“No one’s going out on stage until one of y’all cleans up the mess,” Roy snapped.

Oh, no. “What happened?” I asked.

Clutching her clothes against her chest, Neely Kate grabbed my arm and pulled me to the back door. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Think about my proposition, Daisy!” Sparkle yelled after us as I stumbled over a pile of clothes. “We can still use you!”

Neely Kate pushed the door open, dropped my arm and took off running to the truck in her bra and underwear.

“Neely Kate! Slow down!” I shouted, running after her.

“Trust me. We don’t want to slow down.” She didn’t stop until she’d opened the passenger door to the truck.

The back door flew open, and Roy stood in the entrance, shouting.

Neely Kate locked her seat belt. “Rose! Go!”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. I jerked the truck into reverse and sent gravel flying as I backed out into the parking lot. A bit of it hit Roy in the head, and he fell to the pavement like a ton of bricks.

“Oh, no!” I shouted, trying to see if he was getting up in the side mirror. “Did I kill him?”

“Don’t worry. If you did, it was self-defense,” she said, pulling her shirt over her head.

“What happened?” I cast a glance toward her. “I have a pretty good idea, but some perverted part of me wants to hear the details.”

“Well . . . I strutted out there like nobody’s business, shaking my butt and grabbing the pole and all. Just like Dolly Parton showed me. Then I saw Mr. Turner, my second grade Sunday School teacher, sitting in a chair with some girl’s hoochie in his face. But I figured it was none of my never mind, you know? My job was to spin on that pole. So I hooked my leg around and started spinning, and then I climbed up and hung upside down. Dolly had showed me a couple of spins like that, although for the life of me, I have no idea why guys think a girl in a bikini hanging from a pole is sexy.”

I could see her point. “So why did Roy get so upset?”

“All that spinning was making me dizzy and my stomach a tad bit upset. So I got off the pole and started just dancing, hoping things would settle down. But I caught Mr. Turner’s eye, and he pushed the hoochie girl away and walked to the edge of the stage. Then he proceeded to stick a one-dollar bill under the edge of my panties.” She turned to look at me. “A one-dollar bill. Can you believe it?”

I shook my head. “No. You’re worth at least five.”

“I know, right?” she asked, indignant, then gave a tiny shake of her head. “Anyway, that just ticked me off. He was leering at me, saying ‘take it off,’ and all I could think about was sitting in the cold Sunday School classroom with Mr. Turner making us memorize Bible verses. Well, something just riled up inside me, and I gave Mr. Turner a tongue lashing, asking him if Mrs. Turner knew he had someone else’s hoochie in his face. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I said he was cheating his former Sunday School student with his cheap ass ways.”

“You didn’t!”

“He just stood there, his eyes buggin’ out of his head, looking like I’d just shot him.” She gave me an ornery grin. “And then I threw up on him.”

My mouth dropped in horror. She’d thrown up on someone again?

She shrugged, her grin spreading. “Needless to say, I don’t think I got the job.”

We broke out into laughter, and when we settled down I told her everything I’d found out, including the way the office felt really familiar.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, excited. “Maybe you were there in a previous life.” She lifted her eyebrows as she leaned close. “I’ve been studying up on those. Most people suppress all the memories of their previous lives, but maybe one of yours is popping through.”

“That might be true except that place couldn’t have been built more than twenty years ago, and I just turned twenty-five last month. It was built when I was a kid.”

“Hmm . . .” She tapped her chin. “I guess you have a point. Do you think your momma or daddy ever took you there?”

“To a strip joint?”

She waved her hand. “It wasn’t always a strip joint. It used to be a Chick-a-Dilly.”

I shook my head. “I’m sure I’ve never been there. It must remind me of something else.”

“Don’t worry. You got lots of other information we can use,” she said. “I think we need to go to Sugar Branch and try to find Nikko. It can’t be too hard to find him there. Sugar Branch is a two-stoplight town, and Nikko’s not a common name. Unless it was a stage name.”

“It’s worth a try,” I said. “Although I’m not sure what we’re gonna find out. Mud sent men to find him, and they came back empty-handed, although it’s mighty suspicious that Mud sent men after him at all. My old boss never came looking for me when I didn’t show up for work, and she actually planned to kill me.”

Neely Kate lifted her rump and pulled her pants up. “But Billy Jack said Nikko picked her up from the trailer a few days ago. That would make it around Sunday night. If that’s true, why didn’t they go to work on Saturday?”

I shook my head. “Maybe it was a generic ‘couple of days’ and he really meant Friday. Even so, Sparkle said Dolly Parton was definitely at the club on Friday night. If Nikko picked her up on Friday rather than on Saturday, maybe he was just giving her a ride to work?”