The five metal ropes wrapped around my arms, legs, and body like boa constrictors. Now I knew why they called her Snake Lady. I recognized the restraints as safety devices from the hull of the ship, charged to grab anyone who lost magnetic adherence and fell off, pulling them back to safety. Now, they held me down, leaned against a gently slanting bulkhead.

The lady stood up from the bed and walked elegantly towards me, swinging her hips alluringly. "A flatfoot!" she exclaimed. "Here for business, or pleasure? I suppose this will do either way." At this she pulled a whip off the hook in the wall, gave its handle a little kiss, and began gently caressing it with her free hand.

I was in her power, but I could see she was a professional. I kept my demeanor businesslike, and resolved to pick my words carefully. A murderer wouldn't want to make one more corpse to hide, but wouldn't hesitate if it were the safer option. "Business. I'm here for information, and I'm paying."

At the mention of payment she smiled. "We'll discuss my fees later, handsome. What's your poison?" She licked her lips.

I did my best to look at her face and not her body, or the things she was doing with her hands. It didn't stop my mind from wandering. Her half-lidded eyes were positively seductive. I picked my words as carefully as a could while some blood was still in the head on my shoulders. "I hear you left the gambling den early yesterday. Any shady business happening there?"

Her face changed from seductive to wrathful. But the wrath was not directed towards me. She let out string of curse words. "That cheating scumbag Sliderule sat down and started spinning his three stupid balls. Never again! Him and his partner that stupid cheating hull-scraper! I'll never play another hand with either of those sludge-drinkers. He sat down, I got up and left."

I nodded, doing my best to ignore the metal ropes wrapping my limbs and look casual. "Do anything afterward?" I asked.

Stolen novel; please report.

She smiled. "Oh, I had a good time. An enjoyable, pleasurable evening with a few of my customers, happy I was free to serve." At this she lay back on the bed, putting the hand holding the whip into her lap, propping herself up with another. A classy pose, like a Renaissance nude with more clothes and fewer inhibitions.

I tried to focus on the job. Best I pump her for as much info as I could before I dropped the news. And try to keep my mind off pumping her in other ways. "How do you know the two were cheating?"

She rolled her eyes. "Sliderule's an autist. He gives himself away whenever he stops watching his stupid spinning balls. The moment the hand ended where he lost all his money, he was grinning like a kid in a candy store, like he'd won the lottery. Obviously it was a put up job between them."

"Maybe," I said, "but the hull-scraper died last night, head blown clean off."

She blinked. Her expression changed to one of horror. Maybe she didn't like being cheated, but clearly people she knew dying, cheaters or no, wasn't something she relished. Then she put two and two together.

"You think I bumped him off? Look, I'm not that kind of girl. Here, I'll show you!" At this she grabbed a black book and opened it to the page before its bookmark, holding her hand over the column of names and putting it in front of my face.

It was her book of business. She had indeed been a busy girl yesterday; I noted with amusement that the in and out times of her customers overlapped significantly. The more the merrier, I supposed. From my reading she was with two at the same time during the hull-scraper's time of death.

"That all you needed?" she asked.

It wasn't, quite. After all, she could've written anything she wanted in the book, and her customers would probably slant the truth and give her an alibi if it came down to it. But I wasn't one to make a stink, still immobilized to her bulkhead, tied down by metal ropes.

"You're in the clear. Anything else you can tell me?"

She shook her head. "Time to talk fees. My fee for entertaining is 200 shipscrip, extras more. Anything else you want?" she asked with a coy smile.

I steeled myself to just pay and go the moment she let me free. She took my hesitation for weakness. Which, I guess, it was.

She began stroking my chest with her fingers. "You're just my type, you know. Strong. Masculine. Fearless."

TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT