Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (2 page)

“What?” I gave a shrug, then turned to look at Carol, she was lau
ghing, stroking Nicholas’s arm
. She saw me, raised her almost empty glass, signaling
for another Cosmopolitan.

“Whoa, better get on that,”
Justine
said.

“Maybe not
yet
. You here alone?”

“More or less.
She glanced over her shoulder toward a group of women dancing.
One of the women wore
a white veil and a sign around her neck that read ‘Child Bride’
. She
was twirling
round and round in the center of the group. None of them seemed to be feeling any pain.

“So what do you do?”

“I’m a medical assistant
by day
.
But at night,
I’m a derby Bombshell
, baby
.”
She
cocked her hip,
struck a pose and fluttered her eyes at me.

“Hunh?”

“Roller
Derby
, I skate with the Bombshells.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, it
’
s really fun
don’t tell me you didn’t notice I was a Bombshell? W
hat do you do?”

“You mean when I’m not getting drinks for jerks? I’m a PI.”

“PI?”

“Private Investigator.”

“You mean
like
a detective, like in the movies
or CSI
?
”

“Yeah, exactly
,
only about a thousand times duller.”

“Do you carry a gun?”

“Sometimes.”

“Can I see it?”

“Fortunately I left it at home
otherwise I would have blown my brains out about three minutes after coming in
to this
place.”

“You know, do you have a card? We might have a need for your services.”

I dug a card out of my wallet, handed it to her.

“Devlin Haskell, Private Investigator,” she read.

“That’s me.”

“So you find people and stuff
, solve
mysteries and
crimes?
”

“Sometimes, like I said
, it’s
a lot more boring than the movies.”

“Think you’ll be able to find your date?”

“What?” I turned to look at two empty stools where Carol and Nicholas had been sitting.
I couldn’t spot them
out
on the dance floor.

“You might be able to catch them if you hurry.”

“I
got a better idea, I
think I owe you a beer if I recall.”

“You do.”

I was sitting at
Nina’s nursing a coffee, watching the early morning crowd squirt a
sugar substitute into their
latte
s and cappuccinos.
Aaron
LaZelle,
lieutenant in v
ice with
St.
Paul’s finest
sat across from me
. I decided to speak my mind.

“You know,
with
you making the exorbitant amount you do as a senior member of the police force you’d think you could at least spring for coffee. I’m a taxpayer after all.”

“Do we really want to get
into the taxes you pay. I know a few
IRS guys, this time of year
they got
a little
time on their hands. They could ch
eck into it, do an audit or two and
make sure you’re not paying more than your fair share.” He looked around, stared at a
n attractive
dark haired
woman
in tight
jeans and a T-shirt
waiting in line to place an
order.

“On second thought, t
hanks but no thanks. Like your
caramel roll?”

“Always,
”
he replied.

“You know a
nything about wome
n’s
roller derby?”

“You mean
where they skate
round and round
with jams and jammers
, th
ey’ve got those great names and look really hot
.”

“Clearly
you know more than me.”

“Actually I don’t, it’s b
een years since I was at one of those. Pretty fun
if I recall
. I think they actually do a lot of charity work.”

“Charity work, like praying and stuff
?”
I said.

“Y
eah, that’s right, they conduct a prayer service. No they fund raise, donate a lot to food
banks
, maybe a kids program, the kind of stuff
you’d be really involved in.” H
e shook his head, looked back at the s
ame dark haired woman, she’d moved forward in line
a couple of spaces
.

“I like kids and shit.”

“
Yeah, sure you do. Admit it, y
ou like the mommies.”

“Well yeah, that too.”

“You do
ing something with roller derby?
No offense
,
but couldn’t most of them kick the hell out of you?”

“I met a girl last night, she does it, the derby
I mean
, nice girl.”

“Well then she won’t be interested in you. If she was so nice what was she doing in one of the sleazy joints you frequent?”

“God, it was the Dew Drop, I still haven’t gotten my hearing back.”

“What were you doing in that place?”

“Wasting time and money. You know you have to pay a cover charge
just to get into that
place
so you can spend more money
on overpriced, bullshit drinks
?”

“Yeah
,
I’d guess you’re a little out of their usual demographic,
but once you’re inside you’re with the beautiful people.”

“I think I was one of th
e few straight guys in there
.”

“Not surprising, excuse me for a minute,” he said. Then got up and walked over to the counter just as the dark haired woman was picking up her coffee.

“K
risti,” I heard him call,
but
then couldn’t hear anything else.
The look on her face suggested Aaron might be saying something a little more official than hello. They stepped outside, I could see her
through the front window standing
on the sidewalk, nodding,
shaking her head, nodding again. She suddenly leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek, nodded a few more times
, waved
and walked down the street.
Aaron
watched her for a long moment then
strolled back in.

“Business?” I asked.

“Manner of speaking,” he said, then stuffed the last
of the
caramel r
oll into his mouth and
licked the tip
of his thumb and forefinger.

“She a working girl?”

“
S
ign of the times. Architect by training, escort by necessity.
She’s a nice kid, I played hockey with a couple of her brothers.
”

“So
are
you checking her pricing or what?”

He shook his head, glanced around the room.

“No, just told
her we got a sting coming up, working the Internet
, told her to watch out and be careful
.”

“When does it start?”

“It
doesn’t
, nothing like that in the works,
the only thing we got coming up is
budget cuts.”

“So why’d you tell her…”

“It’s like pulling someone over for speeding, everyone else slows down. Same deal,
I’m
just reminding her to be careful. You know h
ow much architectural work
is out there right now?
Zero.
”

“So she’s got an online ad?”

“
An ad? N
o, a website,
takes credit cards,
they all do, that’
s the business
now
. You were telling me about the Dew Drop.”

“Yea
h
, you remember Carol?”

“
Is s
he
the K
indergarten teacher?”

“Kindergarten? No
,
that chick
dropped me six months ago. Carol
does someth
ing with the state, I forget what,
I can never remember the department. Anyway,
we
went there to meet
some of
her pals.”
I told
Aaron
about the noise, the dancing, Carol leaving with the
French guy
, Nicholas
and
me
meeting Justine at the bar.

“Sound
s perfect, Carol
dumps you and you meet someone else before she’s out the door. You are a real piece of work, buddy.”

“Yeah, well anyway, I’m gonna give
this
Justin
e a call
. And
,
I should probably
play the wounded
lover with Carol,
try for a
final
sympathy r
oll in the sack
.”

“God knows that doesn’t happen too often in your life.”

“Actually, I think this c
ould be
a first.”

I walked the half block back home from Nina’s. On my way I called Carol,
ready to
play on her sympathies,
tell
her
how heart broken
I was.

“Bon Jour, I’m unable to take your call just now, please leave a message, Merci.”

I didn’t mean to leave a sigh as my message on h
er cell
, it just sort of came
out that way.
She was already learning French?
I’ll give you
some
Mer
ci, I thought, then
climbed in the car and
drove to my
office.

I had three days worth of verifying job references for a small company staring me in the face. Times being what they were the company was overwhelmed with applications from qualified people. My job was to check out employment histories and references. It amounted to a lot
of drudgery and very
little romance, just like life at the moment.

I’d been looking out th
e office window for maybe
forty-five minutes, staring at St. Kate’s coeds waiting for the bus and watching people dash into The Spot for lunch. A liquid lunch, The Spot didn’t serve food.
I was telling myself
I should do the same when my phone rang.

I put on my best ‘feeling down’ voice and answered.

“Haskell Investigations
,
” I said. I pictured
Carol pacing back and for
th in the hallway of some
S
tate building
, embarrassed
, afraid of what I might say
.
She’d probably
spent the better part of the morning working up the courage to call
me
, wondering if
I’d hang up as soon as I heard her voice.

“Hi Dev, Justine. You know f
rom last night,
are
you free
to talk?”

“
Justine
? No
, I mean yes, yeah.”

“You sure, I don’t want to interrupt.”

“
Nothing that can’t wait
.”

Outside the
Randolph
bus h
ad just pulled away. It would be
at least twenty-five minutes
before any
more women would be
waiting
. On my desk I had a mountain
of
boring
applications to wade through.
I had
time
, plenty of time.