by Kay Bigelow
“I saw her come out. She paid off her driver and was picked up by her mother.”
“Do you know where she’s headed?”
“Not yet. Peony’s tracking her.”
“Let me pay the bill, and I’ll be out.”
When Leah was settled into the passenger seat, Cots took off.
“Where are we going?” Leah asked.
“We’re going to follow Jardain.”
“No. Take me home. I’m exhausted and need my beauty sleep.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, very.”
Cots made an illegal U-turn and headed back the way they’d come. He had her in front of her building a few minutes later.
“Thanks for the lift, but you really need to stop following me.”
“Aren’t you glad I was there this evening?”
“Yes, I was. See you in the morning,” Leah said as she exited Cots’s car.
“Sleep well.”
When she entered her condo, she said, “Music, play Gregorian chants.”
If asked, she wasn’t sure why she found the chants written hundreds of years earlier to be so soothing and comforting. Whenever she was stressed or needed to focus, she listened to the chants. She didn’t understand any of the words, but she didn’t need to in order to enjoy the calmness emanating from her sound system.
“Good evening, Boss,” Rusty said as she entered the living room from the kitchen. “Is there anything I can get you?”
“Good evening, Rusty. No. I’m off to bed. I need to be up tomorrow morning at my usual time.”
“Pleasant dreams.”
At her bedroom door, Leah hesitated. She knew she should look at the murder board to see if Cots or Peony had found Lionel’s boyfriend. Instead of heading for her office, though, she turned into her bedroom. She undressed in her closet, hanging her suit up, dropping her blouse in the dry-cleaning pile, and putting the rest into the laundry basket.
Leah hoped she wouldn’t spend the night thinking about Jardain. She was beginning to think Jardain was too complicated, too closed off, and too distant to be worth the time and effort it was taking to get to know her. And don’t forget that the woman doesn’t believe monogamy is an option for her. Luckily, Leah was asleep a few minutes after putting her head on her pillow.
Chapter Twenty-five
Leah stopped off at Giselle’s Bakery the next morning and bought enough pastries for the office staff. When she arrived at the office, she took a donut and tea to her office, and left the rest of the pastries in the coffee room.
As she sat sipping her tea, eating her donut, and looking out her office window, she noticed that the scenery outside had subtly changed. There were more, and different, flowers in bloom, the green mist of the new leaves on the trees was more pronounced and a couple shades darker now.
“Hey, Boss, have you looked at the murder board?” Peony asked.
“I was just about to do that.”
“Hey, is that a donut from Giselle’s?”
“Yes it is.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Leah put the murder board up on the big screen and left off her contemplation of the changing wonders outside her window to take a seat in front of the board and started reading what had been added the day before.
Lionel Bensington’s boyfriend had a confirmed name now—Rodrigo Longhouse. He’d been born Richard Laughton, but took his current name somewhere between graduating from high school and meeting Lionel. He was twenty-one and no longer jailbait. He had one arrest for solicitation without a license when he was seventeen. He got lucky and was given probation for two years.
Peony returned to Leah’s office with two donuts. She sat down in the chair next to Leah’s and began studying the murder board, too.
Leah resumed reading Cots’s report on Longhouse. There was another arrest that was sealed because he’d been a minor. He had been arrested for minor assault on an older man five years ago. The arrest record said the man Longhouse assaulted, Jason Smitherson, was known to be rough on the street boys. Apparently, he got rough with Longhouse, and the kid fought back and broke Smitherson’s nose. The judge dismissed the charges with a stern lecture to get out of the trade and get an education. The next thing known about Longhouse was he’d hooked up with Lionel Bensington.
Peony took a sip of her coffee, finished off her donut, and said, “Isn’t it amazing what you can find out about people? I wonder what we’d find on Cots if we ran searches on him? Or you, for that matter? Or Jardain?”
“Or you,” Leah said with a smile.
“Hmmm. Maybe we don’t really need to know much about our friends except that they’ve got our backs.”
“Probably not,” Leah said as she returned to reading the report on Longhouse.
Where Longhouse had met Bensington was unclear. Cots had added a note asking “Private Party?” Bensington gave him a sizeable monthly stipend, according to Cots.
Cots entered the room and glared at Peony. “You took the last chocolate-covered donut.”
Drude! They’re going to get into a pissing match over a donut? Please tell me those two aren’t breaking up. I’ve got enough of my own drama without adding theirs to the mix.
“Do we know anything else about Longhouse?” Leah asked quickly before they could start sparring with one another.
“Not much. I’m thinking the Richard Laughton name is probably a fake name, too. I can’t find a birth certificate for either name,” Cots said.
“Maybe he immigrated here,” Peony suggested
“That’s a good idea,” Cots told her, suddenly conciliatory. “I’ll check it out.”
“Do we know where he is now?”
“Before I answer that, I think he’s a hacker of some talent. I’ve found traces of him in a couple of places he shouldn’t be,” Cots said.
“If he’s a talented hacker, why is he prostituting himself with some old guy?” Peony asked.
“For one, that old guy is one of the richest men on the planet. Two, we don’t know he’s prostituting himself. They could be in love and Lionel could be a generous man. Three, that old guy is paying our salaries and our bills, so let’s show a modicum of respect,” Leah told her.
“Sorry, Boss.”
“Do we have any idea what he was looking for in all the wrong places?” Leah asked.
“Not really, he was in and out pretty quickly. If I hadn’t been there, too, I’d never have seen him.”
“Maybe he was just seeing if he could do it before he tried his hand at his eventual target,” Peony said.
“That’s true. I’ll keep my eye on Bensington’s accounts. Rodrigo may be getting greedy or feeling the need to run, and needs the money to emigrate,” Cots muttered to himself.
“We need to talk to him before he leaves the planet for whatever reason,” Leah said. “I assume you’re watching his credits. Maybe we can have a face-to-face before he realizes we’re not the cops.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Cots stepped into her office. “Let’s go meet Rodrigo. He’s on the road and we’re tracking him.”
Leah grabbed her bag from her desk and followed Cots and Peony out of the building.
“We have to take Peony’s car since ours won’t hold us and the equipment, too,” Cots said.
Peony had them on the road headed in the direction of Rodrigo’s car. She maneuvered in and out of traffic in an effort to try to catch up with Rodrigo. Leah missed the tertiary lanes in New America City where cars were regulated on where they could drive. The ground-level lanes were reserved for trucks and other heavy vehicles that couldn’t navigate to the upper levels. The secondary lanes were for personal vehicles, and the tertiary lanes were for police and other emergency vehicles. Travel was much faster in the tertiary lanes because there had been far fewer vehicles to impede a driver’s progress.
“Go down Prince Street. We can intercept him at Bridge Street and see where he’s going,” Cots said.
“What kind
of car is he driving?” Leah asked from the passenger seat.
“It’s a red Ersetz registered to Bensington. We should have him in sight,” Cots said.
“There he is, Peony. He’s about a block ahead on the left. He’s turning left at the light.”
“Got him,” Peony said as she moved into the left-hand turn lane four cars behind Rodrigo.
“Well done,” Cots said from the back seat.
They followed Rodrigo as he cruised down the street. He finally pulled into a parking space on their right. Peony drove slowly past him so they could make sure he was their intended target.
“That’s him,” Leah said. “Look, there’s a guy pulling out four cars ahead.”
Peony maneuvered her car into the space. Before she’d put the car in Park, Cots and Leah were out of the car. Peony stayed in the car while Leah and Cots headed back to where Rodrigo had parked his car in front of a travel agency specializing in interstellar travel. “He’s getting ready to run,” Cots said, stating the obvious.
When they entered the travel agency, Rodrigo had just sat down and was telling the woman across the desk from him that he wanted to go somewhere exotic. They approached the desk and flanked Rodrigo.
“Rodrigo Longhouse?” Cots asked.
“Yes?”
“We need you to come with us.”
“But…”
“You can come back later after we’re done with you.”
With a deep sigh, Rodrigo stood up.
Cots put his hand on Rodrigo’s shoulder, and said, “Don’t even try to run. We’ve got people on the street, some of whom are trigger-happy,” Cots said.
Where does he come up with these things? He sounds like a fictional detective from the 1920s. Maybe Rusty’s sharing her old-fashioned detective stories with Cots. Or vice versa.
“What do you want with me? Who are you?”
“We have a few questions we want to ask. We can do this the easy way by letting us buy you a cup of coffee, or we can do it the hard way downtown,” Cots said.
Really? “We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way?”
“All right, all right.”
“Why are you leaving the planet?”
“I need a vacation.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I was at the travel agency,” Rodrigo said. “What’s this about?”
“Does Bensington know you’re leaving him?” Leah asked.
Rodrigo’s eyes got bigger and he had a hitch in his breath. “Who?”
Phuc, this is going to take a while if he’s going to play games with us.
Something made Leah look out the large window facing the street. Across the street, a woman bearing a resemblance of Jardain was talking to another woman. Upon closer inspection, the woman really didn’t look anything near as delicious as Jardain. Great. Now I’m imagining seeing her everywhere I go. Why not fuck her and get it out of my system? Then I can just walk away. Because idiot, I want more than a one-night stand with her. But isn’t a one-night stand better than not ever knowing what it would be like having her hands and mouth on me?
Chapter Twenty-six
“Cut the game, Rodrigo. Just answer our questions and we can all get back to doing what we want to be doing,” Cots growled, in his best imitation of a tough cop.
“Rodrigo, we know about you and Bensington. We know you’re his kept boy. We’re not interested in busting either you for selling yourself to him or him for being with a boy,” Leah said.
Rodrigo’s eyes darted around the coffee shop. Leah wasn’t sure if he was looking for a way to escape or looking for someone who might have heard Leah’s characterization of him.
“Where’s my coffee? You promised me a cup of coffee,” Rodrigo said, sounding very young and very nervous.
Leah motioned for the waitress to bring them three cups of coffee. When it arrived, Rodrigo put three packets of sugar and three pods of cream into his smallish mug of coffee.
Leah hid a smile by sipping her own coffee. He’s trying to act grown up, but can’t stand the taste of coffee.
After taking a big sip of the hot coffee, Rodrigo’s eyes teared up and he fought not to spew coffee across the table and onto Cots. After he managed to swallow the coffee, he put his mug on the table and put both hands around it as if he were cold. This guy’s still a kid. And he’s scared shitless—whether of us or someone else is the question. Or it could all be the act of a very bright young man who is used to using his young age as a weapon.
“What do you know about Sarah Bensington?” Cots asked.
“Hey! I had nothing to do with her murder.”
“I didn’t say you did,” Cots said. “I simply asked what you know about her. Why did you think we thought you might have killed her?”
“Why else? You guys haven’t been able to solve her murder so now you’re trying to pin it on me because I’m young and poor.”
“Yeah, right. You were just trying to book a vacation to an ‘exotic’ place. A place no poor kid will ever get to see or visit. So cut the crap,” Cots said.
“The vacation’s a gift from Lionel.”
“So if I call him, he’ll verify your story?” Leah asked.
Rodrigo was quiet.
“Or maybe he’ll throw you under the bus and tell us you stole that beautiful car you’re driving, stole his credits card, and murdered his beloved daughter.”
“He said I could use the car and he gave me his credits card to use,” Rodrigo said heatedly. “Go ahead and ask him.”
“Rodrigo, we know you murdered Sarah. Now is the time to tell us what happened.”
Leah was surprised when tears welled up in Rodrigo’s brown eyes.
“I loved her. I really did. But she wouldn’t even look at me. She only had eyes for that gangbanger.”
What the hell is a gangbanger? Surely he’s not saying ShaTin bangs entire gangs. Where’s Peony when I need her? Leah pulled her phone from her pocket and texted Peony, “Gangbanger?”
Peony immediately texted back, “Member of a gang.”
“Which gang?” Leah asked, assuming Cots also had no idea what a gangbanger might be.
“You know, those Asians with the dumb names,” Rodrigo said, shrugging.
“No, I don’t. Give me a name,” Leah said.
“ShaTin,” Rodrigo snarled.
“So you’re saying that’s who you saw coming out of Sarah’s building on the night she was murdered?” Leah asked, hoping she was right about him spying on Sarah from across the street.
“Yes.”
“And ShaTin was the only person you saw coming from the building around the time she was killed?”
“What? No. The Asian guy didn’t kill her. She was alive when he left. I saw her turn off the light in the living room. A second Asian dude went in right after ShaTin left. I saw a light come on in Sarah’s apartment. Ten minutes later, he came out. When he stopped to make a phone call, I got a really good look at him.”
“Do you know him?”
“Of course. He runs a bunch of the boys on the street. Mean son of Cerulean cat, too. Beats his boys into submission and then sends them to the nastiest johns he knows. They don’t ever cheat him—or leave his service, for that matter.”
“Give me a name, Rodrigo,” Leah said as her gut was telling her this was the guy.
“PiguTou,” Rodrigo whispered as he looked around the small coffee shop again as if he were sure the two rival gang leaders were somehow listening to him giving them up.
Leah looked at Cots. He gave her a slight shake of his head to indicate he didn’t know anything more than what ShaTin had told them earlier. Leah’s phone vibrated again. Peony had texted again.
“PiguTou is the head of the Shandian gang, an up-and-coming gang trying to expand their territory by helping themselves to some of Shaanxi’s. ShaTin found out about it and fought back. ShaTin managed to push PiguTou out of his own territory. PiguTou vowed vengeance on Sha
Tin and his family.”
“Do you mean PiguTou, leader of the Shandians?” Leah asked with a glance at Cots.
“Yeah, he’s the one.”
“You’re telling me that Sarah was involved with PiguTou?”
“He was in her apartment. I saw him.”
“So you were in Sarah’s apartment the night she was murdered?” Cots asked.
“No, man, I wasn’t in her apartment. I was across the street watching her apartment when I see this guy hurry out of her building. I told you he stopped to make a call and I got a good look at him. I recognized his picture on the vidnews from a month before.”
“Why didn’t you tell the detective investigating the murder about this guy?” Cots asked.
“Because he didn’t talk to me.”
Andrew Becker is an asshole. We’ve got two prime suspects in a couple of weeks and he’s got none in three months. Unbelievable.
“Rodrigo, we want to protect you, keep you from getting hurt. So we’re going to put you into a really nice apartment where you will be safe while we figure out what’s going on. You good with that?” Cots asked.
“I can take care of myself, you know. I don’t need no protection.”
“You’ve got two gang leaders who will torture you until you beg for death. Who, once they know you’re talking about what you know about them, will put a hit out on your sorry ass. Now you can hole up in a nice apartment with tons of video games and save your own life, or you can walk around the streets waiting for someone to kidnap you,” Cots said.
“Like you guys did?”
“We didn’t kidnap you, Rodrigo. You came with us on your own accord and we bought you a cup of coffee,” Leah told him.
While Rodrigo thought over his options, Leah wondered whose apartment Cots intended to put him in. She knew it wasn’t hers because she didn’t have vidnews let alone video games. He wouldn’t allow a budding hacker loose in his own apartment, so it had to be Peony’s apartment he was being generous with.
“You good with this?” Leah texted Peony.
“Yeah. I’m almost never there. And I’ll hide the good stuff before he moves in.”