The Vanessé Club (Part 1)

After getting some rest, we quickly had Anastasia get some details of the Club. We found out that the owner of the Club was actually an ex-police officer named Zack Salvatore, who had retired a few years ago. He was a 58 year old man with neatly combed grey hair, a trimmed beard and a fit and tall body. He looked well off and sophisticated, judging by his appearance. There were some sensitive informations about him which was hidden from everyone and was only accessible to the higher-ups in the police department, so there wasn't much we could find about him other than him running a club.

Although the layout of the club was pretty much like any other club with quite a handful of customers, I couldn't help but have a strange feeling about it. Why would anyone know any information about the serial killer in such a regular club?

But regardless of how unpromising it seemed, we decided to pay it a visit. Before we left, Anastasia had trackers planted inside our sleeves and watched us through the local CCTV cameras to ensure our safety.

Noel and I stopped infront of the club after an hour of driving. There were very few buildings scattered around the area and a regular shopping mall to the opposite of the club. The club's name plate glowed with a luminescent yellow in the night. After one look around the area, Noel safely tucked his revolver inside his pocket which was hidden by his upper coat. He would be using it in case of sudden turn of events.

They casually made their way into the club and looked around. It was all normal. Men and women were dancing to the music while some sipped their drinks and chatted among themselves. We seated ourselves on the chairs placed near the counter.

"Can we get some cold drinks?" Noel smiled at the bar-tender, trying his best to seem natural. It would seem suspicious if they hadn't ordered anything and just simply sat and watched everyone.

He turned to them and narrowed his eyes, "Haven't seen you here before."

The man looked like he was in his 40s with strands of grey over his black hair and trimmed beard.

Noel chuckled nervously, "Really? We come here very rarely so you must've missed us."

But he didn't seem like he was buying it. We were soon starting to get nervous. Was he going to tell someone about it? He looked back and forth between us for quite a while before breaking into a friendly laughter, "Haha, I must've gotten old! What would you like to order?"

We both let out a small sigh of relief.

"Any refreshing cocktail would do." Noel flashed him a smile.

After a few minutes, the bar-tender brought a pair of glasses with cocktails and handed them over to us. We paid for it and began observing the club for any suspicious behaviour while sipping our drinks. Just then, we were startled by three women who came to the counter.

"Hey, handsome. Wanna talk?" One of them patted Noel's arm and smiled flirtatiously.

"No thanks." Noel yanked his hand out of her grasp and directed a menacing glare in their direction.

But they weren't fazed by him. The other two dragged him out of his seat and winked, "Come on, now! Don't be so shy. Let's talk a little."

Just then, an idea struck me. I smirked as I quickly pulled out my phone and sent him a text—

"They might know something."

Amidst all the commotion, Noel managed to read the text. He glared at me and quickly typed away a message—

"I WON'T."

"They seem like they would do anything for that face of yours. This is our chance." I typed back.

After reading my text, he seemed like he was considering my suggestion.

After a few moments, I received a text from him—

"You'll pay for this."

I chuckled as I watched him change from a demon to a prince within moments and walk away with the women.

I, too, needed to find something useful from whatever I've got.The bar-tender seemed like he had worked here for a long time since he remembers everyone's faces, so I decided to give it a shot.

After a sip of the cocktail, I looked at the bar-tender who was wiping the dust from the glasses and smiled, "So, how's everything going?"

The bar-tender seemed surprised by the sudden question. It almost seemed like no one had ever asked that to him.

His face broke into a smile, "First time a young lad wants to talk to an old man like me instead of girls."

"There's a first for everything." I smiled, "When did you start working here?"

"Ever since the club started." He smiled nostalgically, "I still remember how small the business was when Zack first started it. Now look what it has grown into."

"Zack"— I had been waiting for him to bring that word up.

"Is this his only business?" I asked while taking another sip of the cocktail, making it seem like it was simply out of curiosity.

"He also maintains a shopping mall around here." He then stopped and turned to me, "But why are you asking all of that?"

I faked a smile and calmly said, "I actually wanted to meet the owner of the mall on behalf of my father. He's interested in sponsoring the mall. I wanted get a quick background check on him to see if he was a promising business man, and it seems like he indeed is."

The bar-tender hummed in agreement and went back to his work, although a bit skeptical. Just then, a hand clamping over my shoulder startled me and I looked back. It was Noel. He seemed like his life had been drained out of him. "are you okay?" I asked, trying to press back my laughter.

He rolled his eyes, "Shut up. And...you were right. They knew something."

"What is it?"

"We were lucky to come across Zack Salvatore's toys— those women" He scoffed, "they regularly visited him and often found him on calls with an unknown person about an upcoming party where they would be promoting something. Apparently, he never told those women what it was all about no matter how many times they'd asked him."

"If it's that secretive, we need to get an access to the party."

"But we don't even know where Zack is." Noel sighed.

"We do." I said, "The bar-tender told me that he's somewhere in this club."

Without another word, we began our search. After asking several people, we stumbled across one of Zack's bodyguards. When we asked him if we could meet Zack, he made a quick call and let us into a room. There we found Zack sitting on a sofa with a few women by his side.

"My name is Alexander." Noel introduced us, "And this is my companion, Timmy. We were hoping to talk to you in private."

It felt like someone had dropped a boulder on my head when I heard the name Timmy— it was the name given by the orphanage kids to a street dog they play with. I shot him a quick glare and he simply smirked back.

"I don't have the time for that." Zack waved us away with a look of disgust, thinking that we were probably sponsorers or people from the advertisement companies with offers for his shopping mall.

"Wait, let us talk first." Noel frowned, arguing back.

When he saw that we were still not budging, he gestured to his guards to get us out of the room. Just as we were about to be pushed out, I spat out my last words, hoping that it would somehow convince him.

"We're here to talk about the party. Surely you would be interested to hear us out, right?" I stared sharply at him.

Zack froze in place at the mention of the party. He raised a hand, signaling his guards to step away from us and motioned us to have a seat.