Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(81)

“Alison shared an apartment with Gus?”

“That’s right. She says they’ve been together ever since she came to work here.”

“And that was…?”

“Three years ago. She’s very good at what she does…if you like that sort of thing, of course.”

“You don’t like blues singers?”

There was silence for a moment and then Norman spoke. “Alison doesn’t sing,” he said.

“What does she do?”

“Uh…she dances.”

“She dances,” Hannah repeated, still having trouble meshing the two mental pictures she had of Mood Indigo, one from Gus and the other from Norman. Gus had described his club as upscale and exclusive, catering to a moneyed clientele. It certainly didn’t sound exclusive to Hannah when construction workers came in on their lunch hour!

Since the two mental pictures weren’t compatible, Hannah decided to ignore what Gus had told her and concentrate on what Norman had said. Mood Indigo was a place construction workers came on their payday lunch hour to watch the dancers and…“Exactly what does it say on that marquee?” she asked Norman.

“Um…I told you. It has her name, ALISON WONDERLAND.”

“Oh, boy!” Hannah breathed. She was beginning to understand precisely the type of club Gus had owned. “What else does it say on the marquee?”

There was a long silence and then Norman sighed. “Okay. I was going to tell you anyway, except not on the phone. “It says, FULL FRONTAL NUDITY.”

“You’re in a strip club?”

“Not exactly, if you’re thinking of strippers like Gypsy Rose Lee. The talent at Mood Indigo is…uh…a few notches down on the socially acceptable scale.”

Hannah couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. She laughed so hard she couldn’t talk.

“What’s so funny?” Norman asked.

“I was just wondering what your mother would say if she knew you were in a sleazy strip club, drinking champagne.”

“I’m not drinking champagne.”

Hannah started to laugh again. It reminded her of Andrea’s reply to the toy frog comparison, and that made her laugh even harder.

“Do you want me to tell you what would happen if Mother found out about it?” Norman asked, sounding very serious.

Hannah stopped laughing abruptly. Norman sounded grim. “What would happen?” she asked him.

“Even if the people in Lake Eden knew, it probably wouldn’t affect my dental business. But Mother would be mortified. She’d be so embarrassed and hurt, she’d want to move away from Lake Eden. And then your mother would lose a partner and a friend. Does any of that sound familiar to you, Hannah?”

“Yes,” Hannah said, realizing that Norman had used almost the same words when he’d told her about the Seattle police report and why he didn’t want it to be made public.

“You got busted in a strip club when you lived in Seattle?” Hannah could hardly believe she was saying the words.

“That’s right. It seems Goldie was running a little side business in the back.”

“Goldie?”

“Goldie Lox. She owned the place.”

Hannah was beginning to see a pattern here, with names like Alison Wonderland and Goldie Lox. What was next? Candy Cane? Betty Will? Helen Back? Lotta Moves? And then, because she was getting sidetracked from something much more important, she asked, “What was the side business? Drugs? Prostitution?”

“Numbers. It was just a small operation, mostly sports bets from what I was told. But Goldie got raided, and everyone there was taken into custody.”

“But they let you go right away, didn’t they?”

“Not until I posted bail for being drunk, disorderly, and resisting arrest.”

Hannah was dumbfounded. “You? I’ve never even seen you take a drink!”

“I did back then. It was my first year at the dental clinic, and we all went out for a drink after work on Fridays. Goldie’s place was just down the block, and since she was a client of ours, we used to go there.”

“You were Goldie’s dentist?”

“It was more than that. She’d bring her girls in to see us whenever they had a dental problem. People might not approve of her line of business, but she was a good boss. I don’t think most strip club owners give their dancers free medical and dental care.”

It was something that Hannah had never considered before, and it took her a moment to respond. “You’re probably right,” she said.

“Anyway, that’s what happened. They let my partners go because they were smart enough to cooperate with the police. I wasn’t, so they kept me overnight.”

“Were you convicted?” Hannah asked.

“I pled no contest and paid a fine, but the record stands. And that’s why the double scotch I was drinking at Goldie’s place was the last drink I ever had.”

“Wow!” Hannah said, for lack of something better to say. If someone else had told her that Norman had a drunk, disorderly, and resisting arrest conviction, she would have accused that person of lying. It seemed totally out of character for Norman, and she still had trouble believing it, but she’d heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. The Norman he must have been back then was totally different from the Norman he was now.