Chapter 53

The Herc was dead when Lewis ‘the Fag’ White came by that afternoon.
He met Joe Junior by the bar and they went back to the church room, entering through a coated-metal fire door with heavy-duty nine-digit key pad on the lock and a Panasonic security camera mounted above the door.
‘Shining’ Bill was holding court with Perry Paul ‘Cock’ Spalding’s wife Kelsie, and J.P. Nason and a bunch of strippers who danced the circuit of Gypsy-run peelers in Moncton, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto.
Lewis recognized one of the strippers as ‘HIV’ Aimee, a short girl with round features, blotchy red skin and hair in messy blonde dreadlocks.
She was from down home, Newfoundland, like Lewis White, and she used to strip and sell coke at the Hercules, before she had to quit when she became an HIV carrier.
Apparently, she answered phones for the Gypsy-affiliate big three escort agencies in Toronto now. And they took care of her pretty good, judging by her healthy look and what looked to be a real Lewis Vitton handbag.
The Fag wondered what she was doing back in Halifax.
He moved across the room to the roundtable and stood behind an empty chair, unable to hide his impatience. It was forbidden for anyone without a full-patch to sit at the Gypsy church table, without being first invited.
‘Shining’ Bill looked over at him with his Malamute blue eyes.
He grinned, but he said nothing.