AGAINST THE WIND (Book Two of The Miami Crime Trilogy) (15 page)

Silvana

Coconut
Grove, Miami, Florida

Monday,
April 9, 2012

8:55
AM

B
OBBY VARGAS PULLED
UP
to the
nicely-renovated building on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove. Silvana looked it
over. Small in size, it appeared to have been restored to some kind of
faux
original condition. Vargas parked
in the bus stop directly in front, and he grabbed the manila envelope on the
seat between them. Then he and Silvana got out of the car and entered the
building.

It
had been a few days since Bob Harvey's funeral and their subsequent questioning
of Maxie Méndez. After Méndez hinted that Phil Harvey might know something
about the murder, Silvana's natural inclination was to rush over to Phil's
office and brace him immediately. But she resisted. She took a deep breath and
thought it through. A little homework on Mr Phil might be in order before
paying him a visit. It took a couple of days to get the information she wanted,
but now she had it.

As they stepped off the elevator on the third
floor, she took note of the clean lobby and modern furniture. She also noticed
it wasn't nearly as big as she thought it would be, maybe even a tad bit on the
cramped side. She never gave big real estate companies much thought, but when
she did, they always carried the image of a huge operation, requiring lots of
space and hundreds of buzzing employees. But, apparently not. At least, not in
the case of Harvey Development, Incorporated.

They approached the receptionist. She was around
forty-five, but still wore that alluring look that made her a knockout when she
was twenty-five. Slim, tight body, and long, slender hands poised over her
keyboard. With the assistance of the right bra, her modest breasts pushed her
contoured top to its limits, giving her a curvy silhouette and pouting
cleavage. Sparkling eyes that looked like they never quit smiling sat under
thin eyebrows, unnaturally arched by the wonders of modern makeup. Silvana
tamped down the stirrings that suddenly arose within her.

"May I help you?" Her voice was low and
smoky.
Shit,
Silvana thought,
she must've had guys drooling all over
themselves back in the day. Girls, too
.
Probably
still does.

Silvana
said, "We're police officers." They showed tin on cue. "We'd
like to see Mr Harvey."

"Well,
I don't know if —"

"This
is in regard to his brother's murder, ma'am. We need to speak with him.
Now."

With
a reddening face and tightening jaw, and yet with professional grace, the woman
rose from her desk. Silvana could tell she was not used to being pushed around
on her own turf, at her very desk, the epicenter of her power. "Please
wait here a moment." Straightening her skirt, she went into an office down
at the end of the hall and returned thirty seconds later. "This way,
please."

She
showed the cops into Harvey's office and left without comment. He got up from
his swivel chair and came around his desk to greet them.

"Mr
Harvey," Silvana said, "I'm Sergeant Machado, Miami Homicide. This is
my partner, Detective Vargas."

"Detectives,"
Harvey said. "Pleasure. Won't you sit down?" He indicated the opulent
leather sofa against the wall. They sat and he took one of the two matching
chairs opposite the couch. "What can I do for you?" he said.

Silvana
said, "What can you tell us about your brother being at the Sea & Sand
Motel the day he was killed?"

"Nothing,"
Harvey replied with a light shrug. "I'd never heard of the place and I
have no idea why he was there. I drove past it last week. It doesn't look like
the type of place he would ever go to."

"You're
sure? You have no idea why he was there?"

"No.
None."

"You
do know, however, that it's a low-grade rendezvous for prostitutes and their
johns."

"I
did not know that," he said. "Then … then you mean that Bob …"

"He
was there with a prostitute," Vargas said. "And the motel manager
says he remembers him from previous encounters, previous check-ins."

"Bob?
With a prostitute? In that place?" Harvey said. "You've gotta be
kidding."

Silvana
said, "We're not kidding. Now, are you familiar with one Evalena Díaz, aka
'Diamond'?"

"Diamond?
Mmm, no, I don't know anyone by that name. Or the other name, either." He
reached for his necktie, touching it as if to loosen or adjust it. Either way,
he was uncomfortable at the mention of this name, and Silvana picked up on it.

She
nodded at Vargas. He reached into the manila envelope. He came out holding a
photograph, about three by five. Silvana took it and showed it to Harvey.

"Maybe
this will jog your memory," she said.

Harvey
took the photo. It was a booking shot, dated a year or so earlier, taken with
awkward lighting and a height-measurement background. But the girl in the
foreground didn't need fancy lighting or costumes to show off her breathtaking
beauty. A well-constructed face featured paralyzing dark eyes and a trim little
nose over a full-lipped, sensuous mouth. All this under a forest of raven hair
flowing to her shoulders. Her half-smile seemed genuine, not forced for the
photo and conspicuously lacking attitude. She spelled danger while somehow
managing to come off looking like the cuddly girl next door all gussied up for
the big dance.

"Never
seen her before," Harvey said.

"Well,
that's not what we hear," Silvana said. "According to Vice, you were
seen checking into the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables with her at your side on
at least several occasions."

"That's
outrageous! I've never done anything like that! I'm a married m —"

"Think
again," Vargas said, as he produced another photo, this one from the
manila envelope. It was also color, a security cam photo from behind the
Biltmore front desk, clearly showing Harvey and Evalena Díaz checking in.
"We have several more of these, too. Each one from different dates, and in
each one the two of you are checking in to the hotel."

Harvey's
head sunk and might have sunk all the way to the floor if his hands weren't
there to catch it. His head rested in his hands while he said, "I … I …
you've got to believe me, I don't do that kind of thing. Only just a few times
with … with that girl. She's so … ravishing, she … she just …"

Silvana
said, "Would it interest you to know that Vice contacted the escort
service she works for and they have her going on a date to the Sea & Sand
Motel at two o'clock on March 30, shortly before your brother was
murdered?"

"W-well,
that could be coincidence."

"Hardly,"
Silvana said. "The records of the motel show a man fitting your brother's
description as checking in on March 30 under the name 'Eric Clapton', and they
also show him checking in every other Friday at around two o'clock PM under
that name for the last several months."

"That
doesn't mean it was him!" he cried. "In fact, if she was there, she's
probably the one who killed him."

"We're
looking into it. Now, how about if I tell you the escort service confirms
Evalena Díaz keeping dates at the Sea & Sand Motel on those very same Fridays
and at the very same hour?" Silvana modulated her voice down to
sympathetic level. "Listen, Mr Harvey, there's nothing wrong with using
hookers. People have been doing it since the beginning of time. Men, women …
you do it yourself. In fact with the same hooker as your brother."

"N-nothing
wrong?"

"No.
Nothing at all. We're not here to arrest you for anything. You're not in any
trouble. We just want information. Now, can you tell us why both you and your
brother both happened to be seeing Evalena Díaz?"

Harvey
tried to straighten up and summon some composure. "He … he liked going to
those seedy dumps. Said it made him feel like he'd crossed some kind of
forbidden line. It actually excited him. Me, I could never see the point. If I
was going to pay for sex, I was at least going to have it in clean
surroundings. You know what I mean?"

"We
know what you mean," Vargas said. "So why were you both with the same
girl?"

"It
all started about a year ago. A contractor I work with from time to time gave
me the number of the escort service. Said they had the best girls in the city.
Best in all South Florida, for that matter."

"What
was the name of this service?" Vargas asked.

"Magic
City Suites," Harvey said. "Best in all South Florida, that
contractor told me. And he should know. He was a real whore dog, you
know?"

Silvana
and Vargas noted the name and nodded. "Go on," she said.

"S-so
I called them one day. I didn't really know what to say, but they walked me
through it. Then they asked me where I wanted the girl to show up." He
chuckled a little and said, "You know, I hadn't really thought about that,
so I just blurted out the Biltmore. It was close by and it was the only place I
could think of."

Vargas
said, "So they sent Evalena Díaz?"

"No.
They sent another girl. She was blonde, and not Latina. We had a good time, but
I always liked Cuban girls. They've just got a little something … something
extra, you know what I mean? Oh — no offense, Sergeant, but you do know
what I mean?"

Silvana
nodded patiently. "Yes, I know. And no offense taken."

Harvey
said, "A couple of weeks later, I called them again and asked for a Cuban
girl, or Latina of some kind, and that's when they sent Diamond. From then on,
I saw only her."

"How
often did you see her?" Silvana asked.

"At
first, only about once every five or six weeks. Then, these last few months, it
got so we were together every week."

"When
did your brother enter the picture?"

"One
night about six months ago, we met after work for drinks. We got —"

Silvana
said, "Did you do that often?" She remembered Maxie Méndez's casual
mention of how the two brothers never really got along too well.

"No,
not really," Harvey said. "But on this night, we got together to talk
about this construction project my company is doing."

"The
Loma Linda Shopping Center, near Hialeah Park," Silvana said.

Harvey
made a little flick with his head, clearly surprised. "How did you know
about that?"

"Let's
just say I'm well-informed. Now, was that the project?"

"Yes.
Yes, it was. Only now it's Loma Linda Center, which includes a shopping center
and a hotel."

Vargas
said, "What aspects of it were you discussing?"

"I
don't really see how that's relevant."

"It's
relevant if we say it's relevant," Vargas said. "Now what were you
discussing?"

Silvana
jumped in. "Mr Harvey, Detective Vargas sometimes gets a little carried
away. What he really means is that every piece of information, no matter how
small or how seemingly unconnected, is important in a murder case. And you
never know when some 'irrelevant' bit of information might turn out to be
critical."

"Okay,
okay." Harvey got up from his chair. "Can I get either of you
something to drink? Coffee? Soda? Something stronger?" The cops shook
their heads. Harvey said, "Well, I'm going to have some coffee, if it's
okay." They nodded approval and he moved across the office to a
coffeemaker and poured a steaming cup of black liquid. He didn't put anything
else in it.

 
When he took his seat again, Silvana
said, "So what was the topic of discussion at your meeting?"

Harvey
said, "Last summer, someone tried to kill Maxie Méndez in the parking lot
of some strip joint in Hialeah. Bob thought I had something to do with
it."

"Why
would he think that?" Silvana said. "Aren't you working closely with
him in this shopping center deal?"

Again
the head flick. Again the tell. "How do you know that?" he said.

"Never
mind where we get our information. Tell me why Méndez would think you tried to
kill him if you and he were working together on this deal."

"I
don't know. Maybe because I didn't like the fact that Bob brought him in to
begin with. Brought him in, you know, to handle things in the Hialeah Building
Department. For permits and things like that. Also, to put out any fires that
might flare up with the construction unions."

"What's
wrong with that?" Silvana said. "Those are valuable services he
performs. They've got to be worth something to you."

"Not
that the services themselves aren't useful. Sure, we might've otherwise had
trouble with the permitting process and sure, the unions have been unusually
cooperative during construction, but he's a fucking
gangster
, you know? A criminal! I don't want to be seen doing
business with that kind of person."

"We
know," said Silvana. "But
you
weren't committing any crime by doing business with him. By giving him a sweet
deal on retail space and maybe a piece of the overall action. That might
look
a little shady, but it's no
crime."