” I point the gun at Jaques. 

“Who told you that?” he says calmly.

“A judge by the name of Brian Sennett.” I say. 

“Yeah too bad about Brian” the woman says, her lipstick smeared. “I heard they found him this morning in his car in a parking garage dead of a heroin overdose.”

“What?” Rose says.

“Corrupt scum.” Says Jaques “You know how many innocent people he put behind bars?”

“You were in the van that day.” I calm myself. “I saw you peel out.”

“Forget what you saw. Go home, you pathetic vigilante wanna-be. You’re no PI. Look at you. Is the safety still on, on that thing.” The couple laughs and I feel and overwhelming sense of embarrassment realizing it is. Rose takes the gun from me and fires a shot into the couch to which prompts the two of them to jump back in fear.

“Know this.” Rose says “We know about Dream Rabbit and we intend to see you exposed. Sennett was just the beginning. We have a whole book filled with client list and you’re all going down for Tana’s murder.”

“You know why she was killed, don’t you?” The Siren chimes in.

“The Outer Rim” I say.

“Well you might not be a firearms expert, but you’ve done your research,”Jaques says. “I’m impressed”

“The Outer Rim can only be entered via Mr. Henry’s portal” says The Siren “Those that go, usually don’t come back. Tana was an anomaly.”

“Who would want to leave such a place?” says Jaques. 

“You can’t murder people who don’t wanna be used as play things and toys.” I say. 

“Says who?” Jacques grins.

He attempts to grab the gun from Rose and when he does it goes off unexpectedly and shoots The Siren in the face, where she drops like a brick to her knees and falls backwards hitting her head on the desk as she falls. I jump on Jaques and Rose as we all struggle for the gun. Another shot hits the ceiling and another shot hits a sprinkler which prompts water to fill the room. I strangle Jaques and begin wailing on him. Rose drops the gun and runs out a back door exiting into a gray alleyway. I continue to wail on Jaques with my fist until he goes unconscious. Outside I can hear people in the club screaming from the gunshots and alarm system. I look at The Siren whose eyes are wide open, an entry wound and her forehead and a bloody gash stemming from behind. I straighten my tie, my hair a wet mop, and run after Rose and as we round the corner I see drenched club patrons running out the front doors in confusion. We grab a cab and when it pulls off I take rose and kiss her harder than I ever have before.

I get a voicemail from my mother when I get back to the motel. I play it back. her voice muffled and distorted: “Vincent, it’s mom. How’s your internship going? Come home soon please. I’ve cooked your favorite meal. Won’t you have dinner with me for once?” I ignore it and text her back that I’m busy and I’ll see her soon. Rose makes me coffee and that night we have sex again. I’m lying on my back while she rides me, her petite hands pushing against the wall to support herself. Afterwards we share a cigarette and lie together under the sheets watching an older B-movie called Carnival of Souls. In the film, a church organ player is involved in a car accident that she survives and subsequently moves to Utah to start anew. As she begins a new life for herself she’s drawn to a mysterious carnival on the outskirts of town. The carnival is haunted by dead Ghouls. Turns out she never actually survived the crash. The Ghouls were calling home to her from the afterlife and the whole movie took place in a sort of purgatory.

“Wasn’t tonight…. Thrilling.” Rose takes a drag from her smoke.

“Are you talking about the sex or what happened at Pleasure Point?” I say.

“My adrenaline is still kicking.”

“We dropped the gun.” I remark.

“It’s unregistered. I got it from a guy at the club. It won’t come back to us.”

“We have to change motels.” I say. “I’m not sure I feel safe here anymore.” 

“Okay.” She sighs “I could use a change of scenery.”

That night I have a dream about Tana. She’s alone at a bus stop dressed in her pageant gown and it’s snowing. It’s cold and she’s surrounded by endless white. Her phone is out of service so she crosses the street and goes to a nearby motel, only no one is watching the front desk. The place is abandoned, the phone receiver left off the hook. She exits the front office and starts walking past the motel room doors. The final one, room sixteen, seems to have been left open by a crack. She slowly creaks the door open and when she does she sees two bodies under the covers of the bed, the TV still going only it’s endless late night static in an otherwise black room. She approaches the bed and when she does she goes to pull back the cover. A single tear drop runs down her face. It’s Victoria and John Molnar. Next to them is a bottle of barbiturates that is empty and a note that reads.

“WE ARE COMING TO BE WITH YOU TANA.”

A man’s somber, deep chilling voice calls her name from the door where she promptly turns around, her face all wet and glistening. The dream ends.