As soon as Luke Carlito saw the dark figure enter his club he knew it had to be a cop. Luke was the manager here at the Palomino Gentlemen's Lounge, and he also acted as bouncer when the need arose. He always kept an eye on the door, both to keep out the riff-raff and to size up potential troublemakers. Plainclothes cops he could also spot, but he generally didn't mind them coming in unless they were looking for a reason to bust the joint, but that didn't happened very often as the Palomino was a high class strip club, or perhaps just a little less seedy than most.
The cop was wearing sunglasses, and had flashed a badge to get in the door, and was now searching the crowd as if looking for something or somebody. Luke then noticed it wasn't a male cop, it was a WOMAN with a slightly muscular build, maybe in her late thirties, wearing a dark jacket and black jeans, a little rough in appearance, but still quite attractive.
"Can I help you?" he asked, approaching her.
"Maybe," she responded, giving him a quick glance at her badge before putting it back into her pocket. "I'm Detective Lil St. Jean of the Metro Police. You got a gal working here by the name of April Breeze?"
"Yeah, we got April. Cute little blonde. She's around here somewhere," he said, scanning the club with his eyes. "She in trouble? You want I should go get her?"
"No, it's alright, I'll find her myself," she said. "It's not a big deal. I just need to talk with her."
"Well, call me if you need me," he said, adding, "I'm always ready to help the police of our fair city."
"Whatever," she muttered, moving past him.
Luke stared appreciatively at her ass as she walked away. Normally he wouldn't allow an unescorted woman here into the Palomino, as all too often they were either hookers or customer's wives --- and either of those were bad for business. But this Detective St. Jean was different, he noted, smiling approvingly at her short, scraggly dark hair, which went well with her dark eyes and pouty mouth. Also, those tight black jeans she wore gave her a sort of biker-chick look, menacing but sexy.
"I wouldn't kick her out of bed," he mumbled to himself, then went back to work behind the bar.
Meanwhile, pretty blonde April Breeze was about to return to the dressing room to change for her next set when she heard a female voice behind her ask, "April, is that you?" At the same time she felt a hand gently grab her upper arm. She turned to see who it was.
"Detective St. Jean?" she said in a surprised voice. "What are YOU doing in here?"
"I need to talk with you, April." Lil responded. "Somewhere privately."
"Somewhere privately? In here?" the girl asked. "The only area here with any privacy this time of night is the lap-dance rooms in the back."
"That'll work," Lil responded. "Let's go."
"But they're only for lap-dances, Detective!" April protested. "Otherwise Luke doesn't like any of us girls being back there."
Lil thought about this for a second. "Fine," she said, "You're giving me a lap-dance then. Now move!"
"Lap-dances are twenty bucks a pop here," the blonde added, amused. "Half of that goes to the house. You sure you want to spend that much just to talk to me?"
"Get going," the detective said. "I've got enough money and this is important."
"OK," April said, instinctively grabbing Lil's hand and leading her toward the back rooms. The other club patrons leered at the sight of the pretty blonde leading the dark-haired woman toward the lap-dance area. They'd have much rather watched the older woman get her table dance right there in front of them. That would have been fun to watch. But just then their attention was riveted back to the main stage as Sophia, the red haired feature dancer, suddenly yanked off her top exposing a pair of huge tits to the approving roars of the mostly male crowd looking on.
While the hooting and hollering continued, April and the detective reached the relatively quiet lap-dance rooms. Lil handed the girl a twenty and smiled at her. "In you go," she said, motioning toward an empty booth.
Detective St. Jean then followed the girl in, and seated herself on the comfortable, plush sofa inside before turning her attention to the pretty blonde now standing before her, waiting to hear what she had to say.
"Rico broke out of jail earlier tonight, April," she told the girl. "We think he could be heading this way."
April paled at the news. "You're joking," she gasped. "Rico's out? He's free?."
"I'm afraid so," Lil responded, then looked around. "Maybe you'd better start dancing for me so that we don't draw attention while we talk. It'll look more natural than you just standing there gaping at me."
