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“The defense now calls Charlotte Grey to the stand.” A tall slender woman with brown hair cut short and pulled into a ponytail in a pencil skirt and suit jacket called to the judge. The crowd of people in black suits looked at a very proud woman with her nose in the air. “Ms. Grey, please come to the stand.” The woman motioned to Ms. Grey.

                Ms. Grey eyed the slender woman disapprovingly, “It’s Big Mama,” she said getting out of her seat next to her sweating lawyer. She took the witness stand and positioned herself away from the slender woman and to the jury. She would meet no one’s eye and stared at the wall above their heads.

                “Ms. Gre-,” the slender woman began.

                “It’s Big Mama.” she said calmly.

                The slender woman jaw dropped, “Ms. Grey, I know you are accustomed to other kinds of lifestyles but in here we try to keep a higher rank in profess-,”

                “It is Big Mama!” Big Mama moved her head to meet the woman’s eyes.

                “Big….Mama..,” the slender woman coughed out the words, “Were you there the night of Cara Rogers murder?”

                “You mean Margarita?”

                “Yes…Margarita.”

                “Yes ma’am, I was.”

                “And Mr. James Matthews’ murder?”

                “Big Daddy? Yes ma’am I was there too.”

                “And Aranel Carter’s murder?”

                “No ma’am, I was not there for Serenity’s murder. She was not murdered. “

                “Her body was found in the Naked Truth with four bullets in her chest. Care to elaborate?” The slender woman’s question made Big Mama get really quiet. She looked at her sourly and scanned her memories for the right words that would get her out of this whole mess. She didn’t need to get out of it entirely just out of any blame for murder.

҉ ҉ ҉ ҉

            The Naked Truth; It was the place people went to have the times of their lives. Once you entered those front doors, regardless of who you were before, you were then simply a man or woman. The events that occurred in that building were simply that, events. No one was held accountable for their actions in there unless it was an employee.

 The building was an old hotel that had shut down many years ago. It was three stories high with an underground basement. When Charlotte Grey came across the boarded up windows she still went by that name. She signed the lease with that name and put that name on the basement door. She reopened the hotel for the public community and families but then the one after the other the men with cruel intentions booked a room. The local w****s found it a nice place to pick up decent looking business. Charlotte didn’t have the heart to throw them out so she let them stay in the spare rooms that had not been rented out and gave them meals for a quarter of their earnings. The w****s grew an attachment to her and Charlotte’s name got spread throughout the streets and back allies. They gave her the nickname Big Mama and soon she started answering to that name.

Big Mama began to house some of the w****s more permanently for half of their earnings. She claimed them as her w****s and treated them as if they were her children. She closed down and renamed the hotel to the Naked Truth and opened it up a few months later as brand new strip club. It wasn’t popular at first but the sweet Charlotte everyone had once loved had a dark side and it had taken over for what appeared to be forever. She was clever and quick with her tongue. It wasn’t long when the Naked Truth had become one of the most famous strip clubs in the city.

Big Mama had done well and was very successful. Her strippers and w****s were well known. Every night was a full house but who could have thought it would go so wrong so quickly. The Naked Truth was two years old when Cara Rogers entered the joint. She was a pretty thing, awkward but pretty. Big Mama saw lots of potential in her. She was young and looking for some extra cash. She took the waitress job at the strip club as a temporary thing but Big Mama gave her the stage name Dirty Margarita anyways. Everyone referred to her as Margarita. After a couple months she was moved onto the stage under the supervision of the Naked Truths most profitable stripper, Serenity.  The week after she was put up on that stage the money began to roll in as if it was opening for the first time. This caught Big Mama’s eye and she made sure to keep a special eye on Margarita but sometimes even the most dangerous of people can be over looked if one trusts them enough.

Margarita took under Serenity’s wing but the acorn soon becomes the oak and Margarita made her way to the top three most profitable strippers in the joint. She got her own show and her own room next to Serenity and Big Daddy’s room.

“Hey Serenity, look at our little Dirty Margarita making her way to the top!” Big Daddy said with a big smile on his face.

“Yes, she does seem to be climbing the ladder quickly.”

“Ya’know, she’s got a nice body there. Can you imagine how well she would do well if she started whoring.”

Serenity glared at the word. She didn’t like the sound of her doing any better than she was but it wasn’t such a bad idea. The emotional toil she would go through was just the kind of thing that would end the threat of losing her place as the top. She would have to play this just right to secure her status and stay out of Big Mama’s radar.