Scottsdale Heat: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 1) (14 page)

“Great. How bad is he?”

“I wore my loose red top today and he hasn’t tried to look down it. Not even once. When that happens, you know he’s distracted.”

“Down to the office? It figures,” I said. “What time is it now?”

“It’s almost nine. Girlfriend, you’re burning daylight!”

Great.

I took a quick shower and got dressed in white tennis shoes, a short yellow skirt, and a cream cotton knit top. The drive over to the office was pleasant, but I wasn’t looking forward to talking with my boss. In court, Lenny is always calm and in control, but that’s because he’s had weeks to prepare. When confronted with the unexpected, Lenny tends to get a little hysterical.

~~~~

I walked into the office and saw Sophie was hunched over her keyboard, furiously typing. She looked like she was trying to keep low and away from any flying shrapnel. From previous experience, I knew she only does this when Lenny is on the warpath.

“Hey Sophie.”

“Hey Laura,” she said quietly without looking up. “That dead guy you found last night has really stirred up the shit around here. The Mayor’s office called twice and Mrs. Sternwood’s called three times. The last time she called, she told Lenny he was a useless asshole.”

“How’d you know she called Lenny a useless asshole? Were you listening in again?”

Sophie stopped typing and then looked around the office to see if anyone was listening. She motioned for me to bend over so she could whisper to me.

“Well, yeah, sorta. She also said if Lenny didn’t have his head pushed so far up his butt, he would have been able to see something like this was likely to happen to her grandson. She even mentioned if Lenny didn’t spend all day playing with himself, he could have protected Alexander better.”

“Muffy can turn a phrase,” I said, my voice lowered to a whisper to match Sophie’s.

“Yeah,” said Sophie, still whispering. “But that’s not the worst of it. After Mrs. Sternwood hung up, Tony DiCenzo called. The actual
Tough Tony,
the mobster.”

“What’d he talk to Lenny about?”

“Are you crazy? I’m not going to take a chance I might overhear something Tough Tony DiCenzo says. What if he found out I knew something? It would be good-bye Sophia and hello shallow grave in the desert.”

“Well, you answered the phone. What did he sound like?”

“He sounded like the devil.”

I looked at Sophie to see if she was kidding, but she had grown pale and her eyes were big.

“How do you know he sounds like the devil? Have you ever heard the devil before?”

“I’m Catholic,” she said in a slightly offended tone. “All Catholics know what the devil sounds like and DiCenzo was it. After I hung up the phone, I even said ten Hail Mary’s.”

“But you’re only Catholic when something bad happens,” I said.

“If you think the devil calling me on the phone isn’t something bad, then I don’t know what is.”

“Did Gina stop by the office yet? I’d like to compare notes with her. It’s weird that Tony DiCenzo keeps popping up for both of us.”

“Sorry, Gina’s come and gone. Lenny scolded her for not finding the missing bag. She got so mad I thought she was going to smack him. I almost wish she would have. He can get so irritating when he’s like this. Well, you’d better go talk to Lenny before the Governor of Arizona or maybe even the President calls him.”

~~~~

I walked into Lenny’s office and found him pacing in front of his window. He had a lit cigarette in one hand, a half full glass of Jim Beam in the other. I looked on his desk and saw there were already half a dozen cigarette butts in the ashtray. He saw me and raised both arms in a gesture of frustration.

“I thought both of these cases were going to be easy money,” he said. “Watch a guy for a few days, find a missing bag. How hard could it be, I asked myself. Really, how hard could it be? Now, on one hand, you’re back to finding dead bodies, but you lose the guy you’re supposed to be watching. Both the Mayor and the millionaire client have become unglued. On the other hand, Gina’s come up with squat on the missing bag and I’ve got the Godfather breathing down my neck. DiCenzo’s telling me he’s all in a rush to get the bag back. He says maybe he should send over a couple of guys to help me out. What’s that supposed to mean? If I say yes, then I’m admitting I’m incompetent. If I say no, and we don’t find the bag, then I’m dead meat.” He stubbed out his cigarette, then ran has fingers through his hair. “Maybe I should move back to New Jersey with my cousin and drive a cab.”

I gave Lenny everything new I had on Alex, which wasn’t much. I then told him all I knew about the dead guy, which was even less.

“I need that Alexander guy found,” Lenny said. He was facing the window, almost mumbling the words to himself. He then started pacing again.

“I might need some help,” I said. If something comes up, do you mind if I borrow Sophie?”

He turned to me and almost shouted: “Borrow whomever you want. Sleep with whomever you need to. Go ahead and shoot somebody else if you think it will help. Just find Alexander Sternwood.
The sooner, the better!
”

~~~~

I went back to my desk and tried to organize my thoughts. My assignment had just gone from watching Alex to finding him. Problem was, I was out of leads. In addition, the mental picture of the dead guy kept swimming in front of my eyes. I needed to talk to somebody who would understand what I was going through.

I called Reno, but he didn’t pick up. I got his voice mail and waited for the beep. “Call me,” was all I said. I figured he would still remember the voice.

OK, so I wanted to talk to Reno about the murder, but I also wanted to see him again. The lunch at Frankie Z’s had sort of been an experiment. After my erotic dreams about Reno, I wanted to see how it felt to be with him again. Turns out he is still as hot as ever and seeing him brought back some wonderful memories. Every time I thought of Reno, I got a warm and fuzzy tingle that made me feel good all over.

I went back into the reception lobby. Sophie was still hunched over her computer, typing away. I walked over to her and touched her shoulder. She jumped and let out a loud squeak.

“Don’t do that!” she said, breathing hard. “You almost made me diarrhea my pants.”

“Sorry. I might need some help on this Alexander thing. If it’s OK with you, Lenny said we could partner up.”

“Hey girlfriend, anything to get out of this office. When do you need me?”

“I don’t know yet, I’m waiting for a phone call from Jack Reno. I’ll need to see him again before I figure out where to go next. Maybe tomorrow or the next day?”

“Reno? You’re seeing Reno again? That
mango
is truly fine. But, after what you did to him last time, I’m surprised he’d let you get within twenty feet of him.”

“What do you mean
what I did to him
? Besides, he doesn’t know we’re dating again. So far, we’ve only seen each other once.”

“Ah huh? And when are you going to tell him he’s back to dating you?”

“I figured I’d let him ease into it. Maybe even have him figure it out for himself. There’ll be less stress on him that way.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Me too.

My cell phone rang. I looked on the caller ID and saw it was Reno. My heart did a little skip and I walked into the back offices before I answered.

“Hey,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I need to talk to you.”

“Can it wait?”

“No.”

“I heard you shot a dead guy last night.”

“Oh, you heard about that?”

“Christ, Laura, the entire department’s heard about that.”

“The dead guy I found in Alexander’s apartment is really bugging me. You find dead bodies all of the time. I thought maybe I could talk to you about it.”

“I don’t find dead bodies all the time. You find more than I do. I think you find more than anyone else in the entire department. You’re like a dead body magnet.”

“OK, maybe, but this one’s different.”

“Look, I can’t meet you now. I start working in about an hour and a half.”

“It won’t take long, really.”

I heard his famous sigh. “OK, I’m working across from the Phoenician today. I can meet you for a few minutes there at the
Oasis
. Do you remember where it is?”

“You mean the cute tropical bar in the middle of the resort’s pools? The one where you felt me up under the table on our third date?”

There was a pause on the phone and I heard a
thump
. I could visualize Reno hitting his palm against his forehead.

“Yup, that’s the one,” he said.

“I’m at the office,” I said. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

~~~~

The Phoenician is one of the most beautiful resorts in Arizona. It sits on the south side of Camelback Mountain, about three miles west of Lenny’s office, and has prime views of both Phoenix and Scottsdale. I drove west on Camelback Road, until I came to the huge fountain and tropical display marking the entrance to the resort.

About seventy-five yards inside the entrance is a security shack. Next to the shack is a small metal fence that acts to narrow the road down to one lane. As I stopped my car, a guard stepped out of the shack. He gave both me, and my car, the once over. I did a little grimace as I saw his eyes linger over the side mirror, still hanging by the cable, and then over the bullet hole in the trunk.

He bent over and politely asked how he could help me. I told him I was just going to the Oasis for drinks. He paused, as if he was having an internal debate. He then directed me to the visitor’s garage. I found a space and locked my car. I walked out and found a path that wound through an immaculate flower garden. The path ended at the gate of the main pool area. With a deep breath, I opened the gate and walked in.

~~~~

The Oasis is a cozy bar and grill siting in the middle of three levels of Arizona-sized swimming pools. To get there you need to walk through a maze of sunbathers, waterfalls, lounge chairs, waiters, palm trees, and then down a narrow path between two of the larger pools.

I managed to make it to the restaurant and remain dry. Reno wasn’t there yet, so I walked to the bar.

My nerves were doing flip-flops and I thought maybe a drink would help to calm them down. I glanced over the menu and debated between the eight-dollar, the twelve-dollar, and the twenty-dollar Scotch. I thought about my rent and settled on the eight-dollar version. I found an empty table and sat. As I waited, I took my finger and swirled the ice cube around the glass.

In the restaurant and bar were about thirty people, mainly couples. The women, for the most part, wore shorts and bikini tops or some other sexy summer outfit. Fortunately, most of the women had the toned bodies that come from aerobics classes and having a personal trainer. The Phoenician is one of the few places in the city a woman will sunbathe in full make-up and jewelry. I pity the man who splashes water on one of them as they lay next to the pool.

The men at the bar were generally ten or fifteen years older than whatever woman they were with. They mostly wore khaki shorts, brown shoes, no socks, and unbuttoned short sleeve shirts. Many of them wore as much jewelry as the women.

~~~~

I had positioned myself in a chair facing the hotel. After about five minutes, I saw Reno come out of hotel and down to the pools. As he trotted down the steps leading to the uppermost pool, I could see the muscles ripple underneath his Aloha shirt. I also noticed more than one bikini clad woman follow him with her eyes as he walked through the upper pools and then into the restaurant.

Reno stood at the entrance and scanned the crowd. I waved and he saw me. As Reno made his way through the crowd, I had a brief memory of a clever thing he did to me with his fingers the last time we were here. The thought of that gave me a pleasant smile.

“Well, Laura.” Reno said as he sat. “Fancy meeting you here at the Oasis. Haven’t we been here before?”

I looked at him and saw the sparkle in his eyes. It was the same look Reno had given me so many times just before we climbed into bed. Just seeing that look turned up the tingles that were going all though my body. It also filled me with a feeling of relief that was hard to explain. Somehow I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him, even if he didn’t know it yet.

The waitress came over and Reno ordered a Coke.

“I can’t stay more than fifteen minutes,” he said. “I’m relieving a team working across Camelback Road in a half hour.”

“What happened to your Iceman, Albert Reinhardt?” I asked. Has he made his buy yet?”

“Not that I should be telling you any of this, but no. There is a team on him twenty-four hours a day. So far, all we know is he sunburns easily and shoots scratch golf. Have you heard from Sternwood yet? The detectives want to question him about the murder.”

“Nobody knows where is,” I said. “He disappeared the night before last. Lenny gave me the lead in finding him. I don’t think he had anything to do with the murder. I think it’s more likely whoever did the killing is also after Alex.”

“I get that feeling too. If you hear from him, have him get in touch with homicide right away. There are a lot of people looking for Alex and everybody’s getting rather anxious. Margaret Sternwood has connections and has already been to see the Mayor. There is a lot of pressure to wrap this up quickly.”