Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (37 page)

“I’m sorry I pooped out on you last night,” I heard her say from the bathroom.

“I was going to molest you in your sleep, but I guess I was tired too,” I replied.

“You mean to say you didn’t make mad passionate love to me last night? I could have sworn you did. Oh, wait that was Eric, my dream lover.” She gave me a toothy smile and went to get her jewelry from the dresser.

“You know, I’m hearing way too much about this Eric. We need to discuss who this Eric is. An old boyfriend? An ex-husband, one of three you’ve had? I’ve never asked about your exes because I don’t really need to know about my predecessors. I hate competing with ghosts.” I was almost dressed now, just sliding into my shoes.

She came to me, gave me a big tonsil-searching kiss, and said, “You have nothing to worry about ghosts. I don’t see dead people, and I’m not a ghost whisperer. You are here now, but just leave Eric alone, and I won’t forbid you to think of Pixie every time you hear ‘Lady’ by Styx.” She smiled that wicked little smile and went off to the bathroom again. I put Eric out of my mind. Thinking of Pixie, I smiled.

We finished getting ready, went down to the quick buffet, and had breakfast. On the road, I asked if Lynn said anything about the two men from last night. She said Lynn would cover all that when we got there. We pulled into Metro and parked, went into the front and ran into the same desk officer from the last two times I was there.

He smiled and said, “You’re getting to be a fixture around here, P.I., but at least this time you brought the pretty half of your team.” He smiled at Penny and called Lynn. We waited a few minutes then Lynn came out and took us back to her office. Deacon was sitting in the corner looking tired. I asked him if he got any sleep. He looked at Lynn and said, not much. They both grinned, and I said I didn’t want to hear it.

Penny and I sat at the desk, and Lynn took out some papers and said she had the statement drawn up from what had happened last night. We just had to sign it. We did, and then I proceeded to tell her about Aaron and my thoughts on his connection to the kidnapping. Lynn asked for more information on Aaron and where he could be found. I told her. She got on the phone and requested a car be sent to pick up Aaron for questioning in a kidnapping and gave the officer his location.

She asked if we wanted to watch as she burned a couple of asses. We all got up, and the four of us went into observation. I told Deacon we had to stop meeting there. He grinned. From the observation room we could see the two low lifes sitting in the room. Lynn opened her folder and read from it.

“The turkey on the left is Frank Borkowitz, convicted drug dealer and gun runner, served two years, paroled three months ago for good behavior. That was just shot to hell. The other is Larry Lawrence, minor drug dealer, out after serving 18 months.

I looked at Lynn and said, “Larry Lawrence? Lawrence Lawrence? His parents were cruel.”

She laughed and said, “They both were part of a drug dealing gang up in North Vegas that was busted up about a year ago. We believe they have been regrouping on the side, but we haven’t found any connection to their drug source. Possibly Nick has become that source through Arizona.”

“The plot thickens,” I said.

“Now the fun begins,” Lynn said and left the room. A minute later she entered the interrogation room followed by a rather large cop. We could hear her through the speakers saying that Larry was being taken to another room and was to wait. The cop took Larry out of the room, and Lynn sat across from Frank.

“Frank, you just get out of jail and you go and do something stupid like kidnapping. Why?”

He sat there, saying nothing. She continued, “We can sit here all day playing games or I can go see if Larry will spill the beans and cut a deal before you. Maybe he’ll even get off with a slap on the wrist if he gives us a few names of the people behind the kidnapping and the drug connection.” She threw in that last to get a rise out of him. It did.

“Hey, I was told we could make a few bucks to grab the TV woman and drop her off in the desert. Nothing about killing her, just losing her for a while. I don’t question cash. Larry and I went to scout out the convention and found the broad, then we waited for her to come out. I should sue that animal for yanking me out of the van. This whole thing had nothing to do with any drug deal as far as I know. Names, I can’t give. I don’t know anyone,” he said, speaking quickly.

“How about Aaron Goldman? Know him?” Lynn asked.

“Aaron? Yeah, I’ve heard of him. Friend of a friend. He’s a weasely kind of guy that I heard has some connection to the new drug operation.”

“New drug operation? What’s that, Frank?”

“The old Sixth Street gang was busted up by you cops, and now they’re getting it back together again. I don’t know the details, just things I’ve heard. The word is, some big name in town is setting them up with a new supplier for their drugs. I’m not getting my throat cut by saying any more.” He sat quietly.

“OK, Frank, that’s the way you want it, I’m going to talk to Larry now.” She got up and headed for the door.

Frank called out, “Talk to Fritz Donner. That’s the only name I can give you, but it didn’t come from me, understand?”

I remembered a Fritz in Wallace’s appointment book. Must be the same, not many Fritzes around.

“I think you know more about this than you let on, Frank. You can save us a lot of time and get a little less jail time for yourself by opening up.” She stood for a minute. Frank said nothing, then he smiled but still said nothing.

Lynn went out and came to us. “Maybe Aaron can fill us in a little more once we have him in here. Follow me to the other observation room.” She led us down the hall to another door and sent us in. It was no different from the other room. We looked through the two-way mirror at Larry-Larry as I was now thinking of him.

Lynn entered, sat across from Larry and smiled at him. “So you’re the brains behind this kidnapping, eh, Larry?”

He looked at her as if wondering what she was talking about. “I ain’t got no brains behind this,” he said.

“OK, you have no brains or you aren’t the brains behind the kidnapping, both the same to me. Frank gave us a good deal of information about what went down last night and its connection to the new sixth street gang.” She was dealing out her cards face down.

Larry looked shaken by her statement. “He’s crazy if he told you anything about that. Fritz would whack him if he did,” he said in a panic.

“Frank told us about Fritz, but wouldn’t tell us where we could find him. Frank wasn’t real cooperative. Maybe if you could fill in the details, we could go easy on you and the kidnapping charges.”

Larry sat a minute quietly then said, “I don’t want no knife in my heart, lady. Fritz is a stone cold killer, and I don’t want to be one of his victims.” He shivered.

Lynn heard the knife reference and played another card. “Larry, we suspect Fritz may have stabbed a couple of women in the last year. Heard anything about that?”

He looked around nervously and said in a whisper, “I don’t know which women were killed, but I did hear he took care of a couple of problem women getting in the way of his drug dealings. One last year and one recently.”

Lynn smiled when he said that. “Do you come in contact with Fritz at all, Larry? Did he call you about the kidnapping last night?”

“Nah, we got called by one of his sergeants, some guy named Aaron. He arranged the grab. We were supposed to dump her far out in the desert, but nothing about killing her. We ain’t no murderers.”

I felt a chill, knowing Aaron was in on it. Penny took my hand and held it.

“Where were you supposed to pick up your pay for the grab, Larry?” Lynn asked.

“We were supposed to get it later tonight at the Pink Slipper, where Aaron works.” He was loose now with the details.

“Great, Larry. Now who is the connection with the drugs, this big name guy Frank mentioned?”

“I don’t know who that would be. They don’t tell me much. I’m sure Fritz would know, but you won’t get close to Fritz. He’s good at hiding.”

“Yes, Larry, I’m sure he is. Do you know how big this new gang is?”

“I know that there are about six people in it now. I guess that’s all I know.” He wasn’t the brightest bulb, but he looked like he was telling the truth. “Fritz is the boss, and he has his lieutenants and his sergeants, and he runs it like an army. I’m a private.”   

“Any other names you can think of, Larry?”

“Nope, just the ones I told ya.”

Lynn saw he didn’t have much more information so she thanked him and left the room. He sat there smiling until a cop came and took him back to his cell. I almost felt sorry for him. Penny asked if he was the one she bashed, and I said he was. She said she hoped she didn’t do any brain damage to him. I laughed and said I didn’t think so. Lynn came into our room and said she checked and they couldn’t find Aaron at the strip club. No one had seen him since last night. They’d keep looking for him.

Penny said she had to go to work. I asked Deacon to help me with a project today and he said he’d be available, so we said our good-byes and I took her out to the car. We headed to the convention center and found Buck and Maria already there, so we all went in and got Penny set up in her booth.

I told Buck everything we went through that morning and asked him to keep Penny under constant watch even though I felt there would be no more attempts on her life. I didn’t want to slack off now. I left them and went back to Metro, calling Deacon before I got there. He met me in the parking lot. He climbed in, and we headed down Paradise Road, back to the Pink Slipper. I pulled around to the back by the delivery dock and parked by a dumpster.

“OK, Aaron couldn’t know that we’ve got his idiots in custody unless he has people inside Metro. I hope not. They came to get Aaron earlier, but he wasn’t here. He may have been off doing some business or whatever. My guess is he’ll come back. He has a tiger to take care of, and he doesn’t want to lose his investment. So we’ll sit out back here and wait to see if he comes in.” I was doing a lot of second guessing Aaron and hoped he wouldn’t want to lose his prize pet. The club hadn’t opened yet, but there was a small crew cleaning the inside.  A van sat out back, emblazoned with “Morose Cleaning Services” on the side. Deacon and I sat talking about life and love in general and our adventures in Vegas.

“So do you think this thing you got going with Lynn is something to settle down for?” I asked.

“I don’t know. This is all new to me. I haven’t really had someone in my life for way too long. I guess I was so wrapped up in crime fighting I didn’t feel like involving a woman in that life. It’s hard. But Lynn is in that life and understands the good and the bad of being a cop. She’s quite a woman, both with a badge and in a sexy nighty.” He blushed when he realized what he said. I laughed.

Thinking about Penny, I said, “When you have someone who fits you like a glove, you hang onto that person. Penny means so much to me, I’d go nuts if anything happened to her now.”

As we were talking, a Toyota pulled in and dropped off Aaron at the back door. Deacon and I slid down and watched carefully as Aaron went inside while the Toyota waited. Deacon got on his cell and called Lynn, explaining that we found Aaron and were observing. She said she’d be there shortly and don’t do anything stupid. I looked at Deacon and said, when did we do anything stupid? He grinned. Aaron came out with a backpack and got into the Toyota. The car pulled out, and we followed it over to Maryland Parkway until it got to the Boulevard Mall just north of Flamingo Road. Deacon called Lynn again and explained we were tailing Aaron and where we were presently.

The Toyota parked, and Aaron got out. We parked nearby and followed him into the mall. He had the backpack with him. Deacon was in communication with Lynn as we followed Aaron around the mall to the food court. He went to a table that had two men seated at it, set the backpack down next to one of the men and turned back. Deacon said there were four patrol cars out front, and two had the Toyota surrounded. Lynn and four officers ran into the mall and over to the food court. I saw them coming, but so did Aaron. He ran off down the side hallway. I yelled to Deacon to detain the two men with the bag and dashed after Aaron. Deacon ran up with his service revolver out, flashing his badge, just as Lynn and her troops rounded the corner.