Hot Fudge (A Loretta Kovacs thriller) Read online

  “Dragon,” he said.

  Loretta thought back, trying to remember if she’d called Dragon by name in the man’s presence, but she wasn’t sure.

  “Why don’t you take off the mask so we can talk?” she said.

  “We can talk this way.”

  “But I can’t see your face.”

  “So.”

  “How do I know you’re being straight with me?”

  “How will you know if you see my face? Either way I could be lying.”

  “True,” she admitted.

  “Anyway, I’m shy,” he said.

  “Get out.”

  “Because I’m ugly.”

  Loretta looked at him, trying to imagine what could be behind the mask. A burn victim? A gross deformity? Maybe he was really handsome, and he just thought he was hideous. “Is this like a Beauty and the Beast thing?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  “Never mind,” she said. “Would you just take me to Vissa?”

  “Only if you dance with me first.”

  “Come on. I don’t have time for this.”

  “That’s the deal,” he said. “I come here for fun.”

  She concentrated on his unzipped mouth hole, looking for signs of a smarmy grin, but the hole wasn’t big enough to reveal the shape of his mouth. But his comment got her to thinking. He was here for fun. And so was she, supposedly. If she got too huffy with him, she might draw attention to herself. Several bouncers in black muscle shirts patrolled the outskirts of the dance floor, plowing paths through the crowd as wide as their huge shoulders. They hardly looked human, and she had a feeling they didn’t hesitate to eject troublemakers and frauds.

  “All right,” she said to the masked man. “One dance, then you take me to Vissa.”

  “Deal,” he said, and immediately he started to move to the music.

  Loretta had no choice but to do the same, hanging on to the leash and keeping her arm movements minimal so as not to upset Dragon too much. They edged their way toward the middle of the dance floor where a couple in drag—the guy dressed like Ginger Rogers, the woman like a Nazi SS officer—were taking up more than their share of space, doing a graceless fascist tango.

  Loretta avoided making eye contact with the masked man as they danced—why encourage him? she figured—but she did notice how he moved. For a big man, he danced very well—not wild and frantic like a lot of the people here. He was very rhythmic, especially in the hips. Most men dance with their shoulders and arms, but the masked man danced mostly from the waist down with his arms suspended over his head. He didn’t move his feet a whole lot, but those hips—they just kept on going. After a while she realized she was staring at him below the belt, so she looked away self-consciously.

  He closed the distance between them and leaned into her face. “I like the way you dance,” he said.

  She didn’t know how to take that. It was definitely a come-on, but she wasn’t sure how strong a come-on it was, so she didn’t answer him. Instead she just flashed a little grin of recognition and hoped that he didn’t take it as anything more. All she wanted was for him to take her to Vissa, then get lost.

  Dragon leaped up on her thigh, upset by the commotion going on around him. He let out a pitiful whine, begging Loretta to stop dancing and pay attention to him. She looked at the masked man, raised her palms, and shrugged. “He’s getting crazy,” she said, implying that she wanted to stop.

  “The deal is a dance,” he said. “A whole dance.”

  She didn’t want to argue with him. Just give him his damn dance, she thought. She scratched Dragon’s head as she swayed to the music, hoping to placate the dog until the song was over.

  But the song went on and on, and Loretta thought that maybe one song had segued into another and she hadn’t realized it. The music was techno, and it was so repetitious and heavy on the bass and drum machines, it was hard to tell where any song started or ended. She gave it a few more minutes, then she waved her hand in front of the man’s mask.

  “That was more than a song’s worth,” she said. “Let’s go find Vissa.”

  “Okay,” he said without an argument. “This way.” He squeezed through the crush, clearing a way for Loretta and a very skittish Dragon.

  Awfully cooperative for a pervert, Loretta thought. Though it makes sense for a masochist.

  He led the way to a hallway on the far side of the room. The corridor was lit with red lightbulbs, which made it hard for Loretta to see what was down there. When the masked man stepped in, he instantly turned red. Loretta went to follow him, but Dragon balked and tried to tow her back.

  “Come on, Dragon,” she said encouragingly. “It’s okay, boy. They’re just lights.” But her sweet urgings had no effect on him, and she had to yank on his leash and drag him in. He jumped and fought like a marlin with a hook in its mouth, biting the leash and thrashing his head, but Loretta was determined. A strong jerk on the leash plunged Dragon into the red wash. The dog’s legs stiffened. Like all dogs, he was probably color-blind, but he could definitely see that something wasn’t right. He looked down at his feet, then turned his head and inspected his flanks. He was shocked and baffled by his appearance.

  “This way,” the masked man called to her. He was down at the other end of the hallway.

  Loretta pulled on the leash and followed him. The red lights were so glaring it was like walking in a fog. Dragon didn’t fight her this time. He was so spooked by the lights he walked right up against her leg, afraid to lose contact with her.

  The masked man turned a corner and disappeared.

  “Hey, wait up,” Loretta called to him, but he didn’t respond.

  She picked up her pace to catch up with him. But when she turned the corner, there he was, just a few feet away, standing in front of an open doorway.

  “In here,” he said.

  Loretta walked up to the doorway and peered inside. It looked like a bedroom, sparsely furnished with just a bed, a lamp, and a rug. She squinted to get a better look through the red glare, but finally she had to step inside so she could see.

  “So where’s Vissa?” she asked the man.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said as he abruptly slammed the door shut in her face.

  She reached for the doorknob, but she could hear the dead bolt turning before she could twist it. She tried the knob anyway, but it was no use.

  “Crap,” she cursed.

  Dragon looked up at her and emitted a hopeless little whine.

  “It’s okay, boy,” she said, getting down on one knee and putting her arm around his neck. “We’ll get out of here. He’s just an old weirdo. Don’t worry about him.”

  She led Dragon to the bed and sat down on the edge. “Never gonna find Marvelli,” she muttered, letting out a long sigh. Tears welled in her eyes.

  She sniffed and looked around the room. One wall had floor-to-ceiling glass panels, which she’d initially thought were mirrors. It was solid black on the other side of the glass. She ruffled Dragon’s ears. “So what kind of place is this?” she said. “Huh, boy?”

  Suddenly a horrendous clanking sound rattled the room, startling the two of them. It sounded like metal riot gates being lifted from a storefront. As it turned out, the glass panels were backed by rolling steel gates that slowly lifted up and out of sight. Loretta ventured over to the glass and cupped her hands to look out. A crowd of men, most of them young, were gathered on the other side, staring in at her.

  A pasty-faced young guy with a crooked Charlie Chaplin mustache poked his buddy in the ribs. “Hey, hey, hey! Look at this. Doggie style.”

  “Haven’t seen that in a while,” his lanky, completely bald friend commented. “They usually use big dogs, though. He looks a little small for her.”

  “You never know with dogs,” the pasty-faced guy said. “Anyway, it ain’t the meat, it’s the motion.”

  Loretta could hear everything they were saying through a speaker mounted on the wall. Sh
e pointed her finger in the pastyfaced guy’s face. “That’s not funny, pal. I’m in trouble in here. We’re locked in. Somebody help us. Come on.”

  “Ah, damsel-in-distress action,” another young guy said. He was wearing a porkpie hat pulled down low over his brow. “I like it. Tell us more, sweetie.”

  “This isn’t a show,” she yelled. “I’m in real trouble here.”

  “Yeah, I know. Keep talking.” The guy in the hat was practically salivating.

  An old guy with a nose like a hot pepper piped up. “Why don’t you ask Rin Tin Tin to help you out?” The whole crowd burst out laughing.

  “I’m not kidding around,” she said. “I really need help. I’m locked in.”

  The men grinned and nodded. They thought this was an act, that she and Dragon were their live peepshow.

  “Come on,” she wailed in frustration. “I have to get out of here. Someone’s in trouble. He needs my help. Get me out of here.”

  “Hey,” the tall bald guy said. “I thought this was supposed to be S&M. That’s what it said on the door. This sounds like a freakin’ soap opera.”

  “Stay tuned, my friend,” the old guy said. “Ecstasy comes in the waiting.”

  “You are all disgusting. Every one of you!” Loretta shouted at the top of her lungs. “I hope your things all shrivel up and fall off. It’ll serve you right.”

  “Oh, I like this one. I like her a lot,” the old guy said, his eyes sparkling with glee. “She’ll be good. I can tell. She’s got spunk.”

  “Hey, spunk this!” Loretta yelled, shaking her fist at him.

  The men howled. They were having a ball.

  Dragon was hiding under the bed.

  30

  “Honey’s I’m home!” Krupnick slammed the door behind him as he strode into the dungeon, pulling his mask off as he went. “Oh, that feels good,” he said with relief. His beard was drenched with sweat.

  Then he noticed what was going on inside the cage. “Hey!” he shouted, glaring at the three of them. “What the hell’s going on in there?”

  Dorie and Sunny were in with Marvelli. The top of Marvelli’s jumpsuit was peeled down, his bare chest exposed. Dorie’s blouse was open, and as usual, she wasn’t wearing a bra. Sunny was dressed, but she had her hand on Marvelli’s crotch.

  Krupnick stomped over to the cage. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he yelled.

  Sunny lobbed a bored look at him. “What does it look like we’re doing?”

  “We’re trying to seduce Marvelli,” Dorie announced cheerily. “But he’s so good, I can’t believe it. It’s like he’s saving himself for Loretta. Isn’t that incredible?”

  Yeah, freakin’ incredible, Krupnick thought as he stared in at the three of them.

  “I thought I told you to wait until I got back,” he said to Sunny.

  Sunny shrugged, totally unconcerned.

  “I have something else I want you to do,” he said, forcing himself to calm down. “Come out of there and I’ll tell you. You, too, Dorie.”

  Sunny bristled. “I give orders. I don’t take them.”

  “You’ll like this,” he said, arching a mischievous eyebrow.

  The women ducked their heads as they filed out of the cage, Sunny taking her sweet time. Marvelli tried to follow them, but Krupnick shut the door in his face.

  “Chill, my friend,” Krupnick said. “I’ll get to you in a minute.” He led Sunny away from the cage, Dorie trailing behind.

  “Listen,” he said to Sunny, lowering his voice. “I have something I want you to do. I’ve got Marvelli’s chubby girlfriend locked up in the peep room down the hall, the one on the left. Why don’t you go down and bruise her a little? Maybe shed a little blood. There’s an audience waiting. I think they’d really get into a snuff ending.”

  “Snuff?” Dorie dove into the space between them. “As in snuff films? That’s when someone actually gets killed, isn’t it? You can’t do that. Loretta’s—”

  Krupnick’s anger suddenly got loose, and he backhanded Dorie across the mouth. Rage clanged through his brain like a gong. He’d been trying to stay cool, but it just got away from him. He’d hit Dorie so hard she stumbled back and fell, landing flat on her butt. She clutched her jaw and stared up at him in horror, momentarily torn between emotional pain and physical pain, unable to respond to either.

  He glared down at her, ready to explode again. But he knew he had to calm down and keep a lid on it, at least for the time being. He intended to kill Dorie along with the others, but he couldn’t do it now. First he had to take care of Loretta and Marvelli, then Sunny, then Dorie, then the dog. Maybe Dragon before Dorie and Sunny. Dragon listened to them so he might try to protect them, and Krupnick didn’t want to get into dealing with a mad dog. That could mess up the crime scene. What he had to do was make it look like a great big rough sex party, right here in the dungeon. There would be witnesses to Loretta’s murder in the peep show, of course, and Sunny’s rep for violence and cruelty was well-known in certain circles, so there would be no problem making it look like she did Dorie and Marvelli, too. The way Krupnick imagined it, things would get out of hand at the orgy. Sunny would go berserk. Marvelli would put up a fight, of course, but Sunny would make him bleed. He’d retaliate, bash her over the head with something, beat her brains out, but then he’d die of his own wounds. As for the dog, well, he was just an innocent bystander, a victim of the sex-fueled frenzy. Vissa, too. Krupnick would throw her body on top of the pile for good measure. By the time the bodies were found and all sorted out, Krupnick would be long gone and well on his way to Reincarnation City.

  He smiled to himself. He liked this plan.

  “I’m sorry,” he said to Dorie, offering his hand to help her up. He was calm now. His plan was good.

  Dorie wouldn’t look at him, and she got up on her own. She stormed off into a corner and slid down the wall into a crouch, burying her face in her arms.

  “I said I’m sorry, Dorie,” he called to her. He didn’t want her walking out. He didn’t want to have to go out and chase her down. She had to stay put so he could kill her with the others. “Dorie?” he said.

  But she wouldn’t even lift her head. Her shoulders were bobbing up and down with her sobs.

  “Bet you feel like a real piece of shit now,” Marvelli said. He didn’t say it nasty, but he was staring at Krupnick from behind the bars, looking all righteous and moral. Stripped down to the waist with his hands cuffed behind him, he looked like some kind of Christian martyr. Saint Marvelli.

  Krupnick merely looked at him until his anger simmered down. “You never lose your temper?” he asked.

  “Sure, everybody does,” Marvelli said. “I just don’t act on it.”

  Krupnick ambled toward the cage, nodding thoughtfully. “Never took a swing at your girlfriend?”

  “Never.”

  “Not once? I mean, she’s a big target. Maybe you figured, hell, she can take it.”

  “Never even thought about it,” Marvelli said.

  “Then you must be quite a guy. I can see that Dorie’s impressed with you. Aren’t you, Dor?”

  Dorie didn’t answer. Her face was still hidden in her arms.

  Krupnick circled the cage, his eyes locked on Marvelli’s.

  “So,” Marvelli said, “what now?”

  Krupnick shrugged.

  Dorie’s muffled voice echoed through the quiet room. “He just sent Sunny to kill Loretta.”

  Marvelli’s face dropped. All of a sudden his analytical cool vaporized. Poor guy, Krupnick thought. He’s worried about his sweetie pie.

  “Hey, how about this?” Marvelli said excitedly. “Call off Sunny, and you take me on. One on one. Just the two of us.”

  “What’re we, knights of the Round Table?”

  “Seriously. You can even leave the cuffs on.”

  “Be real, Marvelli.”

  Marvelli paced around the cage, keeping up with Krupnick as he circled. “Do anything you want to me,” h
e said. “Just leave Loretta and Vissa alone.”

  Krupnick grinned and shrugged apologetically. “Too late.”

  “What do you mean, ‘too late’?” Marvelli said. “Sunny just left.” Too late for Vissa, Krupnick thought.

  Marvelli kicked the cage repeatedly, making a racket. “Come on, dammit! I’ll fight you cuffed. That’s the kind of sick crap you love. It’s what you get off on. Or do you need Sunny to do it for you?”

  Krupnick could feel his temper starting to swell, like dough rising inside him, cramming his head and pushing out his eyeballs. What the hell does Marvelli know? he thought angrily. He’s a nothing parole officer from New Jersey, a nobody.

  But that comment about getting Sunny to do it for him ate at him. It was bothering him that he’d been so nervous doing Vissa. But it was true, he did always seem to get other people to do his dirty work for him. Maybe all his elaborate schemes were just his way of avoiding direct confrontation. After all, why didn’t he just sell all that heroin way back then and disappear with the profits? Because he was afraid of what Batman Jessup would do if he caught him, that’s why. Maybe he really was a chicken shit and had been his whole life.

  “What’re you, sleeping?” Marvelli shouted. “People go to sleep to avoid reality. Did you know that, Krupnick?”

  Krupnick’s gaze happened to fall on the propane hibachi where the scarification pokers were sitting in hot lava rocks. The hiss of the propane tank was barely audible. He could feel a little of the heat on his face, even from this distance. There were six iron pokers in the fire, red hot and ready to go. A pair of heavy black gloves rested on top of the tank.

  Do it, he thought to himself. Don’t be nervous. Show Marvelli that you can do it good.

  “Don’t fall asleep on me,” Marvelli yelled, frantically trying to provoke him. “Wake up! Do something!”

  Krupnick slowly turned toward the hibachi. “Oh, I’m awake,” he said. His eyes reflected the glowing pokers.

  31

  Loretta sat on the bed with her back to the glass panels, trying to ignore the gang of pigs on the other side. They kept coaxing and cajoling her, trying to get her to strip, to dance, to play with herself, to do something with Dragon. But these scumbuckets weren’t even worth telling where to go, she thought. Even Dragon didn’t want anything to do with them. He was under the bed with his chin on his paws.