Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (41 page)

They went outside onto the rickety back porch.

“Are you sure he said the Mob?”

“Yeah, the Mafia. Godfather stuff. At first I didn’t believe him. I thought he was kind of a piss-ant. Always boasting and putting on the dog. Hardly get to know anyone who stays here, but he just made it his business to tell everyone
everything
about himself. Jabber jabber jabber. No wonder the Mafia wanted to shut him up.” She took a drag and blew the smoke out. Stabbed her cigarette in Laura’s direction. “Thing is, I could tell when he was lying and when he was telling the truth—I come from a whole line of soothsayers. Most of what he said was bullshit but I bet you dollars to doughnuts this was genuine.”

She told Laura Sean Perrin had “been dipping his doughnut in the wrong cup.”

“You don’t do that with the Mob,” she said. Her voice holding all the conviction of an expert. “The mobster’s name was Santini. Carlo Santini. That’s what he told me, I know he was full of crap most of the time, but this time I think he was telling the truth.”

Carlo Santini was “connected” and had interests in several of the casinos. He also had a drop-dead beautiful girlfriend.

Sean Perrin worked for the casino, “legitimate” work as their financial advisor. “He only touched the legitimate side’s what he told me.”

“Let me guess,” Laura said. “He and the girlfriend fell in love.”

“Bingo! Her name was … let me see, began with an “A.” Aurora. That was it. She wanted to get away from this bigwig, Santini, said he beat her up and of course Sean, the knight on the white horse, he gets talked into helping her escape.”

“Escape?”

“He decided to take her to Arizona and they would lay low. He said he lived here when he was a little kid.”

“I thought he had a wife.”

She shrugged. “I guess he did, but he took off with her anyway.”

“And?”

“This is what he told me. He looked me right in my eyes when he said it. I told him, no bullshit, and when he told me it gave me chills. He said, don’t you tell anyone this.”

But of course she was. Telling.

“So they lit out of Vegas,” Laura said, adopting Terry’s vernacular.

“Yup. They hit the road and drove straight to Winslow.”

“Winslow? Winslow, Arizona?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why Winslow?”

He said he wanted to stash her down in Tucson, but since they were already on I-40, she told him she wanted to go to Winslow.”

“Why? That’s out of the way if he was coming down here.” It was a straight shot down I-17 to Phoenix from Flagstaff, and from there another straight shot down to the southern part of the state on I-10.

“She said she used to have people there a long time ago. She knew the place and thought she could hide out easy.”

“Okay.”

“Plus, she always wanted to see the corner.”

“The corner?”

“‘Standin’ on the Corner Park.’ The one the Eagles made famous.” She started singing “Take it Easy.” And she was pretty good, too,

Laura joined in with the next verse.

“Hey, you know it?” Terry said, her eyes wide.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I dunno. I guess you would.”

“He told you they stayed in Winslow?”

“Uh-huh, and that’s where they caught up with them.”

“Who caught up with them?”

“Santini’s people. The enforcers.”

The enforcers. Funny how people loved to throw terms like that around. “What happened then?”

“He said they spent the night. Told me what a fantastic night of lovemaking they had. Of
course
he was great.

“So, the next morning, he got up early. He told me he was an insomniac. So he was up around five in the morning and there was an all-night McDonald's on the main drag, so he walked over and had some breakfast. He took something back to her and … he said he had a bad feeling. He said something made him want to turn around and just run in the other direction.”

The narrative was unfolding like a movie. Anthony would love this.

Perrin was carrying a bag containing an Egg McMuffin in one hand and a styrofoam cup of coffee in the other for the lady.
The Knight Errant
, Laura thought. The motel room was around back of the main drag, facing out onto a parking lot. As he walked past the other rooms, he saw a door was open.

“
His
door,” Terry Delmonte said.

Laura could picture her telling ghost stories to little kids around a campfire.

“And guess what?”

“She was dead?”

“Bingo! The place was all shot up, and Santini’s girlfriend was dead on the bed.”

“What happened then?”

“He took off, because he knew they were after
him
, too. He made a beeline for here. He used to stay here as a kid with his family. But it looks like they found him.”

Leaving the office, Laura ran into Madison Neville, who was just coming in to settle her bill.

Laura asked her if Sean Perrin had told her anything about his job in Vegas.

“Nope. Just that he was a financial advisor and it was dangerous because he worked for a mob figure.”

“Did he mention Winslow, Arizona, to you?”

“Winslow?” She compressed her lips in thought. “Nope.”

“Any stories about his time here in Arizona? Who he knew, where he went?”

“Just the ones I told you. He said some mob guy was after him.

“Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I thought I told you that.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry. I was pretty upset about Sean at the time.” She turned as Barbara Sheehey came in.

“You settling up?” Barbara said, an anxious smile on her broad face. She looked like she was already counting the money.

Laura waited as they completed the transaction.

When she was done, Laura asked Madison if he’d told her anything about a shooting at a motel.

“Motel shooting. I kind of remember him talking about something like that. Tonopah, right?”

“Tonopah?”

“That’s in Nevada, isn’t it?”

“Do you know what happened?” Laura felt like the room had tilted—she was trying to catch up.

Madison shrugged. “He just said he’d come close to being shot to death in Tonopah. His girlfriend was killed, even though he threw his body on top of her to protect her. Kind of a freak thing.”

Seriously?

“He said the police suspected him at first, and they questioned him for hours. He told them it was the mob in Vegas—they were after him.”

“Why would they follow him to Tonopah?”

“He said he knew all their secrets, being their accountant and all. That’s what I think he said happened. He went on the run and they went after him.”

“How long ago was this?”

“I dunno. I got the impression it was a while ago. Maybe a couple of years?” She looked at her watch. “I’ve got to go. I have to drive to the airport in Tucson, and my flight leaves at twelve-thirty.”

Laura watched her drive out, thinking: Did this guy ever tell the truth?

It seemed like Sean liked to recycle his stories with a new twist. Certain themes recurred, maybe because they were tried and true. The Mob in Vegas. A motel shooting.

She drove out of the canyon to a spot where she could use her phone.

Anthony answered on the first ring. “Where are you?” she asked.

“Still back at the barn. I just talked to Las Vegas Metro PD.”

“What did they say?”

“They went into his apartment and saw nothing overtly amiss. Although the place was a little stale. Moldy bread, some leftover takeout going bad in the refrigerator.”

“Did he have a computer?”

“Yeah. They’re taking it to Forensics. There’s a backlog, so we’re gonna have to wait a while—not exactly a priority, was how I read it. Oh. They talked to the neighbor, too. He told them Perrin was a dealer at one of the casinos on the Strip.”

“I thought he was a financial advisor.”

“Yeah, well.”

“What else?”

“Just his car registration. 2006 red Dodge Viper, bought used in 2010.”

“Red, huh? How about his wife and children?”

“The neighbor said he lived alone. Apparently they were estranged.”

“Did the neighbor describe her? The wife?”

“He said he never met her.”

Wait for it …

Anthony said, “He said she was beautiful from her photo.”

Anthony told her the Vegas police were running down the bright red Dodge Viper and so was he. “If he rented the Mercedes in Flagstaff, you’d think it would be there.”

“Or Winslow.”

“
Winslow? Arizona?
”

“Yeah. He told the housekeeper here that he stayed at a motel in Winslow.” She filled him in—the woman, the crime boss, the McDonald's breakfast. “Sorry, I don’t have a name for the motel.”

“You really think …?”

“I don’t know. But at least we have a car to look for. And a couple of places to look for it.”

“My guess is Flag. He didn’t rent the Mercedes in Winslow—he rented it in Flagstaff.”

Anthony sent her the location of the Enterprise to her phone. Perrin had rented the Mercedes at an Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Route 66 in Flagstaff. Anthony had already spoken to the agent who rented the car. “He used the Visa we have on record from his wallet.”

“Did he drive up in the Viper?”

“I asked that. There’s no Viper in the lot. The lot is there for people to leave their personal cars, but they don’t recommend it. I put out an Attempt to Locate on the Viper in the Flagstaff area.”

“Good.”

Just after disconnecting, her phone chimed. The screen read CODY SHEEHEY. He asked her if he could talk to her. Laura said, “I’m just down the road. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Cody was waiting for her by the post and rail fence near the entrance to the parking lot.

Today he wore a Phoenix Suns shirt. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his shorts and he looked uncomfortable—almost as if he regretted calling her.

“What’s up?” Laura asked.

He kept his head down. “I just wanted to know what was going on.”

Laura said, “Not a whole heckuva lot. We’re trying to figure out where he was before he came here. Do you know?”

He didn’t look at her.

“Cody?”

“There’s something I forgot to tell you. Sean said somebody was after him—some big cheese with the mafia. I didn’t hurt the investigation, by not telling, did I? He told me it was our secret.”

“No, but I’m glad you told me now. Did he give you a name?”

“He called him Alfonse. Alfonse Tattaglia. Head of the Tattaglia crime family.”

“Did Sean work for him?”

“He was supposed to cook the books, but he didn’t. The guy—Alfonse—threatened him, told him he had to make the numbers add up.”

“And?”

“He refused to. He told Alfonse to get another guy.”

“I’ll bet Alfonse didn’t like that.”

“Nope. But that wasn’t all. Alfonse’s daughter—she was really hot, he said—asked him to help her because Alfonse wanted her to marry his capo, a real mean guy and a stone-cold killer. She was in love with someone else. Her father threatened to kill her because she’d already promised to marry this guy—he said it was all about
respect
.”

“Did you believe that story?”

“Kind of. It sounded a little hokey. But it
could
happen.”

Laura thought he wanted it to be true. She could tell he thought of Sean as a hero.

And truth be told, the man had been shot by a capable killer.

His death looked like a hit. “So what happened then?”

“They took off. Sean and the girl. He thought he could stash her in Arizona where she’d be safe. I guess he meant here. Nobody would think to look for somebody in Madera Canyon. He told me taking off was the only thing he could think of.”

“Did he tell you what happened with the daughter?”

“He said she was killed.”

“Where was this?”

“Some town in Arizona. I forget—began with a ‘W.’”

Laura listed “W” names, even though she had a feeling she knew the answer already. “Willcox? Wickiup? Winslow? Wickenburg? Williams —”

“That’s it. Winslow. The Eagles wrote a song about it.”

“You like the Eagles?”

“They’re old school.”