Normally Drew would be annoyed by a comment like this. Just because they were the only two Asian dancers in the club—and both Filipino—didn’t mean they looked alike. But looking closer, he has to admit Cherry has a point. Joey was slightly taller and Betty had a smaller frame, but their noses and face shapes had a similar roundness, and their hair was the same color and length. They could have passed for sisters.
In the dark, they could even be twins.
Drew feels another tingle in his spine. “What was Betty’s real name?” he asks, his throat dry.
“I can’t remember.”
“What else can you tell me about her boyfriend?”
Cherry shakes her head. “All I know is that his gang was all over the news back then for shooting up a nightclub in Chinatown—”
“The Blood Brothers.” Drew exhales.
He remembers the story well. The nightclub shooting was thought to be part of an ongoing turf war between the Blood Brothers, a Vietnamese gang, and the Big Circle Boys, a rival Chinese gang. Three people died that night. He has dozens of old files on his computer at home from the series he wrote on Asian street gangs, and he might be able to dig up Betty’s boyfriend’s name from the research he’s already done.
Drew lifts up the corner of the protective sheet. “Mind if I take a picture of this with my phone? And the other one, too?”
“You can take them,” Cherry says. “I can see she meant a lot to you.”
There’s a crackling sound in the quiet office as Drew peels off the plastic, carefully detaching the photos from their sticky backing. The tingling hasn’t stopped. Joey and Betty, so similar in appearance. One dead, the other missing, in the same damn weekend. Betty’s boyfriend, involved with the Blood Brothers at a time when the gang was at its most violent, most power hungry, seen hanging around the club on New Year’s Eve. And then a few hours later, Joey is dead, in a fire that was ruled an accident … but might not have been. After all, fires are a great way to destroy evidence.
What if Joey’s death wasn’t accidental? What if it was murder?
Betty Savage might know. But he can’t talk to her, because she’s missing. Or is she?
Drew gives his head a little shake. Now who’s the one with the dumb theory?
“What is it?” Cherry asks, catching it.
“Nothing.” He forces a smile and returns the album to her. “While I’m here, any chance you have old personnel files lying around? I wouldn’t mind tracking down this Betty. Since you mentioned she and Joey were good friends, I’m wondering if she can give me some insight into the last year of Joey’s life.”
“I used to keep files on all the girls with their performers’ licenses photocopied so I’d have them on hand during random inspections,” Cherry says. “But they were shredded years ago. You could try contacting the city. Dancers can’t legally work without a license, but without Betty’s real name, that would be a lot of licenses to sift through. There were a lot more dancers back in 1998.”
“Thanks for the tip, and I appreciate your time. Just wondering, though—” Drew hesitates. Cherry’s been helpful, and he doesn’t want to offend her. “Why didn’t you float your theory past the police back then? About Betty’s boyfriend maybe doing something to both her and Joey?”
Cherry lets out a bitter laugh. “What police? Nobody came around to ask me anything about either of them. And what was I going to do, march down to the nearest police station and volunteer my suspicions that a Vietnamese gang member killed one of them, or both? Last thing I needed was a target on my back.”
Drew nods. Of course that makes sense. The club owner is a shrewd lady, full of street smarts.
“My advice?” Cherry files the photo album back on the shelf. “Don’t go looking for Betty. She was bad news.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Of course he’s going to look for Betty.
It’s been a long time since Drew investigated something, and holy hell, he forgot how good it feels to chase down a story. The more he thinks about it, the more it feels like a real possibility that the basement fire was no accident. After all, Joey knew the chimney was in rough shape, because he and Simone had warned her about it after she moved in. The three of them never lit a fire, not once.
But did Betty know about the chimney? If the girls were good friends, and she spent time with Joey in the apartment, she might have. It never did sit well with Drew that Joey made a fire that night. But what if she wasn’t the one who lit it? What if it was someone she was close to? Someone with a boyfriend who supplied her with drugs that she sold to the other girls at the club?