Dead Man's Hand (21 page)

Chapter 2
0

On the bed of his expensive hotel room, he
sat
cross-legged,
naked except for a pair of latex gloves
. He
star
ed
at the wall and await
ed
instructions. He had dropped the room temperature
,
which was now as cold as a meat freezer. Just the way that he liked it. It kept him alert.

The man didn
’
t sleep much
. Sleep was for the weak. Every time he closed his eyes he opened himself to a seri
es of vivid flashbacks—
POW camps
and torture
.

He had only been in Vegas for a little over an hour and already he coul
dn
’
t wait to leave. He just didn
’
t like the town
.

He
heard
footsteps in the hallway
and then
a knock on the door
.
Someone slid
a manila envelope
under it.
From the
sounds of the
footstep
s
leaving he could tell it was a man.

The name Mr. Scott
was
printed on the outside of the envelope.

He split open the
compact folder
and removed its
contents. He picked up a black and white
p
hotograph
and an excited chill climbed his naked skin.

He
thr
ew the information on the bed when
the phon
e rang.

“
Yeah.
”

“
Did you get the package?
”

“
Yeah.
”

“
Stay in touch.
”

He hung up without saying goodbye. He would be checking out and on his way soon enough.

It
was late by the time Calvin
returned from Pitt
’
s office, picked up Rachel
and
crossed the city to their hideout. Rachel, ex
hausted
, excused herself and went to be
d. When she left, Calvin went to
his compute
r room
to update his database.

He hacked into the LVMPD and learned that Detective
Dale Dayton
had been assigned twelve officers. With Dayton and his partner, there were now fourteen detectives on Calvin
’
s trail.

He had to be
the prime suspect.

His
search on Dayton told him that
the
detective was thorough and methodical,
with a high success rate
. If Calvin could find nothing on his own about
the real killer, maybe
Dayton could.

There was nothing yet on Pitt or the woman in his office.
The
murders
happened too late to report.

But his DNA was on the scene.
That was certain.

He needed to update and expand his database about the victims and possible suspects.

It was almost
three
whe
n Calvin
shut down his computer.

Chapter 2
1

Dal
e got to the office after eight
. H
e hadn
’
t slept much the last three
nights.
For almost
twenty-four
hours now the new homicide investigation had consumed his life.
His mind felt sluggish, but he had a team of thirteen people to run.

As he walked to his desk
on
Thursday morning
, he
went over in his mind what he thought to be true: Pitt had
something or knew something
. He might have known who was behind the Grant killing or
had
been involved
and
his murder had been a cover
-
up. Either way, Dale
blew
it
. He
hadn
’
t gotten
the information out of the bookie
.

He found his team huddled around Jimmy
, probably
te
ll
ing a tall tale.
The
y
quieted down when they saw Dale. Had they been talking about him?

“
Craig, fill this up.
”
Dale held his mug out to his youngest and most inexperience
d officer. Dale
smirked
when he saw the cup. The mug,
which
read
“
#1D
ad
”
,
had been
a gift from his
wife after Sammie birth
.

The kid moved on command
, bringing back the mug fille
d to the brim with steaming
coffee.

“
All right, f
olks,
”
Dale started
.
“
What did we find out? Parker?
”

The
young
officer stepped forward.
“
Pete and I interviewed Grant
’
s first wife and his son and daughter. They were all cooperative. Grant and the ex were having no problems and Grant had been making all his payments on time. She said she still can
’
t believe what
’
s happened.
”

Officer Duncan took over.
“
We took your advice and paid particular attention to the son. We hit the whole family with the description of the will right away. Shawn, Melanie
and
the
former
Mrs. Grant all
said they
knew about the terms of the will
.
Grant had told them about the changes he made after his second mar
riage.
”

“
By all reports, Shawn and his sister, Melani
e, loved their father very much,
”
Parker added.

“
Shawn, of course, has been running
t
he Greek with his father for
fifteen
years
,
”
Duncan said,
“
and
told us
he was in no hurry to have his father retire and turn full operational control over to him. The mother sai
d
Shawn had taken the divorce
hard
er than the girl
,
but
he had
always
love
d
his father. He didn
’
t like or trust Linda then
and
doesn
’
t now. He even thinks she
’
s capable of having been involved in his father
’
s killing.
”

Dale
’
s brow rose, but he said nothing.

“
Shawn
despises Sanders
,
as his father did
,
”
Duncan said,
“
and
started hating him more when
he
kept pressuring his father to s
ell
t
he Greek
.
Shawn said he could see how much that was wearing down his dad. He was hesitant at first, but then he mentioned the rumors that most of us have heard that Sanders was having an affair with Linda Grant. Of course
,
he didn
’
t have proof.
He, as well as the women, thinks
Sanders may also have been involved i
n his father
’
s murder
.
”

As Dale listened
, he
realized
Shawn
probably
didn
’
t kn
ow he was a suspect
. He
gained too much from his f
ather
’
s death.

“
Shawn Grant
’
s alibi checked out
?
”

Duncan nodded.
“
He was at the casino the night his father was murdered. Melanie is atte
nding med school
at Harvard
and was seen by many people
. All three family members have solid alibis.
”

Dale nodded.
“
But any of them, including Linda, could still have hired a killer.
”
He steepled his fingers.
“
You
’
re next,
Ramirez.
”

The Puerto Rican woman stepped forward.
“
Smith and I talked with Grant
’
s employees
,
who had nothing but good things to say about their boss. All of the employees were sad to hear what had happened. We ran background checks on ea
ch employee. N
ot one casino employee has a criminal r
ecord. The alibis are
being checked
,
but it doesn
’
t
seem
like an inside job.
”
She added an endnote.
“
There was one thing though. The Greek Casino employees knew that Sanders was bidding to purchase Grant
’
s casino. The employees were very happy that Grant wouldn
’
t budge. They didn
’
t want to work for Sanders.
”

He turned back around.
“
Lucas.
”

Derek Lucas sat on the edge of the desk and read his notes with his partner standing behind him.
“
Lawrence
and I
hit every competing casino.
We have no proof, but no one
appeared to be
a perfect slasher. Any of them could have paid a killer, of course, and they do seem to hate one another. But nobody slipped up and said something especially bad about Grant. In fact, everyone respected him even
though no one liked the competition.

Dale addressed his team.
“
Right. So now go back and lo
ok at who they might have hired—local muscle and out-of-town talent.
Check Linda
Grant
too.
”

Dale signaled to Lucas to continue.

“
Have you ever met Ace Sanders?
”
Lucas asked.

Dale knew it wasn
’
t really a question, but a dramatic way to set up what Lucas was going to say next.

“
He
’
s a
piece of work. We weren
’
t able
to interview Sanders himself
. He wasn
’
t in his office at
t
he
Golden Horseshoe
or
t
he Midas
yesterday afternoon. So we walked around the casino
s
and spoke with some of his employees.
They
’
r
e
terrified of him. A few
admitted that at the time of the Grant murder,
they were busy work
ing and couldn
’
t know whether Sanders was really in his office
or not. When we went to
t
he Midas, his other casino, same story
.
He wasn
’
t there
and
no one was talking.
”

Dal
e wasn
’
t surprised
.
Sanders was cautious and smart
.
He
thought Sanders
looked good for this, maybe too good.

“
Harper and Elliot?
”

The team
that
had been staking out Calvin Watters
’
apartment had nothing to report. Watters hadn
’
t returned to his home and Dale suspected that he never would.

Watters
was the only suspect
who had disappeared.
That didn
’
t look good.

“
Why don
’
t you two go home and catch up on some sleep. I
’
ll call you when I have another assignment. Great job, guys.
”

Harper and Elliot nodded
, their eyes droopy
,
and
left the group.

Before continuing to his next team, Dale tu
rned to his partner.
“
Jimmy, find Watters
.
”

Jimmy
went off to work the phones.

Dale went on.
“
Officer Morris?
”

“
We searched and dusted Grant
’
s casino office
and
I
mean we checked everything
. Sorry, Dale, but we found noth
ing.
Everything is locked up in evidence with the stuff from Pitt
’
s office.
”

Dale was about to hand out new assignments when he heard his name being barked out from across the room.

“
Dayton!
”
The sergeant stuck his round bald head out the office door.
“
Get your scrawny ass in here!
”

“
Oh, yeah,
”
Craig spoke up.
“
The s
a
rge wants to see you.
”

Dale saw the sergeant through a cloud of cigarette smoke in his glass-partitioned offic
e. E
ven though smoking in public spaces was banned
, the sergeant didn
’
t look worried about a complaint
. He had just returned to work a week ago from a heart attack
.
H
is red face
,
and by the way that he was pacing about,
told Dale that he was on the road
to another one
. The sergeant had started chain-smoking ag
ain
and was showing no effort to hide it
.

“
Okay, people.
”
Dale
a
cknowledged his group.
“
I know it seems like we have nothing, but we knocked off most of the obvious. Now the real work starts.
Good work with your first assignments.
I
’
ll be back.
”

“
Sure thing
, Terminator
,
”
Ramirez
said
.

Dale walked into his sergeant
’
s office as the boss held the door for him. After he had entered and took a seat, the sergeant slammed the door.

“
Dayton
,
why the hell hasn
’
t Calvin Watters been picked up yet?
”
He spit as he barked out the words.