Read Online No Questions Asked by David Menon - Free Book Online Page B

going to have to sit our Jess down and talk to her’ said Adrian. ‘I don’t want to fall out with her and I certainly don’t want to upset her. But don’t I deserve a chance to be happy, Joe? I thought it was the end of the world when Penny died and it still is to an extent because no matter who I meet they’ll never be the same as Penny was to me. But if I can be happy with someone then isn’t that something? Jess isn’t a kid. She’s fourteen. Surely she’ll be able to see all of that?’
    ‘Mate, from my limited knowledge of watching my siblings being parents to their kids I know that at fourteen some kids can think they’re all grown up and mature enough for what’s waiting for them along the journey of life but emotionally they still haven’t got all the money they need to buy the ticket to make that journey’.
    ‘Oh … kay. I think I follow that’.
    ‘What I’m saying Adrian, is that they think they’re more grown up than they are. I don’t envy you in your task mate and I don’t think there’s a rulebook for how to approach it’.
    The Paradise club was down a Stockport side street just off the main shopping area to the east of the A6. It was one of those places that had been built like a Tardis. There was a narrow entrance door behind a tiny porch the walls of which were covered in a kind of cheap looking see though black material that was probably meant to look sophisticated. Two bouncers stood outside and once they’d looked Adrian and Joe up and down something about their appearance must’ve made them believe they were alright and so they grunted and waved them in.
    ‘That’s a shame’ said Joe, quietly. ‘I was hoping to flash my warrant card straight away’.
    ‘There’ll be time, mate’ said Adrian. ‘Don’t you worry’    
    Once inside the larger than anticipated room they were greeted by two hostesses in the shortest red skirts Joe had ever seen and their look was finished off with a silver bikini top and light silver slip-on heels. And they all had really long hair. Joe had noticed that straight away even before the sight of all the scantily clad legs had tempted his heterosexual reactions.
    There were lounge chairs arranged around low round tables all along the four square walls. The bar was at the far end and of course the middle was taken up by a dance floor where there must’ve been a dozen or so topless girls dancing to some indeterminable music with a heavy bass beat that was pumping through the speakers like the sound of gun fire.  They were barefoot and only had on a pair of very skimpy knickers. Both Adrian and Joe noticed that the girls who were dancing on the laps of some of the customers weren’t touching them with their hands and the customers weren’t touching the girls at all. That was the rule in places like this. The clients knew that if he wanted to take things further with a particular girl then he had to make a private arrangement with her. It was too dark to see the faces of any of the clientele at least not properly. There could be men in there who either Adrian or Joe knew but it wouldn’t matter. They couldn’t be identified without switching all the lights on and that’s not what they were there for.  
    ‘Alright there gentlemen’ said the hostess in an indeterminable British accent. ‘We’ve got the native black or white English girls and we’ve also got Chinese plus some of our girls are from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. So if English isn’t your first language then I’m sure we can sort something out. All the dancers have a number on a bracelet round their wrist as you can see so just let us know who you’d like to come and pay you some of the attention that I know you deserve and we’ll sort it’.
    ‘We’re police officers’ said Joe who held up his warrant card followed by Adrian.
    ‘Oh it’s all within the law what we do here, officers, I mean I’m only here because I’m putting myself through Salford