Read First Class Killing Online

Authors: Lynne Heitman

Tags: #General, #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Suspense, #Thrillers, #Women Sleuths

First Class Killing (41 page)

BOOK: First Class Killing
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Chapter

Chapter15FELIXMELENDEZ, JR., PICKED UP IN THE MIDDLEof the first ring.“Majestic-Airlines-Passenger-Services-this-is-Felix-how-can-I-help-you?”He sounded the same, his voice as bright and sparkling as the morning sun streaming through my window. I wondered if he looked the same, tall and lanky, all joints and hinges, like the kid he still was. I also wondered if Majestic had let him keep his spiky hair with the frosted tips.“Hello, Felix.”After the slightest pause, there came a gusher of excitement that flowed over the phone lines and practically lifted me off my stool, where I sat enjoying breakfast at home and not in some hotel coffee shop on the road.“MissSha nahan? Is that you? Wow. This is so cool to hear from you. How did you find me…I mean…of course, you could find me. How are you? How have you been? I can’t believe it. Are you in Miami?”“I’m in Boston. How is life at the airport? Do you love it?”“Way cool, Miss S. Way,way cool. I love it so much here. The people are so nice to m

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Chapter16IT WAS AMAZINGLY BUSY AT THE SPA FOR Aworkday. I never knew things like this went on while I was working a real job. The two women staffing the reception desk both had the same hairstyle. It looked as if it had been cut with a meat cleaver yet was still strangely trendy.The one who wasn’t on the phone greeted me when I walked in. “May I help you?”“I’m Alex Shanahan.”“Oh, yes. You’re the guest of Miss Velesco. Go right on up the stairs, and Siobhan will help you.” She pointed to a spiral staircase.Siobhan guarded the checkpoint at the top of the stairs. She was slightly older, but no less hip, than her colleagues downstairs. Like all of the spa’s employees, she wore a pink lab coat and a flowery fragrance.“Follow me,” she said, after she’d checked me in. “I’ll show you to the locker room.”She took me to the changing area, where the only thing locker room–like about it was the neat row of lockers. Otherwise, it looked like the master bathroom at Versailles. I stashed my street c

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Chapter17“YOU TOLD HERWHAT? HOW COULD YOU?What were you thinking?”Harvey was beside himself. The numbness in his legs made it hard for him to pace, but he made an exception in this case, pushing himself from one end of his office to the other, even once around the couch. It seemed I was always driving him to new heights of consternation.“It’s a test, Harvey.” I sat in one of the more worn chairs, plucking at a flaw in the upholstery where two mismatched seams had been forced together. It was a weird role reversal for me to be sitting while he was moving. “Angel has to have a reason to trust me. I have to prove that I’m willing to get as dirty as she is. That means I have to go on a date.”“If you go through with this ridiculous plan, you will be alone in a hotel room with a strange man who will be expecting you to have sex with him. Do you not find that the least bit intimidating?” His voice was on the rise, becoming more and more high-pitched.“I’ve handled worse than a horny businessma

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Chapter18“WHAT ISWRONG WITH YOU?” TRISTAN HELDup the paper target so I could see. Except for a crescent-shaped nick on the right side of the upper border of the page, it was completely intact. I had taken fourteen shots at it. “Are you still hung over from the party?”“That party was two days ago.”“You were pretty wasted.”I wasn’t hung over. I was frazzled by the high-speed dash in late-afternoon traffic to get out to the range, and I was distracted by the details of the case. It might have been a mistake to turn down that massage. I could have used an hour of deep-tissue relaxation.“Not my day, Tristan. I’m sorry. I can’t concentrate.”“That excuse will not fly when you take your test. What if that day is a bad day, too? You have to learn to push through it. I’ll help you. Come on.”“Can we take a break, please?” I didn’t leave him much choice. I set the weapon down and went to the picnic table to grab a seat. Eventually, he came and slipped onto the bench across from me.He gave me his s

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Chapter19ON MY WAY BACK INTO THE CITY, ICALLEDinformation on my cell phone and asked for the number of Jamie’s firm in Manhattan. Then I paid the outrageous fee to have them connect me, because I was afraid if I did it myself, I would crash my car.After one ring, a woman with a soft voice and a prim tone answered.“Mr. Shanahan’s office. Can I help you?”Mr. Shanahan. How could that kid who used to leave his coat on the floor be Mr. Shanahan? I wondered if he still did that, if he waltzed into his office, walked out of his cashmere overcoat, and left it lying in a heap where it fell. Did his assistant come in behind him and hang it up for him?“Is he in, please?”“May I say who’s calling?”“I’m his sister.” I saw him through the window, and it stopped me. Jamie sat on a stool at the street-facing counter, bathed in that mellow, hip-and-happening-but-not-adequate-for-reading Starbucks lighting. It was dark out, so he couldn’t see me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had made room for the

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Chapter20FORTUNATELY, THE EQUIPMENT OPERATING ASflight 1807 to Chicago was an older narrow-body, which meant there were only twelve first-class seats. I stood in the galley, watching the face of every man who boarded, wondering which ones went with the four names Harvey had researched so thoroughly for me.It had been a tour de force performance on his part last night as he’d orchestrated data from multiple sources, both legal and illegal, to research the backgrounds of all the men booked on the flight in first class. We worked on the assumption that one of them would be my date, so doing all of them was the safest bet. Nine seats had been booked in advance. After eliminating the women and the other half of a Mr. and Mrs. duo, six men were left. We crossed off two of those on the basis of age. One was eighty-two. The other was in high school. Granted, age in itself didn’t eliminate either one, but it was hard to dig up dirt on a kid too young to have any or a man too old to care if he d

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Chapter21THIS WAS A CHALLENGE. IKEPT REPEATING THATto myself as I rolled down the concourse. The situation was not impossible. If I concentrated hard, I could find the way out. I could recognize the thread of an idea that, if followed to the logical conclusion, would spin itself into a workable plan, and where the hell was my cell phone? Miniaturization run amok. Electronic devices so small you can’t find them in a space the size of a grocery bag.By the time I’d reached the escalator, I had my phone in hand and Harvey’s number ringing.“Hello?”“Harvey, it’s Alex.”“Good. I have what you need. I could have used a few more hours, but I think I have managed to come up with something that will be useful to you.”“Harvey—”“You already know that your chiropractor is thirty-eight years old and divorced, so nothing there. But listen to this. He coaches his thirteen-year-old daughter’s soccer team. This all seems so unseemly to me, but—”“Harvey.”“Yes? What is it?”“Forget the chiropractor.”“I beg y

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Chapter22IWAS OUT OF THE GOOD REVEREND’S HOTELroom in half an hour, which was not soon enough for him. He had readily agreed to vouch for me with the powers that be and insisted on making the required contact right in front of me so I would have no reason to doubt him. I insisted he do it with his pants on.I tried to pry more information out of him, but he was a basket case. He had only the Web site we already knew about. His ID and password were temporary since he was new. My guess was, it had expired after he’d booked. Since this was his first time, that was all he had to offer. Judging by his horrified reaction, it would be his last.Feeling good about the successful operation, I called Harvey on my way back to the crew hotel. He managed to act as excited as Harvey can, only once referring to the dangerous circumstances. He never mentioned our disagreement, but something had shifted in our relationship. I could feel it. He knew he could no longer trust me. I had meant what I said whe

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Chapter23HARVEY STOOD NEXT TO ME, LAYING THEcrime-scene photos of Robin Sevitch on his desk one at a time, pausing after each one for emphasis. It was his subtle way of saying “I told you so.”They were hard to look at. In the wider angles, you could see the position of the body, the way it slumped against the wall of what the police described as a concrete drainage canal. Her left hand was caught behind her back, but the other lay on the concrete at her side, palm up, with fingers curled in. She looked as if she were beckoning for help. Or showing her nails—torn, split, and painted with the brownish tint of her own dried blood.When he got to the close-ups of her face, I reached up and touched the bruises on my throat. Her nose was broken, and she had a gash that looked as if she’d bitten through her lower lip. One eye was pinched shut by the cauliflowered mass around it, but the other gazed out from behind dark and bruised tissue.“Harvey…”“She died of a broken neck.” He continued with

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Chapter24THE STONE STEPS ON THE BANK OF THECharles River were dark and deserted. Jamie wasn’t there yet. I had gotten a good night’s sleep and rolled out of bed with a lot of energy. The fresh air felt good.In the early-morning darkness, all the sounds were magnified. Early-fall leaves drifted across the stone steps, dead and dried, pointed tips brushing the ground like fingernails. Across the river down at the salt-and-pepper bridge, the sound of the red line blasted through deep quiet that seemed to rise up from the river like fog.Stretching would have been a good idea. On a cool morning like this, my perennially tight hamstring had the feel of hardened chewing gum. But I hated stretching, so instead I watched the rowers out on the water. I loved to watch them on the river early in the morning, knifing through the black water in their thin slices of boat. The solo rowers seemed especially peaceful.I glanced up and saw Jamie coming over the footbridge. It wasn’t light enough to see hi

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Chapter25IFELT SILLY STANDING IN THE LOBBY OF MYbuilding in my party clothes, but I wanted to be ready to go when Angel rolled up. She had insisted on picking me up, and for some reason, I didn’t want any chance that she would come up to my apartment. I didn’t want her in my private space.I’d been out that day shopping, looking for something appropriate to wear that I could afford. After several hours of fruitless searching, I gave up and went with expediency and my credit card. I bought a pair of low-rise black leather pants that felt as if they might slip down off my hipbones at any second and leave me mooning whoever was behind me. On top, I had a fuzzy little red boatneck sweater that looked good with a scarf but made me sneeze. The scarf was necessary to cover my still-healing bruises.I was watching the cars go by on the street, trying to pick out Angel’s vehicle, which was why I didn’t notice Irene and Tristan sooner. They were up the steps and practically through the door before

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Chapter26THE WAYHARVEY FLUSHED WAS LIKE NO ONEI’d ever seen. The crimson started at points below each ear, then worked its way like twin flames up the sides of his face and joined at the bridge of his nose. He was in full bloom thirty seconds into Monica’s video. The fact that his monitor was old and the picture wasn’t as sharp as mine might have prevented a stroke.What we were looking at was a man’s penis. Actually, it was a man in naked repose on a bed of garish, fringed pillows, but all I saw was his penis, because it was the biggest one I’d ever seen. Granted, my sample universe was not vast, but this thing was a redwood. It towered majestically above his pubic briar patch, just one more of the mighty muscles this man had on casual display.Harvey reached for his mouse and froze the image. “What are you showing me?”I reached past him and restarted it. “That’s Arthur Margolies, one of the hookers’ clients, and you need to see this.”“I cannot imagine why.”Into the frame crawled Monica

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Chapter27IHAD NEVER BEEN IN THELA SPORTSCLUB,the trendy workout facility that was part of the new Ritz-Carlton development. When I stepped off the elevator, I was confused. The club’s reception area, with its muted colors, marble floors, and hushed ambience, was like the lobby of an expensive hotel. I thought maybe I’d come in at the wrong entrance. But then I looked beyond the front desk and saw the glassed-in weight room in the background. Same as any other weight room—except for the plush midnight-blue carpet.I went to the desk to check in, then through to the locker room. Judging solely on the basis of locker rooms Angel frequented, I would have to say she led a pretty upscale life. I stowed my gear and went out. Angel was nowhere to be found, and I had plenty of nervous energy to burn, so I started without her. I was finishing my last reps on the leg lift when I felt two strong hands land on my shoulders and commence a brisk massage.“Darlin’, you have got some good tone going on t

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Chapter28ANGEL SLAMMED HER CELL PHONE CLOSEDand flung it into her gym bag. Then she picked up the bag and flung it into the corner, nearly knocking the smoothie right out of its tall, soda-shop glass.“What’s the matter?”“I just lost another one,” she snapped.“Another what?”“One of my gals just got her transfer to LA. They’re like cattle thieves, picking them off one by one. Picking me clean is what they’re doing. I should brand their butts.”We had settled in the Sports Club juice bar at a table isolated in one of the corners. It was called a juice bar, and it did serve juice. It also served baked cod with pineapple salsa—not your usual juice bar fare.“That’s where we need to start. What do you call the women who work for you?”“Grubbing, griping, greedy bitches.”I looked at her. She looked right back. She was steaming.“Why don’t we call them your assets?”“Asses?”“Assets. In your business more than most, your people are your assets. When they walk, they take their clients with them, and

BOOK: First Class Killing
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