Dev Haskell Box Set 8-14 (Dev Haskell - Private Investigator)

by Mike Faricy

  “He should be facing jail time for contempt, not to mention unethical behavior. I can only wish that was the reason for your call. What’s he doing with the ADA?”

  “I went on to explain what I knew, and how Hackett would threaten a six figure lawsuit then offer to settle out of court for substantially less.”

  “Just another version of his unethical behavior. So, if I can cut to the chase here, instead of using the funds to get their business into compliance, Hackett is taking the settlement payment for himself, and neither improving the existing situation nor anything in the future, that about right?”

  “That’s what I suspect, I don’t have any actual proof of that, but…”

  “I normally wouldn’t say this, but with Hackett involved you don’t need any proof. He’s pulled this same routine before. It will take awhile, but everything will eventually come crashing down on him. I’d say if there’s any decency in the world, disbarment can’t be too far down the road. Lord knows it’s way overdo. I’m not sure, but I don’t believe he can file for bankruptcy again, at least not yet. You’re not working for him are you?”

  “No, thankfully.”

  “Cash up front if you are,” he chuckled.

  “Actually, I’m working on a more personal aspect. An individual I know seems to be in a relationship with him. From what I’ve learned, he’s capable of draining all her assets and leaving her with nothing.”

  “Oh, more than capable, but he’ll leave her with something all right. Two things as a matter of fact, a broken heart and one hell of a lot of debt.”

  “That’s my fear.”

  “Nothing against your friend, but there always seems to be someone who falls for him, I could never quite figure that out.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Another round, Jimmy,” I said. We’d entered The Spot a few hours ago for just one. At this point I’d lost count.

  “It always amazes me that guys like this Hackett just keep on going. I tell ya, I forget to dot an ‘i’ or cross a ’t’ and I’m hauled into chambers and filleted. That jerk just seems to keep on scamming,” Louie said, then drained his glass just as Jimmy slid a fresh drink in front of him.

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, both the guys I talked to today gave the impression that he is on borrowed time.”

  “Borrowed time? That’s been the case for at least a couple of years, but he’s still out there scamming away.”

  “I’m going to check into that porn scam he cooked up. The one that was shut down out in LA.”

  “Yeah, 9th Circuit. No kidding. I think now they use the case as one of the examples in the law school ethics class. But, like I said, he’s still out there and apparently it hasn’t slowed him down. What do you plan on telling Heidi?”

  “That’s my problem. I don’t know what to tell her. Just about anything I say will sound like I’m making it up. I know her well enough to say she won’t believe whatever I try to tell her unless I’ve got some really strong back up, and Woofy Barker isn’t exactly the sort of guy I need to convince her.”

  “I’ll be glad to help,” Louie said, then drained half his drink.

  “Yeah, thanks. It’s just that she’s so head over heels I’m afraid she’ll just blow me off or think it’s one last desperate effort to get her in the sack.”

  “Probably some truth to that last part.”

  “Well yeah, of course, but it’s not the main reason…sort of.”

  “Always thinking of others,” Louie smiled. “So, what’s with the new girl, the one with the dog?”

  “Well, she finally responded to my phone messages, sort of.” I went on to tell him the tale.

  “You seeing the common denominator here, no offense. I mean we all like him, but Morton doesn’t seem to be that conducive to your love life, at least where this woman is concerned.”

  “Yeah, she’ll come around, I mean who ties a dog in heat up to a railing and then gets upset because another dog is riding her? I mean what was she…” My cellphone suddenly gave off a wolf whistle tone. Louie and some guy a couple of stools down just stared at me. “Speak of the devil,” I said pulling the cell out of my pocket, “AJ. I think we’ll just let her calm down a little more.” I pushed the button that sent her into my message center.

  “You think that was a good idea?” Louie asked.

  The phone at The Spot rang a moment later, Jimmy answered on the third ring. “The Spot,” he said then listened for a brief moment. “Let me see if he’s here.” There were six of us in the place, and three of us were at the bar.

  “Some poor bastard’s wife wondering where the hell he is,” Louie said and drained his glass. I just shook my head in agreement.

  Jimmy placed his hand over the receiver and said, “Dev, some woman on the phone asking for you.”

  I almost spit my beer out, “What’s she sound like?”

  Jimmy gave a look suggesting I was nuts. “She sounds like a woman, you know, a little higher pitched than you and me. You want the call or not?”

  “Yeah, I better take it.”

  “Dumb shit,” Louie said and pushed his empty glass toward Jimmy.

  “It could be business. Hello?”

  “Dev, it’s AJ. I just tried to call you.”

  “You did? Oh, my phones over in the office. Battery was low so I was recharging it for fifteen minutes before I went home.”

  Jimmy shook his head. Louie just stared off in the distance.

  “Sure,” AJ said not sounding all that impressed. “Look, I wondered if you’d like to meet me tomorrow morning at the dog park. We could run the dogs, maybe have a moment to talk.”

  “Yeah, I’d like that, really like that.”

  “We’d just be talking, Dev and letting the dogs run.”

  “You just tell me where and we’ll be there.”

  “It’s on the bluff overlooking the river, you take Randolph down to Shepard Road then…”

  “I know the place, I run Morton down there all the time,” I lied. I’d been past the place a million times, but never gone in.

  “Would seven-thirty be too early? I’ve got a meeting at nine.”

  “Seven-thirty? No, not a problem, that works for me. We’re up and usually on our walk by then.”

  “Okay, thanks, see you there.”

  “We’ll be there, thanks for calling.”

  “Dinner, tomorrow night, way to go, man,” Louie said and held his hand up to give me a high five.

  “Actually, I’m meeting her tomorrow morning, in the dog park with Morton.”

  “The dog park? Another dating low. This is almost as bad as the time you took that woman to the morgue on the way to lunch. Didn’t she just walk out and tell you never to call her again.”

  “Yeah, sort of. One of the BCA guys was there. Felt so bad he gave her a ride home, then started dating her and they ended up getting married. The best man mentioned me in his toast at the wedding reception. I stood up and took a bow, got a lot of applause.”

  “Incredible,” Jimmy said. “You want another?”

  “No, I better get home. Early morning and I’ve got to remember to set the alarm so we get there on time.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Louie said, then directed his attention to the fresh drink Jimmy slid across the bar.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The alarm on the clock radio went off at six-thirty the following morning. Morton groaned then looked over at me. I climbed out of bed, walked over to the dresser and turned off the alarm. “Come on Morton, let’s go, busy day.”

  He seemed to stretch with his eyes still closed then settled back down to sleep.

  “Morton, come on, we got a date this morning, let’s go,”

  He looked at me like I was nuts, then gradually came off the bed once he realized I wasn’t going to go away. He stood on all fours then stretched and gave a low sort of groan.

  “Good boy, come on, let’s go outside.” I made sure he followed me down to the kitchen, where he stretch
ed again while I held the door open for him. I turned on the coffee then hurried upstairs to shower. I pulled on a pair of reasonably clean jeans, got a not too wrinkled golf shirt out of the closet, filled a travel mug with coffee and we were off. Morton managed to go back to sleep during the drive down to the dog park. We arrived ten minutes before AJ and Lady Godiva.

  “Well, aren’t you two the early birds. Been here long?” AJ asked climbing out of her car. Lady Godiva was off her leash, but walked perfectly alongside AJ. She ignored Morton bouncing back and forth next to her with a tennis ball in his mouth.

  “Here, Morton, fetch the ball,” I said hoping he’d drop the ball and I could toss it down the field. He didn’t. In fact, he completely ignored me and focused his attention on Lady Godiva, obviously remembering their last meeting.

  AJ gave a wave of her hand and Lady Godiva sat, then laid down at her feet and remained oblivious to Morton still jumping back and forth anxious for a playmate. I half-grabbed him by the collar, then pried the tennis ball from his mouth. Now his quandary was did he pay attention to the other dog or the guy with the tennis ball? I wound up like I was going to toss the ball and he took off down the field. He turned after about twenty paces and barked as if to say, “Throw the thing, stupid.”

  “Can you release Lady Godiva to play?”

  “Yeah,” she said, then gave some command I didn’t hear and the dog was up and running out into the field. As she turned I tossed the ball over their heads. Morton took off, but Lady Godiva was just that much faster. She grabbed the ball on the second bounce and took off down the field with Morton in hot pursuit.

  “Wow, she’s pretty fast. Hey, AJ, I’m really sorry about our last get together. I didn’t mean…”

  “Thanks, but it was really my fault. The signs were there; I just wasn’t paying attention. We went to the vet the next day and got everything taken care of just to be sure.”

  “Huh?”

  “Sort of a canine morning after pill.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure, of course.”

  Lady Godiva was now far down the field leading Morton around in a circle.

  “So how have you been?” I asked.

  “I recovered from the other day. In retrospect, it’s kind of funny, although I wasn’t seeing the humor of it at that particular moment.”

  I just nodded and figured it was best not to respond.

  “You still working on that big investigation?”

  “Yeah, although like most things in my business, it’s boring background work. The guy I’m investigating seems to go from one scam to another, offers to settle out of court for about the same amount as folks would have to pay in legal fees. Kind of amazing some nut case hasn’t gone after him.”

  “Or that the bar association hasn’t censured him or something,” she said, then glanced down the field, put two fingers in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle.

  Both dogs seemed to stop in their tracks, then Lady Godiva began to trot in our direction and Morton dutifully followed.

  “Actually, he was censured out in California on some previous scam. Rumor has it the Minnesota bar is looking into his latest activity, but as far as I know they haven’t actually done anything. Hey, I know you mentioned you’ve got a meeting this morning. You free for lunch?”

  “Oh, Dev that’s so sweet. I’d love to, but there’s a good chance my morning meeting may extend into the noon hour and I have to keep my options open, sorry.”

  “Dinner?” I asked, half expecting her to be in church or helping the homeless or something.

  “I can do dinner. How about just the two of us?” she said and smiled.

  “I’d like that. You know where Desmond’s is?”

  “Yeah, that place with the paintings on the walls and the big fireplace? That would be perfect, I haven’t been in there since, forever.”

  “That’s it, see you there at seven-thirty. Just the two of us,” I said and looked at Morton.

  “Thanks for joining me this morning, Dev. I’m sorry if we seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot the last couple of times. I…”

  “Don’t say another word. It’s my fault and thanks for giving me another chance. I missed your company.”

  “Oh, that’s sweet,” she said, leaned in, gave me a little kiss then looked at Lady Godiva still holding the tennis ball and said, “Drop.”

  She dropped the ball immediately whereupon Morton snatched it up and took off down the field. AJ laughed as she and Lady Godiva headed for their car. I spent the next ten minutes calling and whistling for Morton who basically ignored me until he grew tired of running.

  “So how’d it go?” Louie asked. He was in shirt sleeves behind his picnic table desk, pounding away on his laptop.

  “Better than I thought it would. I was half prepared to have her read me the riot act. She could not have been nicer and, in case you’re interested, we have a dinner date tonight, just the two of us,” I said, then watched Morton walk over to his bed and circle a couple of times before he flopped down for a nap.

  “Well, there you go, and here I was thinking she was a smart woman. Actually, that’s great. You find anything else out on your pal, Austin Hackett?”

  “Nothing surprising. He seems to be universally disliked. Yet he still manages to always find someone, or a lot of someones, who buy into his scams.”

  “I may have found someone else you know who could be of help, if you can find her,” Louie said.

  “Who’s that?”

  “Come here, tell me what you think,” he said then spun his laptop around so I could see the image on his screen.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It had been so long I’d forgotten what her real name was. The last time I’d seen her she was dancing in one of Tubby Gustafson’s strip joints, then holding hands with all the girls after closing time while she conducted a prayer session. She was a study in bad decisions and worse luck. She introduced herself on the website as Pepper and wanted you to just sit back and have a good time. Her voice sounded like she’d been screaming at a hockey game the night before. She occasionally seemed to slur her words and it looked like she sort of staggered back and forth a bit. I first knew her by the name Swindle Lawless, after that she’d been Cougar. And now here she was as Pepper, making it in the big time as the online spokeswoman for Austin Hackett’s Bunny Hutch website.

  “I thought that Bunny Hutch site was closed down. I Googled it and I got this message on my screen that said the page was no longer available or couldn’t be found, something like that.”

  “Guy I know gave me some software to sort of sneak in under the tent. The website is still out there, and always will be. It’s just been blocked, at least for the average Joe.”

  “And you spotted Swindle?”

  “Thought you’d find it interesting. I have to say it looks like her lifestyle is starting to take its toll.”

  The starburst pattern tattooed around Swindle’s navel had been enlarged. Two fluttering hummingbirds had been added, one on either thigh with their long beaks extending into a flower tattooed on her lower region. A band of daisies was tattooed around one of her wrists. Her surgically enhanced chest was now pierced and, given the aging from forty plus years of way too much sun on the rest of her body, appeared to be bolted on. She looked like she had four names tattooed on the side of her neck. All appeared to have a line running through them, and were illegible given the angle she was staggering from.

  “What do you think?” Louie asked.

  “I think it’s amazing she’s still alive. I’d like to find her and talk to her about Austin Hackett. Good Lord, first Woofy Barker and now Swindle Lawless. This guy Hackett must be looking under rocks to find these folks.”

  I phoned a guy I knew working on the vice squad and left a message. He called back about a half hour later.

  “Haskell Investigations.”

  “Hi Dev, Lester McKray. You called?”

  In high school we’d called him Lester the Molester, only becau
se it rhymed. He was a straight shooter back then and he still was today, although probably a lot more streetwise now than the majority of folks in town. I knew that during his off hours he gave counseling to runaway kids and had helped a number of them get off the street. One of the unsung heroes on the police force.

  “Lester, thanks for returning my call. I’m looking for someone, she’s come up in a case I’m working, I’m just trying to get background info. I’m not looking to arrest or haul her in or anything like that.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Number of different stage names. She was dancing at one of Tubby Gustafson’s joints under the stage name Cougar. I just saw her…”

  “You’re kidding, Swindle Lawless? What do you want with her?”

  I went on to explain my interest in Austin Hackett. I didn’t mention Heidi’s name.

  “I’ve got her up on my computer now. God, just goes to show you what the lifestyle can do to you.”

  “At one point, she sort of had a transformation, found Jesus or something. I thought she was going to turn over a new leaf.”

  “Yeah,” Lester chuckled. “Then she convinced her minister that you have to sin before you can be saved. She basically shut down some born-again church single-handedly. Dozens of divorces, wife swapping parties, pretty much all due to Swindle.”

  “I’d love to talk to her and see what, if anything, she could tell me about Austin Hackett. Based on everyone else I’ve talked to, she’d have a story. Doesn’t seem to be a lot of folks out there with something good to say about the guy.”

  “I know the name, but don’t know anything about him, which I suppose is a good thing. You got a pen? I can give you her last known address. Her last run-in appears to be a booking for possession earlier this year. Looks like she did a couple of weeks in the workhouse. She’s part of that ten percent of the population we seem to deal with on a weekly basis. Here you go…” Lester proceeded to give me the address, along with the apartment number. We chatted for another minute then he wished me luck and got off the phone.