Kahn: Why did you give me your number?
Alicia: I saw you at the convention, heard you were looking for a powerful person. I can help you.
Kahn: How can you help me?
Alicia: I have many different jobs. Waitressing at that convention for four days pays really well. I can afford rent for two months off four days at that place, but the convention is so infrequent. I’m also a bartender at a high-end bar in Angel Bay off the square. My ex-boyfriend worked for a landscaping company. His proclivities, his appetite for sadism and being dominated was too much for me…but he’s an addict so he has to find a fix just like Jane. He and her have been known to trip the light fantastic but in a sleazy disrespectful way. For her, it’s all practice for the main event, whatever that event is. The landscaping ex-boyfriend, sure he did her landscaping for free, but he can’t give her anything substantial. The only thing he can give you is information. I can get you in touch with him if you want.
Kahn: And the name you whispered in my ear?
Alicia: He’s a cop. A detective with the divine county sheriff’s office. Intense dude. He’s a regular at my bar. He doesn’t drink, Shirley temples are his go to though. He’s also looking for Jane. I don’t know why, but he can probably fill in some gaps for you if that’s the road you want to go down. It’s dangerous out there, Ms. Kahn. The world you’re dipping your toes into comes with a price. These people they don’t care about anything except themselves. Bodies have been buried to keep their secrets. Be careful. Otherwise, you’ll just be another pretty face lying in a ditch or dropped in lake Mendota.
Kahn: Thanks. Anything else?
Alicia: Come to my bar. The first drink is free, after that I expect dinner and a movie.
Kahn: Like a date? I’m not a lesbian
Alicia: Me either, but you’re gorgeous and I’m willing to try anything once.
It would seem that everyone has an angle they are trying to pull. The waitress gave me her ex-boyfriend’s number and an open invitation. I felt I was getting closer but still far away from uncovering the truth about the dark parts of this city. Ultimately, presumption being power, and money go farther than I ever thought possible. The influential people in this major metropolitan area, or for that matter in every large city in the United States were intertwined and intimately connected with safety nets and protocols in place to keep their secrets secret.
Josh, the ex-boyfriend, wasn’t as willing to sit down with an investigative reporter without a bit of an incentive. It was late, about two days after Alicia and I met. It was after midnight. The bar we were in wasn’t an uptown establishment. He was working his second job as a bartender. He ushered us to a low-lit booth in the back. He wedged into the corner, and I sat across from him.
Josh: Who are you and what do you want?
Kahn: I just want information on someone.
Josh: You got my terms?
I placed an envelope with $1000 inside of it on the table. He grabbed it and slipped it into his inner coat pocket.
Kahn: You’re not going to count it?
Josh: It’s not important. Who’s the target?
Kahn: A powerful woman by the name of Jane.
Josh: Jane Dean? The queen of all perverse things? What makes you think I know anything?
Kahn: Call it a hunch. Care to share?
Josh: She’s wild man. Insatiable. She’s got her hands in a lot of things, most of it bad. She’s untouchable. She uses her eroticism and manipulation to get whatever she wants. She’s a bit of a freak, you know, weird stuff, ritualistic stuff, dominatrix stuff, just hardcore stuff.
Kahn: Aren’t you into that too?
Josh: It doesn’t matter what I’m into. As long as I can get my rocks off, no matter how depraved you might think it is, or society thinks it is, I’m an addict. The more dangerous, riskier, the more potentially deadly activity, that’s what I need, and she fulfils that need for me.
Kahn: I’d like to interview her.
Josh: You don’t find her, she finds you.
Kahn: So help her find me.
Josh: Cost you another 500 bucks.
I tossed him another envelope.
Kahn: Half now, half after the interview.
Josh: I’ll put a bug in her ear. I hope you know what you’re doing. She’s not one to take lightly.
Kahn: How did she find you?
Josh: By accident. I was doing her landscaping and she was home. She called me in to the house and before I really had a firm understanding of what was going on I was being led around her house like a dog on a leash. That was my indoctrination into what has been a very interesting time in my life. I can’t quit her though, she gets into your mind, into your soul. She’s ruthless. Don’t cross her, she’ll make your life hell. Lesson learned the hard way. I was arrested when I failed to play the game by her rules. I stood her up once. The next day I was pulled over for a broken taillight and the cop searched my car. He found drugs in my car. I don’t use drugs, except maybe weed every now and again. He found a huge bag of cocaine. It wasn’t mine. She had that son of a bitch plant it in my car, I know it, but I was arrested, and charged. The PD and the DA dropped charges, but I was still required to do community service for 200 hours. She’s well connected. She’ll ruin you if you don’t go with the program.
Kahn: Who was the cop?
Josh: I don’t remember. It doesn’t matter, that’s not the point, the point is she is the one holding all of the cards and she has so much control over this city, it’ll blow your mind.
Kahn: I can see that already. If I need to get ahold of you…Josh: You won’t need to get ahold of me. This was a one-time deal. Once I get her to reach out to you, I’ll tell you where to drop the rest of the cash.
And just like that, after two months of tracking down the unspoken filthy and disgusting parts of this city, I got the opportunity to sit down with a ringleader.