Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (31 page)

I was barely into my story before Manning appeared. I was giving the long version,
playing for time,
starting at the
very beginning.
I’d barely gotten to cooling my heels in the women’s locker ro
om
last week during the practice
between the Hustlers and
the
Bombshells.

Both uniformed officers suddenly appeared very
cautious in front of Manning.

He
had
arrived
with a bit of an entourage,
two more officers, one a sergeant,
not Security Sergeant Wayne. The
blonde
,
female
detective that
had been in the interview room a while back
followed the two officers
. I couldn’
t remember her name, but M
annin
g took ca
re of that.

“You’ve
already
met Detective Schumacher,” he said, by way of reintroduction while not giving away any details
to the others
. He
didn’t bother to introduce the two uniformed officers who’d arrived with him. He busied himself taking a
long time looking ar
ound my
p
enthouse
s
uite, since his department
, compliments of the SWAT team
, was picking up the tab
I thought that seemed
okay.

Coffee arrived, along with a large tray of doughnuts and sweet rolls. Manning
shot me a glance then
went for the tray without missing a
beat, he took a large bite from some sort of caramel affair and seemed to be lost in thought as he chewed.

“We were still processing the scene over at the Veteran’s Auditorium, when I got LaZelle’s call,” he said
once he swallowed. He
wiped his hands on a cloth napkin,
then glanced at Emma tied to the bed
post
.

She seemed to think
better about d
emanding to see someone from the
embassy.

Manning
studied her for a moment then
turned
back to the assembled group although he
seemed to be talking for my benefit.

“We were processing an incident in the locker
room, the Hustler’s locker room,
”
he said and awaited my reaction.

“Really?” I acted surprised, and got the distinct feeling Manning was in the process of reasses
sing the information he’
d
already
compiled
.

Eventually he nodded at me and his
blue eyes seemed to bore through my thick skull.

“The girls beat up some other innocent in the h
allway?” I asked, trying to move things from inside the locker room.

“Something along those lines.” Manning
didn’t go into any
further detail. He set his coffee
down, then
looked me in the eye. “So what you got here?”

I told him my story, starting with our walk over to the Veteran’s Auditorium and Heidi suddenly becoming the world’s biggest Lionel Richie fan. I left out the part ab
out putting the tickets on the p
enthouse room charge. I f
orgot to mention my little trip down to the Hustler’s locker roo
m or shooting a T
aser into Sergeant Wayne’s
fat ass. I didn’t
see any point in
mention
ing I told
Destiny to clear
out the bar in the private box.

I did mention Heidi drinking a little too much after a long, tiring day. So
ft pedaled a little when it came to wheeling her out on the
two wheeled dolly
. T
hen
I
launched into Emma Bitch
coming out of the dark and
shoving a pistol in my ribs, threatening to kil
l both of us and appearing
desperate to get away from the Veteran’s Auditorium.
I told Manning that along the way Emma
dropped her
l
ine about stuffing a
finger “in with all those bits and pieces and paint cans”.

Manning nodded, said, “That would explain the finger from her purse, tonight in the locker room
,
”
b
ut didn’t go into any further detail
.

“Finger
?
From
her purse?”
I asked.

“Tha
t t
he dolly there?” Manning
said, ignoring my question and pointing
toward the red
,
two wheel
ed dolly next to the
bed. The words ‘Veteran’s Auditoriu
m’ were stenciled in black
letter
s across
the back.

“The red two wh
eeled one, yeah. The other dolly, the one
in bed
,
is Heidi,” I
joked. Manning looked at me, but
didn’t smile, blue eyes back to laser
s. Schumacher never
even
blink
ed s
he
just stood in the background,
I could
n’t
tell if she was even breathing.

Manning finally nodded, glanced over at Emma,
and
then sa
id to the uniformed s
ergeant, “P
lace her under arrest, read her, her rights
,
and
then put her in a holding cell. We’ll move her to an interview room once we get down there.”

Aaron walked in just as Manning went
over and stood in front of Emma.

“Miss Bard, we’re
going to place you under arrest. For the moment we’re charging you with kidnapping and I’m also tacking on use of a fire arm in the commission of a crime
which makes everything a bit more serious in this state
. There most likely
will be more charges to follow,” he said.

Emma looked as if she was going to say something, but Manning’s bald head started to go crimson and he held his hand up like he was stopping traffic.

“I’m aware you’re a British citizen, we’ll get in touch with the Consulate down in
Chicago
in the morning. Okay, Sergeant,” he said,
and
then returned to the rest of us as the
uniforms moved
.

The fo
ur uniforms surrounded Emma, Andretta
was on his knees, handcuffing her before he untied her. In short order she was
pulled up
on her fee
t and led out of the room. The S
ergeant was reading her rights as the
y
walked past. Her head was bowed, shoulders slumped and she appeared a substantiall
y paler shade than just a few moments
earlier. An officer
walked ahead of her, one each held her arms, the S
ergeant followed behind
. The hotel security guys walk
ed
out behind
them.

“So,” Aaron asked, looking from Manning to me and then back to Manning.

Manning gave a shrug of his shoulders.
“
Look
’
s like she might well be responsible for the death of Fiona Simmons.
I just want to keep everything contained until we’ve an airtight case,” he said.

Aaron nodded.

Manning turned to me. “We’ll need a statement from you and Miss,” he glanced toward the four poster
bed
where Heidi was snoring softly.

“Miss Bauer, Heidi Bauer. In all honesty, she’s been passed out the entire time.”

“But yet she somehow managed to knock Miss Bard unconscious?” Manning asked.

“Yeah, it was a reaction to being slapped on the ass.”

“Slapped on the ass?” Aaron said.

“Come here,” I said and they followed me over to the bed where Heidi sno
red. I pulled the covers back. S
he seemed to react somewhat, snorted once or twice,
and
then went back to her rhythmic snoring. Her rear was
more
exposed
than not
and
there was the unmistakable deeper red shape of a hand,
with
maybe just the beginnings of purple
along the edge.

“Enlightening,” Manning said, then looked up at me and smiled
,
genuinely.

“I’m s
till going to need a stat
ement from you, and Miss Bauer, possibly a photograph from her as well.”

“Photograph?”

“Of her bruise,” Manning smiled. “
You can cover her up now, by the way, thank you,” he said.

I pulled the bed covers back over Heidi.

“
Alright
, it
’
s late,
after two,” Manning said, checking his watch. “Why don’t you plan on showing up
at nine-thirty tomorrow morning
with Miss Bauer. We’ll take your statements at that time. I’d better get down there and begin processing Miss Bard. For the record, Haskell, I appreciate your help. Nice digs,” he said looking around the suite.

“Glad I was able to help, detective,” I said
,
and extended my hand.
He took it and gave me a firm shake, then
thanked
Aaron for the
earlier call
and
left with Detective Schumacher in tow.

“She ever do any
thing like smile or suggest she was alive and breathing
,” I said, once they left.

“Who, Schuey? She’s okay,
she can be
a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, sure she can
.”

“Alright, let me echo what Manning said, thanks for the call. Looks like this might well get a headache or two off everyone’s plate.”

I attempted to
gently
wake
Heidi
by shaking her
ankle
around
eight-thirty
the following
morning
.

“
Ughhh
,
don’t
touch me
,” she groaned.

“Come on, I’ve got vodka and orange
juice
all set up
for
your
breakfa
st
screwdriver
,”
I said.

It
was like waiting for a
fuse delay on an explosive charge. She laid there, twitched her nose once or twice then seemed to levitate and fly into the bathroom all in one fluid motion. I pulled the door closed as she began to retch into the toilet bowl. It was a good fifteen minutes before she exi
ted the bathroom and started to crawl back
in
to
bed, to tell the truth she wasn’t looking all that hot.

“
Feeling better? Heidi, come on, d
on’t go back to bed, we’ve got a n
ine-thirty appointment.”

“You know what you can do with your
nine-thirty
appointment,” she sai
d, crawling across the bed
.

“I’ve already done that, thank you. Come on, I’m not kidding
,
we have to be down at the police station at nine-thirty.”

“The police, now what did
you do? And why do I have to go?
Forget it, you’re on your own,
”
she was in the pr
ocess of pulling the covers
over her
head. I came alongside and began to pull the covers
back down.

“Get away from me
and let me go back to sleep. I think
I’ve got food poisoning
or something, I feel like shit
, my heads killing me
and
I hurt my hand
, somehow.
God, what did you do to me?
”

“Yeah, that’
s right
Heidi,
I did something to you. O
h
wait,
I forgot,
its
food poisoning.
Must have been the five-star—
meal room service brought up last night.
Come on, get up, you have to get dressed so we can go down there and make a statement, both of us.”