His look of confident egotism skipped a beat, when I abruptly took him by the throat and slammed him back against the door, as my other fist drew back to smash his ugly stained teeth inward.
"Candace!" Rafferty's voice broke through.
My little watch dog always used my middle name when things got out of control, and things had certainly gotten out of control.
I let out a big sigh and relaxed my drawn back fist. The beady eyes of the weasel I held reflected the inherent cowardice that lay within his outwardly braggadocios demeanor. I brought both hands to his shirt at his throat and pulled him closer to my face. "Step aside, and stay out of my business, or so help me I'll arrest you for resisting an officer and make sure you get thrown into a private holding cell with a seven foot tall Russian thug, who'd rather peel the clothes off of you than any girl you have in this place." I finished in a sibilant whisper, as I watched the full impact my words were having on him.
He nodded and stammered, as he tried to blurt something out. Disgusted, I shoved him to the side and pushed my way through the door to the backstage area.
The girls were in various stages of undress, as they were scattered out in front of the mirrors. They came to an awareness of us quickly and turned to see what we wanted. Rafferty turned a little pink and shifted slightly to stare at the wall, as most of the dancers were topless. I held up my badge.
"All right, I have a feeling you all know why I'm here, but if there's any doubt, I'll explain. The warehouse down by the east pier, what do you know about it and what happened there?"
Most of the girls nervously glanced among themselves. I knew I had found my prey so I went in for the kill.
"Failing to answer my question could land you all as accessories to a murder investigation I'm working on."
They were all talking at the same time, which didn't help my headache any.
I held up a hand, "All right, one at a time! Starting with you." I finished, pointing at a topless brunette.
She blabbered out words at the speed of light. "We were offered a large sum of money if we showed up at the set and did the same thing we do here. That's all we did, I swear!"
The rest of the girls either nodded their heads vigorously or echoed her statement. I held up a photo of Ahmed Sazzar