Last Shot (Dev Haskell - Private Investigator, Book 6) (9 page)

“Don’t believe everything
you see on TV or in the movies. Most of what I do is very boring.”

“”I’ll bet,” she said
, then flashed her eyes over the rim of her Latte.

“Your stage name is Brandi.
” I said it as a statement, not a question.

She nodded, sipp
ed, then said, “Yeah, at least at Nasty’s. I’m Kellie at Lickety Splits, Desire at the Beaver Hut, and Temptation at Buns and Roses. Then I’ve got a whole different bunch of names when I’m on the road. It makes for more bookings. Did you catch me last night?”

“I saw the beginning…
you and the hobby horse, but not much more. I was in the process of talking to Moana when I was asked to leave.”

She smiled and took anoth
er sip. “Oh yeah, Moana. How’d that go? That girl has some issues.”

“You
think? Anyway, enough about Moana tell me what you know about Desi.”

“Desi…
well, unfortunately, I’m afraid it’s not that lightening bolt you mentioned. She was worried someone was watching her, following her. She mentioned it to me a couple of times. Again, nothing definitive…at least that I’m aware of. Just a feeling she had.”

“She mention w
ho she thought might be following her or why?”

“No
, unfortunately. I know she had Benny walk her to her car a few rimes, but we all do that from time to time. Just comes with the territory, so it’s really not all that unusual. Although, now that you mention it she made a casual remark one night about running into an ex, but she never said anything beyond that.”

“An ex?”

“I took it to mean an ex-boyfriend, husband, lover…you know, someone like that. But it was a throw away line. Matter of fact I think I probably started it. Some guy I used to date came in drunk and acting like a total jerk so they threw him out.”

“
Well, I know how that goes.”

“No, that wasn’t your fault
last night. Anyway, I was feeling embarrassed about this idiot who came in and Desi was her usual nice self. Said she’d run into her ex a day or two before on the street and he was a jerk, too. Pretended he didn’t know her, couldn’t wait to get away from her. That sort of thing.”

“Did she tell you
where this happened?”

Marsha
seemed to think for a moment, then shook her head. “Not that I can recall, except that it was on the street. The way she said it made me think it was a surprise to both of them, not like some guy was stalking her and she caught him.”

“She ever mention her private life?”

“No, not really. I’m not aware of her dating anyone or working, if that’s what you mean.”

“Working?” I asked.

“You know, getting paid for a date, escorting, whatever you want to call it.”

“There a lot of that going on?”

Marsha seemed to eye me cautiously for a moment then stared into the distance. “You look like you know what happens in this business. You swear you’ll never do it, but then there’s a guy with some money…he may even be cute and you’ve got the rent due or a car payment. You get paid and he gets a smile on his face. No problems, no strings attached. Sometimes I even enjoy the moment,” she said very matter of fact.

“Did Desi
ever mention anything about being an architect?”

“Actually
, I never knew anything about that until I heard it on the news the other night. I was pretty surprised.”

“Did s
he ever mention a guy named Gas or Gaston?”

“No, other than the one comme
nt about running into her ex, nothing remotely along those lines. Like I said, I never knew if it was a husband or a boyfriend or who she ran into. She never mentioned a name.” Marsha smiled and seemed to laugh at a private joke.

“Something funny?”

“I’m just thinking of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, the Disney movie. It was one of my favorites as a kid. Gaston is the handsome, strong hero of the village and everyone wants to get him into their bed except Belle. Everyone thinks he’s so wonderful, but he turns out to be the real villain.”

“Get him into their bed? I gue
ss Disney’s changed from what I remember.”

“Well
, they sort of put the little girl spin on it, but we catch on a lot sooner than guys do. We have to.”

“Yeah
.”

“Anyway, I really wish I had more to tell you. I don’t know if I helped
, but Desi was really nice and she was especially nice to me. I’m gonna miss her.”

“How so?”

“Oh, nothing dramatic. I just needed my hand held and she did it. It was sweet. She didn’t want anything, didn’t ask for anything. She was just a nice person and she sure didn’t deserve what happened to her. I just wish I had that lightening bolt you mentioned. Sorry.” She gave a big shrug and a number of heads turned for a quick follow-up glance.

“
Marsha, I really appreciate your help. Here,” I said, pushing a card across the table. “You think of anything else give me a call, anything.”

“I just
wish I could help you out more,” she said.

“I buy
the coffee next time,” I said as she stood up. Heads turned throughout the place. Mustache lady shook her head in disgust and appeared to make a side comment to her heavyset girlfriend.

“You got a deal.” S
he smiled and held my eyes for a long moment.

Chapter Sixteen

I was on my
way back from the bathroom, a little after two in the morning, making my way down the dark hallway. I’d been out with pals earlier and I was hoping to get back into bed before I fully woke up when the phone rang.

“Ye
ah,” I answered cautiously. Anytime the phone rang after about ten at night it usually wasn’t to deliver good news.

“Hi
, Dev, hope I’m not getting you up,” a woman said then giggled at the inside joke. Her voice sounded familiar, but I didn’t know who it was. My phone displayed the number as ‘Unknown’.

“No, no problem.”

“I was wondering if you were maybe interested in getting together?” I had the sense she was concentrating on her words, trying not to slur them.

I was awake at this point. “Sure, I’d like that
. What did you have in mind?” I asked, thinking dinner, drinks. My nights were wide open for the rest of the week.

“Great, I’m just leaving now so I could be over there in ten minutes
. Well, I mean if you’re not already entertaining.”

“I’m j
ust cleaning up after the party. I should have it pretty much under control by the time you arrive,” I said, coming wide awake.

“
Okay, see you soon.” Click.

There
were a couple of women it could be, but I doubted it. I thought the first thing I should do was to put some clothes on.

A few minutes later my
phone rang again.

I answered and heard giggling.

“Hello.”

“Oh
, sorry, I’m so screwed up. I forgot to ask where you live. I’m just turning onto East Seventh now.”

I gave her
directions St. Paul-style. We don’t use a lot of street names or specific distances, we use landmarks. “Stay on Seventh to the Xcel Center, take a right and go up the hill. Left at the first light and drive past the Cathedral, then take a right on that corner. I’m a few blocks down on the right side. I’ll have the porch light on for you.”

I had the porch light on with
the living room light off. I was standing in the dark, watching the quiet street and waiting for a car to pull up so I could see who had called. So far, the only traffic had been a taxi cruising past about three minutes earlier.

A few minutes later a car drove
past, stopped two doors down, backed up and parked in front of my place. Marsha climbed out of the car wearing the same red top, a pair of jeans and her cowboy hat. I opened the front door just as she stepped onto my porch.

“Hi
, Marsha, thanks for calling. Come on in,” I said.

She smile
d and gave me a peck on the cheek while I held the door.

“You weren’t doing anything
, were you?”

I could tell her I’d been in the bathroom or sound asleep
, but neither one seemed conducive to furthering the direction I was hoping for. “No, no…you know, just up reading and thinking about maybe hitting the sack. Can I get you a little something?” I asked as we walked into the living room. Marsha made a beeline for my couch.

“I’
d have another shot of Cuervo. Cuervo Gold if you got any,” she said.

“I think I do
have some, but I’m all out of limes,” I said, walking into the kitchen. I grabbed the fifth of tequila out of the cupboard, and picked up a shot glass off the counter.

I
had an incident with tequila some years back and let’s just say it was no longer my poison of choice. Nonetheless, I did have a bottle of the stuff, and it was Cuervo Gold. I made it back to the living room in record time. Marsha had already settled into the corner of my couch, kicked off her sandals and looked to be settling in for a stay.

“Nice digs, Dev. No offense
, but I sort of figured you for a typical kind of slob guy. Umm, thanks. Wow, unopened,” she said as I set the bottle and shot glass down in front of her on the coffee table.

“Sorry about no limes
. You want some salt?”

“No, don’t worry. You’re not going to join me?”
she asked leaning forward in anticipation.

“I have a tequila thing
, so no, I better not. Plus, I’ve got an early morning meeting I can’t miss,” I lied.

“Is it about Desi?” she asked, then poured a shot and
tossed it down without blinking. It clearly wasn’t her first of the evening.

“It may be
. I’ll know more when I get out of the meeting.”

She pushed her cowboy hat back then poured another shot. “I was thinking about her all the while I was
dancing tonight. Did you hear from any of the other girls?”

“No,” I said.

She tossed down the shot and let out a satisfied little gasp a moment later. “I was thinking…you know you mentioned this guy from Beauty and the Beast and…well, I was thinking…”

“Beauty and the Beast
?”

She waved her arm a little clumsily then poured another shot as she spoke. “Don’t you remember? Gaston, from Beauty & the Beast,
the Disney movie. He’s the hero who’s really the villain. Remember? I told you all about him, I think.”

“Oh yeah of
course. Jesus. How could I forget?”

She nodded like she wasn’t surprised
, then tossed her next shot back and gave another little satisfied gasp.

“So?”

“So I was thinking…maybe I could help you catch this dude.”

“You’ve already been a big help,
Marsha.”

She shook her head
while she poured another shot then inadvertently slammed the bottle down on the coffee table.

“You’re not getting it
. You’re not picking up what I’m putting down.” She giggled then quickly tossed the shot back, causing her cowboy hat to fall off. A little drip rolled down her chin and hung there for a moment until it became large enough that it fell onto her red top. She appeared completely unaware.

“I’m a pretty slow learner. M
aybe you could tell me what you’re thinking.”

“We use my ass as the bait,” s
he slurred, then slid her glass onto the table and poured another shot. This time the glass overflowed and the tequila ran onto the table.

“Whoopsie.” S
he giggled, then pushed the shot glass to the side, got down on her knees and proceeded to slurp the tequila off the top of the coffee table. As she sat up there was a larger tequila stain spreading across her top. Her eyes suddenly seemed to take on that glazed sort of stare where you’re not sure she was able to see past the tip of her nose.

“So you were saying
we use you as bait?”

“No, my ass, Den.
I’ve got a great ass, you know,” she said, then reached for the bottle and began to pour more tequila into the full shot glass.

“Careful not to waste,
Marsha,” I said gently taking the bottle from her.

“Watch it
, you’re spilling!” she said then downed the shot and tried to set the glass on the table. She knocked the glass over in the process and it sort of rolled in a large circle.

I placed the bottle on the floor
, out of her sight.

“Hmm-mmm…” S
he watched the glass roll back and forth until it stopped.

“So
, your plan?”

“I’ve got a great ass.”

“Yes, you do, Marsha. And maybe you can tell me all about it in the morning, okay?”