The Red Light Girls (Unsolved Mysteries Book 2) by Kim Knight (most romantic novels TXT) 📗

“The news of Suzy Chan and all these missing girls is keeping people away.” The barmaid leaned casually on the bar and handed Madeline her money. “Here you go.”

“Hmm, I heard about that. What about Ana De Jog and Lotte Van De Berg. They were the first girls to go missing.” Madeline cocked her head to one side as if in thought. “They worked here, right?” She leaned in and took a sip of her wine.

The liquid slid down her throat and eased her nerves.

“Right, them too. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news. Ana was so popular here.” The barmaid glanced around. “So many men and woman came in to request a dance after seeing her in the window.”

“Really? What was she like? Were you two close?” Madeline asked.

The barmaid took a double glance at her, scanned Madeline over with her eyes as if trying to work out who she was, and if she should speak to her.

Madeline held her breath.

Open up. Come on, you know you want to. Just tell me, she thought to herself.

Either doubt or uncertainty swam in the woman’s eyes. The barmaid leaned in, closing the gap between them, then rested an elbow on the bar.

“I liked her, a lot. Ana was a fun-loving girl. And she had a good heart. All she really wanted was love. You know, to find the right man and get the fuck out of this place.” She waved a hand around the room.

“How did she start…well, w-what made her…” Madeline tried to ask her question without offending the woman.

“It’s okay. I know what you want to say. We get it all the time,” the barmaid laughed. “She started working here as a means to an end. I worked with her for three years, and from what she told me, her ex-boyfriend had a bad drug habit. I’m not just talking about smoking the odd blunt here and there, either. He bled her dry. She had debts, and when she left him, she had to rebuild.”

“That’s sad.” Madeline sipped her wine.

“Sure is, especially when she thought she was onto a good thing with the new guy she had found.”

“What guy?” Madeline sat up on her bar stool fully alert. She tried to appear casual as she fished for information.

“She found this guy online, some website she was using for sugar daddies. She was dead set on never dating a broke guy again.”

“Sugar daddies?” Madeline raised an eyebrow in the woman’s direction. “Damn, girl. I could do with one of them. So, what happened?”

“Well, she was really secretive about it. I don’t know if she ever met up with him or not. But the night I last saw her, she was going on a date. I tried to ask her about him. She just told me to mind my own business and laughed.”

“And what about Lotte?” Madeline made a mental note of all the information.

“Lotte was a complete different story. She loved her work here and was only here a few months before she turned up dead. I wasn’t that close to her.”

“Mmm, okay.” Inside, Madeline was disappointed there was no info on the second girl.

“The police are a joke. It’s like they don’t see us girls as worth the hassle.” The barmaid rolled her eyes. “That Detective Janssen, she’s not exactly our number one fan if you know what I mean. You can see it every time she’s on the news. She seems so cold about it all.”

“I can imagine.” Madeline knew she needed to change the subject. She needed the focus back on the girls. “The others, they were working girls too, right? Where were they working?”

“Here and there. They hopped around the clubs like most girls do, but none of them worked here. I think someone mentioned The Blue Martini. Something about one of them floated around there.”

The barmaid moved over to the next customer who had approached the bar.

Bingo, Madeline thought, and made a note of the club’s name.

She finished up her wine. Casually, she slipped away from the bar unnoticed and headed into the lady’s room to freshen up.

The Blue Martini it is, she had decided her next stop in tonight’s investigation.

Inside the bathroom, two women stood around gossiping. One had on dark purple sparkling stilettos, and the other had silver heels with wraparound ankle straps.

Quietly, she headed into a free cubical, hoping to not draw attention to herself.

Ana’s name came up in conversation between the ladies at the vanity counter, washing their hands.

Madeline sat on the toilet seat, and remained as silent as possible to eavesdrop.

“I told Ana about that damn site. Told her to stay off of there. Too many weirdos,” said one of the women, but Madeline wasn’t sure which of the two actually spoke. “Sugar daddies, my ass.”

“No way.” The other woman in dark purple sparkling stilettos, spun around. “How do you know?”

“When I went on there and messaged a few of the men,” said silver shoes, “something just did not sit right with me.”

“So, she had a date or what?” The heel taps of the purple stilettos tapped against the tile, echoing in the confined space.

“I think so…well, I can’t be sure,” whispered silver shoes. “But the last time I spoke to her, she told me she had one lined up, and that I should just meet up with a guy and be done with it.”

“So, what’s up with that? No date nothin’? I thought you said these guys were all loaded.”

“Yeah, apparently, or at least, that’s what the profiles say. And may be a few are. But like I said, some of them gave me the creeps.”

Madeline got off the toilet seat and moved closer to the door to hear the conversation.

The door swung open and some more women entered the bathroom. The noise level picked up, which made it impossible to hear the conversation between silver shoes and purple stilettos.

Madeline decided against using the toilet and exited the cubical.

Her eyes moved