In a Twighlight Mirror by Sandra Seamans

Bunny slid the folded twenty into her coat pocket and pulled out a lollypop. She swirled the cherry-flavored Tootsie Roll Pop around in her mouth to get rid of the taste of her last john. Tricks had been good tonight. The weather just warm enough so the pricks didn't mind popping out for a blow job.

Pulling the denim jacket snug against her thin body, Bunny glanced at her watch. "Damn, I'm gonna be late."

She hurried along the cracked sidewalk, letting her mind drift to Robert and the warm hotel room that was waiting for her. Tripping over a break in the sidewalk, she shrugged away the possibilities of a relationship with Robert. This battered neighborhood wasn't the place to let her mind wander, not with a pocket full of cash and a pimp to pay.

Bunny felt safer when the bell jingled as she pushed open the door of Kruger's Drug Store. She slapped her night's take into Lenny's waiting palm, stocked up on condoms and used her five finger discount to purchase a couple rolls of film for her Nikon. All squared away for the night, she was sprinted out the door before Lenny decided she ought to hit the streets again.

Bunny was out of breath when she slipped through the employee's entrance of the Savoy Hotel. Robert was a widower, and kinda shy about being seen with her. The sweet old guy had even blushed when he asked her to book the room. Bunny nearly giggled when he said he didn't want anyone to know that he was dating a much younger woman.

Robert opened the door to her soft knock, smiling when he saw her. A black look crossing his face when he caught sight of the camera dangling around her neck. "Pack that thing away. You know I don't like pictures."

"But you said you loved my pictures."

"I do. I just don't like my picture taken. Did I tell you I found a man who'd like to take a look at your photographs? Maybe even buy a couple." Robert moved over to the table and lit the candles he'd set out, then popped opened a bottle of champagne. "Why don't you come sit down? I've brought us some supper from The Sangria."

"Everything looks so beautiful. You didn't have to go to all this bother."

"It's no bother. You deserve the best."

After dinner, they fucked. Not street fucking, but gentle, like maybe he really cared. Wishful thinking, thought Bunny as they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Bunny opened her eyes to Robert's gentle snoring and a blush of sunrise slanting through the drapes. She stared at the pink glow, wondering how she could feel so alive and lazy at the same time. Not that it mattered. She was just grateful for the unexpected touch of humanity that sex with Robert had given her last night. Bunny knew it wasn't love. Just a splash of hope.

Easing out of bed, she tiptoed across the room to her backpack. Her fingers closed around the familiar body of her camera. She knew Robert would be pissed if he caught her, but she wanted to remember last night.

"There's a present for you on the dresser, Rachael." Bunny jumped at the sound of his voice, dropping the camera on the chair with her discarded clothes.

"Who's Rachael?"

"Did I call you Rachael? I'm sorry. That's ahh...my wife's name, I forget she's gone sometimes."

Bunny tore the wrappings off an expensive bottle of bubble bath, squealing with delight.

"You're forgiven," she said, smothering his face with kisses. "Nobody's bought me anything this nice since my Dad..."

"Does your Dad live around here?"

"No. He died, years ago. Please, I don't want to talk about him."

"Not a problem. Why don't you take a nice long soak in the tub? Maybe I'll join you," he grinned.

Bunny closed her eyes, sliding up to her chin in the fragrant water. For the first time in years she felt a tingle of love as Robert's hands touched her shoulders. Smiled as they slid down her bubble covered chest to caress her breasts. He rubbed her nipples until they stood erect, her heart beating faster as his fingers encircled her neck.

"Just relax, Rachael. It'll be over soon," crooned Robert as he shoved Bunny under the water. "And you'll be clean again."

Bunny barely struggled as the perfumed water filled her lungs, suffocating the life out of her body. She'd remembered, too late, that the streets had no exit ramps, only death in the hands of a stranger.

 * * * *

Detective Rachael Reilly knelt beside the hotel bathtub, taking in the crime scene. The scent of roses tickled her nose. She looked at the tranquil body floating in the tub. Rachael sighed, the hookers were getting younger. Or maybe she was just getting too old for this shit.

"Do we know who she is yet?" she asked her partner.

Jack McCloud nodded his bald head. "Her name's Bunny Beane. At least that's what the drivers license in her backpack says. Girl's all of sixteen and a pro."

"What makes you think she's a pro? Besides the fact that she's dead in a hotel room."

"Not too many sixteen-year-old girls haul around enough rubbers to service a platoon on leave."

"Figure it's the same guy who did the girl over at the Lakeland Hotel?"

"Be my guess. Keep moving. Stick with hookers. Not so much moral outrage when you're playing in the sewer."

"Yeah, but this time he's playing in my sewer," said Rachael. "Grab her keys out of that backpack, we'll go check out her place."

Bunny's home was a room in the rundown Hotel Ritz. Pushing open the door, Rachael faced an entire wall of black and while faces.

"My, God," said Rachael. "She was one hell of a talented amateur."

"That explains the Nikon in her backpack, and probably why her film was gone," said Jack.

"This girl had dreams. Why didn't she fight harder to get away from the bastard? There was no skin under her fingernails, minimal bruising. She just let him shove her under the water."

"Being what she was, maybe she figured it was inevitable."

"Jack, did I ever tell you how I got to be a cop?" asked Rachael.

"No, you're pretty tight-lipped about where you come from."

"That's because I was Bunny thirty years ago. I worked the streets until a cop named Bobby Reynolds took a chance on me. He found me a place to stay, got me back in school. Bobby made me believe I could have a normal life. This girl, she was like me, looking for a way out. Maybe this guy played on her dreams."

"Handing out hope with one hand, killing her with the other?" asked Jack.

"Something like that." Rachael paced in front of the wall of pictures. "You said there was no film in her camera? None in her backpack?"

"Zip."

"This girl would never be without film. Look at these pictures. All hours of the day and night." Rachael was staring at the wall, trying to piece together Bunny's life. Reaching out, she grabbed a picture off the wall, holding the familiar face like a bomb ticking down to zero. "Shit. I gotta go, Jack."

"Go where?"

Rachael slid the picture in her jacket pocket and pulled out a lollypop. She swirled it around, trying to get rid of the bad taste in her mouth. "There's something I've got to take care of. Pull all these pictures off the wall and take them down to the station. Maybe she managed to get a shot of our killer. One he doesn't know about."

* * * *

Bobby Reynolds was holding his service revolver when he answered her knock. "I missed one, didn't I? Fucking whore was always clicking away with that damn camera."

Rachael pulled the photo from her pocket. "You missed the most damning one. She had a shot of you and the hooker who was murdered two weeks ago. Too bad Bunny didn't put the pieces together. She might still be alive."

"Dead. Alive. She was nothing. Just a twenty dollar whore holding down a street corner for some pimp. Same as you when I found you, except you could be had for five dollars a pop."

"What's this really about, Bobby?"

"It's about you putting your cunt out there for all those other men, but when my wife died and I needed a warm body, you turned me down flat."

"You killed those girls because I wouldn't fuck you?"

"Petty much. I fucked them. Then I killed them. And it felt good, like killing you over and over again. Like I shoulda done the first day I met you."

Bobby raised his gun, but Rachael was a shot ahead of him. "You never were fast enough to survive on the streets."

Rachael threw her badge and Bunny's photograph on his body. "You could take the girl off the street, Bobby, but the stinking shit of the gutter never washes away."

© Sandra Seamans 2008 All Rights Reserved