First Murder (9 page)

“She’s upset.” Boom Boom shook his head. “Hell, I’m upset too. She usually doesn’t drink like this.”

“It’s understandable. They were close.” Ray looked once more at his notebook. “I need to ask you where you were Monday morning, early, from seven to nine.”

Boom Boom chuckled. “I haven’t needed an alibi since training camp last year.” He rubbed his hand over his face once. He seemed weary too. “Tia and the girls headed out early. Cherie has swim practice Mondays. I was up, read the paper. Oh yeah, about eight I got a call from Coach, wondering if I was interested in coming in for some weight work. I still help some of the guys with weights. That help?”

Back in the car and headed for St. Paul, Tony stared out the side window, thinking about the Borks.

“We don’t have a motive. We don’t have a suspect. We don’t have any leads. I’m discouraged, Ray.”

Bankston stared out the windshield, looked straight ahead at the interstate traffic. He was thinking too, thinking so hard he didn’t even glance to the left at the massive Boeing 747 bathed in white light next to the gigantic maintenance hangar at the airport.

“It’s early yet.”

Tony started flipping through his notebook, looking for names and numbers. “You want to talk to someone else?”

“Not tonight. I mean it’s early in the case. This one’s different. The first 48 hours usually makes or breaks a case. This one’s different.”

“I don’t see us solving this tomorrow, boss.”

“I don’t either, but I’ve been surprised before.”

Ray glanced over when Tony fished out his cell phone. “I still haven’t heard back from the other roommate, Stuckey.” Tony dialed the number again and got Stuckey’s voice mail… again. He left another message. “You think it means anything? Him not calling me back?”

“Not without more information.” Tony dialed another number.

“Hello.”

“David Hong?”

“This is Dave. Hey, detective. What’s up?”

“Just wondering if Sean’s there.”

“You just missed him. He blew through, grabbed something out of his room and headed out. He’s probably gone for the night.”

“Well damn. You talk to him? Tell him I want to talk to him?”

“Nope. He was in and out. Hasn’t he called you?”

“No. And I’ve left messages.”

“Not surprising, Tony. If it isn’t a chick he doesn’t seem to have time for it.”

“A ladies man?”

Hong laughed into the phone. “More like a pussy hound. You want me to give him a message if I see him?”

“Just to call me. How’s Scotty doing?”

“Haven’t seen him all day. He’s been with his dad.”

“Sure. Hey, thanks David. Later.” Tony flipped the phone shut and went back to staring out the side window.

Carol and Vang were at their desks when Tony and Ray trudged into the squad room. Vang was keyboarding his notes, Carol on the phone. Tony fished out his notebook and dropped it on what he guessed was his desk. Ray pointed to one next to his.

“This one’s yours.”

De Luca shifted over and spun in his chair. “Want me near you?”

“Sure. Gotta keep an eye on you.”

Carol finished her call and came over to join them.

“How did it go?” Ray asked. Carol looked tired. Her jacket was wrinkled, her slacks creased behind the knee. Tony guessed she’d covered a lot of ground during the day.

“We got squat, Ray. The woman was a saint. Loved by all. A tireless worker. Everybody’s friend. We couldn’t get a whiff of anything to look into.”

“I sort of expected that.”

Carol crossed her arms and leaned on Tony’s desk. “What about you two?”

“We interviewed Lakisha Marland and Tia Bork.” Tony looked up at her where she was perched. He knew she wanted the girlfriend interviews and couldn’t help but rub it in a little.

“How’d the rook do?” She directed the question at Ray, her thumb at Tony. Tony knew she was hoping he’d stepped in it at some point during the day. Then he remembered he really hadn’t said much—nothing at all to the Marland woman and damn little at the Borks.

“Tony did fine today.”

Ray sensed that Carol was doing a little baiting, playing with his new partner. He’d heard rumors that they’d had a thing the last year or so and wondered if that was in play. He also guessed Carol was put out because the lieutenant had partnered him with Tony and not her. When things slowed down she would be back in the Sex Crimes unit. Homicide was not her permanent gig.

Tony grinned up at her. “I got to meet Boom Boom Bork this afternoon.”

“You get his autograph?” Maybe she meant it as a joke but it came out snippy.

“Better than that,” Tony said. “I got his fingerprints. Which reminds me, should I run these down to the lab?” Tony waved the cards. He didn’t ask Ray about Lakisha Marland’s. He wanted to see what he would volunteer.

“Before you go home is fine.”

“So did you two sleuths do better than we did? Tell me we’ve got something to work with.”

“Maybe. Until we come up with something better I’m going to concentrate on the women friends. The ‘Go Girls’.

“Because?”

“Because…” Ray flipped a few pages in his notebook. “Because Deanna was a saint, loved by one and all, supermom, and…Roxie’s a lush, Lakisha can be a bitch, Karen’s always frisky, and I don’t even have a clue what ‘
we have Ally’
means. Tia Bork’s going to be hung over tomorrow.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s nothing.”

“Want me to work the women with you tomorrow?” Carol was still angling, still pushing. Tony looked expectantly toward Ray.

“Early, yes. Tony, the more I think about it the more I’d like you to get the last roommate either off the list or on it.” Tony nodded. “Maybe Kumpula will come up with something.”

Vang drifted over, listening to them, and added, “I didn’t get much from the neighbors either. I had an idea though. It’s a couple of blocks away but there’s a Holiday station down the street. I’d like to see if their cameras look down Victoria.”

“Do it.”

“And I missed a couple of them. I’ll stay on that.”

“And help Ted with the financials and the phone records. Who did she talk to Sunday night and Monday morning? Did she draw a lot of cash out of any of the accounts recently? You know the drill.” Vang nodded and left.

Ray stood and stretched. “And with that, I’m calling it a day.” Tony realized that his first day as a detective was over. It had started out weird. It had started out damn early too, and he caught himself stifling another yawn. Ray gave a wave at the door and he was gone. Carol smiled down at him.

“Want to go get a drink?”

“I’m beat, Carol.” He checked his watch. It was only seven. If he hurried he could get to the Gander Mountain store and see about finding a holster.

“Right.”

Tony was sick of her attitude and the pissy tone. “Fine. Come on and go to the store with me. I need a shoulder rig for my Glock, maybe a clip-on, and something for my backup piece too. Then I’m going to indulge in something greasy and fast for dinner and then you can watch me sleep sitting up.”

“You were on the call out for this, weren’t you?”

“Four AM, sugar. Maybe another time.” He wondered if she heard the ‘maybe’.

W
ednesday started early for detective Tony de Luca. He’d made it to the store the night before and found a shoulder rig and a couple of clip on holsters. He’d even found an ankle holster for the little 5-shot .38. Real detectives wear ankle holsters and carry backup pieces, right? His dinner had indeed been quick and greasy and it reminded him early that morning how bad it had been. Even so, he was back in the squad room at 7:30, working on his notes and reports when Lieutenant Gullickson stopped by his desk.

“Morning, de Luca.” He was carrying a styro-cup of coffee and a donut tucked in a napkin.

“Lieutenant.”

“How did it go yesterday?” At this early hour Gullickson didn’t seem hurried and harried like he usually did.

“I think it went okay. I don’t have much to weigh it against, you know.”

“If you follow Ray Bankston’s lead you’ll do fine. Any progress?”

“Not unless something happened overnight I don’t know about.” His pager had remained blissfully quiet all night. He’d needed the sleep.

“Hmm.” Gullickson juggled the coffee and pastry he’d just bitten into.

“Ray’s taking Carol with him this morning, working on the girlfriends. I’m chasing down one of the roommates. Then I’m not sure what.”

“Someone ducking you?” The lieutenant had a glop of yellow custard in the corner of his mouth.

“Not sure if it’s that. Like Ray says, we need more information.” Tony pointed to the corner of his mouth. The lieutenant found the blob of custard with his tongue and smiled.

“Well, keep me in the loop.” Gullickson wandered off to his office.

Tony hadn’t had a lot of experience with the brass. Maybe the lieutenant had been a good investigator in his day, maybe as good as Ray. All Tony saw now was a chunky guy in a bad suit eating donuts and telling him to follow Ray’s lead. He was feeling pretty uninspired when his cell phone rang.

“This is Tony,” he said without checking the screen.

“You didn’t call me last night.” Sue Ellen sounded wide awake. Now he checked the caller ID screen. She was calling from her office, judging from the prefix.

“I was bushed.”

“So how’d it go,
detective
?” The way she said it made him think she really was pleased that he had been promoted, like there was some kind of pride or respect or something in her voice. Maybe, he fantasized for an instant, she’d had her eye on him for quite a while but couldn’t bring herself to date a lowly patrolman.

“Well, other than we don’t have a motive, a clue, any forensics, a suspect, or anything but a dead body…it’s going pretty good.” He heard soft laughter.

“But you survived.”

“I did. I have no idea what my schedule’s going to be like the next few days. Can I call you late?”

“I’m working on this Latin King case. We’ve only got a month before trial so I’m usually burning it pretty late. Call whenever.” That sounded encouraging.

“Do I get you as my coach?” Tony was the state’s premiere witness. The case she was talking about was the one he’d been in deep cover on. She was a thorough prosecutor and he knew she’d want him well rehearsed for the trial.

“You’ll have to do everything I tell you to.” She wasn’t talking about testimony now, she was flirting. He liked that a lot.

“Oh, I will. Count on it.” He saw Ray go into the lieutenant’s office and figured he needed to wrap the call up. “Uncle Rayford just came in. I think I better go.”

“Is he being nice?”

Tony was puzzled, wondered what she meant. “Sure. We get along fine.”

“Okay. Good. Call me.” As he hung up Tony wondered why everyone kept asking him how he was getting on with his partner.

Tony sat in an unmarked Crown Vic outside of Scott Jr.’s house.

Morning dispatch in the Homicide Unit’s squad room was nothing like roll call. Ray had come from the lieutenant’s office, spoken quietly with Vang Pao, and given Tony his morning mission. It was simple and brief. Same as they’d talked about the night before. Nail down Sean Stuckey’s alibi.

Tony thought he’d done pretty well in the interviews yesterday. He hadn’t said much, but he hadn’t done any damage either. Watching Ray and Lakisha Marland interact had been as interesting as the case, for a little while at least. He’d met one of his heroes. Now he was on the trail of a suspect…sort of. Okay, he was just chasing down an alibi, he admitted to himself, but cases on TV turned on this kind of shit all the time.

He watched the activity on the street. Most of it consisted of student housing. He watched young men and women carrying backpacks or wearing shoulder bags juggle coffee cups and napkin wrapped bagels or toast while trudging north on 17
^th
Street toward the nearest bus stop. Some walked alone. Others clumped together. Some looked serious and distracted. Others laughed and jostled, elbows nudged, heads rolled back laughing. Erin tripped down the stairs of the house next to Scotty’s and noticed Tony. She started to give a wave but ended up just looking puzzled and walked off. Tony chuckled and shook his head.

The Swenson kid emerged from the big blue house. He was one of the serious ones and walked alone as far up the street as Tony could see. He guessed that Scotty was still with his father, camped out in an overheated hotel room full of grief and sadness, waiting for word from the coroner as to when the body would be released. He drained the last of his tepid coffee and got out, stretched, and again wondered if the Stuckey kid had come home the night before. He’d considered calling first but that hadn’t done any good so far. He climbed the stairs and cocked his fist to knock on the door. David Hong burst out and crashed into him.

“Whoa!” Tony had to grab onto him to keep from falling. It struck him that Hong was big enough to give Boom Boom Bork a worry or two on the football field.

“Detective!”

“Sorry, man.” Tony grabbed Hong’s dropped backpack for him. It weighed just under a ton.

David hefted it with ease and slung it over his shoulder. “Something wrong?”

“No. Still trying to hook up with Stuckey. He around?”

Hong shook his head. “Haven’t seen him. Must have spent the night at his girlfriend’s. One of ’em. Who knows?”

“Right, you told me he was a busy man.”

“Look, I gotta make my bus.” The big Samoan kid looked at his watch, then up the street.

“Any idea where I can hook up with him?” Tony asked.

Hong, already down the stairs, said, “It’s Wednesday. He’s got a 9:00 in Film History Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”

Tony trotted after him and laid a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Hey, I’ll give you a lift.” The house was empty and Tony wanted to talk to Hong. Maybe he knew where the class was. Tony wondered if he could track Stuckey down on campus.

David was grateful for the ride. “This is kinda’ cool,” he said while checking out the radio in the unmarked Crown Victoria. It was set low and the dispatchers were coding calls and directing the patrol traffic. It was a slow morning.