Chasing Ghosts (6 page)

“
The guy is unknown and so far no one
misses him.” Dagger grabbed the carafe of coffee and two cups and
set them on the table. “Skizzy has been running the guy’s prints
through AFIS but so far he hasn’t had a hit.”

“
So you don’t know how he knew Cardinal
Esrey or why he had him in his crosshairs?”

“
Not yet.”

Simon reached into his back pocket and pulled
out a page from the Society section of the local newspaper.
“Thought you might find this interesting, could get yourself an
invite.” He tossed the page across the table. “The Tyler and Monroe
families are hosting a dinner for Cardinal Esrey at the Tyler
estate.”

Monroe was another of the few elite families
in Cedar Point. Leyton Monroe owned a multitude of newspapers
across the country including Cedar Point’s Daily Herald. Sheila,
Dagger’s former fiancée, was his daughter. The safest thing would
be to go with Sara. Not that he didn’t trust himself around his ex,
but Sheila usually behaved herself when Sara was with him.
Unfortunately, he had other plans for Sara. While the cardinal was
busy at the Tyler’s and Dagger was there to keep an eye on him,
Sara could search the cardinal’s hotel room.

Luther and Padre picked up burgers from a
drive-through and parked in the cool shade of the stacked parking
garage at the shopping mall. Here they could be away from the
prying eyes and ears of fellow workers.

“
DNA?” Padre asked.

“
That will take a few days. Blood is B
positive, got some intact fingers.” Luther handed Padre a report
with prints from four of the fingers. “No scars or markings on any
of the slivers of remains we found. No abnormalities in the bones
or skull fragments. Wore silk socks.” Luther smiled. “Light
blue.”

Padre glared at the medical examiner as he
sipped soda through a straw. “I want to hear how he blew up.”

“
If it was a bomb, as you say, and only
in the neck, as you say, then he would have only lost his head. We
should have found an intact torso. I haven’t a clue how it was
done, maybe some explosive liquid in his pocket. Maybe he set
himself on fire. Either way, his entire body appeared to vaporize.
But, again, don’t ask me how that is possible. It’s a little too
high tech for me.”

Padre chewed his burger slowly. There was a
lot of truth to the saying that some people can’t think and chew at
the same time. High tech was synonymous with Dagger. “You think
someone shot him with some type of vaporizer gun? Saw that on CSI.
Makes more sense, right?”

Luther wadded up the empty burger wrapper and
tossed it in a bag. “Like I said, little too high tech for me but
I’m working on it. It’s a little tough to make phone calls and ask
people. They will want to know the whys and the wherefores. Only
thing I know is I would never want to meet this guy’s boss. He
knows how to keep his people in line.”

“
Find any kind of housing or metal that
might have been in or on his body?”

Luther shook his head no. “Not in the bits
and pieces we found. We can always go back down there and have
another look around.”

“
No, thanks. I’m done deep-sea diving.”
Padre gathered up the empty containers and handed them to Luther.
As the medical examiner walked over to a trash container, Padre
thought, Damnit, Dagger. What the hell are you into this
time?

Sara set the phone down. “I feel really
stupid, Dagger. They will know something is up. I never call
Nick.”

“
Never?”

“
No. I’m not a love-sick puppy who
follows him around like the rest of the women.”

Dagger was glad to hear that. Plan B. “Guess
I could just call Sheila and ask if she needs a date.” He watched
for her reaction. Not a hint of jealousy there. Maybe Sara didn’t
care. Then he saw her right eyebrow twitch.

“
Won’t it be a little crowded with
Detective Spagnola sitting on one side of her?”

“
Oh, is she still dating
him?”

Joe Spagnola was a homicide detective Sheila
had latched onto after she and Dagger had broken up. Dagger didn’t
follow Sheila’s every move but as far as he knew they were still
dating.

The phone rang and the caller negated any
need for Dagger to find a creative way to wrestle an invite to the
cardinal’s dinner.

“
Dagger, Robert Tyler here.” The voice
was broadcaster-smooth and refined.

“
Mister Tyler. How is
everyone?”

Dagger had helped out the Tyler family during
a very public case involving his daughter-in-law, the murder of
Tyler’s very young second wife, and stolen diamonds. It had gotten
messy pretty fast and revealed a gambling problem his oldest son
had as well as his youngest son’s drinking problem. Now it was just
the three men, one grandson, and Lily, the housekeeper.

“
Just fine,” Robert replied. “What
about you?”

“
Oh, it’s just one explosive thing
after another.”

Sara rolled her eyes.

“
Not sure if you read in the paper that
we are hosting a dinner for Cardinal Esrey,” Robert explained.
“Although I hired security at the doors and the parking lot, I
thought having you at the dinner table could add some closer
security for the cardinal without him being aware of it. Are you
free Friday night? You could bring Sara.”

“
Unfortunately, Sara isn’t available
Friday night but I would be pleased to join the dinner
party.”

Sara motioned to herself, her face revealing
hurt and anger.

“
What time would you like me
there?”

“
Cocktails are at six. Come around five
and we can catch up on old times.”

“
See you then.” Dagger hung up with a
smile until he noticed Sara’s stance, arms folded tightly across
her waist, eyes drilling him with a laser stare. “I have other
plans for you.”

“
What? Eating a grilled cheese while
you have lobster and filet?”

“
You don’t eat red meat. What I want
you to do is get into the cardinal’s hotel suite. Find one of the
maid outfits, have a look around, plant some bugs.”

“
Hmmm. That certainly sounds more
interesting than listening to Sheila all night. What if he has a
guard outside the room who insists on following me into the
suite?”

“
Then you may have to get creative.”
Dagger winked. The printer at Dagger’s desk started
humming.

“
Yo, Dagger.” Skizzy’s voice bellowed
from the computer speakers.

“
What did you find?”

“
Decrypted a couple Emails in the
laptop. It used a very old cipher code created by the Greeks. They
used something called a Polybius Square that kinda looks like a
five-by-five checkerboard. Number it one through five at the top,
same on the side, then run your alphabet A through Z…”

“
Break it down, Skizzy. I’m aging as we
speak.”

“
Some lady by the name of Connie sent
Emails detailing Cardinal Esrey’s travel plans, plane, hotel,
dates, times. An Email from Demko to Connie states the amount of
security planned for the cardinal and asks how he should proceed.
They tell him to hire someone local to get close, someone who would
be a dupe. Use and dispose is how they termed it.”

“
Use and dispose.” Dagger didn’t like
the sound of that. “Was Demko supposed to report in?”

“
His last communication was what I just
said. He never reported to them whether he found anyone. There
wasn’t a mention of your name. But obviously when he didn’t report
in, it must have made them suspicious.”

“
Did they give a deadline?”

“
He was supposed to report in by ten in
the morning. Instead I showed him booking a flight to
Vancouver.”

Dagger thought about that for a few seconds.
Obviously someone was monitoring Demko’s whereabouts. Would that
someone know Demko had been at Sara’s house? “It’s a little risky
eliminating their man just because he hadn’t reported in. What if
he had been in the middle of a shopping center?”

“
Coulda been a timer, you know, so much
time after he expired. Unless they were watching him,” Skizzy said.
“Big Brother and all.”

Dagger didn’t like the sound of that. After
ending his conversation with Skizzy, Dagger gathered the papers off
the printer and carried them into the Florida room. Stair-step
tables were lined up in front of the windows where flowering plants
were on full display. A large paddle fan droned overhead. It was
five hundred square feet of quarry-tiled floor and floral cushioned
furniture. Dagger had built it from the ground up. Carpenter
projects were his best release valves.

He turned his attention to the papers,
thinking it would start with a biography of Cardinal Michael Esrey.
It didn’t. Other than the cardinal’s current travel plans, the only
biography Dagger had was the one Sara had printed from her Google
search. His suspicious mind started questioning the cardinal’s true
identity. All Dagger had to do was snatch a wine glass the cardinal
touches and, as a backup, have Sara pick up some prints from the
hotel room. That was their only starting point.

His mind drifted to Demko. Why did he seek
him out specifically? There were other P.I.’s in the area. The more
he thought about it, though, he realized they were all
high-profile. Their pictures were on billboards, smiling up at you
from restaurant placemats, on flyers posted at the local grocery
store. Someone would get suspicious if any of them were found dead.
But most people knew little about Dagger. His clients were all word
of mouth. His obituary would be a tiny blurb buried near the
classifieds.

And then there was the cardinal. Dagger
studied the face. Could he be wrong? Did Esrey only resemble
someone from Dagger’s past? Why were some people he had killed so
fresh in his mind but Esrey was a blur? There wasn’t anything in
the cardinal’s past that even hinted at corruption or misconduct.
Maybe…Dagger shook the thought from his head. That was too bizarre
to even contemplate. But the thought nagged at him, kept pushing
its way to the forefront until he gave it some structure.

Maybe it wasn’t the cardinal’s past that had
him targeted. It could possibly be his future.

CHAPTER 8

Mansion didn’t quite describe the size of
Robert Tyler’s home. Castle was a better term, Dagger had always
thought. The grounds were manicured, the evergreens shaped to
resemble animals. Fountains sprayed and pools bubbled. The veranda
where Dagger stood offered a great view of the Tyler boat dock in
the distance, the stables off to the right. This side of the house
faced east. Dagger could only imagine what kind of sunrises they
enjoyed. Then his thoughts drifted to Sara. She would hate living
in a house this size with servants and high-profile elites drifting
in and out. Or would she? The house didn’t have rooms…it had wings.
The ballroom had held many gala events including a post-election
party for the Indiana governor several years ago. There were
groundskeepers, a cleaning service, a limo driver whose
responsibilities included washing all of the Tyler vehicles.
Captains were hired whenever Tyler took the yacht out on Lake
Michigan. A stable master kept the horses groomed. Yes, Sara would
definitely hate it here.

“
Dagger, there you are.” Robert Tyler
stepped out onto the veranda and handed Dagger a beer. “Cardinal
Esrey will be coming down in a few minutes.” Robert rested one
elbow on the railing and watched the guests in the sitting
room.

Dagger figured Robert was so used to the
grounds that he now took them for granted. Even his string of
resorts ran like clockwork so there wasn’t a need for him to travel
that much. Robert’s tanned skin showed few lines which had Dagger
wondering if the man recently had a facelift. His hair appeared
thicker and more silver. Hair plugs? Was Robert trolling for wife
number three? He had always been trim and in excellent shape but
having an in-home gym with a weight trainer visiting three times a
week would keep anyone in shape.

“
I’m sorry Sara couldn’t make it. She
is a lovely young woman.” Robert studied his manicured fingers.
“She would be a catch for any man, don’t you think?”

Dagger gave a hint of a grimace which he
hoped looked like a smile. Maybe Nick was the wrong Tyler he should
keep an eye on.

Sara shoved her shorts and top into the gym
bag and stashed it in the supply cabinet in the women’s washroom.
The hardest part was trying to shove all of her hair under the
short red wig. The gray and white uniform fit loosely but it was
all she could get her hands on in such short notice. She had worn
her own gym shoes so hopefully she wouldn’t run into a member of
management who would notice her lack of adherence to dress
code.

Next she put on tinted glasses, more to hide
her eyes than anything else. Her eyes were an unusual color and
would be the first thing people would remember. She looked at her
reflection in the mirror. This would do. The uniform was large
enough to hide her curves and she wasn’t wearing anything that was
too eye-catching to be memorable.

She pulled on latex gloves and walked out of
the second floor restroom and down the hall to a red house phone.
She dialed the cardinal’s suite and listened while it rang several
times. After it went unanswered for a full minute, Sara hung up.
With luck, his entire entourage was with him at the Tyler
residence.

A map on the wall near the employee entrance
pointed out the location of all the supply rooms. One was on the
floor just below the Presidential Suites. She didn’t know how
Skizzy did it but he made her a master key card for the Ritz so she
didn’t have to try to steal one from a cleaning cart.