Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (5 page)

“
A black belt i
n K
arate and Tai Kwan Do,” she informed me. Suggesting she’d have no problem kicking my butt.

I turned my attention to Harlotte.

“Fiona Simmons,” she said
,
holding out her hand.

“Devlin Haskell.”

If
she was wearing makeup it wasn’t much
. She was attrac
tive, but not in the sort of knock
out
way I had expected. Her long
blonde
hair was
pulled back
tightly
in a pony tail
. She seemed to have a nice figure, dressed in jeans and hidden beneath a bulky sweatshirt that read St. Margaret’s School for Girls.

“Dev is going to make sure things continue running smoothly while we’re here in
St Paul
’s.” Jimmy said.

“
St. Paul
,”
I corrected
. “We sort of have an inferiority complex with a larger city like
Minneapolis
right next door.”

They nodded in unison.

“It sounds like everything Jimmy has been doing is working, s
o we’re not going to change anything
. I’ve been in touch with our po
lice force. They’re aware of your
situation
. We’ll
just keep a low profile. Your
bout is tomorrow night and then you’re leaving the following morning as I understand it.”

“Actually leaving
right
after the bout, it will be after midnight by the time we’re loaded. Drive down to Chicago
and then the team skates
that night.”

“Not much time for a rest,” I said.

“The
re appears to have been
a lack of appreciation for the distances you have over here
when the schedule was arraigned,
” Jimmy said.

“Driving from
Denver
, the deforestation we saw wa
s absolutely amazing,” Emma added
.

“Deforestation?”

“Not a tree in sight for as far as the eye could see. I
guessed they were all
cut do
wn for your log cabins
. We all t
ook pictures out the bus window, American greed.
” She looked very satisfied with the analogy.

“You drove across the great plains, that’s what you saw.” I said.

Blank looks all around.

“There never were any tree
s. That was the sort of country you see in the old cowboy movies, buffalo,
rolling hills,
Indians. People literally went insane out there from the wind blowing constantly.
”

Emma looked at me in a way that suggested the insanity probably continued for generations.

“Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions about this
stalker
business?”

Fiona looked at Jimmy for a moment and he nodded.

“Go ahead,” she said.

“Any idea who or why?”

She shook her head, seemed to think for a moment.

“No idea, whatsoever. I thought we had crazies back home
,
but this is like something a footballer would think up.”

“Footballer, w
hat we’d call soccer over here?”
I said.

“Yes.
They’re fanatic, you know, but this, for us, me? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“So it began when you came over here, it didn’t follow you over?”

“Nothing until we were in the states, the first one was in
St. Louis
?” She looked at Jimmy for confirmation.

“
St. Louis
, it was actually waiting for us at the hotel, the envelope that is.”

“Then
Kansas City
,
Chicago
. That was
the one
pressed under the door,
Chicago
, and t
hat’s it.”

I didn’t mention
Denver
,
Jimmy had said he didn’t want to upset her.

“Have you had any interaction with fans here? A disagreement, perceived slight, something like that?”

Both women shook their heads.

“Nothing
,
everyone has been really, really nice. Unfortunately
, since this started we’ve really been kept apart, no more autographs. We used to do photo sessions fo
r all the kids, that’s been stopped,
not sure what good it’s done to tell
you
the truth.”

“God forbid we’d
be able to go out for a pint o
r meet a lad, poor Fiona can’t go to
the
l
oo without someone holding her
hand,
”
Emma said.

“Just playing the odds, being careful, darling,” Jimmy said.

“I know
,
but it’s such a shame, one plonker can ruin the whole thing for ev
eryone, doesn’t seem quite fair.
”
Emma looked at me, sized me up for the obvious plonker I was.

“It’s not fair,
” I said. “B
ut right now
, everyone is
more concerned with you and your teammates staying safe while you’re in our fair city.
You need anything you let me know. I’ll be working with Jimmy, you may not see me
,
but I’ll be there,” I said.

“Too many Americ
an movies you ask me,” Emma added
.

“I’ll even w
atch out for you,” I said to Emma
.

“I can see to me self,” she said and stood, Fiona followed.

“Back to the room then ladies?” Jimmy asked, but with a ton
e that suggested a little more.

They both nodded.

“Pleasure to meet you, Mister Haskell,” Fiona said.

“Please
, call me
Dev. I’ll see you around.”

She smiled then caught up with Emma already at the door.

“She seems like a nice woman,” I said.

“Emma?” Jimmy smiled

“Fiona.”

“I could tell Emma had a soft spot for you.”

“If that was her way of being nice I’d hate to be on her bad side.”

Jimmy nodded.

I phoned Justine on
my way home.

“Hello.”

“Spankie?”

“Hey, how’d it go?”

“Nice people, I met Harlotte, her roommate
Emma
and then spent a good deal of time with Jimmy McNaughton, just going over things.”

“What do you think?”

“I think Harlotte’s lucky if she gets five minutes alone in the bathroom. They have someone
with her virtually all the time.
Jimmy’s even got someone posted outside her
hotel room twenty-four seven. After your bout tomorrow night they’re back on the bus and heading to
Chicago
.
I don’t think there’s enough time for anything
to happen.”

“God, I hope not, no one would be happier than me if there wasn’t an incident.”

“So you think you might skate
better tomorrow if I came over tonight, maybe gave you a full body massage?”

“No.”

“You want to think about it a little bit before you jump to any hasty conclusions?”

“No. The last thing I need is to show up at work on about three hours of sleep, work
all day and then skate
. I don’t think so.

“Really?”

“Yes really. I might be ready for some assistance in a victory celebration after tomorrow night
’s bout
.”

“I could do that, but what happens if you don’t win?”

“You’
d better just hope that we do.”

“Okay,
look, enjoy your evening. I
’m
going
to be with the Hustlers at breakfast tomorrow
morning
. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Thanks Dev.”

“Goodnight, Spankie.”

Breakfast with the
Hastings
Hustlers consisted of a feeding fre
nzy billed as a buffet
. Platters of bacon and eggs, side dishes of
French toast and
pancakes treading in pools of maple syrup
topped off by caramel rolls
and muffins
were
inhaled
by the ladies
and then washed down by about fifty pots of tea.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked.

Jimmy nodded.

Emma moved her neck around like she was warming up for a boxing match.

“Just fine,” Harlotte said.

“The girls have a light warm—
up this morning, we’
ll leave here about half—
ten,” Jimmy said.

“Is that nine-thirty?” I asked.

“
No,
I think you’d say
half-past-ten
. We’
re back here for
lunch at
half-one.
They take i
t easy, rest up for tonight’s event
and we
’
re back on the bus to
Chicago
immediately after that.”

“What time will you be going back to the arena?”

“Tonight?”

“Yeah”

Emma excused herself and headed back to the buffet trays.

“Just after six,” Jimmy said. “I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind staying there, at the arena, keeping an eye on the locker room. Staff over there said they would, but my experience is they’ll be running around attending to last minute bits and bobs, and won’t be bothered.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea.” I was thinking it might make even more sense if I was in there while the Hustlers showered and changed.

“We can post you outside the door once the team arrives,” Jimmy said, shattering my dream.

Emma returned with
a plate of pancakes buried under
about
two pounds of bacon.

“You’ve spoken with your police?” Fiona asked.

“I spoke with them yesterday. I plan to contact them again today, while you’re practicing, really just to touch base. I’ve a point of contact in the homicide division,” I said
,
trying to impress.

“Who’s that? What’s the chap’s name, just in case?” Jimmy said, he’d pulled a pen out of thin air and sat ready to write in a small notebook.

“Detective Norris Manning.” I
gave Manning’s phone number to Jimmy. I was sure a phone conversation with Manning would do nothing for international relations.

“Hopefully
,
I won’t have to talk with him,” Jimmy said.

“Hopefully.”

At ten-forty-five I was following the Hustlers bus on I-94 into downtown
St. Paul
. I kept glancing in the rear view mirror checking for anyone who might be following. If anyone was, they were too good for me to spot. I spent the entire practice session sitting inside the Hustlers locker room, exciting as that may sound
,
it wasn’t.

I placed a call to Manning in homicide, just to touch base. I waited the requisite ten minutes before a voice came back on the line.

“He’s ahhh, busy right now Mister Haskell. Is there anything I could help you with?”

“No, not really, if I could just leave the message I phoned. I’m with the Hastings Hustlers, I just wanted to check in.”

“I’ll be sure to let him know you’re with the Hastings Hustlers.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that,” I said, getting the distinct feeling Mannin
g was sitting next to the guy p
robably on his second or third donut.

I toyed with the idea of hiding
in the locker room until the Hustlers
were all in the shower and then jumping out,
but
with my luck Emma Babe would be there
and
break my arm just for fun.
Jimm
y opened the door and saved me from myself.

“Okay, Dev, the team’s on the way in, so you can st
retch your legs outside here
. Once they’ve cleaned up w
e’ll get the
m back on the bus
.”