Silence and Stilettoes, Pt. 10 (Voting) - Meet the Mistress (Patreon)

(Here it is, Silence and Stilettoes Part 10! Check it out now, vote below, and Daring+ fans pick up the accompanying Wallpaper here too! Be sure to check out the full story so far here at the Master Post!)

“The woman who goes by the name Mystique flashes me a smile before her swaying hips lead me towards the back of the restaurant. I get the distinct impression it’s not food that gets served this far away from the main room. The bitter taste of my whiskey still tinges the inside of my mouth, a taste I savour as I prep myself for what I’m about to come face-to-face with.

The private area is just as glamourous as the front, and yet it has a completely different air to it all. For one, there are few tables, but each has its own girl working it. ‘Personal Service’ in action it seems. The uniforms are much less classy than the decor, and the clientele are skewed generously towards a mostly male variety. Something is for sale back here, but I highly doubt much food ever rests upon these tables.

Eventually Mystique stops just shy of the main seated area, where a large couch sits in centre of the room, from which anyone could see any and all the activity of the room. With an underhanded wave she directs me to the wide seat, before she turns her head away, adverting her gaze. For a second I think she is asking me to be seated, until I see passed her and find the sofa already occupied and in use.

‘Roy, you came… We’ve been expecting you. I had thought you would have come to see us yesterday. You are late, behind on the trail, are we?’ 

A voice calls to me from the low seat, a silky and warm voice with only a hint of a bite to it. I cast my vision to its source, and I can’t help but be stunned if for only a split second. Sitting back in the chair, a sturdy blonde man makes himself comfortable. A wide grin is plastered across his face, a set of pearly white teeth peeking out from behind his closed lips as he enjoys the flow of women and customers around him. Draped across his lap is a woman, a youthful yet captivating woman with long dark hair and a determined expression. It was her who spoke to me just now… she continues to speak to me in fact, but I can’t help stare into her eyes as she does… those beautiful eyes…

‘You are the Mistress?’

‘Why yes I am, and this here is the Master, my dear husband Salvatore. Say hello dear, we have a very important guest.’

The man only nods, not even a grunt slips out when he glances my way momentarily. In return for his playing along, the woman’s nimble fingers dance on his groin, only now do I see that her hand has been resting on his loins the whole time, and it doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon.

‘Since you know me by name, it’s only fair I know yours. Care to fill me in?’

‘I don’t, Mr. O’Donnell, however… I do take manners and social norms quite seriously, and since we are more than acquaintances, perhaps I shall do you a kindness… even though you have left me waiting a whole day.’

‘More than acquaintances? I’m supposed to know you?’

‘… You insult me again, Roy… Why?’

‘I don’t mean to, it’s just that I’m sure I’d remember a dame the likes of you… I’m not that old after all and you are not one to forget.’

‘Charming… If you must call be by name, Ms. Bellocchio will do just fine.’

Bellocchio? As in…? ‘Beautiful Eyes’. Well… damn…

‘So that would make you…?’

‘Yes Roy, it would. Doesn’t the name change suit me much better? Mia Amore here believes so, don’t you Salvatore.’

She strokes him below the belt again, purring as she does, enjoying the feel of him in her palm, and the control that comes with it. She’s got us both by the balls now.

This hasn’t turned out like I expected. I’m standing across from one of my prime suspects, the daughter of the maddest man I’ve ever known, Marco Malocchio, who happened to be one of the last people to ever see my victim alive. My victim, who happened to be killed, or at least staged, in the same way her Daddy used to end his victims. He killed many people in this town, in some zealous crusade to clean up this town… and his own spawn became one of the very same villains he lost his very soul in trying to destroy… I guess the apple can fall far enough from the tree…

… Then again, I do have a replica murder on my hands, so maybe she is Daddy’s Little Girl after all?

‘Before you say something you will forever regret, Mr. O’Donnell, we don’t dare speak of your old partner in these four walls. He was a mad man, a disgusting and weak creature who couldn’t survive this place, and that’s all I have to say about that subject. Now, I would assume you would like to discuss Mark? That I may entertain…’

‘Alright, Mark it is. I assume you’ve already got all the details of the case? Something tells me you know how to pull on connections…’

‘I know enough. That’s why I’ve been waiting on you, I would be your natural first stop, would I not? I saw the victim before shortly before he died, and he has his throat stabbed through with a stiletto blade, linking me to uniquely to his murder.’

‘So you admit it? This case might be easier than I imagined’

‘I was obviously set up to take the fall, you imbecile. So poorly in fact, it’s almost laughable, if only I hadn’t lost so much on his death.’

Those beautiful eyes flicker with a sudden fire. I have no doubt she would laugh if she wasn’t so angered underneath that poker face of hers.

‘Or it’s a risky double bluff… Occam’s Razor would suggest it was likely somebody here. Maybe it was that big guy you find so comfortable?’

‘…He was poisoned, that is what killed him, not a stiletto…’

‘Care to explain how you knew that fact, my dear? His body was destroyed post-haste to hide that little detail, it never made it into the reports.’

There is a slight pause, and an almost imperceptible nibbling of her lower lip. I can’t quite tell if she is chiding herself for letting that slip, or if she’s scowling at me for underestimating her.

‘He was already poisoned when he came to see us the day before yesterday. It could be smelled on him it was that potent.’

I find that hard to believe, on many fronts, the very first of which I would have heard from Asana about a smell by now. I’m sure she would have told me about it… wouldn’t she?

‘You don’t believe me Roy? That’s two insults… there won’t be a third, I assure you.’

I simply smirk back at her this time, showing weakness now will get me nowhere. Even so, best not to push her over the edge knowing where she came from and what she’s capable of…

‘You see… My darling husband here has an uncanny sense of these things. His eye for talent is impressive, but it’s not remarkable as his nose for danger, which in turn is almost as useful of his tongue is for loving.’

‘… Good to know…’

‘It is, thanks to him we knew not to take on Mark’s offer that night. It wouldn’t have been worth the air it was spoken into, he was going to be dead in a very short while. Pity.’

‘If you didn’t strike a deal with Mark that night, how did you lose money on his death?’

‘… We… have a certain interest in his success in the Rat’s Nest. He seemed to have some secret he kept close to his chest, but he was convincing when he proved to us all he could clear the place in short order… and more importantly, with little collateral damage beyond the gang scum. Now… we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way, I suspect it will cost a fortune to repair the place once the last of the trash meets it’s end there, that is if we can be the first to make it happen…’

Every turn this case takes I seem to find more secrets and lies, I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever learn the full truth. I don’t know what’s worse, that Mark thought he could pull apart the Rat’s Nest with some secret plan, or that it seems there are people like the ones before me who think they can wage a war on the gangs and come out on top… if that could have been done it would have happened long ago.

‘You know, Ms. Bellocchio, you’ve reminded me of a book I keep on my office shelf. It’s a detailed account of Napoleon’s march on Moscow in the winter. Remind me to lend it to you, preferably before you go picking a fight with the Rats.’

‘Oh Roy, how little you understand of the situation…’

‘Then help me out a little. What was this secret of Mark’s that he ‘proved’ to you? What was this deal of yours anyway?’

‘You are the detective Roy, you figure it out. You’re not here to get answers from me anyway…’

‘Then why am I here?’

‘To pay the debt you owe me.’

This should be good… I’m starting to think she really is as crazy as the man I once knew.

‘This’s the first time I’ve run up a tab with a woman before I’ve ever met her. I’m interested to hear what you think I owe you…’

‘Don’t play dumb with me, Roy. You know who I am, and the consequences of your actions all those years ago. Thanks to you I was deprived of a father, who while sick and twisted, was a stable provider. I had to do a lot of things after he was so efficiently run out of town by you, former Officer O’Donnell… if you had had the stones to kill him then I would at least have gotten his death benefits. That’s not a mistake I’ll ever make again, isn’t that right, darling?’

She looks up at her husband’s eyes, and both share a smile, a sinister smile the likes I’ve never seen before. It’s chilling, just like the soft chuckle that comes from the man’s clenched mouth.

‘You’ve done well for yourself, all things considered. Got yourself a madamship at your young age. You still think I owe you all that much?’

‘You owe me plenty… you owe me blood… but for now I’ll settle for you clearing my name for me. You’re here so you can take my case, make sure the world knows I didn’t kill Mark, before I have to silence anyone who would say otherwise… can you do that for me, Roy?’

Take her case? Prove a criminal and cancer on this city to be innocent, if in only this one instance? My stomach knots up at the very thought… Now this is a dilemma I didn’t see coming. If she really isn’t the murderer, then she deserves Justice as much as anyone… I guess… but even if that’s how it is, I’d be giving her something she can’t buy or strongarm, a legitimacy of goodwill she can twist into something deadly if left unchecked… But if I don’t solve this case, the true killer of Mark will walk away from the darkest of deeds unstained. Then again, it could very well be her… 

… Good damn, this is a clusterfuck of a mess… What do I do?”

Be hard boiled and beWilder!