Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (19 page)

I
sat down,
then
stared as
officer Trang
walk
ed
back down the hallway in one of the better fitting uniforms I’d seen.
I continued to stare then
said to Manning,
“I’d tell her anything she wanted to hear.”

“Just a word of caution, she’s
Midwest
regional champ three
years running in her
weight class
for kickboxing
.”

“I’m thinking of the possibilities,
maybe just a light spanking,
” I said.

“You requested
a Latte,” Manning said,
ignoring my comment. He reached
ove
r the stack of files and handed
me a barely lukewarm pa
per cup, the kind
dispensed from a machine.
The contents consisted of a sort of creamy coffee
colored
sludge
with a definite bl
ue oil
scum drifting
across the top.

“What’s this?”

“It passes for a Latte down here, or coffee with extra cream and sugar, depending.”

“Gee thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Manning said.

“You having anything
?”

“You kidding?
I wouldn’t touch that stuff,
” he seemed surprised I even asked.

“
So, you wanted to chat, just the two of us,” I said, setting the Latte or whatever it was on the edge of his desk.

“That’s right.”

“About?”

“Have you had any contact with the Hastings Hustlers since we last chatted?”

“Last chatted? You
’ve
got to be
kidding? Y
ou can’t
possibly
be
referring to
the hours of interrogation where you grilled me and my attorney
in that stuffy, depressing little room
the other day?”

“That might be a little harsh.”

“I don’t think so, look
,
do I have to have him he
r
e
, my attorney?
If I’m going to be charged I want my attorney present.
”

“No, I’ll level with you. Much as I’d like to nail you, I don’t think you did anything, at least
not
in relation to
the Hustlers, those fingers or that
fire bombing.”

“You’re kidding?”
I was genuinely surprised,
shocked might be a better word.

“No, believe me, no one is more disappointed than
me, but I’m pretty sure you do
n’t have an
ything to do with this, other than your usua
l wrong place at the wrong time which s
eems to be a pretty standard routine of yours.
”

“You’re saying you believe me when I tell you I’m not involved.”

“At least as far as I can determine at this point.”

“Well then
,
can I have my refrigerator back?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said and wrote something down on a piece of paper.

We sat
quietly
for a moment
, studying the competition across the desk
from one another
.
I
finally
broke the ice.

“What’s going on here, Manning?”

He seemed to size me
up, aggressively cracking
gum with his front teeth as he did so.

“Fiona Simmons
, Harlotte Davidson,
she
was murdered last night,” he said,
and
then stared at me.

“I think I should
have my attorney present,” I said
,
and felt the color draining from my face.

“You’re not being charged, you’re not even a su
spect. Jesus Christ, w
e’ve had you under surveillance for the past two days,” he said
,
then threw his pen on the desk.

“Under surveillance?”

“Once again you haven’t failed to disappoint.”

“
Oh gee, s
orry. Why would you think I had a
nything to do with this bullshit
? She’s dead? How? What? She’s dead?
But she’s so nice, I mean…
”

“Her roommate
found her earlier this morning.
”

“Earlier?”

“A little after one.”

“What was she doing
, the roommate, Felicity…”

“Felicity Bard, she was out with a few of the other girls listening to music at some club. Nothing wild or crazy. The Simmons woman was in the hotel after the women left for the club. A number of people saw her. At least four women were with Miss Bard the entire evening.”

“She’s involved, Emma Babe,
the
Bard
woman
, she’s involved somehow.”

“And you make your living as an investigator? Did you
happen to
hear anything I just said?”

“Let me guess, after all that’s gone on they didn’t have security outside the door of the room did they?”

“Apparently not.”

“Apparently?
For God’s sake, they got severed fingers being mailed to them across the country, some maniac fire bombed their hotel room.
Why
in
the hell would they
possibly
pull their security at the… It’s because you had me under
surveillance
isn’t it.

“That has nothing to do with it.”

“Jesus C
hrist you told them, didn’t you.
You said I was under surveillance so they figured it was all over, they were safe. Right?”

“I didn’t tell them.”

“No? Well someone did and
they
figured they
didn’t have to worry because the prime suspect, namely me, was essentially under lockdown at home. Right?”

Manning didn’t say anything
,
but his ears looked red and the top
of h
is head was quickly growing
a
hotter pink.

“How do you know I didn’t sneak out a
back
window?”

Manning glanced down at the open file in front of him.

“Let’s see you made a phone call a little after nine. You were online from abo
ut nine-thirty until
one
-fifteen
in the morning. A n
umber of different
porn and
escort sites. W
ha
t? Did the
word finally get out
about you and
now you have to pay for it?
”
he laughed at his little joke.

“You’re paying for it
, too,
Manning, you just don’t know it yet.”

“Drunken Mommies, Girls Gone Wild, Back Page, Date Night…”

“Okay, okay, I was just looking, which isn’t a crime, at least as far as I know.”

“Much as I’d like to tie you into this
,
unless you flew
up your chimney,
over to that hotel on a broomstick and then back
,
it doesn’t work
for me
.”

“How was she killed?”

“Throat slit.”

“That’s up close and personal, someone she knew, maybe.”

“Gee thanks, Sherlock.”

“Signs of a struggle?”

“How ‘bout we handle the investigation end of things for right now. I need your help in that area, you’ll be the first to know. Okay?”

“So what do you want from me?
”

The color seemed to drain from Manning’s face. He actually looked pained, swallowed, and in almost a whisper he said,
“I could probably use your help, maybe.”

A lesser man would have said no. Would have made him crawl, or stood up and walked out. I sat there staring
into the paper cup at the
baby-shit—
brown Latte
,
too shocked, too stunned to do anything. After a long moment I
looked up.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Look, you don’t want to
help and give
this jerk
a chance to
slip away, there’s nothing I can do about that. Not that I’m surprised. I thought you might want to help us out with something that can quickly turn into an ugly international incident here, but if…”

“I’ll help.” I said.

“You want to walk away that’s…”

“I said I’ll hel
p, Manning. Stop beating me over the head and just
t
ell me what you want me to do.”

He studied me for a moment,
his jaw sawed
back and forth on his hapless piece of gum. The blue eyes
were
back to looking like lasers
,
and they
zeroed
in on me.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” he said, sounding a hundred percent genuine. “Here’s what we’re thinking. Someone fingered you,
pardon the pun,
tried to set you up. I’d like to play that card, make it look like you’re our guy. See if that takes us anywhere.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Well hang on, what this means is we may release your
name to the media
.”

“
Okay.
”

“Yeah, we’ll play like we normally would. You’re brought in for questioning, as a suspect…”

“I know how that part works,” I said.

Manning
gave me a genuine smile.

“We’ll send you home then
pick you up tomorrow, make an arrest
we’ll release your name, say you’re being held as a suspect.”

“And?”

“And then we wait and see, we’re looking at someone, we’ll see if they make a move.”

“Make a move?”

“Make a move,” Manning said and didn’t add anything.

“I’m glad to help,
but
I want my attorney in on this and Aaron LaZelle
, too
.”

“LaZelle, your buddy over in vice?”

“Yeah, no offense but if Louie and Aaron give the nod I’m on board. It’s not that I do
n’t trust you, but I really have
to be sure, okay?” I extended my hand over the desk.

“Not a problem, under the circumstances I’d do the same thing,” he said and then shook my hand. “Haskell, for the record, thanks.”

“For the record, Manning,
if anyone can do it you can, so
g
et this bastard
.”

Louie and Aaron gave
their
approval
just before the noon hour
in a conference room down the hall.
Louie drew up the paper work.
Some
guy named
Captain
Elkers
who
Manning and most of the department seemed to report to signed off on it, literall
y.

“Please don’t take this the wrong way gentlemen, but my client, Mister Haskell, has had a bit of a checkered history in some
,
shall we say
,
gray areas and I’d just like to be sure here. Once you sign this, absolving Mister Haskell
of any complacency
we can move ahead.”

“Damn unorthodox
,” Captain Crabby grumbled, but signed then
quickly
left the conference room.

Aaron looked serious
,
but winked at me as he signed.

Manning
signed and
looked relieved.

“Thanks Louie, I owe you dinner,” I said.

“You’ll owe me a lot more than that,” he said. Then looked over at Manning, “What’s the next step?”

“We release Mister Haskell and then we’ll make a very
public arrest
later
tomorrow
, in time
for the six o’clock n
ews.
Your choice,
where,
” Manning
said
,
turning to me, home or the office.