Con Game

by Alex Westmore

  “Who’s the Porsche?” Megan asked, as they parked.

  “It’s Alexandria’s.” Delta peered through the dark and noticed the familiar auburn hair. “Wait here.”

  “Stevie!” Leonard announced, jumping out of his car. “What’s the poop?”

  Delta hobbled over to the Porsche and opened the door for Alexandria to exit.

  “Alex, what are you doing here?” Delta asked.

  “I gave Detective Leonard instructions to notify me the moment either of you had a lead. My butt is on the line here, too, Delta. I need a suspect.”

  Delta nodded. She understood, all too well, the politics involved with catching a killer. With a conviction, Alexandria would have little trouble defeating Wainwright for re-election. Without one, her time behind the big desk was about to run out.

  “I would imagine, Delta, that you have a game plan of sorts?” Leonard chewed his cigar. “We gotta take him out before he gets to the Hyatt.”

  Delta nodded. “But we can’t intercept him until we find out where Gina is. If you do, he’ll blow that hotel sky high and take Gina’s life as well. Those aren’t chances we’re willing to take. Connie gets to face him alone. Understand?”

  Alexandria’s eyes grew wide. “What?”

  “He wants a showdown with Connie,” Delta explained. “If he doesn’t get one, he’ll detonate and somewhere along the line, slit Gina’s throat. End of story.”

  “I don’t like this, Delta. I don’t like it at all. We have to evacuate an entire hotel building, which is no small feat, mind you, and then give this killer the opportunity to kill or seriously injure Rivera?”

  Delta nodded, feeling only slightly guilty that she wasn’t being completely straight with them. “That’s precisely what I’m telling you. This is his ball game, Alex. We play by his rules. If you can’t, get out of my way, because I’ll shoot anyone who puts Gina or Connie’s life at risk.”

  Alexandria held up a hand to silence Leonard before he could issue a response. “Delta, you should know better than to talk like that around me.”

  Delta shrugged. “I mean it, Alex. We’ve come too far and worked too hard to settle for a field goal. It’s our way, or it isn’t.”

  Alexandria looked down at the rows of cars waiting to move. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  Delta turned away. “I’m just a little scared, that’s all.”

  “Then, let’s get going, Stevie. Time’s a-wasting.” Leonard hiked up his pants and motioned for his men to get started. “We’ll have those people out of there and the hotel surrounded in no time. He won’t get through us this time.”

  Delta smiled weakly. “Thanks, Leonard.”

  “We’ll bring this prick in tonight, Stevie. Just tell Rivera not to press. She’s got plenty of help now.”

  “Just remember what I said. You keep the civilians safe, but leave Elson to Connie.”

  “I got it, Stevie. We won’t move without your okay. Trust me.”

  As Delta watched Leonard hop into his car, she could feel Alexandria staring hard at her.

  “What?” Delta asked, shrugging innocently.

  “This was too easy. You’re keeping something from us, aren’t you?”

  Delta returned Alexandria’s penetrating gaze. “And if I am?”

  “Then, I don’t want to know. I just want him stopped.”

  “Even if I have to bend the rules a little?”

  This made Alexandria smile. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Just do it right. I don’t want him off on some technicality.”

  “Roger.”

  “Oh, and Delta—be careful.”

  Delta nodded. “Careful is my middle name.”

  Lowering herself into her Porsche, Alexandria shook her head. “Somehow, I don’t quite believe that.”

  After watching Alexandria drive away, Delta ambled back to the van.

  “Well?” Connie asked.

  “They bit. Leonard and his men will evacuate the Hyatt. While he’s covering that end, we’re taking Elson on at the other.”

  “Did Pendleton suspect anything?”

  Delta grinned. “I think she knew.”

  “And?”

  Shrugging, Delta carefully pulled herself into the van. “And if we catch her a serial murderer, I’ll bet a month’s salary that whatever suspicions she has go unspoken.”

  Starting the engine, Connie nodded. “Then let’s do it.”

  Chapter 47

  As soon as Delta walked into the lobby of the Carlton, she knew they had made the right choice. The electricity in the air told her all she needed to know. In an odd, mystical sort of way, it hung in the air like the gaudy candelabra looming over the center of the red and gold carpeted interior. She had felt his insidious presence enough to know she was feeling it now. Self-consciously, she tugged at the grey wig scratching at the back of her neck. They had barely made it to the costume shop before it closed, and Delta had had to settle for the old lady look. Since her leg prevented her from walking normally anyway, it was the perfect cover.

  On the way over, she and Connie worked out a plan which included disguises, tape-recording devices on Connie, and various codes, should their first plan fail. They were as ready as time allowed them to be.

  It was the two-minute warning, and they were on their own ten-yard line.

  Delta sat in the bar across from the lobby watching many brightly dressed individuals flow through the lobby and wade over to the private elevator leading to the top-floor suite. Delta’s eyes did not leave the elevator, as scores of people waited for the polished brass doors to open. While she watched, she checked to make sure that the wire leading from her earplug was out of sight. She left nothing to chance. With Connie wired, Delta would be able to hear everything that went on if she confronted Elson anywhere in the building.

  She grabbed a used newspaper off a short, round table and tucked it under her arm.

  Wiping beads of sweat off her top lip, Delta realized how exhausted she was. Her leg was pounding and burned, and her stitches itched like mad. It felt like days since she’d gotten any sleep, yet here she was, just about at the end of the play. When this night was over, they would either rejoice wildly or be in deep despair. But then, that was how being a cop really looked—feast or famine, win or lose, black or white.

  Maybe Megan was right. Maybe the right and wrong of the job was simply too rigid—too diametrically opposed for anyone to really see through.

  Suddenly, Delta watched a short, red-headed woman approach the elevator and slide in between two people just as it closed. Connie had just joined the party.

  Glancing at her watch, Delta realized that Connie had gone up ten minutes sooner than planned. Gingerly stepping off her bar stool, Delta joined the crowd waiting at the elevator. As the seconds turned into minutes, beads of sweat formed underneath her wig, as she tried to ignore the stitches pulling on her leg.

  “What’s going on?” someone asked, when it appeared as if the elevator was not coming back down.

  Delta glanced up at the elevator lights and saw it was still on the top floor. “Shit.” Stuffing the newspaper into the drawstring Gucci bag she borrowed from Megan, Delta hobbled like an old woman to the reception desk. “What in the hell is taking that elevator so long?”

  “I’m not sure,” the young receptionist answered. “I think it’s stuck.”

  “Stuck? What do you mean, stuck?”

  “Well, more like jammed. There’s a delay button on the elevator, and sometimes, especially when people are partying, someone leans up against it, and it stops. No big deal.”

  “Can’t you un-delay it?” Delta’s voice rose.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Delta’s heart jumped into her throat. “How long before it can be reset?”

  “I’ve called the union guys, and someone should be here to fix it within the hour. We’ve notified Ms. Agnost, and she requested that we open the bar up to her guests and put it on her tab. She wasn’t v
ery happy about this, I can assure you.”

  “Neither am I.” Reaching into her bag, Delta pulled out her badge. “Listen, it’s very important that I get to that suite within the next few minutes. I don’t have an hour. I don’t even have five minutes. Can you get those doors opened without the union?”

  The wide-eyed clerk nodded slowly as she picked up the phone. “Well, I would have to ask my supervisor, and he’s—”

  Delta reached across the desk and grabbed the telephone out of her hands. “Look, someone’s life is at stake here. I don’t have time to mess around with procedures and protocol. You call up to Ms. Agnost’s suite and ask—”

  “I’ve tried to, but the line has been busy ever since I made my first call to her.”

  “Get me two of your strongest bellboys down here now,” she said, hobbling toward the elevator and pushing through the crowd. Delta announced that free drinks were being served. In an instant, the crowd dispersed and happily headed into the bar.

  “Come on, come on,” Delta muttered under her breath. She cursed herself for not having seen this coming. How could she have been so blind? She knew, beyond any doubts, that Connie had jammed the elevator. She should have known that Connie would try to take him down alone, that Connie was too scared he would see Delta and make good his horrific threat. She should have watched Connie more carefully—been more aware of the pressure, the guilt, the gruesome responsibility she must be feeling about the lives already taken as well as those he’d threatened to take. He had succeeded in pushing Connie to the edge. And in that one final, irrevocably desperate move, Connie had made the decision to take Elson on herself.

  Alone.

  And there was nothing Delta could do about it now.

  No sooner were the doors pried apart than Delta reached for the rung of the iron ladder attached to the side for emergency repairs.

  “Ten flights up is a long way to climb, Officer. Are you sure . . .”

  But Delta had stopped listening. She didn’t have time for suggestions. Under normal circumstances, they might have been fine suggestions, but they all involved the one thing Delta did not have.

  Time.

  Swinging her legs onto the ladder, a sharp, jagged pain grabbed her leg like a hot fire. Wiping the sweat from her brow, Delta ignored the searing ache and started climbing.

  As she climbed, so did her rage. She didn’t know who she was angrier with—Connie, for pulling such a foolish stunt, or herself, for not seeing this coming. Wasn’t it obvious that Connie would choose to go after Elson herself? Hadn’t she seen the sorrow on Connie’s face when they spoke about Helen’s broken neck? Hadn’t Delta witnessed the stoic jaw set when Connie realized Gina had been abducted?

  Of course she had. Only, she didn’t listen.

  Grabbing another rung, Delta shook her head.

  That was what Elson was trying to destroy—Connie’s life. For surely, if he killed Gina, Connie’s life would never be the same. She might never truly recover from a blow, a pain that devastating.

  Maybe it was too late. Maybe the rigid exterior and angry eyes Connie now wore had replaced the gentle soul Delta so loved. Maybe, in the end, Elson had accomplished what he had set out to do.

  As she slowly pulled herself over each rung, ignoring the burn in her leg, Delta pushed her earplug deeper into her ear when she heard noises coming from it.

  “Come on, damn it. Say something.” Pulling up to the next floor, Delta turned the volume up. “Anything.” When the next floor came and went, Delta stopped, threw the wig off her head, and readjusted the earplug. Had she heard something? Holding her breath, Delta released the rung and wiped the perspiration from her forehead.

  “Del?”

  Delta waited. She had heard something. Holding the earplug in her ear, Delta listened.

  “I know you’re probably really pissed off right now, but don’t follow me. I have to do this myself, and you know it. There’s been enough carnage. I know what he wants, now, Del. He doesn’t want to hurt me physically, he wants to hurt me by destroying those I love. If you came up here, as he suspected you would, we’d only be playing into his hands. We’d be giving him what he wants. Well, he already has my Gina. He sure as hell isn’t getting you, too. He won’t kill me, Del. That’s not what he wants. He wants me to suffer. And he knows that killing you and Gina will make the rest of my life unbearable. He was counting on you to follow me. Please, Delta. If you’re following me, don’t. Let me do this my way.”

  Delta wanted to curse and bang her fist on the side of the shaft. She should have known. Connie was going to kill him.

  “Haven’t we met someplace before, doll?” came a new voice.

  “I doubt it.”

  “Sure we have. Maybe it was at Leslie’s party a few months ago?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Can I get you a drink?”

  “You can if you can tell me who that man is over there in the black beard and eye patch.”

  “Shit,” Delta uttered. She had a bead on him already.

  “Never seen him. How ’bout that drink?”

  “Later. I have to use the ladies’ room.”

  Delta started climbing faster.

  “Del? I think that was him. He’s been stalking Aphrodite since I got here. But I don’t think he’s going to hit now. He’s every bit as trapped as she is. With the elevator jammed, it’s just the two of us. Ironic, huh? Me and Elson to the bitter end.”

  Delta shook her head. “Not if I can help it,” she mumbled, catching her breath as a shard of pain poked through her leg. Gritting her teeth through the pain, Delta pressed on.

  “Champagne?”

  “Yes, thank you. Mmm. Pretty good champagne, Del. I think . . .”

  Delta stopped climbing and waited, using the time to catch her breath and shake out the muscles in her trembling arms. “What? You think what?” Nothing. It was as if the tape had gone dead.

  “Come on, Connie! Talk to me!” Silence.

  More silence.

  “Oh my God, Del. I think . . .”

  “What?”

  “I think he’s poisoning her champagne. The circle would be complete then, wouldn’t it? He started at the drugstore for a poison, and that’s how he’s going to end it. He and I started as adversaries, and that’s the finale of his script. I’ve got to stop him.”

  “Connie, no!” Delta screamed, quickly pulling herself higher, her heart pounding against her chest.

  “Delta, if anything should happen to me up here, just know that I love you more than you could ever know. But this began because of me and it’s going to end because of me. Right now.”

  Chapter 48

  As a new tray of champagne headed toward Aphrodite, so did Connie. “Delta,

  call the paramedics. Have them waiting,” Connie said tersely.

  As Aphrodite’s long arm reached for another glass, Connie knocked into her, spilling champagne down the front of her dress.

  “Look what you’ve done, you clumsy bitch!”

  Seeing the man with the eye patch disappear out of the room, Connie bolted past the cursing porn queen. He had recognized her even with the red wig and glasses.

  As Elson pushed past the barrier intended to keep partying people from wandering out to the veranda, Connie followed. One glance over her shoulder told her that the crowd was more concerned with the champagne on their hostess’ dress than with her pursuit of Elson.

  “The veranda, Del. He’s heading for the veranda.”

  As she reached the double glass doors, Connie knocked them open with her forearm and took one step out before closing them behind her. Pulling her leather belt off, Connie then threaded it through the handles and secured the door with it,

  “I’ve locked us outside, Del. Now it’s just me and that fucking lunatic.”

  Slowly turning, Connie stared across the veranda at Elson, who stood about twenty-five feet away.

  “I am impressed,” he said coolly, folding his arms across his chest.
<
br />   “Don’t be, you bastard. Where’s Gina?”

  “All in good time, my dear. You don’t really believe that you’ve won, now do you?”

  “Aphrodite is still alive, isn’t she?” Connie took a step closer, but Elson didn’t move.

  “For the moment. I must say that I never imagined you would figure out the riddle. The game, well, it was easy enough, but the riddle? I suppose I thought it would stump you. What made you choose Aphrodite over our Congressman?”

  “Don’t fuck with me, Elson. Where is Gina?” Connie stepped closer.

  “Alive and well, I assure you. I am a man of my word. I must say,” he continued, taking a step back, “that it was clever of you to deduce the poison. I’m afraid, however, that our Goddess of Love and Beauty has already consumed a great deal. You may be too late.”

  Connie watched Elson’s hands as she took a step closer. “Look, all I want is Gina back. I couldn’t give a shit if Aphrodite dies and you blow up the entire city. I’m nobody’s hero, Elson. I just want Gina. Tell me where she is.”

  Elson shook his head. “Still the same selfish bitch you were back then. You never really care about anyone but yourself.”

  “I want her back. The rest is moot for me.”

  “Not until we ascertain—that’s a police word, is it not? Not until we ascertain whether or not our little porn goddess meets her maker. I wonder if there is a goddess Maybelline or Mary Kay. What do you think?” Elson chuckled at his small piece of humor.

  “What have you done with her?”

  “Consuela, you must remember that, for once, you are not in charge. I’m calling the shots, so you might as well relax. I am the conductor here, and I intend on orchestrating everything to the quintessential finale.”

  Connie’s eyes shot from Elson’s hands to a bundle on the railing of the veranda. It looked like a pile of ropes, and Connie knew it must be a rope ladder.

  “I will say that I am surprised and a little impressed that you have the courage to come after me alone. I anticipated your Officer Stevens to have found some way of interfering. She’s like a bad cold one can’t get rid of. Leaving her behind takes guts I didn’t think you possessed. It’s nice to know you can still surprise me.”