Cervena by Louise Lyons Page A

into the back seat, the temperature had numbed my feet and made my face tingle. My leg ached and I rubbed it in an effort to relieve the pain.
    The driver took me to Karel’s address, and I spent the journey steeling myself for the confrontation. Karel would usually deny anything he was accused of and try to blame somebody else, but there was no one he could pin this situation on. I wondered whether there was a chance Rosta might have called him to let him know what had happened, but I dismissed the idea. If he had, so be it, but somehow I didn’t think the kid would have thought of doing that.
    I rang Karel’s doorbell, and after a minute or so had passed, I rang again. I doubted he’d be anywhere else on a Sunday morning. He rarely went back to other men’s homes, preferring to bring them to his own. It was late morning, and I imagined him to be in the throes of passion, or sleeping with one of the club’s new employees coiled around him.
    Impatient, I punched the bell a third time and the door opened immediately. Karel was half-dressed in baggy pants and an unfastened shirt, his face stubbly and his hair standing on end as if he’d just hauled himself out of bed.
    “Joel!” His eyes widened, and he took a step backward. “What are you…? Why didn’t you call?”
    “I thought I’d surprise you. Did I interrupt something?”
    “No. I’m alone.” He ran a hand through his hair and licked his lips. His eyes darted about and avoided mine. “When did you get back?”
    “Early this morning.”
    He looked marginally relieved as he stepped aside to let me in. “I suppose you must have, um, gone straight home. Coffee? I was going to make some.”
    “No. And no.”
    Karel’s brow wrinkled and he looked puzzled, as if he were trying to work out what I’d said no to.
    “No, I didn’t go straight home,” I clarified. “I was pretty keen to check out ‘The Full Monty.’”
    “I, uh, I thought it was time we tried something a bit raunchier. You know, the customers love it.”
    “We’ve never made decisions without us both agreeing to it.” I ground my teeth together, trying to stay calm.
    “You weren’t here. I didn’t want to bother you with work stuff when you were with your family. Family comes first, especially at a time like that. All of us were very sorry to hear about your mother.”
    “Thanks. So what made you think it was okay to have Tomáš and whoever else dance naked and let the customers jerk them off? To have them perform more than just lap dances? And threaten them with being fired and losing their homes if they didn’t do it?”
    “I didn’t threaten anybody. Those boys will make up any old shit. They were probably embarrassed when you walked in,” Karel muttered.
    “Tomáš and Sasha don’t lie,” I gritted out.
    “Well, you’ll believe anything that little Russian slut says, I’m sure. You know, he’s not as innocent as he seems. He does the same as any of them, but he’s a troublemaker. I’d have got rid of him if he wasn’t so damn popular.”
    “You’re an asshole, Karel.” I couldn’t contain myself any longer. “What the fuck happened to you? I thought I could trust you, but the minute my back is turned, you’re threatening the boys, hiring minors as whores —”
    “They’re not minors.”
    “Rosta is seventeen. I don’t know about the other two yet. Clearly you didn’t bother to check.” I paused to get back on track after the interruption. “What the hell happened to the security guys? You think it’s okay to run a place like Červenà above capacity with no security? And no one watching the cameras in the private rooms?”
    “We were spending a lot of money we didn’t need to.”
    “ You were spending a lot of money you didn’t need to!” I growled. “I didn’t check anything while I was away, until yesterday. I’ve always thought I could trust you, Karel. Up to now you’ve proved I could. So what went wrong? I got an e-mail from Pavel