Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (21 page)

“Why were you stalking the English woman, Fiona Simmons?” another guy asked.

Cameras and news people clustered alongside the squad car as the two offic
ers took their
sweet
time cl
imbing in. We sat
in my driveway for a good couple of minutes so everyone could get their shots of me arrested, handcuffed and bloodied being taken downtown.
Many more camera flashes and I was going to have post traumatic stress.

As we backed out of the driveway the woman with the fuzzy gray microphone was
back on the sidewalk, pushing her microphone
into the face of
the fat woman with the dog. Fatty
raised her hand holding the bag of dog shit and pointed at me as we drove away.

We took a different
,
less direct route
than the one Officer Trang drove
to
the police station
yesterday
. But then
,
this entire experience
had been a world of difference from my encounter with
the beautiful
Officer Trang.

“God, really sorry about that,” the officer in the passenger seat said. He nodded in the direction of my head, I still couldn’t breath
e
through my nose
and I was aware of the blood running over my lips dripping onto my shirt. M
y left cheek bone felt like someone had taken a belt sander to it.

I half coughed and spit a mouthful of blood and mucus into the corner of the car floor in an att
empt to clear my throat. The cop
in the passenger seat turned round and glared at me for a second then half smiled, looking friendly.

“Sometimes those SWAT guys get carried away, you know, things just get out of hand even when it’s a nice
guy like you,” the driver said. He looked
at me in the rear v
iew mirror, grey eyes
lifeless. I preferred
the sparkles in
Officer
Trang’s dark brown eyes
from
yesterday
.

“Yeah, we’ll get you checked out
, make sure everything is okay.
I’m wondering Donny, if we shouldn’t report this, Mister Haskell being abused like this, it’s
just
not right,
”
passenger seat said.

Donny
the driver
nodded his agreement.

Passenger seat turned to face me again, “Any consolation, it probably feels and looks a lot worse than it actually is. You’re young, day or two
, hell
you’ll be good as new.”

“Some folks just don’t get it. It’s like those skating chicks, The Roller Derby chicks, they can say and do anything they please. Wear those outfits leaving nothing
to the imagination. Y
ou and me make a comment, look at ‘em wrong, next thing you know suddenly we’re in trouble. What the hell is that all about?”

There it was, my pals. They were just letting me know they understood why I murdered Harlotte Davidson. Matter of fact, might be a good idea to just get the whole thing off my chest, imagine how good I’d feel once I
confessed and
told them all about it.

I just stared out the window. We were going in the opposi
te direction
from the police station
, heading out
Rice S
treet
to
Maryland
Avenue
, hopefully.
W
ith any luck, we’d cross
over the freeway. The route just about tripled the time it t
ook to get to the station. That left just enough time for me to co
nfide the horrors of my crime to
my two new best friends.

“You gotta wonder about some chick with the name Harlotte Davidson,” passenger seat
leisurely
chatting with Donny and me
, trying a little different tack. “I mean, Harley builds the iconic American bike brand and these English chicks, with no sense, go out and try to ruin the thing or ride on the coat tails of all of Harley’s hard work. What the hell is that about?” He asked looking back at me.

Donny nodded his agreement.

I
continued to
look out the window. The Foundry ba
r was off on the left hand side. W
e were driving over 35E then heading up the
Maryland Avenue
hill
. I picked up a girl at the F
oundry one night
a couple of years ago
, or did she pick me up? I couldn’t recall. Traci, Toni, T
ina, I tried to recall her name
. I
remembered
she’d had a lacy tatt
oo on her lower back running fro
m hip to hip. R
ed roses, with little stars
and a banner
in the center
across a large heart
that read ‘
Pleased
to Meet You
’.

I
just concentrated on trying to remember h
er name and hoped
these two delivered
me into Manning’s protective custody sooner rather than later.

“Not only that,” Donny said, he was turning onto Payne
Avenue
, heading back toward the station, ten minutes, tops
, I guessed
. “What does that do to the sense of morality in the country? Like it isn’t tough enough
teaching kids the lessons of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Passenger seat gave him a look that suggested they’d most likely reached the end of their
probing
routine.

Tally, Teresa, Twyla,
I concentrated, kept trying to come up with her name. She had black hair a little more t
han shoulder length, black hair with white
blonde
streaks. She had
a little diamon
d
pierced
on the left side of her nose. She’d had
a belly button ring
with a large blue stone
. My head was throbbing.

“You follow that Roller Derby much,” Donny asked. It was his last shot, we were pulling up in front of the building, parking almost exactly where the luscious Officer Trang had parked earlier
yesterday
. His voice sounded hopeful
,
but his eyes
reflected the same lifeless gre
y in the rear view mirror.

“Give it a rest, Donny,” passenger seat said. “They’re waiting for you up
in interview room o
ne, asshole.
” Then he groaned as he climbed out and stepped over to open the rear door for me.

Interview room o
ne, at least I’d be in familiar surroundings.

“Tonya,” I said, as he helped me out.

“What
?”

“Tonya, the girl at the Foundry, wit
h the
blonde
streaks in her hair, ‘
Pleased to Meet Y
ou
’
tattooed on her lower back.”

I hadn’t been seated
at the table
in the i
nterview room fo
r more than a couple of minutes
before
the door opened and
Louie came
bouncing
in,
Manning
was
right behind him.

“So, how’d it go public enemy…” Louie’s eyes went wide as he looked at
me
beaten up, bloody and bruised. He
rushed over
to me,
tossing his briefcase on
to
the floor.

“Been better,
”
I gurgled, then coughed
up
some more blood.

“What the…” Louie started to say
.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell happened
?” Manning asked
. H
e
hadn’t moved more than a couple of feet into the room and
sounded genuinely concerned.

Louie
turned on him and exploded.
“This
is
your idea of cooperation? You beat the shit out of the guy. What the hell is wro
ng with you idiots
? T
he deal
i
s off, right now, we’re finished. Tell your people to get ready for a brutality suit, this is…
”

Manning had
already picked up the
wall phone,
and waved
Louie quiet.

“Interview room o
ne, now, we
need medical assistance. Now, goddamn
it! And find Elkers, I want him in
here.” He shook his head as he listened to some sort of
response
,
all the while
saying
“no, no, no,” in a low voice. All of a sudden he
erupted
into the phone.
“
I don’t care who
in the hell
he’s meeting with
,
you t
ell him interview room o
ne, now,
”
he
screamed and
slammed the receiver
back into place. He t
ook a
deep
breath and
turned to face
us.

I attempted to shrug my shoulders and smile
,
but it hurt so much I stopped halfway through.

“Jesus, you attempt to resist arrest?” Manning smiled, but his heart wasn’t in t
he joke and his head
was quickly growing
fro
m scarlet to
purple.

“We are so fucking through with this
agreement to cooperate
and you are going to have one hell of a lawsuit on…”

“Look, I
have no idea what happened, we
were supposed
to
send a squad to
bring you in, some news cameras.
What the hell happened?”

I gave
a half—
hearted shrug and grimaced for added effect.

“
Give me a couple of minutes to find…”

There was a knock on the door and two EMT’s hurried in wheeling a stretcher
with a
black
medical bag sitting on top of it
.
They wore
navy
blue trousers and short sle
eved white shirts with a red f
ire department patch
on the shoulder. They were pulling on surgical
gloves
over
their hands.

M
anning jerk
ed his scarlet head in my direction
. Louie took a step back
as they approached
, patted me on the shoulder
, said, “Hang in there buddy.” The
n
,
motioned Manning to a distant
corne
r
of the interview room
.

The EMT’s started in with a blood pressure cuff and a pen light shinning in my eyes.
With them hovering over me and asking questions
I couldn’t
see or
hear exactly what was said
between Louie and Manning,
but most of
it
seemed to be
unpleasant and
sounded like it was
coming from Louie
. There was just
the occasional word
or grunt
of acquiescence
from Manning.

The EMT’s were
applying creams to my cheek bone
and
then a bandage,
“You’re not going to need stitches, it’s just a little raw.” Once they cleaned up my face they smeared
some sort of
menthol
salve on my lips
that burned and reminded me of a bad curry dish
I’d gotten
sick
on
a while back.

“How many times has that nose been broken?” one of them asked
as he knelt down in front of me
. He was a red headed guy
, average
size, lots of freckles, soft voice.

“More than twice,” I said,
and
then coughed more blood.

“I’m gonna reset
it
, if that’s okay, it will help clear up those
air
passages.
That a
ll right with you?”