Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (36 page)

He stared at me with those blank eyes, trying to organize his thoughts. “Hey, Jimmy, I just let Bennie know you were coming, no one else. I don’t know how anyone found you or why. Not like you needed killing. Why would they do that?”

“Maybe I was getting too nosey about our buddy Nick. Someone didn’t like my snooping around and wanted to stop me. Think that might be a reason? But Nick didn’t know I was here or at the Stratosphere, did he?” I questioned.

“I wouldn’t know, Jimmy. Maybe he had you followed.” He was sweating now.

“Nick doesn’t even know I’m in town, Aaron, so how could he have me followed?” I got closer to him.

Some big guy came walking into the room. “Hey, ass wipe, that fucking tiger you got out back is going nuts and spooking the help. Either get it out of here or I’ll shoot it,” he yelled and stormed out.

“Shit, I got to go check the thing.” He got up and walked out of the room. I followed. We went into a double door off to the side, through what looked like a kitchen and into a storage room. Back by the delivery doors was a cage containing a very irritable, filthy Bengal tiger. Buck swore when he saw the tiger and said he was going back to watch the girls. Aaron picked up a pole and started hitting the cage, yelling to the tiger to shut up. Then he started poking it.

He said to me, “It was delivered here because I don’t work at the animal rental anymore. I can sell the thing without giving them any commission. It belonged to one of the magicians in town, but it was getting kinda wild, so they asked me to get rid of it. I got a zoo interested, but they haven’t picked it up yet.”

He poked the animal again, and it got madder. I said he probably shouldn’t do that. Aaron said it would calm down in a while. He went to a box, took out some ugly raw meat, and stuck a large pill from the box into the meat. He tossed the meat into a small door on top of the cage, and the tiger went for it.

“He’ll go to sleep after the pill takes effect,” he said nastily. Aaron walked back out of the room like he was avoiding me. I followed.

He got back to his hole in the wall, and turned to face me. “I don’t know anything about who would try to kill you. It’s not me, Jimmy, I like you too much to do something like that, and I don’t like Nick. I’ll tell you what, I’ll put out some feelers with my network and see if anyone may have heard anything about it. I’ll let you know.”

“OK, Aaron, give me a call if you do hear anything. I have to get back to the LV convention center now,” I offered.

“Why you going there?” he asked.

I paused then said, “My girlfriend is promoting her TV show at the NABP, and I’m not spending enough time with her so I have to make up for it.”

“Who’s the girl friend?” he asked.

“Her name is Penny Wickens. She’s a TV talk show host back in Michigan. We met when I was chasing down a couple serial killers.”

“Wow, sounds exciting.” He was weaving now. The drugs were either kicking in more or wearing off.

I looked in his face and said, “You see what you can find out, OK?” He acknowledged me, I hoped it sank in. I signaled to Buck, and we headed out.

When Buck and I got back to the SUV, Buck asked, “Can you trust that jerk wad, Jimmy?”

“Well, he was a good source of info around Vegas when I last lived here. He knows the right, and sometimes the wrong, people. I think he can help. It’s just troubling that he was the only person to know I was going to the Stratosphere, but it could be coincidence. I hope.”

“It was good to see the boobies again.” He gave his famous walrus smile.

“Oh, yeah, that’s something I think we need to keep to ourselves, no need in getting Penny started again,” I said.

Buck laughed and said his lips were sealed, but only if we could go one more time. I agreed, thinking it would be nice to get Penny’s blood stirred up for one more night in bed. We headed back to the center and into the booth where Penny was busy charming visitors. Deacon and Lynn took the chair with Lynn on his lap. Maria was sitting on the floor in a yoga position.

“You know, Detective Carter, that’s not dignified for an officer of the law to be torturing another officer of the law.” I grinned.

She looked at Deacon and said, “Actually he’s torturing me right now. I shouldn’t be sitting on his lap, if you know what I mean.”

I laughed out loud at her innuendo. When Penny was done with her guests, I went to her and said she would have me the rest of the night. She giggled and said she was a bit worn out and would probably go to bed early tonight. I said that sounded like a good idea.

I looked around at our friends snuggling up to each other and said, “I’m sure your station would have a fit if they knew all the debauchery that was going on in their booth.” She agreed and said, not good for her image.

I told the two couples to go wander around the show until time to leave, and I would watch Penny. They liked that idea and wandered off. I stood next to Penny, grabbed her ass quickly, and let go. She looked at me with big eyes and said to behave. I went to sit on the chair and watch her.

Around 9 p.m. the show was winding down, and our gang came back. Deacon and Lynn said they had a fancy dinner waiting for them, said good-bye and left. Maria wasn’t working tonight so she said Buck should take her someplace nice. He mentioned a strip club he knew. Maria looked at him and smiled, then said that wasn’t so bad an idea.

Buck grinned at me. When Penny finished putting away the stuff in her booth, we went out the door, passing Buck and Maria talking in the lobby. Penny and I got halfway across the parking lot when she stopped and said she had forgotten her purse. I asked how could she have done that and said I would go get it. I was just going back in the door when Buck and Maria were coming out. I explained what I was doing, and Buck said he’d go keep an eye out for Penny.

I got to the booth and looked around, finally found her purse under the counter, picked it up and headed back to the door. I had just left the building when I heard a scream that sounded like Penny. I ran towards the sound. Buck and Maria had almost reached Penny when a van pulled up beside her. The side door opened, and someone in a ski mask grabbed her and pulled her into the van. Buck made a mad dash toward the van and got there just as the side door slammed shut. It pulled away, but then had to go down a long line of cars to get to the exit towards the left. Buck ran between the cars and took the shortest way there.

He jumped a couple of cars in the process and got to the other side of the lot, coming up to the driver’s side of the van. He took a leap, grabbed on to the man driving, and yanked his head out the window, banging on him with his fist. The van started to careen towards a guardrail and glanced off it with sparks flying. Buck was trying to keep his feet up off the ground to avoid being crushed while still holding on to the man’s head.

Buck hit the driver a few more times then while running alongside the van, grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. Reaching in, Buck pulled the driver out and onto the ground just as the van came to a halt smashing into a convention sign. I was running as fast as I could and got to the van with my Glock drawn.

It was the first time I had it out since I had been in Vegas. I pulled open the side door and brought my gun up into the interior. The other man, still in his ski mask, was lying on the floor of the van. Penny was sitting with a piece of metal pole in her hand, yelling “Son of a bitch!” at the man. She hit him with it again. I was so relieved to see she was all right. Buck came around the side dragging the driver. A car pulled up, and Deacon and Lynn got out. They said they were smooching in the car and saw the drama unfold. Deacon looked at the purse I still had hold of and said, “Nice purse.” I gave it to Penny. Lynn got her cuffs out and handcuffed the two men together, both on the ground of the parking lot, then she called for assistance.

I yanked the ski masks off them and looked at the faces of the two men. I didn’t know either of them. They were both still unconscious a couple of minutes later when a patrol car came screaming up. The officers took the two men, now coming to, and put them in the patrol car. Penny was shaking badly, and I told Lynn that I thought she needed to go back to the hotel to rest. Lynn said the men would spend the night in jail with kidnap charges pending. They weren’t going anywhere tonight. I thanked Buck profusely for stopping them. He said it was all in the line of duty. Penny gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The patrol car left after a tow truck showed up to take away the van. Deacon and Lynn took off leaving Buck and Maria heading to her car. I realized I still had my gun out and tucked it back in its holster. Penny said she was glad I didn’t shoot myself or her. I said she was pretty wicked with a pipe in her hand. She said when they dumped her in the van, she found it on the floor and swung it at the guy a couple of times before he knew what was happening.

She laughed a bit, then asked, “What’s going on? Why did they grab me? Did I piss someone off?”

“No, but I think I may have pissed someone off, and they came after you because of me. I’ll tell you more about it when we get to the room. I’m not going to let you be alone for a second from now on,” I said harshly.

“Not even to go to the bathroom?” She smiled.

I said, “Nope.”

*

Chapter Thirteen

We drove into the valet parking of the MGM Grand. They took the car, we went in, and I steered Penny to the restaurant off the main lobby. We needed a good meal, our first actual sit down dinner with real silverware and not plastic, since we had been in Vegas. I started to tell her about my adventures that might have led up to the incident at the Stratosphere and in the parking lot that night.

“Well, I’m not a big time private eye, but it sounds to me like your friend Aaron has something to do with this. You told him about me today, and now I’m suddenly involved. We also have to discuss you going back to the strip club without me.” She smiled.

“It wasn’t a visit to the strip club so much as it was a fact finding mission.” I tried to look straight faced.

She snorted. “Yeah, well, I’m sure you didn’t look at any breasts while you were there.”

“No, Buck did all the looking for me. I just saw Aaron and a very large, angry Bengal tiger. I’m now convinced that Aaron has something to do with it, as much as I hate to say. Tomorrow I’m going to have to take Deacon with me to do some further interrogating of Aaron. Deacon’s steel badge has more weight than my aluminum one.” I smiled.

“Do you think Aaron is dangerous?”

“Only to himself. He’s a drug addled burnout who could only whip a chipmunk.” I smiled.

“I don’t know, I’ve seen some pretty vicious chipmunks.” She grinned.

I was glad she was not letting the fact that she was almost abducted and who knows what else get to her this time. I guess the abduction she took from Waters and Morgan set the bar for any other attempts. We had a very good meal and then went up to our suite. I could tell she was worn out from the day and getting kidnapped, so I let her sit next to me on the couch as I massaged her neck and back. She oh’d and ah’d as I rubbed all the soreness out. I asked if she wanted to take a dip in the whirlpool and got no response. I peeked around to find she had her eyes closed. My poor baby had drifted off. I knew I couldn’t carry her to the bed so I laid her out on the couch and got a blanket to cover her. I sat on the floor next to her and rested my head. I guess I dozed off shortly after.

I felt a shaking and opened my eyes. Penny was partially dressed, looking at me as I lay on the floor. “Are you going to sleep there all day, too?” She smiled and disappeared into the bedroom.

I got up and stretched my body in about ten different directions. The sun was reflecting off the Monte Carlo Hotel again, and I couldn’t believe I slept through the night.

“Lynn called about an hour ago. You didn’t budge when the phone rang so I forced myself up. She wants us to come down to the precinct to sign a compliant for charges of kidnapping on the two bastards.” She was flitting around getting ready as I stumbled to the closet to see what I had to wear today.