Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (25 page)

“Okay. L
isten you busy tonight?”

“What?”

“I asked are you busy, tonight? Do you want to go out?”

“With you?”

“No some other guy I’m fixing up. Yes
with
me.”

“But your arrest?
It was on the news.
”

“Actually, that’s a long story, join me for dinner?”

“Um, well, yeah, yeah I suppose, okay. You’re sure?
Where are you
by the way
? I thought you…
”

“Yeah,
well look I’ll explai
n everything over dinner, Beef Bourguignon okay with you?”

“You know I love it, um
yeah, I guess, just a little surprising is all. Where are you?”

“I’m downtown in the p
enthouse
…” The bout started a
t eight, Heidi was going to join
me
in my suite at six for dinner. I phoned room service and ordered dinner with
a couple of
bottles of wine
,
and
then left for my spa appointment.

After my massage and a brief nap I phon
ed the Hustlers hotel and worked my way through the team roster
posing as a reporter
. I had a vague recollection of having been introduced to some of the names
,
but could only
conjure
up a rough image on three of the girls. An hour and a half later I knew a little more
,
but not much.

I’d gotten an inkling of some pretty heavy duty fund raising and the distinct
possibly
that
super star, Fiona Simmons, AKA Harlotte Davidson
,
was receiving a contractual percentage.
That could explain the Mercedes
, maybe.

Room service rolled in
a bucket of
chilled white
wine at precisely
five-fifty
that evening.
I spent the next twenty minutes looking out the window watching the traffic fifteen stories below to see if I could spot
Heidi
’s BMW. She
arrived a
stylish
half hour late at six-thirty.

“God, check this place out,” she said, walking into my suite
,
wide eyed
,
she ran
over to the wall of windows
to look out
.
She was wearing a
skirt
the width of some of my belts
.
I
t would never allow her to even think about
sitting modestly. She had on
a low cut top
displaying her
Grand Canyon
of cleavage
with
a little gold crucifix
hanging
around her neck. Who could blame the man for staring down into the abyss?

“Hi Heidi, I’m fine, thanks
for asking
.”

“This place
is fantastic, the view, my God,
”
s
he said,
stretching to look
up river.
What there was of her skirt skidded up over her perfect rear. Eventually
I noticed that the heels she had on
sported
wedges on the
soles about an inch thick which all
owed the heels to be even higher
.

“Care for
a glass of wine?”
I shook myself back to the moment.

“Okay, fess up, what’s going on. The news had you
down as a local Charles Manson,” she said turning away from the window. By the way, what’s up with the black eyes
?”

“Police brutality,” I said, then swept my arm around in a grand gesture to encompass the suite.

“Hunh?”

I
poured some white
wine and
went on to explain about Justine, the Hust
lers, the police surveillance on
me,
Fiona’s murder,
the
signed agreement and
the
SWAT team. There was the possibility I left some things out,
cut off
fingers come to mind and I may have colored some
other
areas
a bit
in my favor.

“
Wow, you’ve been busy.
How do you always end up in
these situations?” she asked,
and
then sipped.

“I’m not sure, it just sort of happens, I guess.”

“Let me get this straight,
you
start out
help
ing
some woman you me
t in a bar and end up hand cuffed and a murder suspect? That’s not normal.”

“What can I say…”

“Maybe nothing would be best.”

There was a knock on the door, r
oom service with our dinner. The room service guy se
t out our table, smiled, poured
red
wine into crystal glasses, set out the salad
plates
,
poured the dressing, positioned
the bread basket, dished up our plates from two silver trays, one holding the beef bourg
uignon and another baked potatoe
s. I had purposely request
ed
no vegetable. Then he lingered around making busy
and leering at Heidi
’s ass
. I handed him a five which he quickly pocketed
, gave Heidi a final glance
and scooted for the door.

“Thank you,” I called
,
closing the door behind him. He was already halfway down the hall.

“Dinner, Heidi?” I said, pulling her chair out for her.

“You sure I’m not going to get stuck with the bill here?” she said
,
sounding wary as she sat
down.

“Jesus, when did we become so cynical?”

“No offense, but it’s become a habit when you
’
r
e
involved. Just remember
,
I’m usually
your first call for bail money.
R
emember
that insurance deal? T
he
n the
t
ime you hid out at my place. There was
that
night you…
”

“Okay, give it a rest. I thought you’d enjoy a nice dinner and a fun night out. If it’s going to be a problem
,
never mind. We can
skip the meal and
just hop in the sack and get to it.
”

“D
inner will be fine, thank you
.”

We had finished eating, and
we
were working our way through the s
econd b
ottle of wine, a Chateaneuf du P
ape
which I had only heard of and Heidi had declared “absolutely divine.”

I came out of the bathroom and took a
nother
sip of wine. Heidi was back at the window watching the river traffic.

“Okay, finish that up, we gotta get going here.” I said.

“Get
going?
Where?
”

“I have box tickets lined up for tonight’s entertainment,” I said.

“You’re kidding.”

“No
,
I’m not kidding, what’s with all this negativity? I ask you out for a nice meal, an evening
’
s entertainment and you want to question everything.
We can skip the show, if you want.
”

“Sorry, guess I’m just not used
to it. L
et me run to the little girl
’
s room
for a minute
and I’ll be right back.”

I’d waited for Heidi before on her runs to little girl
’
s rooms. I topped up my wine glass, walked over to the windows and watched the beginning of a gorgeous sunset
, counted the boats on the river, stared at the evening traffic
, watched some folks picnicking across the river in the park
.

“Okay
,
all set,” she said, coming out of the bathroom.

I’d set my empty glass on the table five minutes earlier.

“You’re sure
there’s
nothing else you have to do, a Jacuzzi,
make up, brush your hair?
”

“Does my hair look okay?”
S
he was serious.

“Come on
,
let’s go.”

It was a gorgeous
evening, the hotel was
only three blocks from the Veteran’s Auditorium and so we
decided to
walk
. Besides
,
Heidi wouldn’t have been caught dead in m
y car, under any circumstances.

The a
uditorium stood
next
to the
Xcel
C
enter
where Lionel Richie was appearing.
In fact
,
the a
uditorium entrance actually looked like a
side entrance to the
Xcel
Center
. We were
still
maybe
a half block away, Heidi
had
hung onto my arm and chatted the entire
two and a half blocks
, four or five
glasses of wine did that to her
.
She was t
aking tiny steps
in
those shoes with the
stiletto heels about ten inc
hes high
and
seemed oblivious to the constantly turning heads and the horn honking she caused.

“Oh God, Lio
nel Richie, I just adore him,” s
he said
,
looking at the lighted marquee hanging above the grand entrance to the
Xcel
Center
.
It flashed two messages; ‘
Lionel Richie
’ in big swirling let
ters hung there for about ten seconds. T
hen
,
it went dark before
‘
Appearing Tonight Only
’
came on
and
in a slightly sm
aller, sort of bold type
‘
Sold Out
’
flashed three or four
times.

“Well, actually…”

“God, I tried to get tickets
, but he
was sold out before I was even able to log
on. You are so sweet,”
she said, t
he
n
reached
u
p to plant a kiss on my cheek. What there was of her skirt rose up again over that perfect ass, a
passing car
slowed and
honked
at her
a couple of times
as a thank you
.

“Let’s just slip in this side entrance and avoid the crowds,” I said,
passing beneath the
industrial
street sign that identified the
Veteran’s
Auditorium entrance.

Once inside we found ourselves on
a concourse that seemed to
be
inhabited by two completely different
groups of people.
There was a
forty-plus, chilled white wine sort of
crowd
,
couples in slacks or
skirts, hair done
, diamonds, pearls
, all
heading up
the
concourse into the
Xcel
Center
. Or
the
designer jean
, Jell-o shots
and T-shirt crowd heading
down
into the Veteran’s Auditorium. We
headed down stream
.

“You sure we’re going the right way?” She took a quick glance over her sh
oulder as we moved away from
Lionel Richie’s fans
,
but had to turn back
to keep her balance in her heels
.

“We have to go this way to get into our private box,” I said.