Ting-A-Ling (20 page)

“And yet somehow, you tell me she managed to give fifty thousand dollars, cash, to Renee Paris and one thousand dollars in cash, to you. How do you think she was able to pull that off?”

“I, I don’t know,” I said. I was in shock.

“Now, we have Richard Hedstrom,” Manning said, switching gears. “I have to tell you, Mr. Haskell. I’m a little confused. Our investigation indicates that he was in a partnership with Mr. Paris, a number of partnerships, actually. You assaulted Mr. Paris. An item of yours, this belt, was found in Mr. Hedstrom’s residence.” Manning nodded at the evidence envelope. “The same residence you recently attempted to gain access to. Now, we learn that Mr. Hedstrom was reported missing as of three days ago.”

“I don’t know anything about that. This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Are you at all familiar with a dark blue 2013 Audi A6?”

I had no idea where Manning was going with this. I shook my head blankly and muttered, “No.”

“It is, or rather was, Mr. Hedstrom’s vehicle. Apparently, someone took it for a joyride, smashed it up, removed the plates and then set it ablaze in a shopping mall parking lot the other night. Now, we can’t seem to locate Richard Hedstrom, Renee Paris or Danielle Roxbury.”

“You’ve been looking for her, Danielle?”

“Yes.” Manning nodded, and flipped some more pages in his file. “Apparently, we’re not the only ones. We have a record of a number of calls made to Ms. Roxbury from this cell phone number at various times of the day and night.” Manning took a page from his file and passed it across the table to me. “Interestingly, by checking the various cell towers we can be about ninety nine point nine percent sure that a number of these calls were made by someone actually located in Ms. Roxbury’s home. Would you happen to recognize this cell phone number?”

I didn’t really have to look, but I did, anyway.

“That’s my cell phone number. Actually, I wasn’t in her house. I was parked out in front on the street. I think one time I may have even been on her front porch.”

“Out in front of her home or on her front porch? Interesting. It’s been below zero for the past month. Why not just ring her doorbell?”

“I did, but she wasn’t home. At least, she didn’t answer when I rang.”

“Amazing she wouldn’t let
you
in. Maybe she thought you were coming back for another payment? Back for more sex? Maybe she was just in the shower, you know, getting spruced up for you. Can’t say that I really blame you. After all, she’s a very attractive woman, isn’t she, Haskell?”

“No. I mean, no, I wasn’t coming back for more sex. I just wanted to check on her. Make sure Paris hadn’t been stalking her or attacked her or something.”

“Gee, that’s very noble of you. And, what about that car belonging to Richard Hedstrom? Set ablaze in the middle of the night in a shopping mall parking lot. You wouldn’t have just happened to pass by at about that time, would you, Mr. Haskell? Maybe you wanted to ask him about your belt?”

“Actually.” I smiled back at Manning. “I saw the headline on that and I was sedated in the hospital that night until sometime after noon the following day. I have a witness who can attest to the fact I was home the entire evening until ten the following morning when she departed. At that point I had to taxi to my office and I’m sure somewhere the taxi service would have a record of that.”

“Was it Danielle Roxbury
caring
for you until ten the following morning? We’ve been trying to reach her.” Manning sneered across the table at me.

“No, the woman’s name is Heidi Bauer. She’s a long time friend and she merely wanted to make sure I was all right after having been involved in that accident and released from the hospital earlier in the day.”

“Does Danielle Roxbury know?” Manning shot back.

“Actually, I did receive a phone call from her. But not from the phone number she had given me earlier.”

Manning looked genuinely surprised.

“I have it on my cell. Here just a minute,” I said and dug my cell out.

“So you’ve heard from her recently, the Roxbury woman?” Manning asked, recovering.

“Yes, here’s the number. Louie, I mean Mr. Laufen was with me when her call came through, we were in our office at the time.”

“I can attest to that, Detective,” Louie said.

Manning seemed to deflate slightly when Louie backed me up. He made a note of Danielle’s new phone number in his file. Then he paged through a number of reports in the file, but didn’t ask any questions. Eventually, he looked up at us.

“I guess that will do for right now. I’d like you to stay in touch, Mr. Haskell. You’re not under arrest, at this time. But I think it would be wise if you’re planning any travel you might just contact our office first.

Louie and I nodded together.

Manning gave a long sigh, like he’d been so close, yet had somehow missed. “I guess unless you gentlemen have any questions that will conclude our interview, for the time being anyway.”

We both shook our heads and Manning had the uniformed officer escort us down to the elevators. Once the doors closed behind us we signaled one another to keep quiet.

Chapter Forty-Three

“No, please don’t say
a thing.
Just give me a moment to think here,” Louie said as we bounced across pot holes on our way out of the parking lot.

“That was Hedstrom’s car someone torched the other night?” I said.

Louie sighed, then said, “Well, smashed up first and then torched once they pulled the plates off. Bit of a coincidence I’d say, just after someone tried to run you down. You sure you didn’t get a look at that car? An Audi A6 sleek, fast and dark blue?”

“I can attest to the sleek, fast and dark bit, but that’s about it. I can’t ID the vehicle, it all happened too fast. What the hell, Danielle’s broke?”

Louie looked over at me for a long moment, then said, “She’s more than just broke. Broke suggests a zero balance. It sounds like right now your little lady friend is running heavily into the negative numbers.”

“But I don’t get it. That huge damn house of hers?”

“Pledged at the peak of the boom and then lost, apparently. She wouldn’t be the first person that happened to.”

“But, Louie, her trust fund?”

“I’m guessing the generations before her pissed most of it away and she probably still can’t believe she went through whatever was left. God forbid she’d ever have to work like the rest of us.”

“Richard Hedstrom?”

“Dick Head? Obviously he’s tied in somewhere, Manning as much as said the guy’s invested in a number of different partnerships with Paris. Maybe he did the same thing for this Danielle that you did?”

I looked at Louie and he shook his head.

“No, not that,” he said. “Maybe she just followed your advice and hired some legal attack dog. Dick Head just delivered the same message to Paris that you did. Only he was a bit more understated and I’m guessing no one has it on tape.”

“And then what? She straps on my belt and goes over to Hedstrom’s place to play ride ‘em cowboy?”

“I don’t know, maybe. To be honest, that really isn’t anywhere near your biggest problem right now.”

“It just doesn’t sound like the woman I know.”

“The woman you know? Dev. Hello. Did you hear what Manning said in there? The woman you know doesn’t exist. Apparently, she never did. She has no funds, she owes back taxes and she’s in the process of losing her big old inherited house. We don’t really know for sure if she even gave Paris the fifty grand, let alone in cash. And in her spare time it looks like she could well be rolling around with Dick Head.”

“Yeah, but I mean other than that.”

Louie looked over at me.

“Relax, I’m kidding,” I said.

“Oh, well, good thing you can find something to laugh about. Just remember, Manning would still like to hang that fire at Casey’s and I’m presuming Renee Paris or whoever got roasted in there, around your neck. Don’t think for a minute he’s given up, he’s just gathering more ammunition, Dev.”

“Yeah. Where do you think they are? Danielle and Paris and Hedstrom?”

“God, who in the hell knows? They could all be together sitting on a beach somewhere for all the good it would do us. I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. We know someone ended up in that fire it might be one of them, Paris has my vote. We know Danielle is still out there, somewhere. And Dick Head Hedstrom, good Lord, who knows?”

“Think they’re still in town?”

“I wouldn’t be,” Louie said and then pulled to the curb in front of our office.

We got out and Louie walked around the car. We stood on the sidewalk and he looked from the door leading up to our second story office, then over to The Spot. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Couldn’t make things any worse,” I said.

“Okay, but just one,” Louie said and we crossed the street.

Chapter Forty-Four

Louie bought a round,
then I bought a round, just the one round each.

“Discipline,” Louie cautioned and we headed back out the door.

“I don’t know where to begin,” I said once we were up in the office.

“Well, about the only advice I can give you is to stay the hell out of Manning’s way,” Louie said and tossed his coat on the picnic table.

I stared out the window for the better part of the next hour. Then, since I didn’t want Manning wise to my efforts, I wasted my time attempting to call Danielle from a pay phone around the corner. Not so amazingly, no one answered. I almost froze to death in the process.

I borrowed Louie’s car and drove past Paris’ house which, at no surprise, turned out to be a complete waste of my time. The only difference from the last time I’d seen the place was that the snow had drifted deeper across the sidewalk.

My drive past Danielle’s home was much the same. The place looked occupied with the walks shoveled and snow melting on the roof indicating the heat was on. But at four-thirty on a December afternoon there were no lights on inside and I didn’t catch as much as a twitch from a curtain or window shade. I didn’t call her from my cell for fear Manning would be alerted. I got out and rang her doorbell, another waste of my time. I should have just stayed in Louie’s car where it was warm.

On the drive back to the office I was thinking about Hedstrom’s condo. If he was there, with the guard’s denying access to everyone at the front gate it could serve as the perfect safe haven for Danielle. At least up until Manning burst through the door and started looking under the beds, again. I was still thinking of the condo two hours later, sitting next to Louie at The Spot.

“One more and that’s it for me, Linda,” he said, then pushed his glass across the bar and turned on his stool to face me.

“You got time to drop me off so I can do some cross country skiing tonight?” I asked.

“Are you crazy? It’s fifteen below out there and dropping. That’s not counting the damn wind chill.”

“I need to get rid of some stress, not to mention burn some of these calories off before I start developing a pair of love handles,” I said, then took a sip of my Mankato Ale, not adding the
‘and ending up like you’
part of that statement.

“Yeah, I suppose. God knows I haven’t been able to stop you from doing all the other incredibly stupid things up to this point. I guess there’s absolutely no reason I’d think I could stop you now.”

“Thanks, I just need to change and grab my stuff. You can drop me off along the river. I’ll hop on one of the trails down there.”

“How are you going to get home?”

“Not to worry, I’ll figure something out.”

He stared at me warily over the rim of his fresh drink, drained most of it and then said, “As you’re legal counsel I do not want to know.”

“Relax, I’m just…”

“No,” he said and thrust the palm of his hand out toward me. “Stop, not another word. Come on, let’s get it over with. Then I’m going somewhere with plenty of folks around who’ll be able to attest to the fact I was nowhere near you tonight.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Louie dropped me off
about a half mile from the Viagra Triangle. We hadn’t exchanged so much as a word on the drive down to the river.

“See if you can pull off up here, there’s a sort of parking lot thing for tourists and stuff to look at the river,” I directed.

Louie pulled into the viewing area. Amazingly it had been plowed. I could actually see the lights from the upper floors of the condo buildings as I took my skis out from the back of his car. I stepped into them, snapped the bindings into the low cut boots then slid around to the driver’s side. Louie lowered his window a bit.

“Be careful and stay warm,” he said then sped off before I could say anything.

Another car pulled in as Louie left. The thing was sort of a non-descript gray and between the night sky and the tinted windows it was too dark to see into the vehicle. I guessed it was probably just a couple of teenagers looking for a private place to explore the differences between one another.