by Bob Moats
“Who’s the girl friend?” he asked.
“Her name is Penny Wickens. She’s a TV talk show host back in Michigan. We met when I was chasing down a couple serial killers.”
“Wow, sounds exciting.” He was weaving now. The drugs were either kicking in more or wearing off.
I looked in his face and said, “You see what you can find out, OK?” He acknowledged me, I hoped it sank in. I signaled to Buck, and we headed out.
When Buck and I got back to the SUV, Buck asked, “Can you trust that jerk wad, Jimmy?”
“Well, he was a good source of info around Vegas when I last lived here. He knows the right, and sometimes the wrong, people. I think he can help. It’s just troubling that he was the only person to know I was going to the Stratosphere, but it could be coincidence. I hope.”
“It was good to see the boobies again.” He gave his famous walrus smile.
“Oh, yeah, that’s something I think we need to keep to ourselves, no need in getting Penny started again,” I said.
Buck laughed and said his lips were sealed, but only if we could go one more time. I agreed, thinking it would be nice to get Penny’s blood stirred up for one more night in bed. We headed back to the center and into the booth where Penny was busy charming visitors. Deacon and Lynn took the chair with Lynn on his lap. Maria was sitting on the floor in a yoga position.
“You know, Detective Carter, that’s not dignified for an officer of the law to be torturing another officer of the law.” I grinned.
She looked at Deacon and said, “Actually he’s torturing me right now. I shouldn’t be sitting on his lap, if you know what I mean.”
I laughed out loud at her innuendo. When Penny was done with her guests, I went to her and said she would have me the rest of the night. She giggled and said she was a bit worn out and would probably go to bed early tonight. I said that sounded like a good idea.
I looked around at our friends snuggling up to each other and said, “I’m sure your station would have a fit if they knew all the debauchery that was going on in their booth.” She agreed and said, not good for her image.
I told the two couples to go wander around the show until time to leave, and I would watch Penny. They liked that idea and wandered off. I stood next to Penny, grabbed her ass quickly, and let go. She looked at me with big eyes and said to behave. I went to sit on the chair and watch her.
Around 9 p.m. the show was winding down, and our gang came back. Deacon and Lynn said they had a fancy dinner waiting for them, said good-bye and left. Maria wasn’t working tonight so she said Buck should take her someplace nice. He mentioned a strip club he knew. Maria looked at him and smiled, then said that wasn’t so bad an idea.
Buck grinned at me. When Penny finished putting away the stuff in her booth, we went out the door, passing Buck and Maria talking in the lobby. Penny and I got halfway across the parking lot when she stopped and said she had forgotten her purse. I asked how could she have done that and said I would go get it. I was just going back in the door when Buck and Maria were coming out. I explained what I was doing, and Buck said he’d go keep an eye out for Penny.
I got to the booth and looked around, finally found her purse under the counter, picked it up and headed back to the door. I had just left the building when I heard a scream that sounded like Penny. I ran towards the sound. Buck and Maria had almost reached Penny when a van pulled up beside her. The side door opened, and someone in a ski mask grabbed her and pulled her into the van. Buck made a mad dash toward the van and got there just as the side door slammed shut. It pulled away, but then had to go down a long line of cars to get to the exit towards the left. Buck ran between the cars and took the shortest way there.
He jumped a couple of cars in the process and got to the other side of the lot, coming up to the driver’s side of the van. He took a leap, grabbed on to the man driving, and yanked his head out the window, banging on him with his fist. The van started to careen towards a guardrail and glanced off it with sparks flying. Buck was trying to keep his feet up off the ground to avoid being crushed while still holding on to the man’s head.
Buck hit the driver a few more times then while running alongside the van, grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. Reaching in, Buck pulled the driver out and onto the ground just as the van came to a halt smashing into a convention sign. I was running as fast as I could and got to the van with my Glock drawn.
It was the first time I had it out since I had been in Vegas. I pulled open the side door and brought my gun up into the interior. The other man, still in his ski mask, was lying on the floor of the van. Penny was sitting with a piece of metal pole in her hand, yelling “Son of a bitch!” at the man. She hit him with it again. I was so relieved to see she was all right. Buck came around the side dragging the driver. A car pulled up, and Deacon and Lynn got out. They said they were smooching in the car and saw the drama unfold. Deacon looked at the purse I still had hold of and said, “Nice purse.” I gave it to Penny. Lynn got her cuffs out and handcuffed the two men together, both on the ground of the parking lot, then she called for assistance.
I yanked the ski masks off them and looked at the faces of the two men. I didn’t know either of them. They were both still unconscious a couple of minutes later when a patrol car came screaming up. The officers took the two men, now coming to, and put them in the patrol car. Penny was shaking badly, and I told Lynn that I thought she needed to go back to the hotel to rest. Lynn said the men would spend the night in jail with kidnap charges pending. They weren’t going anywhere tonight. I thanked Buck profusely for stopping them. He said it was all in the line of duty. Penny gave him a kiss on the cheek.
The patrol car left after a tow truck showed up to take away the van. Deacon and Lynn took off leaving Buck and Maria heading to her car. I realized I still had my gun out and tucked it back in its holster. Penny said she was glad I didn’t shoot myself or her. I said she was pretty wicked with a pipe in her hand. She said when they dumped her in the van, she found it on the floor and swung it at the guy a couple of times before he knew what was happening.
She laughed a bit, then asked, “What’s going on? Why did they grab me? Did I piss someone off?”
“No, but I think I may have pissed someone off, and they came after you because of me. I’ll tell you more about it when we get to the room. I’m not going to let you be alone for a second from now on,” I said harshly.
“Not even to go to the bathroom?” She smiled.
I said, “Nope.”
*
Chapter Thirteen
We drove into the valet parking of the MGM Grand. They took the car, we went in, and I steered Penny to the restaurant off the main lobby. We needed a good meal, our first actual sit down dinner with real silverware and not plastic, since we had been in Vegas. I started to tell her about my adventures that might have led up to the incident at the Stratosphere and in the parking lot that night.
“Well, I’m not a big time private eye, but it sounds to me like your friend Aaron has something to do with this. You told him about me today, and now I’m suddenly involved. We also have to discuss you going back to the strip club without me.” She smiled.
“It wasn’t a visit to the strip club so much as it was a fact finding mission.” I tried to look straight faced.
She snorted. “Yeah, well, I’m sure you didn’t look at any breasts while you were there.”
“No, Buck did all the looking for me. I just saw Aaron and a very large, angry Bengal tiger. I’m now convinced that Aaron has something to do with it, as much as I hate to say. Tomorrow I’m going to have to take Deacon with me to do some further interrogating of Aaron. Deacon’s steel badge has more weight than my aluminum one.” I smiled.
“Do you think Aaron is dangerous?”
“Only to himself. He’s a drug addled burnout who could only whip a chipmunk.” I smiled.
“I don’t know, I’ve seen some pretty vicious chipmunks.” She grinned.
&
nbsp; I was glad she was not letting the fact that she was almost abducted and who knows what else get to her this time. I guess the abduction she took from Waters and Morgan set the bar for any other attempts. We had a very good meal and then went up to our suite. I could tell she was worn out from the day and getting kidnapped, so I let her sit next to me on the couch as I massaged her neck and back. She oh’d and ah’d as I rubbed all the soreness out. I asked if she wanted to take a dip in the whirlpool and got no response. I peeked around to find she had her eyes closed. My poor baby had drifted off. I knew I couldn’t carry her to the bed so I laid her out on the couch and got a blanket to cover her. I sat on the floor next to her and rested my head. I guess I dozed off shortly after.
I felt a shaking and opened my eyes. Penny was partially dressed, looking at me as I lay on the floor. “Are you going to sleep there all day, too?” She smiled and disappeared into the bedroom.
I got up and stretched my body in about ten different directions. The sun was reflecting off the Monte Carlo Hotel again, and I couldn’t believe I slept through the night.
“Lynn called about an hour ago. You didn’t budge when the phone rang so I forced myself up. She wants us to come down to the precinct to sign a compliant for charges of kidnapping on the two bastards.” She was flitting around getting ready as I stumbled to the closet to see what I had to wear today.
“I’m sorry I pooped out on you last night,” I heard her say from the bathroom.
“I was going to molest you in your sleep, but I guess I was tired too,” I replied.
“You mean to say you didn’t make mad passionate love to me last night? I could have sworn you did. Oh, wait that was Eric, my dream lover.” She gave me a toothy smile and went to get her jewelry from the dresser.
“You know, I’m hearing way too much about this Eric. We need to discuss who this Eric is. An old boyfriend? An ex-husband, one of three you’ve had? I’ve never asked about your exes because I don’t really need to know about my predecessors. I hate competing with ghosts.” I was almost dressed now, just sliding into my shoes.
She came to me, gave me a big tonsil-searching kiss, and said, “You have nothing to worry about ghosts. I don’t see dead people, and I’m not a ghost whisperer. You are here now, but just leave Eric alone, and I won’t forbid you to think of Pixie every time you hear ‘Lady’ by Styx.” She smiled that wicked little smile and went off to the bathroom again. I put Eric out of my mind. Thinking of Pixie, I smiled.
We finished getting ready, went down to the quick buffet, and had breakfast. On the road, I asked if Lynn said anything about the two men from last night. She said Lynn would cover all that when we got there. We pulled into Metro and parked, went into the front and ran into the same desk officer from the last two times I was there.
He smiled and said, “You’re getting to be a fixture around here, P.I., but at least this time you brought the pretty half of your team.” He smiled at Penny and called Lynn. We waited a few minutes then Lynn came out and took us back to her office. Deacon was sitting in the corner looking tired. I asked him if he got any sleep. He looked at Lynn and said, not much. They both grinned, and I said I didn’t want to hear it.
Penny and I sat at the desk, and Lynn took out some papers and said she had the statement drawn up from what had happened last night. We just had to sign it. We did, and then I proceeded to tell her about Aaron and my thoughts on his connection to the kidnapping. Lynn asked for more information on Aaron and where he could be found. I told her. She got on the phone and requested a car be sent to pick up Aaron for questioning in a kidnapping and gave the officer his location.
She asked if we wanted to watch as she burned a couple of asses. We all got up, and the four of us went into observation. I told Deacon we had to stop meeting there. He grinned. From the observation room we could see the two low lifes sitting in the room. Lynn opened her folder and read from it.
“The turkey on the left is Frank Borkowitz, convicted drug dealer and gun runner, served two years, paroled three months ago for good behavior. That was just shot to hell. The other is Larry Lawrence, minor drug dealer, out after serving 18 months.
I looked at Lynn and said, “Larry Lawrence? Lawrence Lawrence? His parents were cruel.”
She laughed and said, “They both were part of a drug dealing gang up in North Vegas that was busted up about a year ago. We believe they have been regrouping on the side, but we haven’t found any connection to their drug source. Possibly Nick has become that source through Arizona.”
“The plot thickens,” I said.
“Now the fun begins,” Lynn said and left the room. A minute later she entered the interrogation room followed by a rather large cop. We could hear her through the speakers saying that Larry was being taken to another room and was to wait. The cop took Larry out of the room, and Lynn sat across from Frank.
“Frank, you just get out of jail and you go and do something stupid like kidnapping. Why?”
He sat there, saying nothing. She continued, “We can sit here all day playing games or I can go see if Larry will spill the beans and cut a deal before you. Maybe he’ll even get off with a slap on the wrist if he gives us a few names of the people behind the kidnapping and the drug connection.” She threw in that last to get a rise out of him. It did.
“Hey, I was told we could make a few bucks to grab the TV woman and drop her off in the desert. Nothing about killing her, just losing her for a while. I don’t question cash. Larry and I went to scout out the convention and found the broad, then we waited for her to come out. I should sue that animal for yanking me out of the van. This whole thing had nothing to do with any drug deal as far as I know. Names, I can’t give. I don’t know anyone,” he said, speaking quickly.
“How about Aaron Goldman? Know him?” Lynn asked.
“Aaron? Yeah, I’ve heard of him. Friend of a friend. He’s a weasely kind of guy that I heard has some connection to the new drug operation.”
“New drug operation? What’s that, Frank?”
“The old Sixth Street gang was busted up by you cops, and now they’re getting it back together again. I don’t know the details, just things I’ve heard. The word is, some big name in town is setting them up with a new supplier for their drugs. I’m not getting my throat cut by saying any more.” He sat quietly.
“OK, Frank, that’s the way you want it, I’m going to talk to Larry now.” She got up and headed for the door.
Frank called out, “Talk to Fritz Donner. That’s the only name I can give you, but it didn’t come from me, understand?”
I remembered a Fritz in Wallace’s appointment book. Must be the same, not many Fritzes around.
“I think you know more about this than you let on, Frank. You can save us a lot of time and get a little less jail time for yourself by opening up.” She stood for a minute. Frank said nothing, then he smiled but still said nothing.
Lynn went out and came to us. “Maybe Aaron can fill us in a little more once we have him in here. Follow me to the other observation room.” She led us down the hall to another door and sent us in. It was no different from the other room. We looked through the two-way mirror at Larry-Larry as I was now thinking of him.
Lynn entered, sat across from Larry and smiled at him. “So you’re the brains behind this kidnapping, eh, Larry?”
He looked at her as if wondering what she was talking about. “I ain’t got no brains behind this,” he said.
“OK, you have no brains or you aren’t the brains behind the kidnapping, both the same to me. Frank gave us a good deal of information about what went down last night and its connection to the new sixth street gang.” She was dealing out her cards face down.
Larry looked shaken by her statement. “He’s crazy if he told you anything about that. Fritz would whack him if he did,” he said in a panic.
“Frank told us about Fritz, but wouldn’t tell us where we could find him. Frank wasn’t real cooperative. Maybe if you could fill in the detai
ls, we could go easy on you and the kidnapping charges.”
Larry sat a minute quietly then said, “I don’t want no knife in my heart, lady. Fritz is a stone cold killer, and I don’t want to be one of his victims.” He shivered.
Lynn heard the knife reference and played another card. “Larry, we suspect Fritz may have stabbed a couple of women in the last year. Heard anything about that?”
He looked around nervously and said in a whisper, “I don’t know which women were killed, but I did hear he took care of a couple of problem women getting in the way of his drug dealings. One last year and one recently.”
Lynn smiled when he said that. “Do you come in contact with Fritz at all, Larry? Did he call you about the kidnapping last night?”
“Nah, we got called by one of his sergeants, some guy named Aaron. He arranged the grab. We were supposed to dump her far out in the desert, but nothing about killing her. We ain’t no murderers.”