What the Red Queen Knows

“Well, honey, you can probably tell by the way I talk that I’m not from Cleveland.” Alice touched her glass against Dinah’s. It didn’t ring like a bell but sounded more like car keys tossed on a metal card table.

It figured, Alice thought. Everything else around here was coarse and cheap.

Dinah was stretched out on the couch with her drink in her hand. She rose it up in a sloppy toast. “Here’s to bein’ from somewhere else, baby, Alabama or Georgia or somethin’.”

“Somethin’s close enough.”

“So, what happened? How the hell didja end up here?” Dinah put the glass down and picked up her cigarette.

“You gotta ask? How did any of us end up here?”

“Let me guess. Small, boring town? Your pop starts messing with ya? You figger life’s gotta be better just about anywhere else?”

“Honey, sounds like you know that song by heart,” Alice sighed.

“I do, so skip the boring parts of it. How’d you end up in R.Q.’s court?” Ever since Alice had mentioned the book Alice in Wonderland, they’d been calling their boss the Red Queen. Not to her face, of course.

“Stayin’ out too late, drinking too much booze pretty regular,” Alice said. “Then I got hooked up with a guy who said he could show me a way out of there. He took me to a party, a real shindig four towns over. I’d never even been in a car that was moving faster than fifty miles an hour. This dude, he rolls the windows down, and we must have hit seventy. My hair was flying, Frankie had the radio on, and I knew I was really heading out.”

Dinah nodded. She sat up and took another long drink of her scotch. “Yeah.”

“We pull up in front of this house. I swear it was ten times the size of any place in my town. The music’s loud, there’s lights and dancing. Before I knew it, my head was spinning. I remember a long, long hallway with a glass table at the end of it and a window that looked out into the beautiful garden, all lit up. Then I looked down at my clothes and realized just how much I didn’t fit in.”

Alice refilled her glass. The red light of the neon sign just outside the window bled through the liquid and made her feel like she was drinking pure gold. “After Frankie dropped me back home, he asked if I wanted to go there again. He said there was a gentleman there who wanted to dance with me. I said yes, of course. What girl wouldn’t?”

Nodding, Dinah let out a small belch. “Damn straight. And it explains why you use that word.”

Alice knew just what word Dinah meant. ‘Dance’ beat the word ‘fuck’ hands down.

“So, that’s how I found myself there again, in a room by myself, waiting for this gentleman to come up to see me. Even at sixteen, I knew this man was going to do more than dance with me. He came into the room and handed me a glass of something sweet. He didn’t say anything as he watched me drink it. Then I felt myself becoming smaller and smaller. It was all very strange. I remembering him saying, ‘Eat me, drink me.’ And I did.”

Alice didn’t tell Dinah how it wasn’t just one gentleman who wanted to dance, but five, maybe six. And that she’d heard one of them say, through the haze of whatever was messing with her head, that he was gonna to get his money’s worth and how Frankie sure knew how to pick ‘em.

And she didn’t tell Dinah how she cried a pool of tears the next morning when Frankie told her she had to go to Cleveland to work for someone he called the Red Queen.

“You think you could have any sort of life back in Baker Falls? Especially when word gets around you screwed seven men in one night?” Frankie had said. Dinah thought he sure looked a lot older in the harsh light of morning. There was no way he was twenty-two like he’d told her.

And seven men? She couldn’t remember more than six sets of meaty hands and bad breath.

When Frankie proceeded to make himself the lucky seven, right there in the car, well, that had been the last brick in the wall.

Alice realized neither she nor Dinah had said anything a long time. She wondered if Dinah had fallen asleep.

But Dinah hadn’t. She was just staring straight up at the ceiling, her cigarette on the edge of the battered coffee table, threatening to burn into the wood. Alice stood up and snubbed it out in the ash tray. “And, honey, that’s my story, how I ended up in Cleveland and a member of the Queen’s court.”

Dinah put her hand on Alice’s. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

Alice felt her face burn. Because she wasn’t glad she was there. Not one bit. Alice thought even Baker Falls would be better than the place they were now.

OOOOOOOO

While the Red Queen was terrifyingly harsh, she could also be very kind. Alice didn’t have a lot of memories of her mother, but thought this woman might be a little bit like her.

When Alice had done exceptionally well, the Red Queen would sometimes give her chocolates. They weren’t just drugstore ones either. They were the kind in the red, foil box that must have cost at least eight dollars.

But the Red Queen mostly kept busy with Dinah. She was teaching Dinah how to walk like a lady, how to talk like a lady and how to fit in with real fancy people. She even gave Dinah a new name.

Alice was a little jealous at first, but when Dinah would come back to their room with ugly bruises and once broken fingers, Alice decided she didn’t want what the Red Queen was dishing out to Dinah.

Things took a decided turn for the worst whenever the Red Queen’s son, Albert, was in town.

He was a man with a face like some stroked-out, B-movie actor. Alice quickly dubbed him the King of Hearts, something that made Dinah laugh. Alice thought Dinah’s reaction was because Albert may have been a king, but it was of something far nastier than hearts.

“King of Hearts, huh? Just proves he’s sleeping with his mother.”

Alice didn’t understand, and it must have shown on her face.

“Kings fuck queens, get it?” Dinah said, lightly slapping her shoulder.

She guessed mother and son dancing together was no different than what Alice’s father had done with her. Except that the Red Queen’s son was lots, lots older.

The King of Hearts had weird facial tics. Alice figured he was full of something scary. His hands were large and rough. She hated the way his mouth became slack, the way his one cheek twitched and the way his icky voice made him sound like he was about six years old. And she hated the way he talked about his mother.

When he put his big hands over Alice’s breasts and squeezed, she thought he might just condense her chest down to something completely flat, something he would walk on.

Alice was glad when he finally tired of her and concentrated his attentions on Dinah. It would give the girl something to do to earn all those nice clothes and shoes.

Dinah was beginning to look and sound just like a real lady, like a school teacher even. Sometimes when Alice looked at Dinah, she didn’t even recognize her anymore. It made Alice nervous.

Besides worrying about Dinah, Alice had her own problems. The Red Queen was having her dance with a man named Bill. He had reptilian eyes, a tongue that flicked in and out of his mouth and a dick that always seemed to be ten degrees colder than the rest of him.

Alice dubbed him Bill the Lizard.

Bill the Lizard wanted Alice to do things that made Alice’s own blood run cold, things that were so far from natural that Alice finally worked up the nerve to tell the Red Queen.

The Queen had just laughed and said, “Honey, that’s why he pays me the big bucks. Tell you what. I’ll ask Bill to bring you a little treat when he comes to visit you.”

And Bill the Lizard did. The treat was something in a little plastic bag which he put in a cup of hot tea. Handing to Alice, he said, “Drink it.”

It wasn’t long before Bill started to fade away.

Alice got up and walked through the wall of the bedroom closest to the street. Jaycie was in that room, kneeling in front of a man who looked like a large rat on two legs. Her head was bobbing up and down, and Alice knew that by the sounds the man was making, Jaycie was going to be in big trouble in about two minutes.

Alice stepped through the next wall and found herself in the bathroom. Tawny Kat was there, putting on her make-up and checking her hair. She didn’t seem to see Alice.

A few minutes later, Alice found herself out on the street. She was looking at a blue man sitting on a giant mushroom. He was smoking a hookah.

Alice felt a pain in her gut and felt like she might mess her pants. She put her arm around her belly and then looked up at the blue man. “I gotta ask you a question, Mister. I gotta know how I can get bigger and braver.”

The blue man took a puff and blew several perfectly round circles of smoke right over her head. Alice looked up and pretended they were halos.

“You can take a bite of what I’m sitting on,” he said. “One side will make you bigger, and one side will make you smaller.”

And then he disappeared, leaving Alice all alone.

She took a bite of the left side and felt herself get very, very brave, brave enough to push at Bill the Lizard, buck him off. When she felt him jack into her just as he slammed her head down on something hard, Alice panicked and took a bite of right side of the mushroom.

It made her very, very small, small enough that maybe that she could simply disappear, to go somewhere where things didn’t hurt so much and Bill couldn’t find her anymore.

When she felt his teeth on the back of her neck, she felt something else.

Her neck started to grow. It got longer and longer and longer. Alice realized she could see all the way back to her home town to the two-story house that needed a paint job and the rusted metal fence that ran around the back yard. Alice’s long, long neck allowed her to look right into her sister’s bedroom.

And her father was in that bedroom.

And after that, Alice felt nothing at all, at least until the Red Queen was lightly slapping her face. “Alice, you gotta wake up. I’m calling Dr. Feldkamp. He’ll fix you back up.”

Later, Alice realized the Red Queen must have said something to Bill the Lizard, because he didn’t dance with Alice anymore.

Alice ended up spending two weeks off the roster, something that made the other girls jealous. She spent that time, moving slowly, helping the King of Hearts with the books.

It made her hate him even more to watch him do the math by using his fingers.

OOOOOOOO

After the first year with the Red Queen, Dinah was well on her way to being the high-class hooker their boss wanted. Alice watched Dinah’s transformation with both envy and horror.

Sure, she was still a little rough around the edges. Dinah had the tendency to swear when surprised, and she got sloppy when drunk. The Red Queen tried to curtail Dinah’s consumption of alcohol, and was mostly successful.

Sometimes Dinah would come back from dancing with a handful of little airline bottles or booze in an old screw top jar, gifts from a john. She and Alice would then mix drinks in styrofoam cups and pretend to be grown ladies. Alice thought it was a little like a tea party.

Halfway into the second year, Alice was having moderate success in what the Red Queen called her Outreach Work. Instead of holding court in the Sweet Shop’s front room, Alice was sent out to handpicked bars, places where the Red Queen had some sort of agreement with the bartender.

It was at the Congress Bar where Alice ran into someone who seemed to know just what Alice was.

The woman was older, though not as old as the Red Queen. And this woman had a kind face, one that made Alice think of her fourth grade teacher. But that’s where the resemblance ended.

Alice wasn’t stupid. She knew this lady was in the same business as her boss, but at least she didn’t make Alice’s skin crawl.

“Just how old are you, sugar?” the woman asked the second time she saw Alice. They were sitting together at the bar.

Alice was nursing a scotch. The bartender slid a cup of hot water and a Lipton’s tea bag down to Alice’s companion.

Alice figured the woman wanted what the Red Queen wanted. “I’m fifteen.” She watched as her companion looked up at the clock.

“I see.” The woman squeezed the tea bag out on the side of the cup and laid it on a napkin. “I was hoping you were older.”

“Why would you want that? The johns like us young.”

“Because I don’t deal with underage girls.”

Alice was quiet for a moment. She looked up at the clock above the bar, too, and hoped she’d get some action soon; going back to the Sweet Shop without her quota wouldn’t play well. She looked back at the woman. “Actually, I’m seventeen, seventeen and a half.”

The woman nodded. “I thought so. You know, you can leave her shop if you want to. You could come and work for me, though you’d have to wait until you’re of age.”

Alice laughed and swirled her scotch. “Like the Queen wouldn’t track me down pretty fast.”

“Honey, I’m packing up my business here in Cleveland and moving onto another city in July. You could come with me. I’d set you up real nice. You’d find me a better employer than the one you have.”

“I’d have to think about it. The Red Queen really scares me. One word of this and she’d…” Alice couldn’t continue. She’d seen what her boss could do. Even Dinah wasn’t immune to her rage.

The woman handed her a business card. Alice tucked into her purse without looking at it.

“Think about it, sweetie,” the woman said, smiling. It was a nice smile and one that stayed with Alice long after the woman left.

OOOOOOOO

In February, Dinah made a big mistake.

“I’ve met a guy, a really special fellow. I mean, really, really special, Alice,” she whispered one day after breakfast. “I met him when I was picking up the Red Queen’s laundry at the drycleaners. He’s a lawyer, his name’s Richard, and he’s not married. He seems like a really nice guy, and he doesn’t know about me at the Sweet Shop. I told him I was a teacher who’d just moved here from Kansas City and didn’t have a job yet.”

Alice felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle. “Dinah…”

“Stop calling me that!”

“You think the Red Queen’s gonna let you leave? Just like that?”

“Are you nuts? Of course not. But this is what I’m going to do. Brandy’s going to try to make it back to Boston on the bus and see if her folks will take her back. This weekend, when King Albert is in town, we’re splitting.”

It sounded pretty risky to Alice.

Of course, it didn’t take long for things to fall apart.

When Alice came back to the Sweet Shop that night, she found Dinah crying in the bathroom. Wetting a washcloth, Alice held it out to her.

“Here, put this on your face. What happened? A bad dance?”

Dinah shook her head. “The Queen found out,” she hiccupped. “She found out the plan. Someone must have squealed.”

Alice felt like a concrete block dropped into her stomach. She suspected it was Blaze, the new girl from New York. “What… what’s going to happen, Dinah?”

Dinah’s face became hard. “Would you quit calling me that? You’re the only one that does anymore. Use my new name!”

Alice looked down. She never call her friend that name. Pretty as it was, the Red Queen had picked it out. No one should have to give up her name like that.

“It’s about Brandy... I think…I think the Red Queen got her son to kill her.” Dinah blew her nose on the washcloth.

“But…”

“I heard her talking to him about it, about… dropping her off the pier. And she talked about how they would have killed me, too, but have too much invested in me.” Dinah stammered. “Alice, they killed her…Brandy’s dead…I can’t…”

“Shhhh.” Alice took the washcloth turned back to the sink. Holding it under the running water gave her a moment to try to get her head together.

Alice was horrified. The Red Queen had done some pretty terrible stuff, but never something this bad, never murder. Not only was Dinah in danger, but because of their friendship, so was Alice. It wouldn’t take the Red Queen long to figure out that Alice could be the weak link.

Alice rung out the cloth, turned toward her friend and handed it back to her.

Dinah stopped crying and was trying to swallow little hiccups.

“You sure she’s not going have him do the same to you?” Alice asked.

“I told you. She said she’s got too much invested in me.”

Alice didn’t like the way a bit of pride had slunk into Dinah’s voice.

“Listen, come with me,” Alice pleaded. “I know someone that can get us both out of here.”

“You’ve got to be joking. After what happened tonight?”

“Dinah, please. Come with me,” Alice begged. When she saw Dinah’s eyes narrow, she knew she’d made a mistake.

“You really think this will all blow over?” Alice asked instead, hoping Dinah didn’t see her hands were shaking.

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll wait it out with you. Things will probably be fine,” Alice lied, two of them in one sentence. She watched Dinah’s face relax.

Two hours later, Alice was slipping out the back door with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and her purse. In her hand was the card the woman at the bar had given her. She looked down at it.

“Belle Kates, Businesswoman” was printed in bold letters.

OOOOOOOO

Belle Kates was a good boss.

She encouraged the girls to tell her when johns were abusive, and made sure those men didn’t come back. Sometimes Belle cooked for them, chili or lasagna. She’d put the food in the back room and set a stack of bowls next to the pan. Once, she even bought a case of strawberry soda. The girls sat around between clients and pretended they were at a fancy restaurant.

But Alice soon learned Belle wasn’t really a friend.

While Belle would never physically hurt any of her girls and was kind enough to them, they’d be fools to think it was because she was any sort of angel or pal. Belle’s interest in her stable was purely mercenary.

Alice learned where she stood in Belle’s life when she didn’t go in for her monthly doctor’s check-up on time.

Belle was furious. Alice didn’t like the way her boss’s face twisted up and for a moment, was afraid Belle would hit her.

But Belle didn’t. Instead, she docked Alice’s pay and scolded her.

Alice knew Belle’s anger wasn’t because she was personally worried about Alice’s health. As Belle pointed out, if Alice had picked up some sex disease, then she was bad for business. Everything came down to the bottom line, and a sick whore wasn’t a money-maker.

“You just gotta be thankful, Alice, that this thing called the condom was invented and that anything you can pick up from a john is curable with a doctor’s help. God may have not given us a sex disease than can kill people, but He also expects us to be smart and take care of ourselves.”

Alice didn’t like it when Belle talked about God like that, like he was a third person in this whole equation. There was no way God was anywhere near Alice when she danced with people for money.

Alice bit her tongue and made the appointment with the physician, noting that she’d need to keep her act together and not cross Belle Kates.

After two years in Belle’s employ, and as far as Alice could figure, five hundred and thirty tricks later, things weren’t going too badly.

Sitting at a bar called The Lucky Foxxe, Alice was hoping to drum up some business.

The bartender’s name was Stan. He and Belle Kates had a solid working relationship. It involved money and favors. The favors didn’t come from Alice, but from another one of Belle’s ladies, a redhead named Cassie.

One of Belle’s smarter marketing practices was making sure the favors granted didn’t come from the girls who actually worked the turf. The Red Queen wouldn’t have cared so much about the feelings of her stuff and would have reveled putting them in situations that were humiliating. Belle understood the psychology of these arrangements and played them well.

Alice imagined Stan as her required client, and while he was nice enough, she was glad it was Cassie who had to blow him after each of her shifts. The guy Alice blew was a bartender named Vince, an older fellow who worked at the Blue Stop. In fact, Cassie was probably sipping her drink at that bar now, glad the garrulous Vince wasn’t her problem.

Stan had the television tuned to the big match in Texas. Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs were taking it to the tennis court. Alice and Stan each had a buck on the outcome of the game. Stan was betting on King. It was another reason why Alice liked him.

Stan looked up at the door, and Alice knew they had fresh company.

The Lucky Foxxe’s newest patron was a tall, blond man, someone Alice had never seen before. Alice divided johns’ physical appeal into two categories, ugly and not-so-bad, and this man was definitely in the latter group. Out of the corner of her eye, she admired his long legs and shock of blond hair.

The man came up to the bar.

He sat down next to Alice, and held a finger up to Stan.

Then he lit a cigarette.

Seeing how there was only a handful of people in the joint, this was a direct message, one Alice read loud and clear.

“So, you got a dog in that game?” she drawled, tilting her head up at the television screen.

“Seeing how it’s the Battle of the Sexes, I guess we all do,” he said, taking a long draw of his beer. “Can I get you a refill?”

“Sure.”

The man held his finger up again, and Stan slid over another scotch.

“Three o’clock in the afternoon and it’s Cutty Sark for you. Either you’ve had a rough day at work or your work’s just beginning.” The man’s voice was low and knowing.

Alice shrugged. The strap to her dress slipped down from her shoulder. She watched the man’s eyes track the slide of the material. Then he went back to watching the television.

“You think it’s true, that a tennis racket has a sweet spot?” she asked.

“It’s true. I play some myself. I know just where to find it.”

“I’ll bet you do.” Alice ran her finger around the rim of her glass.

“Hey, you want to get out of here, maybe take a little walk? You never know where we might end up,” he said as he snubbed out his cigarette.

Alice nodded as he put a finger on her arm and slid the dress strap back in place.

It was no surprise to Alice that they ended up in a room at the Roslyn. The desk clerk didn’t even look up when he said, “Five bucks for an hour.”

Alice’s companion laid five ones on the counter.

A few minutes later, Alice was pulling her dress up over her head. She met the man’s eyes and was startled by how blue they were.

“I know Kates doesn’t employ anyone under eighteen, but I have to ask. You legal?” His voice was low and tinged with smoke.

Alice almost laughed. Instead she said, “Legal? In that sense, I sure am. Say, you gotta name, or should I call you John?”

“It’s better you don’t call me anything. It’s better that way.”

Alice shrugged. “Mine’s Alice. You might as well have it in case you want to find me again.”

The man laughed. “I don’t think I’d have too much trouble with that.”

She really didn’t know what he meant, but that was okay.

Forty-five minutes later, the man put the thirty bucks on the dresser. He reached down and touched her cheek.

And left.

OOOOOOOO

Janey Kowalski was Alice’s little sister by a mere eleven months. “It may be less than a year,” Alice would say. “But you’re still the baby.”

Not really the baby, of course. Six years ago, when their pa was at work, their ma had left taking two suitcases and the real baby. The seven-month old boy was named Matthew.

Alice and Janey sometimes played a game. It was called, “Would You Rather?”

“Would you rather Ma was really happy where she’s living now, or miserable?”

“Would you rather have to keep a straight face and eat a whole lemon or a drink a dozen raw eggs?”

“Would you rather kiss that stinky boy, Silas Warner, or drink out of a toilet?”

Later, as they grew older, the game became more complicated.

“Would you rather Pop was too drunk to know what he was doing, or that he wasn’t?”

“Would you rather the police came and took Pop away, or that he got hit by a car?”

“Would you rather you were a little boy and Ma took you away, or that you were a really big boy who could smack Pop right in the face?”

Alice would wonder just how much Janey knew about what their pa was doing. Was Janey was playing the “Would You Rather” game for Alice’s sake, or for her own as well.

She wished she could ask her sister, but Alice was afraid that speaking the words aloud would get her the truth.

And Alice didn’t think she could stand that.

During the first year away from Baker Falls, Alice had been too scared to contact Janey, figuring her father would track her down and bring her home.

But after a while, Alice stopped worrying about that. He’d never waste the bus fare. Besides, after she turned eighteen, he didn’t have a legal right to make Alice do anything. Not anymore.

The first six letters Alice sent to Janey didn’t get answered, but they didn’t get returned either. While the silence was disappointing, Alice hoped that if the letters didn’t come back to her, it meant Janey hadn’t moved away from Baker Falls.

The seventh letter came back to her, though, and it was stamped, “DECEASED.”

When Alice saw that word on the front of the envelope, she wept.

OOOOOOOO

“Can you believe this? How did we end up pulling another night of this babysitting?”

“Ask Ferguson. Or better yet, don’t.” Hutch adjusted the cap on his head. He could never figure out why, in the dark of the night, sitting outside someone’s house for eight hours in a squad car, they had to keep their hats on.

“I know Roper’s got some pretty long arms, but even the Ferguson knows he won’t make a move on this guy.”

“I think we’re here because of that stunt you pulled with the roster.” Hutch wished his legs weren’t as long. They were proving to be a detriment to this stake-out shit.

“Yeah, but he deserved it.”

Hutch agreed.

“It ever freak you out any that we’ve got Leo Moon’s old beat?” Starsky asked.

“Not really. I trust the legal system to take care of it. The guy’s been in prison for two years on a lifetime rap. Unless someone really messes up, folks have seen the last of him.”

“I don’t mean from Moon himself, but from the guys he double-crossed.”

Hutch shrugged. “I figure we’ll deal with it if it happens. Not even Ferguson wants to see us fry. He may be a hard ass but if we get mulched, Ferguson looks bad. We can’t have that.”

“Really.”

The two men watched the dark house for a while. When the light in the bathroom went on, Starsky laughed. “Christ, what did that guy eat for supper?”

Hutch snorted. “I know an easy way to find out. Call David Six. They had the shift before us. Ask them to look at their Daily Record.”

Starsky reached for the mike and Hutch slapped his hand down. “I meant that rhetorically, dummy. Trust me, Spanky and Rogers are at home in bed with wives that aren’t nearly as mad at them as mine is with me.”

“Van’s pissed about this shift, huh?”

“You could say that. She accused me of making tonight’s job up.”

“Making it up? Hutch, why would she say that?”

“Because the last time I told her I had an all-night stakeout with you, I didn’t.”

Starsky shook his head. “Man, what’s wrong with you? Why do you give her ammunition like that?”

“Maybe I can’t help it.”

“Like shit, you can’t. Hutch, you’re one of the most determined guys I know. If you want something, you make it happen.”

“Yeah? So why am I still married to Van?”

Starsky looked at him. Hutch knew from the look in his eyes that his partner was disappointed.

“Forget it, Starsk. I’m just tired.”

“Yeah, well. You and me both.”

OOOOOOOO

The man hadn’t been joking when he said he would have no trouble finding her.

Even after Belle moved her to another bar, he managed to track her down.

Alice got used to seeing him come into The Brig. She also got used to feeling him coming into her three or four times a month.

The third time she serviced him, she figured out he was married. It wasn’t from a ring. It wasn’t because he told Alice he had a wife. It was because he was so damned regular about when he sought her out. Alice figured his wife had a regular commitment and the man was stepping out those nights. Maybe church or PTA or something.

After two months, Alice figured out the man was a cop.

Something had fallen out of his pants when he’d laid them over a chair. At first, Alice thought it was a wallet. When he reached down to pick it up, she caught a flash of a gold inside. A badge.

He slid it into his pocket, looked up at her and simply said, “It’s okay.”

Of course, it was okay. Alice had danced with lots of cops. They weren’t any different than any other john, though they tended to have potty mouths. They also paid a little better. Alice figured it was their way of encouraging her to keep her mouth shut if she saw them out doing their job later.

The extra money was nice. Belle encouraged her girls to have a little rainy day pot. And as for being discreet, hell, working with Belle made discreet easy. Belle ran a quiet, clean house and with Alice’s only outside work being a couple of bars, she was able to keep a pretty low profile.

It was during the first year, he told her his name. It wasn’t his first name. And it wasn’t really his last name. Alice figured it was probably a nickname.

She added another part to it. “Handsome Hutch,” she drawled, as she took him inside her. “It fits you.”

“And I fit you, Sweet Alice,” he groaned into her ear.

OOOOOOOO

Starsky hoisted his beer up and touched it against Hutch’s. “Here’s to a successful debut. And to us being able to sleep in our own beds tonight. Two weeks in those apartment set-ups was getting pretty old.”

“It was a great opportunity for me to quite smoking, though.” Hutch smiled slightly. “McKinley High School is now rid of one Gary Vincent Prudholm and his drug dealing ways just in time for some other punk to slide into the his place.”

“Christ, Hutch. When did you get to be such a cynic?”

Hutch was saved from explaining the obvious by the arrival of Huggy Bear.

Huggy put two plates of food on the table. Then he put his bar towel over his forearm and bowed at the waist. “I hear congratulations are in order. Pretty fancy footwork for your first undercover assignment out of uniform.”

Starsky snorted. “Fancy footwork, my ass. It was mostly a whole lot of time simply trying to blend in and hoping to hear some grapes drop off the vine.”

Huggy laughed. “I hear your exciting persona was as a janitor, Starsky. And Hutch, I didn’t think you knew enough Spanish to be a sub there.”

Starsky shook his head. “Blondie’s just lucky that I could teach him a couple of key phrases. Right, Senor Hutchinson?”

“Lucky? The lucky thing is I didn’t need to rely on your language skills. Burrito, sombrero, burro and serape wouldn’t have gotten me too far.”

Huggy laughed.

“That Prudholm kid was a piece of work, wasn’t he?” Starsky noted as Huggy walked away.

Hutch just shrugged. “Yeah, but he sure looked pretty scared there down in that holding cell. He’d none of that bravado left.”

“You mean the bravado that compelled him to try to take me out in McKinley’s parking lot with that junker of his? Sorry, he was a two-bit punk with an attitude problem. A couple of nights in the city jail will cut him down to size. Hey, you gonna go to that thing of Fletcher’s tomorrow night?”

“I can’t.”

Starsky nodded. “Van’s probably pretty pissed at you about the whole McKinley thing. I bet you hardly even called her on the phone while we were under.”

“I guess.”

“You guess what? That she’s pissed or that you didn’t call her?”

Hutch kept his eyes on his beer glass.

“You know what? Never mind. But seeing how it’s Wednesday tomorrow and Van’s night out, you must have something else goin’ on. Babe, you’re playing with fire, you know that don’t you?”

Hutch exhaled loudly. Didn’t he know it? Sweet Alice was like a strong drink, a shot of southern whiskey right down the back of the throat. It wouldn’t take much of a flame to light them both on fire.

“Hutch, I worry about you, about the risks you’ve been taking with this lady. I know by now that you don’t give a shit about your marriage…”

“That’s not true.”

“Hutch…” Starsky’s voice was low. “Yes, it is. And that’s your business. But man, if this thing with Alice comes out, your career will be over. And that’s my business, because you and I are partners.”

“Starsk.” Hutch didn’t like the way his voice cracked. It made him feel like he had something to apologize for.

Which of course he did.

The next night, as he lay over Alice’s body, Hutch felt like something had changed.

It might have been what Starsky said to him at the Pits. Hutch knew his partner was right; he’d stopped giving a shit about his marriage long ago.

As a beat cop, their geography was pretty small and their profile low, but now they’d made detective, the risks with Alice were much higher. Their new jobs would require them to roam farther, to take more initiative and to bump up against more low-life in the call of duty.

These new jobs made it even more likely for this thing with Alice to blow up.

Hutch thought of Van, of the possible explosion, and about how it could spell the end of his marriage. And he felt nothing.

But running the scenario through his head, the one that involved Starsky? Hutch knew he was walking on really thin ice.

He had been for a really long time.

“Handsome Hutch.” Alice put her hand up to his face. “You gonna tell a girl what you’re thinking?”

Hutch rolled over, pulling her with him so that they lay facing each other on the bed. “I want to stay here with you for one more hour.”

Alice cupped her hand around his lax genitals. “You’re a real tiger, but even so, I don’t think you’re gonna be able to jump through another flaming hoop anytime soon.”

Leave it to her to suggest this was all a three-ring circus. Alice could always tell it like it was.

“Just stay and talk with me,” Hutch whispered. “I’ll pay you…”

“Hutch…”

“No really. Just talk to me.”

And while Alice didn’t provide details, she told him about leaving her hometown, the hell that was the Sweet Shop, how she missed Dinah, and how Belle Kates wasn’t perfect but better than nothing.

“The Red Queen wasn’t her real name, of course. Don’t ask me to tell you what it was. We may be just a man and a woman in bed right now, but shortly I’m gonna be a whore picking up another trick, and you’re gonna be a cop. We can’t ever forget that.”

Hutch felt his whole body tense up hearing this simple truth.

“Besides, the Queen’s in Cleveland, a long, long ways from here.” Alice shivered a little and pulled the thin blanket up to her waist. “You know, I named called her that from a book I had as a kid, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Remember, the queen who was the red queen of hearts card? She was always saying, ‘off with their heads’ and making unreasonable demands”

Hutch nodded. He remembered that book. It was a strange, creepy book full of nonsense, and he hadn’t liked it.

Alice ran her finger down the line from his belly to his groin. “But it was something the queen of hearts told Alice that stuck with me. She said, ‘Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’ The Queen was right on the mark with that. I ain’t never forgot it.”

Someone turned on the radio in the next room. Hutch could hear the sounds of the big band tune ‘Satin Doll’. It reminded him of being a kid, lying in bed and listening to his parents downstairs as they played cards with their friends.

Alice touched the side of his face. “See, I’ve gotten you all sad, Handsome Hutch.”

“No, not sad. I’m just thinking, thinking about friends.”

“Yeah. I think about Dinah a lot. She was a girl from shitty circumstances just like me. The Red Queen was making her into some sort of lady, kinda like that movie, ‘My Fair Lady.’ When Dinah met a guy, a really special fellow who didn’t know what she did for money. Dinah was going to leave the business, go completely straight and give it all up for him. She told me the night I left. I tried to get her to come with me, but she was too scared.”

Hutch said, “She sounds like a good lady.”

Alice shrugged. “Yes and no. Dinah was complicated, but I think given the right set of circumstances, she’d do the decent thing.”

It was something Hutch figured was true of about everyone.

The blanket fell from Alice as she got up from the bed. The lights from the street washed over her body. It divided her in half, making Hutch think of the dark and the light side of the moon.

Alice picked up her purse, dug out two envelopes and handed them to Hutch. “These are letters to Dinah. I’ve got them stamped and everything. I wrote them last week, but I’m afraid to send them from this state. One is addressed to her, and one is addressed to her by way of someone there, a girl named Lexy. Hopefully, at least one of them will get to Dinah.”

“You’re still that afraid of your old boss?”

“Handsome Hutch, you really have no idea, do you? And here you get around more than I do…” Alice smiled at the rude pun. “Just do me a favor and mail them next time you’re out of state, hopefully not at the same time.”

Hutch sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Alice, I…”

She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “I know. I’ve heard about your promotion. And I know that tonight is the last time we’re gonna do this, Handsome Hutch. Nothing like this ever lasts.”

“Sweet Alice, you could give it up. Go straight and …”

She turned and slipped on her dress. Then she went into the bathroom to wash up. “Hutch, leave the money on the dresser before you leave, okay?”

Hutch did.

He thought about writing his phone number down on the bar napkin there.

But he didn’t.

OOOOOOOO

Two years later, and the bar hadn’t changed a bit. It had the same smell, the slight tang of vinegar and the heavier odor of old grease.

The same bartender was there, and he had just one customer, Sweet Alice. She was drinking a scotch. Listening to her talk to Stan, Hutch thought her southern drawl was possibly even thicker, like buckwheat honey dripping down a warm finger.

Two years also hadn’t hurt her looks any. His heart twisted as he looked at her profile.

“Hey, bartender, why don’t you set me up a chilly? Just give me a beer.” Hutch sat down next to her. He didn’t even have to look to the right to know his partner waited in the doorway. It was just as well. Starsky was smart that way.

Sweet Alice looked up and smiled. “Hello, Handsome Hutch.”

“Hiya, Sweet Alice, how’re you doing?”

“Well, I figured the day for a total loser until you trucked in.”

She looked over at Starsky and asked, “Hey, he still breaking hearts uptown?”

“Nobody sees him exactly like you do, Sweet Alice,” Starsky replied. Hutch could hear something forgiving and soft in his partner’s voice and thought that between them, his heart might break in two.

“No, nobody could.” The look she gave Hutch was benevolent.

“Listen, love, we’re looking for Belle. It’s important.” Hutch hated to ask, hated to even tie their two names together. All it was was a reminder of well… everything.

“I don’t work for Belle anymore, Hutch.”

A hope rose in Hutch’s breast, but he knew better than to ask.

“Have you seen her?”

“No, not for a couple of months. See, I went independent. I’m doing fieldwork.”

Hutch knew his face wasn’t quite as blank as he’d hoped after hearing this news when Alice asked, “Hey, come on. Is something the matter?”

“Yeah, Belle may be involved in something…heavy.”

“I knew it. I could feel it coming.”

“Feel what coming?”

“I don’t know. See, Belle started hanging out with a couple of pretty heavy dudes from the East.”

“Did you get their names?”

“No. No, I never even asked. One of them got kind of rough with me so I just pulled out. Belle has always been real straight with me, and I just think she’s just plumb wore out. She’s looking for an easy way to retire, I guess.”

“Do you have an address?”

“Yeah. She’s working out of a house on the corner of 12^th and Chandler I think.”

Hutch reached over and pulled the strap that had fallen from her shoulder. The look on Alice’s face was almost orgasmic. They’d always been so good together. But then maybe this was just more of his rationalizations.

“Thanks.” He meant more than just for the information and hoped Alice knew that.

“Hutch, one of these days I’m gonna go straight. And when I do, I’m gonna get you.”

“You do that and I just might let you.” He kissed her cheek. Leaning further in, he whispered, “One of us would have to run a lot faster or slow it way, way down.”

She looked up and smiled. Hutch thought she looked like an angel.

In the car, Starsky didn’t say anything for about five minutes. “Makes sense that the Chandler house is Belle Kate’s roost. Ever since we chased Ezra Beam out of that place, it’s probably been aching for another criminal element. Betcha Kate’s got even more spooky organs than Beam ever did.”

Hutch didn’t answer and looked out the side window. He rolled it down and adjusted the side view mirror. “This thing is so dirty. Remind me to wash it off next time we get gas.”

“You’ve stayed away from her for a long time, Hutch,” Starsky said, checking his own mirror as he changed lanes. “That the first time you’ve seen Sweet Alice in…?”

“Yeah,” Hutch said. “In a really, really long time.”

“So, how much time do we have to have to make it to the Chandler house and then ultimately stop this Cole thing?”

Hutch reached over and checked the watch on Starsky’s wrist. “It’s about 3:30, so you do the math.”

Starsky made a face. “Yikes. We’d better call it in.”

OOOOOOOO

Janos Martini was normally the type of guy Alice tried to stay away from. Even if Alice hadn’t heard the shit on the street about him, Belle Kates had warned her often enough.

“He’s dangerous, Little Miss Alice. You’d do well to keep your distance from that loser.”

But the fieldwork Alice got into after leaving Belle’s employ was difficult.

Alice was no dummy; she knew going independent wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. The whole situation was fraught with problems, one of which was that she had to stay away from the established territories of others, including her old beat. It put Alice in some tricky situations, most of which she was able to escape from.

But as careful as Alice was, the clap put her out of commission for almost three weeks. The first two antibiotics, besides making her sick to her stomach, didn’t even make a dent in the disease.

In Belle and the Red Queen’s employ, a girl would have had back-up when she came down with a social disease. On her own, Alice not only lost the income, she found the clinic bills suffocating.

Then her apartment manager left for a job in Tucson, leaving an older woman in his place, a lady Alice was pretty sure wasn’t going to continue the agreement of sexual favors in exchange for a break on the rent.

It wasn’t long before Alice realized she was in real danger of losing her apartment.

Alice thought of the game “Would You Rather.”

She looked at herself in the mirror.

“Alice, would you rather go straight and try to get a job in a grocery store or go back to Baker Falls?”

“Alice, would you rather go back to Belle Kates, or take your chances with Janos Martini?”

“Alice, would you rather take too many pills or slit your wrists?”

The choice seemed pretty easy at the time. Even Martini’s first name seemed to suggest she call the man.

Alice thought of her sister daily. Perhaps there was some karma involved here? Alice left Janey to fend for herself. And maybe the payback was Janos.

When you thought about it, Janos, Janey, there was only a difference of two letters in their names. Those two letters had to mean something.

Hell, nothing else seemed to make a whole lot of sense.

Later, Alice knew she should’ve gone with her last question.

OOOOOOOO

A few weeks after the Jojo Forentic case, Hutch heard from Stinson in Vice that Sweet Alice was in the hospital.

Someone had called in a disturbance at a low-rent studio in the waterfront area. The cops who arrived there had discovered movie cameras, a heart-shaped bed, whips, chains, a whole lot of blood and Alice, naked and beaten.

Janos Martini was arrested the next day but had been released due to lack of evidence.

Alice wasn’t able to talk for four days, and was unable to be questioned. The twenty-four hour period that Martini could be held passed. Stinson said, as far as he knew, when Alice was finally able to speak, she had refused to press charges.

Hutch didn’t tell Starsky where he was headed after their shift. Instead he told Starsky he had groceries to pick up. He felt a little guilty to lie to his partner like that, but didn’t think he could stand the look on Starsky’s face.

Alice was in a room with three other women. Two of them were asleep when Hutch got there. The other one was staring at the television, a black and white set on the wall. The Mike Douglas Show was on, but the sound was turned down so low it was impossible to hear any of the guests.

Alice was in the bed closest to the wall. Hutch bent over her bed. She seemed to be asleep. He cringed at the bruises on her face, and the cut on her eyebrow and didn’t want to know the injuries underneath the light blanket.

He touched her hand, and Alice opened her eyes. “Hey, Handsome Hutch. What are you doing here?”

“Coming to see you.”

Alice’s smiled and then grimaced. The motion seemed to pull at something inside her mouth.

Hutch handed her the little teddy bear he’d bought in the gift shop. Seeing that Alice wasn’t able to take it, he propped it up by her pillow. “Alice, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“I want to know who did it. And I want that person to go to prison.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“No, Hutch. I’ve got to work in this town. He’ll leave me alone. I may not be in Belle’s employ any longer, but she’ll make sure he stays his distance.” That long string of words seemed to exhaust her.

“Alice. You want him just to get off on this?”

“Handsome Hutch, I’d say he already has, if you know what I mean.” Alice tried to smile again. Hutch thought it was a really ugly smile, and didn’t look right on her face. “Thank you for the little bear. It’s cute. I’ll be okay. It takes more than this to put Alice Kowalski down.”

“Alice…”

“You mailed my letters yet? The ones to Dinah?”

“Not yet. I haven’t been out of California since you gave them to me.”

“Just don’t forget okay?”

“I won’t.”

Alice closed her eyes, and Hutch touched his forehead to hers.

“It’s okay, Hutch,” she said. “Just go.”

OOOOOOOO

“Did it surprise you that Dobey knew Martini was Sweet Alice’s old boyfriend?” Starsky was sweating hard, and Hutch could tell Bellamy’s poison was taking hold in his partner’s body.

“A little bit. I figured that whole thing was a minor blip on the radar. Martini never served time, Alice went back… to work. It’s the way of the world.”

“Dobey’s been a good boss.”

“Starsk. Shut up.”

“You don’t think he’s been a good boss, Hutch?”

“Stop talking like you’re already…”

“Dead, Hutch. The word is dead.”

“Shut up. We’ll beat this.”

“Of course we will, babe. Do I even want to know how you know Alice’s address?”

Hutch clenched his jaw. “I haven’t done anything to jeopardize us, Starsk. I promise.”

“I know.” Starsky’s voice was soft. “I know.”

Hutch parked the car in the street, and they discussed their move on Alice.

Hutch ended up going in through the sliding glass door on the patio, chasing off some guy in a suit and letting Starsky in through the front door.

Alice, true to form, didn’t even blink an eye. “Hey did you stop by to bust me or just for a little friendly conversation? I know you’re looking for somebody.” 

Hutch thought those two sentences just about summed up his whole relationship with Sweet Alice Kowalski.

“How do you feel about Janos?” he asked, glad to see that at least her face appeared to look unmarred. It was a far cry from her appearance in the hospital five months ago.

“Oh my, time heals. I just mildly hate his guts now.”

“Well, then you wouldn’t mind telling us where he is?” Hutch asked, glancing at his partner and not liking the pain he saw on Starsky’s face. He could tell his partner was fighting the edge of something in his gut.

“Oh, knowing he wouldn’t know it was me who told you about it?” Alice asked with a small smile.

“Nope,” Hutch promised. He hoped he could keep it.

“Okay, Well he’s got a little business ingeniously called ‘Sexsational Films’ He bought himself a grocery store, and he’s calling it a sound stage. Somewhere on Channing Avenue, I think…”

“Hey, what’s the matter?” she asked him.

Hutch cursed himself for the way she was able to see right into his heart. “Thanks, Alice,” Hutch said.

What he wanted to say was, “Why the hell do you know so much about that bastard?” But then he knew it was smart of her to keep tabs on him

Know thy enemy.

As they walked out to the car, Starsky stumbled a bit. Hutch grabbed his upper arm and steadied him against the apartment’s fire door.

“Just give me a moment,” Starsky asked.

“Of course.”

“You know, if…when I’m not here anymore, hell, Hutch, things become less complicated. Maybe you and Alice could…”

“Shut up. Just…shut up.”

“You’ve been telling me that a lot lately, blondie. It actually feels pretty good. You wouldn’t keep telling me to shut up if you thought I wasn’t gonna be here tomorrow. Makes me think you’ve got some handle on the next world.”

“Shut up, Starsk,” Hutch said, softly.

“You feel ready to tackle Martini?”

“Lead the way, buddy.”

OOOOOOOO

After finishing up the case Lieutenant Cameron had set them up on, Hutch sent Alice a postcard from Las Vegas. It was of the Hoover Dam.

“Just to let you know, I sent that first letter you gave me. It’s got a Nevada postmark. Hope all is well.” Hutch didn’t sign his name. There was no need.

Helping Alice connect with Dinah made him feel a little better about what a crummy friend he’d been to Jack Mitchell. It seemed like a nice bit of karma.

Starsky offered to drive the first shift once they hit the freeway. It gave Hutch time to think about everything that had gone down with Jack.

Hutch looked over at Starsk. The wind was whipping his hair back. For some reason, it made him look a lot older.

His partner turned towards him. “You wanna hand me my sunglasses? This wind’s killing my eyes.”

“Starsk, this car’s good for one thing and one thing only,” he said, handing them over.

“What’s that?”

“To make me appreciate your car just a tiny bit. At least the tomato has a roof. This open air thing is for the birds.”

Starsky grinned.

“Watch it, Andretti. You’ll get bugs on your teeth.”

Scowling, Starsky checked his teeth in the rear view mirror. “Liar.”

Hutch thought, don’t you know it.

OOOOOOOO

Alice tried not to think about Hutch all that much. He was a sweet man, a good man, but why tease herself with something neither of them could have.

That’s what she told herself, anyway.

When Belle Kates went down for her part in the hostage-armored car case, Alice watched the whole thing unfold in the evening news. While she knew Belle wasn’t on the same level as the Red Queen, getting involved in something that resulted in the death of a security guard and a threat to the life of a man and his pregnant wife was something Alice had a hard time wrapping her head around.

The way Alice figured it, prison wouldn’t slow Belle down any. It would just give her a new venue in which to work. Belle wouldn’t even have to worry about room, board or medical insurance anymore. It wasn’t the retirement Belle was looking for, but there she could hustle the showers and the activity yard rather than the streets.

There was one good thing about Belle’s incarceration. It scattered her girls. Without organization, they drifted off, leaving the market open for Alice, and anyone just as determined, to really build up a client base.

Alice found herself with more than enough work and was even able to put a little extra money in the bank.

Four months later, Alice got a second postcard. She flipped it over and saw a Playboy Island postmark.

“Alice, just to let you know, I sent the second letter from this place. I hope you’re well.”

Her two letters had finally gone out. It was hard to know just what kind of a difference they’d make, but Alice felt a sense of peace at knowing she’d done her best by Dinah.

OOOOOOOO

Alice had her mouth full when she found out her life was in danger.

The john straddling her was unable to find a rhythm that satisfied.

Alice could have been of some assistance, but the guy had insisted on this position. The man’s weight wasn’t helping any, and Alice was finding it difficult to breathe. He talked constantly, and not the usual dirty stuff. This guy was trying to get off while having a one-sided conversation, a smattering of words he could have been having at the bus stop or something.

“…it’s not been hot as much as dry. Even the weatherman is saying it’s unusual...”

Alice wondered if she was supposed to be replying somehow to this inane chatter. Hand signals, maybe? It was like being at the dentist, and having the hygienist ask her questions while Alice’s mouth was stuffed with dental tools.

“So, that new place, Venus Massage,” the man grunted and jerked. “You know anything about it? I hear there’s some pretty hot stuff there trucked over by a madam and, get this, her son. Her son! And who’d a thought Cleveland would have chicks like that?”

Cleveland, thought Alice. Mother and son?

“A guy from work said there’s this one girl there named Tawny Kat that can take two…”

Tawny Kat? Alice felt stars move across the back of her eyelids.

The Red Queen was in Bay City.

OOOOOOOO

Hutch hated the calls that came in the middle of the night. He supposed everyone did since the chance of it being good news was zero. Good news could always wait; bad news could, too, but very bad news, the kind that was most likely kick you in the gut? The ringing telephone in the dark might well be made of fire for all he wanted to touch it.

Hutch picked it up on the third ring. “’ello?”

There was a silence that caused Hutch’s heart to close like a tight fist.Then Hutch could hear someone breathing.

“Oh, Handsome Hush, you gotta … you gotta be my white rabbit.”

Hutch sat up and flicked up the bedside light. “Sweet Alice? Is that you?”

“The one and only. I was jus… callin’ to say goodbye.”

“Alice, are you in trouble?” Hutch asked. He put the phone between his chin and shoulder and reached for his shoes.

She laughed and the sound of it made Hutch put on his shirt a little faster. He had trouble getting his arm through the sleeve and had to switch the phone to the other shoulder.

“Oh baby, I’m always in trouble,” Alice said sadly. “But pretty soon I’m gonna head down that tunnel. I figure I’ll be closer to heaven than I’ve… I’ve ever been before.” Her small sob made Hutch think of something tiny and in pain. “Of course, Handsome Hu…Hush…Hutch, that’s assumin’ heaven takes used-up, ol’ whores.”

“Alice, did you take something?” Hutch asked loudly. “What did you take?”

“The Red Queen told me about running, said I had to work a whole lot harder to...”

“Alice! Alice, what did you take?”

Alice didn’t answer.

When he heard her phone hit the ground, he hung up and dispatched an ambulance to 3436 Quincy, apartment forty-one.

Then he grabbed his keys, jacket and holster.

There was little traffic on the streets, but Hutch used the mars light anyway. Its rhythmic tick and pulses of red made him think of Alice Anne Kowalski’s hopefully still beating heart.

The ambulance beat him by ten minutes. Hutch couldn’t see much of Alice’s body underneath the blanket, but if her bruised and bleeding face was indication of the rest of her, then she was a mess. Hutch watched the ambulance attendants scoop up the empty pill bottles and put them in a bag.

Ten minutes later, Hutch was alone in Alice’s living room. He knelt and touched the place where she’d fallen. Looking up at the sliding glass doors, he saw the moon. It was crystalline, the same color as the vodka in the bottle sitting on the coffee table.

Hutch stood up, used his handkerchief to lift the phone off the hook and put in a call for some lab boys and a couple of cops.

Then he called Starsky.

OOOOOOOO

The f