Compulsion

by Terri Breneman

  The woman sat at her desk. “Good, good. We need to get that going again. It may take some time for Doug to get up to Kevin’s level, and there’s no one else to do the bars right now. Fix me a drink, will you?”

  Jan did as she was instructed, careful to put in three ice cubes and fill the tumbler to the exact level. She set the drink down on the coaster, centering it. The woman stirred the liquid three times with her left index finger, tapped it twice on the rim and brought her finger to her lips. She nodded her thanks to Jan, who returned to her own chair.

  “I talked to Mike earlier today,” she informed Jan. “He said that one of the detectives was digging into Kevin’s business. He pulled rank and took over the investigation and he suggested we remove anything we could from his apartment before he executed a search warrant for the place on Monday. Can you take care of that?”

  “Sure. I’ll go over there tonight.”

  “Can you get in?”

  “I can always get in.” Jan smiled. She always made sure she could access whatever she needed to access. And since Mike was going to be the one who executed the search, she didn’t have to be as careful as she normally would be. This would be a piece of cake.

  “And I’d like to go to the club tonight.” She took a healthy swallow of her Famous Grouse. “I want to see Doug in action and just scope out some things. How about you come by and pick me up at nine. Will that give you enough time to do what you need to do?”

  “Nine would be fine.” It wasn’t unusual for Jan to be asked to accompany her to a bar. Even when she had a girlfriend, her boss would request Jan’s presence. She figured it was mostly so she wouldn’t have to go alone, but she also knew that her boss valued her opinions. And she was also pretty good at finding a woman for her boss to spend the night with. That wasn’t too hard. It was fairly well known that her boss had a lot of money and didn’t bat an eye at spending it on someone.

  Jan hadn’t been to Gertrude’s Garage in a while and she was hoping she could find herself a date there. It was a good dance bar and always crowded on a Saturday night.

  “Maybe we could get a bite to eat there.”

  “That sounds good,” her boss said. “I love Trish’s chicken wings.”

  Jan finished her drink in one big gulp and picked up the ashtray. She emptied it in the can and washed it, then grabbed her backpack. “I’ll see you at nine.”

  As she left the house she pulled out her cell phone. She had two cell phones. One was registered to her and only used to talk to her boss. The other was registered to her grandmother, who had passed away a few years ago. This was the one she used for business, and now she dialed Mike’s number. She needed to know what detective had been snooping around. They couldn’t afford to attract any attention. Now that Judge Smith and Butch were dead, their connections were a bit shaky. They still had a good income from the escort service, and the drug business should be picking up soon. Still, she didn’t like to take any unnecessary chances. And if her boss was still obsessing over Toni Barston, that would be another mess she’d have to clean up, as usual.

  Jan thought that Mike’s phone was about to go to voice mail when he picked up.

  “Detective Johnson.”

  “Hi, Mike. It’s Jan. I just left the boss.”

  “Are you going to take care of that?”

  “Yeah. Tonight. What detective is snooping around?”

  “Carter.” Mike sighed loudly. “Barston put her up to it. She’s got Kevin’s murder case and I heard that she talked to the doer. Apparently his son got the stuff from Kevin and then OD’d. They’re looking for some kind of connection.”

  “Shit.” Jan was racking her brain trying to think if there was anything that would tie Kevin to the boss. Nothing came to mind immediately.

  “Just get the basics and I’ll take care of the rest.” Mike disconnected without saying anything else.

  She drove to her house, stopping first at the Hardee’s drive-through for dinner. By the time she finished her burger and fries, she was fairly confident that the only tie might be his cell phone. It would surely show contact with her phone, but not the one registered to her. If it was on him when he died, the police would have that and Mike could take care of it. She would check Kevin’s computer and do a quick search of his drawers, but she really couldn’t think of anything that would be incriminating. They always paid him in cash and he had no idea who the boss was. Still, she wouldn’t rest easy until she was sure.

  Two hours later Jan pulled on a pair of latex gloves and let herself into Kevin’s small apartment with her duplicate key. It was on the top floor of a four-family flat located in one of the depressed areas of Fairfield. There was a car on blocks parked out front and a discarded toilet in the side yard. She could hear loud punk rock music from one of the bottom apartments and a man screaming profanities from the other. No one seemed to notice her or, if they did, they apparently didn’t care.

  The smell hit her as soon as she opened the front door. Although Kevin had been dead for just over a week, he obviously hadn’t cleaned in at least a month. She stepped over several pizza boxes and spotted the source of the smell. There was a half-eaten container of Chinese food on the counter that seemed to have a life of its own.

  Thoroughly disgusted, she backed out of the kitchen and headed to the living room where she picked through the mounds of trash and dirty clothes. What the hell am I thinking? There’s nothing here. She made her way back to the only bedroom and pushed open the door with her foot. This room was in the same condition as the living room, with pizza boxes littering the floor and fast-food wrappers on the bed. This is so gross. She opened the drawer of the nightstand and found a pile of condoms and some lube. She rolled her eyes and shut the drawer. Kevin’s computer was hidden under a pair of smelly, somewhat stiff sweatpants on the desk in the corner. Carefully she removed them with just two fingers and turned on the computer. She wasn’t even tempted to sit in the chair and instead leaned over, waiting for the screen to come up.

  After about ten minutes she was convinced that there was nothing on the computer that could be tied to the organization. The only document in Word was a half-written letter to some guy, professing his love. He had an AOL account and there was no way to know if he had e-mails without a password. His collection of gay porn seemed quite extensive. After opening a file called “fun,” she was treated to several photos of naked men in suggestive poses. She quickly closed that file and moved on. As far as she could tell, he had no ledgers or information about his drug clients on the computer, but she wasn’t exactly computer savvy.

  Jan shut down the computer and returned the sweatpants to their rightful position. She looked in several drawers, under the bed and in the closet. There was no sign of any type of ledger or list. She stood in his bathroom, thinking. Usually she took Kevin the drugs on a Friday morning, telling him how much money she expected in a week. She would return the following week and he would give her that amount of money. She didn’t care if he charged a higher price, as long as she got what she expected. Kevin would get the money from a can in the kitchen and count out what he owed her. Was it possible he never kept track of anything and just used what was left for himself? He wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, so that was possible. She returned to the kitchen and found the can in one of the cabinets. Inside she found four thousand dollars. That was about half of what he owed her.

  He probably only had time to sell half the drugs. That sounded right because he was killed on a Monday. She figured the rest of the drugs were either hidden inside the apartment or in his car. She thought about searching for them but reconsidered after looking at the kitchen again. It didn’t matter. At least she got half the money. She stuffed it in her jeans and left. She’d done all she could do. She glanced at her watch as she returned to her car and realized she had just enough time to go home, shower and then pick up her boss.

  Chapter 7

  Toni and Boggs arrived at Gertrude’s Garage a little before fiv
e. They had stopped at the mall and had several gifts in tow. Toni insisted that they get regular birthday gifts as well as gag gifts and she’d found the perfect thing, a silver candleholder. There were silver silhouettes of six people, holding hands and standing in a circle. The center held a votive candle. It represented a circle of friends. Toni had one herself and Patty had commented on it several times. It was gift-wrapped in a beautiful red box with a white bow. Boggs had found a thin black leather case that would hold Patty’s new detective badge. For gag gifts they bought two Charlie Chan videos and a child’s notepad with a pencil attached. The gag gifts were wrapped in a newspaper from Boggs’s car.

  They wound their way through the pool tables and dance floor and found Vicky in one of the backrooms. She’d already put up a huge sign for Patty and was sitting on the floor, digging into a large paper bag.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Toni called out.

  Vicky turned and grinned. “Well, it’s about time.” She got up and hugged her. “I’m much better at supervising than actually doing the work myself.” She sat at one of the tables and motioned for Toni to join her. “Ooh. Presents! What did you get?”

  Toni explained the two sets of gifts and Vicky pointed to a large box on the floor in the corner. “I’m putting the gag gifts in there. We’ll have her open those after things settle down. The real presents go on the table in the corner.”

  Boggs put the gifts in the proper locations and began digging in the paper bag. “Hey, cool stuff in here.” She pulled out several streamers and some inflatable pink flamingos. From the bottom she pulled out at least fifty balloons in need of air. “Jeez, Vic, did you get enough frickin’ balloons?”

  Vicky rolled her eyes. “Let’s get moving on this. It shouldn’t take us too long. I told people to come around six.”

  Boggs and Vicky started hanging the streamers. Toni noticed a long table on one side and a small box with purple wristbands. “Hey, what are these?”

  Vicky, standing on one of the chairs, turned. “Those are for food. Anyone who has one on can eat the food. You’ve got to buy your own drinks, but I ordered a bunch of munchies. Go ahead and put one on and give one to Boggs.” She held up her arm. “I’ve already got one.”

  Toni did as instructed, then began putting the colorful tablecloths on the tables. Just as she finished, Johnnie Layton came into the room. She was tall with an athletic build, her light brown hair cut short, above her collar. Her eyes were an icy blue and her voice like butter. Toni and the gang had become friends with Johnnie a few months ago when Toni was suspected of killing a judge. Johnnie, an FBI agent, had been involved in the federal investigation. Even though Johnnie initially had feelings for Toni, she had hopefully resigned herself to just being friends. In the last couple months Johnnie had become one of the gang.

  “Hey, Johnnie.” Toni hugged her and took the gifts she was carrying.

  “The one in the paper bag is the gag gift,” Johnnie explained.

  Toni nodded and put it in the box on the floor and the other one on the table. She handed Johnnie a wristband.

  Vicky and Boggs had finished with the streamers and had just started on the balloons. “Give us a hand, will ya?” Vicky pointed to the pile of balloons.

  Johnnie sat down and picked one up. “I guess I should have gotten here twenty minutes later. I didn’t know I had to work.” She laughed and blew up her first balloon.

  As the four women worked on the balloons, they chatted in between puffs. They were on the last few when Trish came in carrying a bucket that held six bottles of beer. She was the cook at Gertrude’s.

  “This is on the house, ladies,” she said as she set the bucket on the table. “And here’s some tape for the balloons.” She looked around the room. “You guys have done a great job. I’ll start bringing out the food at about six. Is that okay?”

  “That would be great, Trish,” Vicky said as she grabbed one of the bottles of beer. “I can’t wait to have some of your wings. You make the best in town.”

  Trish seemed to blush slightly and quickly left the room.

  “I think you embarrassed the girl,” Boggs said as she opened her own beer. “And isn’t she a little young for you?”

  “Shut up and start hanging up these balloons.” Vicky sat down next to Toni. “I’ve done enough for one night.” She grinned at Toni and watched Boggs and Johnnie finish the work. By the time they were done, Vicky was swallowing the last of her beer. She opened another and glanced at her watch. “People should be showing up any minute now.”

  “How many people did you invite?” Toni asked.

  “I think we’ll have about twenty.” Vicky retrieved a cake box from under the food table. She placed the cake in the center of the table.

  Toni went over to inspect the cake. “It looks great. I take it Patty likes pink flamingos?”

  “I have no idea,” Vicky said, chuckling. “They just crack me up, so I went with it.”

  “And here’s our birthday girl,” Boggs said as Patty entered the room. She took the last beer from the bucket and opened it for Patty. “Happy birthday.” She hugged her quickly and Vicky snapped a picture.

  Patty stood about five foot five and was by no means slender. She considered herself fluffy and often described herself as such. Her blond hair was curly and unruly and she wore it about collar length. Her brown eyes were warm and inviting and her smile was infectious.

  “I can’t believe you guys,” Patty said as she hugged everyone else. “You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble, but I’m glad you did.” She grinned broadly.

  “This was all Vicky’s doing,” Toni said as she hugged Patty. “And Johnnie’s here,” she whispered. “Go get a birthday kiss.” She knew that Patty had a bad case of lust for Johnnie and she enjoyed teasing her about it.

  Patty hugged Toni harder and giggled. “Maybe after a few more beers,” she murmured.

  Vicky appeared and handed a giant button to Patty. “Here. This is your first birthday gift.” The button was about four inches in diameter and said, “Kiss Me, It’s My Birthday” in bright orange letters. She pinned it on Patty’s shirt and then kissed her. Patty smiled, then looked down at her button and frowned.

  “Don’t worry,” Toni said. “If you don’t like who’s coming toward you, just turn your head and point to your cheek.”

  Patty looked relieved. “Good idea. I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but there are some women that I just wouldn’t want to kiss.”

  “I know exactly what you mean.” Toni smiled and then noticed Johnnie coming toward them. “But then again, there are some that you would.” She moved away and let Johnnie get closer.

  “Happy birthday, Patty.” She looked down at the button and smiled. “May I?”

  Patty blinked several times and then just nodded. Toni thought the kiss was just a fraction of a second longer than friendly. She saw Johnnie wink at Patty and then walk away. Toni went back over to Patty, whose face was now red.

  “So?”

  “Wow.” Patty took a deep breath. “I’ve been wishing she’d do that since the first time I saw her. I think this is the best birthday I’ve ever had.”

  Toni laughed and gently shook her. “Back to earth, girl. The party’s just started.”

  Chapter 8

  Jan and her boss pulled up to Gertrude’s Garage a little after nine o’clock. Jan stopped outside the front door and let her out.

  “Get us a table in the back,” she ordered Jan. “And tell Trish we want a couple orders of wings. I’m going to make the circuit first.” She slammed the car door shut and went inside.

  It wasn’t very crowded yet and she stopped in the game room and watched two women shooting pool. One was very good and she was impressed with the speed in which she sunk the balls. Her opponent was clearly a novice. She looked to be about thirty years old with a trim body and long blond hair. She was intrigued, so she stopped one of the waitresses and told her to get the woman a drink, on her. Before leaving the room, she winked at
the blonde and was rewarded with a smile.

  The dance floor had at least twenty women on it and she stopped to admire a redhead. She was tempted to ask her to dance when a slow song came on, so she decided to wait until later. Even though she was probably twenty years older than the redhead, she knew her reputation for being very generous preceded her, and most women did not turn her down. Smiling at that thought, she headed back toward the private rooms. One had obviously been reserved for a birthday party. Trish entered carrying a huge pan of chicken wings, and toward the back of the room a familiar face was parked near the food table. Ah-ha, she thought. One of the Fairfield police detectives, Vicky Carter. She’d met her once before and never passed up an opportunity to be kind to the police.

  It never hurt to be friendly to the enemy. Vicky Carter was an excellent detective and wasn’t on the take. But one never knew what the future could hold, and of course everyone had a price. She entered the room, nodded to Trish, and walked straight up to Vicky, her hand outstretched.

  Chapter 9

  Toni and Boggs were sitting at one of the tables in the private room, drinking beer. They’d just finished dancing to about four songs. Johnnie and Patty joined them, having just come from the dance floor themselves. Patty was beaming.

  “Are you having a good time?” Toni asked.

  “I swear, this is the best birthday I’ve ever had.” Patty reached for a beer from the bucket on the table. Johnnie opened it for her and smiled.

  There might be something between these two, Toni thought. She hoped that Patty wouldn’t get hurt. Johnnie had a reputation of being very smooth and Toni had found that assessment to be accurate a few months ago. While Boggs, Patty and Johnnie continued to talk, Toni scanned the room. There were quite a few people milling about. Vicky was standing next to the food table chatting with a redhead who looked barely old enough to drive, let alone old enough to get into a bar. Toni chuckled to herself. Vicky had the type of personality that drew people. She was funny and confident. Even the long scar on her neck didn’t seem to faze her. She’d gotten it last fall in a near brush with death and she never bothered to cover it with makeup or high collars.