Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (24 page)

“Dev Haskell.” I expected
to get a sense of him straightening up when he heard my name.

“Let me see if I can find him,” he said, then dropped the receiver on the desk or maybe the floor. The bang caused me to jump. Things must have been getting back to normal because Manning didn’t pick up for a good five minutes
, I almost dosed off
.

“Detective Manning.”

“Dev Haskell,” I said, th
en waited, a very long moment before
I followed with,” I was doing some checking, on the computer.”

“And?”
Manning
said.
I had the feeling he may have counted to ten before speaking.

“And, I found at least three incidents of damage to vehicles belonging to members of the Hustlers team back in the
UK
. Before they came to the states.”

“
Okay,
”
Manning said, then sounded like he was whispering to someone else.

I waited for a
further
response, but one didn’t seem to be coming.

“Well, I thought it might be of interest. Someone or some group, vandalizing their vehicles before they came over to the
US
, the first incident was almost two months before the
y
arrived here.

“Yeah, that was the spray paint, right?”

“Yeah, and then the windshield about three weeks… Oh, so you’re aware of all this?”

“Yeah,
Sherlock, the last incident,
someone slit her tires, all four of them. Maybe a
bout a week before they came over.”

“Her tires?”

“What?”

“You said her tires, all three of these incidents targeted Fiona’s car.”

“
Yeah,
of course it’s hard to miss
a red Mercedes S400
,
but
y
ou didn’t hear that from me. And why aren’t you busy watching soft porn in your penthouse suite or lurking around the hotel lobby annoying female guests instead of wasting my time with yesterdays news?
Where the hell are you, anyway?
”

“I’m at the hotel.”

“Sounds like you’re riding in the back of a truck, what the hell is that noise?” he asked.

“
I think they’re vacuuming out in the hall,” I said
,
then turned down the Jacuzzi
jets.
“
It w
ould have been nice to know about the vandalism to her car. Three separate incidents?
Think it’s the same guy?
A
n S400
, that’s kind of pricy, don’t you think?
”

“
If you have to ask, you can’t afford
,
things go for about
ninety grand and up
. But
, last time I checked you weren’t a part of this official investigation. Look, Haskell,
don’t take this wrong,
I’m genuinely sorry about the dumb headed, jackass incident yesterday.
Honest, I really am, you
didn’t
, well in fact
,
no one deserves that.
And, I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of it.
Now I appre
ciate your help. T
hat
said
, there is still an official, ongoing investigation into the death of
Fiona Simmons and unless I’m told
differently, you’re not involved.”

“Anything on the DNA results from the fingers?”

“Like I said
,
you’re not involved, Mister Haskel
l. Now
,
I should probably get back to work and see if I
can accomplish something
today and you can spend more of the city’s money in that luxury suite if there’s nothing else.
”

“No, I guess that’s about it, Detective.”

“
Good
,
hey,
appreciate your concern, soon as we have something confirmed, we’ll alert the media.
You can learn about it that way.
Thank you,” he said and hu
n
g up.

I had a vision of Manning standing in his cubicle
once he hung
up
,
head going
scarlet and
screaming
at everyone within earshot.
“
F
rom now on
,
no one i
s to answer my
stupid
phone calls.
”

He did set me straight on one thing. If it was the same guy in the
UK
and over here whoever he was, he hadn’t been targeting the Hustlers. He’d been going after Fiona right from the start.
And the car, a Mercedes S400
?
If
only
I could figure out why
he did this
I had a
better shot at figuring out whom?

Cha
pter Thirty-Eight

Who knew you could
order a laptop from room service?
Thank God for Manning’s advice to spend the city’s money. I felt like a movie star. I had
pushed aside the dishes from my steak dinn
er and was working my way through an ice bucket cramm
ed with chill
ed bottles of Su
mmit Extra Pale. It was a little after
midnight.
The curtains were still pulled back on the windows and o
utside t
he moon reflected off
the
surface of
the
river, an
occasional car’s headlights slowly illuminated the downtown bridges
as it worked it
s way across.
The city appeared to be asleep.

I’d been reading
online
about the Hastings Hustlers beginning with their inception forty three years earlier. Fiona Simmons had been just the latest legend.
Their
fund raising
success seem
ed to revolve around one major
super
star, Fiona had been the most recent
. Did that suggest a jealous boyfriend
or husband? Maybe, although her
husband had been in the
UK
watching their kids
the entire time, pretty tough to tape a finger to a bus door in
Denver
or shove it under the hotel room door in
Chicago
from that distance.

Did she have a boyfriend? Maybe
,
but
from my brief dealings with her
it seemed unlikely.
After all, she hadn’t made a pass at me, just kidding.

The team website posted a roster. I made a note to myself to place some phone calls
to the girls
in the morning. I
shut down my new
computer, clicked
the porn channel
on
with the remote and promptly fell asleep.

“You see the news this morning?” Louie asked
, it was just after ten and a gorgeous sunny day. T
he river sparkled like someone had sprinkled gold glitter up and down
the channel
as far as the eye could see. Small boats raced back and forth passing under the downtown bridges
, no doubt heading to beaches or favorite fishing holes
.

I was wrapped in the
hotel’s
white terrycloth
bath
robe,
just finishing
my
order of
Eggs Benedict
. T
he phone
was
wedged between my ear and shoulder
as I stuffed the last corner of English muffin, ham and hollandaise sauce into my mouth
,
then
scooped up more hollandaise and
licked the fork.

“
T
hey’re having t
hat
big m
e
morial bout for Fiona Simmons
tonight, at the Vetera
n’s Auditorium,” he said.

“Really? I better get off the phone, I’m sure they’
re trying to call me right now
to help with their security concerns.”

“Yeah, well don’t hold your breath.
Besides, as far as they know, you’re under lock and key in the darkest, b
lackest hole in
jail.”

“Oh yeah, that.”

“You are staying put, right? Please tell me you’re not
going out and
doing anything crazy?”

“Me? No I’m
staying
here, I got a massage scheduled for one,
probably a nap after that
, room service, that’s as wild as I plan to get.”

“Nice work if you can get it.”

“Yeah, well I don’t recommend the route I took to get here.”

“Oh this doesn’t even begin to count on what we’re going to get.
I went ahead and subpoenaed the news footage. That old broad, holding the bag of dog shit will play beautifully in the defamation suit.
”

“She’d slit her wrists if she knew she’d done me a favor.”

I hung up with Louie, then called
down to
the front desk.

“Hi, this is Dev Haskell, up in the p
enthouse suite.”

“Yes sir, what may I do fo
r you?” A friendly female voice.

“I wonder if I
can
have you order some tickets for me, just bill it to my room and I
can settle up when I check out?”

“Not a problem,
I’d be happy to help, sir. W
e do add a five percent service charge
,
sir.”

“That’s fine
.”

“W
ere you thinking of anything in particular? If I might suggest the
standard popular items. The
Guthrie Theatre
is presenting an interpretation of Sh
akespeare’s Macbeth. The
Xcel
Center
is hosting
Lionel Ri
chie, not sure on availability there but, we can try.
Norah Jones is at the Ordway
, I think that’s sold out
. The
Twins are playing
Kansas City
tonight…”

She seemed to be reading off a screen and I figured she would be able to go on for a lot longer than I cared to listen.

“Actually, great as all that sounds, I wanted to get a couple of tickets to the Memorial
Roller Derby bout tonight
over
at Veteran’s Auditorium.”

“Oh
, between the Bombshells and
that English team, The Hastings Hustlers. Great choice, it’s a hot ticket, I’m checking now, bear with me while I get that site up on my screen here and see.”

Either she was the consummate professional or I was out of the Roller Derby demographic. I was half surprised I could even order tickets on line.

“Sorry sir, it’s taking a little longer then, oh here we go. Okay
,
ticket availability, let’s see. O
h, looks to be pretty much
sold out, there are a few tickets left, they’re actually in the private boxes. I’ve got four at one-fifty each, they’re on the end, two sets of two for one-seventy-five each, both boxes on the side…”

“Those will do,
two for one-seventy-five
each
.”

“I’ve two location
s
, sir
. O
ne is…”

“You choose
one and that will be fine. Do I
pick those
tickets
up at the front desk
tonight
?”

“Actually, no sir, they’ll be waiting for you at the ticket window at Veteran’s Auditorium. You’ll need to have a photo ID when you pick them up. They’ll be waiting for you under your
name, Devlin Haskell,” she said, then followed up by spelling my last name.

“Great.”

“Anything else I can help you with, sir.”

“No, thanks, you’ve been very helpful.”

I hung
up
and made another call, she answered on the fourth ring.

“Hello.”

“Hi Heidi,
Dev.”

“Oh Dev, what did you do?”

“What?”

“What do you mean
,
what? I watch the news from time to time. I saw your arrest on the news. Look, thanks for the memories
,
but I’m not posting bail this time. I’m
really sorry, but I don’t want to be involved…
”