Last Shot (Dev Haskell - Private Investigator, Book 6) (4 page)

“How is
it you
were here?” Aaron LaZelle asked me again.

He was a lieutenant in h
omicide and a long time pal. We’d known one another since kindergarten, played hockey together, got dumped by some of the same girls. He’d pulled my feet from the fire more than once and I could only hope I’d done the same for him on occasion. We were standing in the parking lot next to the overflowing dumpster outside Desi’s building. It was warm in the sun, and in between the noise from passing buses and trucks, you were able to catch the odd bird chirping.

“Like I said, her employer called me. Said she was worried because Desi hadn’t been at work for a few days. She didn’t get an answer when she called and asked me to
stop by and check on her.”

“You knew her, the deceased?”

“Desi Quinn? Not really. I met with her the other morning for breakfast. She wanted me to look at her case, the circumstances of her conviction. I took a pass. It was out of my area, plus I told her it would cost a hell of a lot and frankly, I didn’t think she had the money.”

“So you told her
‘no’.”

“Yeah. Actually
, I told her she sounded like she was looking for revenge and maybe she should just move on or something like that.”

Aaron nodded and sipped from a Starbucks cup.

“You giving sensible advice, when the hell did that start?”

I ignored his comment.
“There is one thing. She said something like she had a feeling.”

“A feeling?
” Aaron said. “Like what? She was being watched or followed? Someone threatened her?”

“She didn’t elaborate. Just said she had a feeling and then
I told her I wouldn’t help and she walked out, said she had to get to work. Oh, yeah, and she said I was her last shot.”

The
unlocked front door to the building swung open and a gurney with a black rubber body bag strapped to it was rolled out by two medical examiners dressed in navy blue trousers and short sleeved white shirts. One of the guys headed our way and nodded at Aaron when he got closer.

“How’s it going
, LT?” he said, then handed a clip board to Aaron.

“Good
, Doc, any conclusions?” Aaron asked as he scribbled his name across a line at the bottom of the form and handed the clip board back.

“Looks to be a s
mall caliber. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe .22 short or a .25. Whoever it was, they wanted to make sure. One to the side of her head and another beneath her chin. We’ll have a little more definitive information once we autopsy.”

Aaron gave a slight nod.

“Just guessing here, and you can check the pictures your guys took, but the way she was on the bed, it doesn’t seem to be a forced sort of thing. No real abrasions on her wrists or ankles that we saw. No outward indications of a struggle. Like I said, I’ll be able to give you more detail tomorrow after the autopsy work up.”

“Hazard a guess?” Aaron asked.

“Good chance she probably knew whoever it was. Maybe they pulled the gun on her and made her lie down. Small caliber, could have been a novice or it was just small by design, keep the noise down. I don’t know. That’s your job. See you tomorrow I’ll email you on the time. We’re sorta light right now, so unless something awful happens tonight, we’re probably looking at a morning exam.” He gave me a nod then caught up with his partner standing next to the gurney.

They shoved the gurney
onto a track and rolled Desi into the back of the M.E. wagon, slammed the door closed, climbed in and drove off.

The building door flew open again and Detective Norris Manning came out. As he walked toward us
, he puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled, then began to peel off one of his latex gloves. He shook his pink bald head as he approached and kept his eyes focused on Aaron.

“Haskell.” H
e nodded after he came to a stop then snapped a piece of gum between his teeth like he was preparing to bite me. “Other than the body, we’re not coming up with much. They should be finished in there in another hour, hour and a half.”

“You knew the
deceased?” He turned toward me and his eyes seemed to suddenly morph into blue lasers.

“Not really. Like I told
Lieutenant LaZelle, I met her the other day for breakfast to talk about a case, but I really didn’t know her. I was checking on her for her employer.”

“I’ll fill you in,” Aaron said, taking me off the hook. I was already tired of repeati
ng the story and I’d only told it to Aaron.

“She worked at Karla’s K
arwash,” Manning said.

“Yeah, and
she said she’d picked up a weekend gig bartending at Nasty’s,” I added.

“So
between those two places, if we take all the characters she’d meet on any given work day, we’ll have more than enough suspects,” Manning said.

I shrugged and noticed
Manning’s mustache was glistening. It dawned on me it was from the Vicks Vaporub he’d applied under his nose in an attempt to mask the smell of death in Desi’s apartment.

“Like I said
, I’ll fill you in,” Aaron said, then turned to me. “You call Karla with the news?”

I shook my head
‘no’. “Not yet.”

“I think we’re going to head over there in a bit. You want to give her a call
, now would be the time.”

“Y
eah, about Karla…listen, do you guys have any problem with me going over there in person? I don’t like the idea of telling her on the phone. Obviously she was concerned,” I said.

Aaron shook his head and looked at Manning. Manning snapped o
ff the remaining latex glove and gave a slight shake of his head.

“Shouldn’t take more
than a few minutes, but I just think it would be better if I did it this way. I think Karla genuinely wanted to help this woman.”

“Sure, we’ve got some things to tie up here before we go over. Maybe ask her to have employment records available
so we can take a look once we get there.”

I nodded.

“You think of anything else?” he asked Manning.

Manning shook his head
, then looked at me and attacked his piece of gum. “Sorry, Haskell, hopefully we’ll find whoever is responsible and soon.”

I nodded
, but thought they didn’t seem the least bit optimistic.

The drive to Karla’s
Karwash went way too fast. I seemed to be there in just a few minutes. I sat behind the wheel and tried to think long and hard about how I was going to present this, but I couldn’t seem to come up with any good answers. After awhile, I climbed out of the car, took a deep breath and forced myself to go inside.

Kar
la’s office was through a white-enameled door labeled ‘OFFICE’ in blue letters, then up a flight of stairs to the second floor. I stepped into a carpeted reception area complete with a smiling grey-haired receptionist.

“May I help you
, Sir?” She smiled coldly and flashed some overly large teeth.

“Karla
, please.”

“D
o you have an appointment, Sir?” The ‘sir’ was just sort of tacked on there as an afterthought. I guessed in my sandals, shorts and T-shirt she figured me for just another lowlife looking for a job washing cars.

“She asked me to stop by,” I said
, not really paying attention, still concentrating on how I was going to break the news.

“She’s involved
in a meeting just now.” This time she left off the ‘sir’.

“Could
you phone her or send in a note? It’s pretty important.”

“I r
eally can’t leave the desk here. Maybe if I took your name and… sir, sir!”

I w
as halfway down the hall, glancing into offices along the way. There was a fat guy in a golf shirt sitting behind a couple of computer screens in one of the offices. He looked up as I drifted into his doorway.

“
I’m looking for Karla.”

“Think she’s in the conference room, end of the hall.”
He indicated my route with a nod of his head.

“Thanks.
” I nodded back and made my way toward the far end of the hall.

The conference room had floor-to-
ceiling glass panels with beige curtains which were pulled back. Karla was sitting at an elongated conference table, facing me. She was talking to a half dozen people seated around the table. She looked up and spotted me in midsentence. I motioned to her with my hand and she nodded, excused herself and walked out into the hallway.

“Dev?”

“Can we go to your office, Karla?”

“Oh
, dear…it’s not good, is it?”

I sort of shrugged. How do you tell some
one nicely that their friend had been found in bed shot twice in the head?

Whatever the
people still sitting in the conference room had been discussing was put aside and they had all turned to look at us.

“
Is she going to be okay, Dev?”

I started to speak
, but suddenly choked up and all I could do was stand there, shake my head and then I started to cry.

“Oh God
! No, no! Please not her, not Desi!”

“I’m
…I’m sorry, Karla.”

“No, no,” she said quietly and then wrapped her left arm across her chest and covered her face with her right hand. Her shoulders began to shake and she
started to sob.

I didn’t know what to do
, so I took a step forward, wrapped my arms around her and held her. She seemed to melt into me shuddered and sobbed quietly for a short moment, then suddenly pushed away.

“Oh dear
, dear. Poor Desi. God damn it! Here, come on into my office, I need a Kleenex. Jesus Christ!”

I followed her into her office. It was large enough to house her desk, three
chairs in front of the desk, a file cabinet and not much more. The Kleenex box was on the edge of her desk. She pulled out a fist full, handed one to me then blew her nose.

“What the hell happened?” she asked
, stepping behind the desk and settling into her office chair.

I told her what little I knew. I mentioned that Aaro
n and Manning were going to be here shortly and would want to see Desi’s employment records.

“M
urdered? Shot? Twice?” she said a few moments later.

I nodded.

“God damn it. Did you pick up on any of this when you met with her? Did she say she was in any sort of danger? Was she frightened? Did she…”

“No
, Karla, nothing. She wanted me to find something on this Gaston Driscoll guy, but…”

“That bastard!
He ruined that girl’s life and now he’s killed her.”

“Well
, we don’t know…”

“He’s involved, Dev. Believe me.”

“I’m not trying to be difficult, Karla. But if he’s involved Aaron LaZelle and Detective Manning will nail him. They’re good.”

She shook her head. “They won’t be able to touch him.”

“They’re good. I’ve been on both sides with them. Believe me, they don’t miss much.”

Karla just shook her head. “Jesus Christ, murdered.
The poor thing. Oh, Desi…” she said and then just let that drift off.

“They should be here sho
rtly. When you talk to them, let them know your concerns. Any information you can give them can only help.”

Karla just looked at me and shook her head like she didn’t believe me.
“I’m sure they’re good, Dev. But people like Driscoll get to play by a different set of rules than you and I have to follow.” She bit her lower lip and seemed to be thinking.

“They
‘ll get whoever did this, Karla. I’m pretty sure,” I said, but suddenly I didn’t seem to sound too convincing.

Karla shook her head
, then pulled open a desk drawer and said, “No, I want you on this. I want you to nail that bastard Driscoll.”

“Karla, this is way out of my league. I deal in cheating sp
ouses, fake insurance claims or the occasional dog-napping. This is a murder and we don’t even know if Driscoll was involved. Let’s just let the police handle it.”

“You owe it to Desi, and you
’re going to owe it to me,” she said, pulling out a checkbook and beginning to write.

“Karl
a, that’s really kind. But don’t you think it would be better not to mess up the police and their…”

“I haven’t g
ot the time or the inclination. Besides, it’s just become very personal for me. Here,” she said, reaching across her desk to hand me the check.

“Kar
la, come on, five grand? Think for a minute. This is a hell of a lot of money.”

“Then you had better get to work. I’ll expect
an accounting of your expenses. Keep me up to date at least a couple of times a week.”

“Karla?
I really can’t…”

“I don’t want to hear it, Dev. G
et on it and nail this bastard. Now, get your ass out of my office before those cops show up.”