Bite Me (Devlin Haskell 3) (18 page)

Driving back home on
I-94, I could not seem to get the smell out of my nose. For the umpteenth time I ran through a check list in my mind. Had I closed the door? Left anything behind? Worn the gloves at all times? Fortunately, I’d called from the untraceable pay-as-you-go cell and disguised my voice when I left phone messages on Doctor Death’s office number. Still, I thought I should call the police, although try as I may, I couldn’t come up with how that would help me in any way.

I got
home, pushed a chair up against the front door, wedged another chair under the back kitchen door knob. Then sat and thought, Kiki, Kiki, Kiki while I ate butter-brickle ice cream directly out of the carton with a spoon. My monitor call came through about nine-thirty that night and sort of snapped me back to reality. Other than the ice cream carton I must have been staring at nothing for the better part of the evening. I punched in my code, hit the pound sign and went to bed, not that I could get to sleep.

I must have drifted off because the ringing woke me. It was a phone, a phone close by, but I didn’t recognize the ring tone. It took a few moments to track it down, coming from my dresser, the pay-as-you-go phone. I let it ring
, it stopped on the fifth ring. I hadn’t set up any voice mail on the thing so it must have disconnected. I checked after a couple of minutes, no message, caller unknown. It was three-forty in the morning. There was only one place I’d left that number, on Doctor Death’s recording to schedule an appointment. I had said I was from Wells Fargo, attempted to disguise my voice, sounding like some banking jerk. I spent the rest of the night awake, wondering how effective my attempt had been.

I woke to the sound of
my cell-phone ringing, Sentinel Monitoring. I punched in the numbers, then pound, the thing was ringing again when I came out of the bathroom.

“Haskell Investigations.”

“Yeah Dev, Louie Laufen, I just signed off on everything and your packet is waiting to be messengered over to Manning in Homicide this morning.”

“Would it help if I ran it over there?” I glanced at my watch, nine-forty-five.

“Really bad idea, no, in fact that could only make things worse. It’ll be over there in the next hour or so. Everything checked out, so this is great news for us, but expect something, maybe all of it to be questioned initially. Once they comb through it, they’ll see how solid we are.”

“Hey, pass on my thanks to
your boy Nelson, he did a hell of a job.”

“He’s a good kid. You learn anythi
ng else that might help? I’d be more than happy to pile it on.”

“No nothing, I’ll keep looking into things
, but I haven’t come up with anything, yet. What do you think about the guy at the U?” I immediately wished I’d never asked the question about Doctor Death.

“
Kevork? What do I think? I think it’s interesting, but at this stage just hearsay. I’m not saying there isn’t something there, but Manning’s going to put it to the side until he can tie it in, solidly. By the way, that’s not necessarily a bad trait.”

“Guy
’s a prick.”

“Probably
, but he’s a straight shooting one. I know you two rub each other the wrong way, but he’s not gonna railroad you, Dev.”

“We’ll see.”

I listened to three of the KRAZ broadcasts from the safety of my office, one was worse than the next. I got home a little before six that evening, there was a note on the door from Heidi, asking me to give her a call.

“Hello,” she sounded way too cheery to have this go my way.

“Hi Heidi, Dev, got your note on my door.”

“Oh y
eah, thanks for calling.”

“Course. W
hat’s up, why didn’t you just call me?”

“Didn’t want to bother you, besides I wanted to pick out the color and get it.”

“Color?”

“Yeah, paint for my bedroom. I
need it painted, tomorrow, that is if you’ve got the time.”

She said the last part like she knew I didn’t
have much else going on.

“Time, well, yeah
, I guess. I mean, you want to think about it, do you want me to pick up paint or anything?”

“I
already told you, I picked up the paint.”

“Okay.”

“Waterbury Cream”

“Okay.”

“It’s sitting right here in the front entry. Can you be here tomorrow morning?”

“I could be over there tonight if you want,” I was thinking positive
, maybe painting with benefits.

“No.”
She sounded awfully definite.

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah, look I got a ten o’clock so be here around nine-fifteen, okay?” It wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah,
nine-fifteen.” What the hell, I had a lot to think about and could do it while I painted.

I suppose the
re is
something to be said for attacking a simple task, uninterrupted, work away, just letting one’s mind percolate. I was of the impression I could have achieved the same result staring out my office window or maybe sipping a beer. Nonetheless, I reported to Heidi’s. Her Mercedes was parked out on the street. I parked behind it and rang the doorbell promptly at nine-thirty.

“Where the hell have you been,
I told you I had an appointment this morning?”

She was dressed in
a matching pink t-shirt and tight, pink shorts, with a white belt. She wore white sandals with little jewel things on them. She carried a straw purse large enough to hide a small child inside.

“Since when do you go to client meetings dressed like that?
You going to the beach or something?”

“I didn’t say it was a client meeting.”

“Oh, what are we up to?”

“
None of your business. The paint’s in my bedroom, I’ll expect it finished and cleaned up by the end of the day. I’m entertaining tonight, so I’ll need you out of here by six.”

Heidi ripped through male partners like a chainsaw. I was her long standing fall-back
position and sometime counselor when it came to the finer points of relationships, which was a frightening thought in itself.

“
Anyone I know?”

“No.”

“Who is he?”

“I told you, none of your business,”
she said strutting down her front walk and climbing into her car.

I stood at the door watching, she climbed back out of the car, yelled at me over the rooftop. “I’m not kidding, Dev, I need you out of here by
six, no later.” She jumped in her car and raced off before I could give any sort of a wise guy answer.

The pla
ce was gleaming it was so clean. I checked her refrigerator, usually empty, but today it held a number of white carry-out food containers. The largest container held a heat and serve meal, some kind of chicken thing with sauce and peppers, another box was crammed with salad greens. There was a bake and serve loaf of french bread and some kind of fruit and chocolate desert deal. Four bottles of white wine were chilling on the bottom shelf. The dining room table was set for two, silver candle holders with red candles were placed on the table, fresh cut flowers on the cabinet. Whoever the lucky guy was, I hoped he had rested up.

Later in the afternoon I was actually
ahead of schedule and about halfway through the second coat. I had the window open, airing out what little fumes there were. The phone rang, not my cell but the pay-as-you-go. I let it ring three times, then hit the accept key, I didn’t say anything, just listened. It was quiet on the other end, except for some faint breathing. It sounded feminine, which sounds kind of crazy and that made me think, Kiki.

I remained quiet for the better part of two minutes,
straining my ears. All I heard was the breathing. I don’t think it was intentional, not heavy or rasping, not trying to intimidate me or anything, just breathing. Then from somewhere in the distant background, I heard a car honk, just a couple of beeps, whoever it was hung up. I put the phone down and thought for a few minutes.

It could have been the
U of M. Or the police, if they’d found Doctor Death. Either one might be calling in response to the bogus Wells Fargo message I’d left on his line. It could have been Farrell, I doubted it. My money was on Kiki. Whoever it was, I did know one thing, I’d been stupid to hang onto the pay-as-you-go phone and I was going to get rid of it on my way home, tonight. I got back to the business at hand, hustled and finished painting in forty-five minutes. I was just wrestling Heidi’s gigantic antique wardrobe back against the wall when I heard the kitchen door open.

“Dev, you still here?” she called. I hear
d the rustle of shopping bags coming from the kitchen.

“In here, just putting things back together.”

She appeared at the doorway and I took it all in. Her hair looked gorgeous, her nails were done, she had a new pedicure and she was nicely tanned.

“You look great, were you out in the sun?”

“No dopey, spray on, you don’t have tan lines this way.”

“You get that done before or after you
r wax?”

“Be… shut up,
you pervert.”

“Just
checking, who’s the victim?”

“The room looks great,” she said ignoring my question. “How soon can you be out of here?” She stepped
into the room, took off her earrings, placed them on her dresser, then kicked off her sandals. She unbuckled the white belt on her shorts and started to walk out of the room.

“Don’
t mind me, I’d be happy to check out that all over tan for you?”

“
Interesting offer, but umm, no thanks. I want you out of here so I can get ready,” she called from the kitchen.

I checked my watch, it was
twenty minutes before five, I was almost an hour and a half ahead of schedule.

“I’ve got a little time, I could wash your back in the shower for you, if you like?”

“No, I don’t like.” she said coming back into the room, she carried three or four shopping bags. One I recognized, bright pink, Victoria’s Secret. “How soon before you leave?” she asked.

“Hey
, I can be lots of fun. Date underwear?” I nodded at the Victoria Secret’s bag.

“
You are still on double secret probation with me, so please get out. Come on, Dev, get going, please. I’ve got a really big night planned.”

“Okay, okay, just let me carry this stuff to the basement…”

“Just leave it, I’ll take care of it and straighten up. Thanks, room looks great,” she said, moving her arms as if to shoo me out the bedroom door.

“My loss,” I said, gave her
a peck on the check. I looked wistfully at the Victoria’s Secret bag then headed toward the front door.

She followed me, like sh
e was herding sheep, just to make sure I left. “Thanks,” she said as she closed the front door behind me, then snapped the lock while I was still standing on the front porch.

My monitor call came through about eight-forty that evening. I spent the rest of the night running through the cable channels, over a hundred options and not a damn thing that interested me.

I was still wrapped
in bed sheets when my phone woke me a little before six-thirty the following morning. This was getting ridiculous. I listened for the monitor message.

“You asshole!”
That didn’t really narrow things down much, except it was a woman screaming. That still didn’t narrow things down.

“Hunh?”

“Oh shut up, you knew what would happen.”

“Mom?”

“Shut up. You figured out a way to ruin my night, didn’t you?”

“Heidi, Jesus calm down. What the hell time is it?”

“A lot later than when you’re stupid call came through, fuckwit.”

“What are you screaming about? God can you just tone it down for
a minute and tell me what happened?” I was still half asleep.

“What happened? Y
ou hid that stupid little phone under my bed, then had one of your fake boob, slutty, stripper girlfriends call, didn’t you?”

“I honestly don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? This isn’t yours? A navy blue and shinny…”

Shit
, my pay-as-you-go phone.

“…
some drunk slut called and then just sat there breathing not saying a fucking thing.”

“That’s my phone
, but I didn’t leave it there on purpose, honest. In fact I’d planned to get rid of the thing.”

“Well, not to worry,
I’m gonna smash it. Course it serves you right, by the third time she called I let her have it.”

My mind was spinning so fast with questions I didn’t know which one to ask first.

“She got the message,” Heidi snarled.

I had no doubt
.

“What did you, no wait, Heidi, back up and tell me from the start what happened.”

“What do you think happened? The first call came through a little after one, right in the middle, it interrupted us, totally ruined the moment.”

“Sorry.”

“I got things back on track after about twenty minutes then the second call came in. I…”

“Did you say anything?”

“You mean like hello? Like a normal person would? Yes,” she said, she was calming a little, I think.

“Then what?”

“Whoever she was on the other end, the stupid cow still didn’t say a fucking thing, but I could hear her breathing. So I just hung up.”

“How do you know it was a her?”

“What, you going both ways all of a sudden, having guys call you in the middle of the night?”

“No,
of course not, but why do you think it was a woman?”

“I just
know, Dev, okay. Anyway, now I’ve got to do some heavy duty explaining. Idiot Robbie thinks it might be a boyfriend or something and…”

“Robbie?”

“That’s who I was with.”

“Was he over eighteen?
”

“
Not funny, and stop interrupting, it’s none of your damn business, anyway. So I’m trying to get him calmed down, explain the phone belonged to you, you’d been working here during the day, the God damn thing rings again and I go ballistic.”

I’ve been on the receiving end of Heidi going ballistic, it’s not a fun place to be.

“I pick up the phone and just let the bitch have it. I screamed, he’s not here bitch, Dev Haskell isn’t here, but before he left I fucked out what little brains he had. Then she hangs up, so there you go, you’ll probably have a lot of explaining to do. I can only hope.”

So much for subtle.

“You okay?” I asked, it was more rhetorical than anything else. If it was Kiki, she’d gotten whatever confirmation she may have wanted. If it was the cops, they probably had my house surrounded.

“Yeah, I guess
, sort of.”

“I’m sorry Heidi, I didn’t do it on purpose. You know I hadn’t finished cleaning up
, and you whisked me out of there so damn fast. I guess I just left the thing laying around. I didn’t mean to, honest.”

“So who is she?”

I ignored her question, playing for time.

“How did Robbie take it, did he get back in the saddle?”

“Very funny, not. No, as a matter of fact he got dressed and got back in his car.”

Probably had an eight o’clock class where
ver he went to high school, but I kept that thought to myself.

“Oh, I’m really sorry, Heidi, really I am.” Served her right I thought, what a bitchy thing to do, still…

“Ahhh, he wasn’t that great.”

“Make it up to you?” I asked.

“Not today, I’m still really pissed off at you. You mean it though you really didn’t leave it under my bed on purpose?”

“No
, believe me, it’s a long story. I was planning to get rid of the thing, and just completely forgot about it when you shoved me out the door.”

“Well there you go, that leaves two of us unsatisfied. Hey, I gotta run,
client meeting later this morning.”

“Wait, can I get that phone back from you?”

“I’ll leave the damn thing inside my back door. But I’m warning you, if it’s there by the time I get back home, I’m trashing it, got it?”

“Yeah, got it.”