3 Mango Bay by Bill Myers

bothered to ask me who I was or why I was there. Everyone was working, minding their own business.
    After passing the rest rooms, I continued down the hallway until I reached a closed door with a small sign on it that said 'Manager'.
    Inside the manager's office I could hear two people arguing. One was saying, “I told you he was trouble. Now we've got to deal with it.”
    The other voice said, “We don't know for sure. We haven't heard his side of the story.”
    Then, “I don't want to talk about it. Get out, go do your job.”
    The door opened, and a short red faced man hurried out. He looked at me quizzically, shook his head and walked away.
    From inside the office, a man's voice asked, “Who are you and what do you want?”
    Stepping into the room, I introduced myself. “John Walker. Here to talk about security video from last night.”
    The man in the room looked to be in his mid fifties, maybe six feet tall, with thin graying hair. “You a cop?”
    “ No, I'm not. I'm checking on something that happened here last night. A girl was drugged. I'm trying to find out who did it.”
    “ Roofies?”
    “ Yeah. How'd you know?”
    “ Sheriff's detectives came in this morning. Said a woman filed a complaint. Said someone drugged her drink. That the girl you asking about?”
    “ No. The girl I'm working with didn't go to the police. She wants me to find out who did it. Thought maybe you'd have videos.”
    The man shook his head. “You're too late. The detective that came in this morning had a warrant. He took all the videos from last night.
    “Even if I still had the videos, there's no way I could let you see them. My lawyers would be all over me. Invasion of privacy or something like that.”
    The man picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. “You say she was drugged in here last night?”
    “Yes, sometime around midnight. She was drinking ginger ale. She left her table to make a call. When she came back, she took a few sips and became ill.
    “ Someone put roofies in her drink. I'm here to find out who.”
    The man behind the desk shook his head, then said, “We need to talk. Close the door. Have a seat.”
    I closed the door and sat in the chair in front of his desk.
    “ Mr. Walker, what I tell you next is off the record. If you tell anyone I told you this, I'll deny it. Is that understood?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Good. Because I don't want you to do something stupid. I don't want you to get caught up in something that's already been taken care of.
    “ Last night, someone in our club made a mistake. A big one. One of our bouncers saw it happen.
    “ This guy came in late, alone. Acting strange. Not drunk, but like he might be up to something.
    “ Our bouncers are trained to look for weirdos, and this guy fit the profile. So we were watching him as he stood off to the side.”
    “ Four ladies left their table to go to the bathroom and this guy walks over and waves his hand over their drinks. Then walks away.
    “ The ladies didn't come back, and one of our runners cleared the glasses from the table.
    “ Our bouncer didn't take any action, but he continued to watch the guy. And sure enough, as soon as another woman left her table, the guy did it again. He squirted something into the woman's drink.
    “ Our guy saw it happen, grabbed the guy and escorted him back here where I detained him.
    “ Our guy then went back up front and had a runner clear the drinks from the table. But in all the commotion, he may have missed your friend's drink.
    “ We sincerely regret this. I've got daughters and if something like this happened to them, I'd be down here with a gun and somebody would get shot. So I can understand if you're upset.
    “ But the guy who did this isn't going to get away with it. After we detained him, we called the sheriff and they sent someone down here.
    “ When the detective interviewed the guy, he denied putting anything in anyone's drinks. But when they searched him they found three vials of roofies.