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.We’ll go on up there now and see if we can find her.”For the first time in a long while, I felt a jolt of optimism.Chapter Fifty-EightMy new found optimism soon evaporated when we arrived outside ‘The Circle Club.’ The same slow talking giant stood on guard at the front door of the pink colored building and again refused us access to the premises.The clock was ticking down and we were wasting time, yet again.We took a few steps back away from the front of the club for a brief conference.“What do we do?” I hissed.“Find another way in around the back?”“We’ve got guns, ‘aint we? Why don’t we shove them up the dude’s nose and demand to go on in?” Headlong suggested.Smith shook his head.“I’ll go and try and reason with the guy.Maybe offer him all the cash I’ve got on me for a twenty minute reconnoiter.”“Okay, it’s worth a shot,” I agreed.Headlong shrugged and pouted out his bottom lip.“If you think it’ll help.”Smith approached the club again and our vision was obscured by passersby on the street.I lit a cigarette and waited impatiently.Headlong looked a little flaky around the edges again but knew he had to stay focused, for a while at least.Smith returned about a minute later, looking a little awkward.“Well?”“Ah…yeah, we’re in.Come on, quick, we haven’t got long.”Headlong flashed me an inquisitive glance as we followed Smith towards the club entrance.The slow talking giant sat to the right side of the front step with his back propped against the wall.His eyes were closed and he had a thin red streak that had started to turn purple with bruising, running horizontally across his throat.“Ah, shit, Smith! You’ve fucking killed the guy,” I wailed.“That’s going to bring all kinds of shit raining down on us.”“Shh…” Smith hissed.“He’s not dead, I checked his pulse.He’s just sleeping off a few too many Daiquiris, if any one notices.” He bent forward and attempted to cover the guy’s wound.“What did you do, choke the asshole?” Headlong seemed impressed.“He pissed me off.He refused my money and told me to try the zombie lounge so I gave him a little chop to the throat.”“The Zombie Lounge? That’s a club on Saint Louis Street,” Headlong said.“It’s a club? Shit, I thought the guy was being facetious.Fuck!”“Come on, guys,” I sighed.“Let’s take a look inside.We’ll have to worry about the consequences later.”We stepped over the giant’s legs and went inside ‘The Circle Club.’ The interior was decorated like a European burlesque club, with soft red lighting and red drapes along the walls.The music was playing at a lower volume than the previous club and I recognized the more conservative genre of ‘Trad Jazz,’ with a tinkling piano and blaring trumpets.The bar stood to the left of the floor space and a busty Latino girl, who was squeezed into a red bustle dress, poured the drinks behind the counter.Similarly scantily clad women mingled with the clientele at booths and tables dotted around the interior.The club wasn’t as busy as the previous two and I presumed the establishment was meant to be a higher class kind of joint.Headlong made straight for the Latino girl behind the bar.Smith and I glanced around the club, looking for a familiar face.A dark wooden staircase along the back wall led to an upper level.“I’m going to try upstairs,” I said to Smith, pointing at the stairway.He nodded and Headlong returned with three beer bottles.“That girl behind the bar with the big hooters, don’t make no sense at all,” Headlong said, handing round the bottles.“She’s strung out on something – couldn’t get a straight answer out of her about your friend.”I took my bottle and headed for the staircase, leaving Smith and Headlong to continue the search around the ground floor.The staircase was wide and several girls climbed and descended, carrying trays containing full and empty bottles.They smiled at me falsely like I was a famous movie star but their dilated pupils told me they were high on some sort of enhancing substance.The layout of the upper floor was pretty similar to the one down below, only squeezed into a tighter area.Several closed doors to private rooms were situated to the right of the floor space but a semi circular bar area stood to my left.I took a sip of beer and nearly spat it out again.The girl behind the bar wore a black bustle dress, had black hair and tattoos covering her upper arms, shoulders and chest.“Batfish!?” I blurted, stumbling towards the bar.Chapter Fifty-NineI shoved a couple of protesting guys out of my way to get to the bar and nearly tripped over a stool in front of the counter.I banged my bottle on the bar, sprawling over the wooden countertop.“Batfish?” I yelled at the girl.She looked at me as though I was insane.“What?”I felt the crushing blow of disillusionment sink to the pit of my stomach.The girl wasn’t Batfish, only a lookalike.“Sorry…I thought you were someone else,” I sighed
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