Desert Kill Switch ~ a Nostalgia City Mystery ~ Book 2

by Mark S. Bacon

  “But how could he prove we wanted to take the event?” Kate asked.

  “First, you just had your own classic car show.”

  “That was fewer than one hundred cars for a week. Just an experiment. No threat.”

  “That’s where the video came in.”

  Video. Lyle tried to be calm. He wanted to jump up and grab Jacques by his expensive lapels. He rubbed his right hand against his leg and focused on his breathing.

  “Al was getting a little desperate for votes. He hired someone to film him while he tried to get you to say you liked RSD and might be interested in hosting the event,” Jacques said. “Guess he got mad when you didn’t cooperate. He intended to use the video on Marge and other board members as necessary. Said it would be his smoke screen until the deal was done.”

  “And we all know what happened with that video,” Kate said. “Who filmed it?”

  “So I gave Al the name of a videographer I knew, but he was busy. I guess he farmed it out to someone else--someone I don’t know. When they saw you were arrested, maybe they figured the video might be worth something. I assume they sold it to that website.”

  “The video was perfect,” Kate said. “Al couldn’t have framed me any better if he planned his own murder.”

  “Who do you think killed him?” Lyle asked.

  “I know who would have liked to do it,” Jacques said.

  “Yes?” Kate said.

  “But I don’t know who really did it.”

  “Regardless, it leaves you in good shape,” Kate said. “By the way, I see your sign out front. You moving?”

  “We own a place at Tahoe. That’s going to be our main home.”

  Chapter 43

  “Busick did tell Marge Drysdale he wanted to move Rockin’ Summer Days to Vegas,” Kate said as they got back in her car. She cranked up the A/C. “She was the one who told Gale Forrester and he put it in his column. I wonder who else she told.”

  “Anyone else who found out, could have whacked Busick to stop him,” Lyle said. “But with a cake knife?”

  “I don’t think Busick had conversations. He had arguments,” Kate said. “And frequently with his stepson. Strangely, he seems the same type.”

  Lyle moved one of the A/C vents in his direction and loosened his collar.

  “I talked with Ricky today, I mean Rick. One minute he’s chatting calmly, the next minute he’s off the deep end screaming profanities. He abuses people like his stepfather, maybe more so.”

  “You think he’s the person Jacques was talking about?”

  “Yes,” Kate said. “He looks like the killer to me.”

  “Take nothing on its looks,” Lyle said, “take everything on evidence.”

  “Really? Is that from the police manual?”

  “No, Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.”

  “I forgot you were a lit major.”

  “I don’t brag about it,” Lyle said. “But our evidence does say Rick hated Busick and has no alibi, right?”

  “Uh huh. Rick’s manic or has a split personality, or something. But I don’t know how we can prove he did it.”

  “We need to find out what the police know,” Lyle said. “Is there a suspect we don’t know about? Did they have to get a search warrant for Rick’s apartment? I’ll call Rey and my friend Marko and see if they have any contacts at the Reno PD.”

  “In the meantime, I want to get back to the dealership and nose around a little more. I can probably get away with being there for one more afternoon.”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Lyle said, “I like the way you look. I mean your hair is back and everything. That was a quick change.”

  “Yes, it was,” Kate said. With her left hand on the steering wheel, she reached up with her right and loosened the scarf around her head. As she pulled it off, the blonde hair came with it. “This is just a fall,” she said. “But obviously I didn’t need it ’cause Marshall recognized me the other day.”

  Kate shook her head and her murky brown hair fell down below her shoulders. “I’m going to have to grab a sandwich and adjust my makeup.”

  Kate dropped Lyle back at his car and they agreed to meet at their hotel after work to plan their next move.

  ***

  When Kate rolled her wheelchair into Busick Motors headquarters, she noticed an attractive woman at the service department reception desk. Kate coasted slowly her way and smiled.

  The receptionist’s short hair was a shade of blonde nature never intended and her dress, what Kate could see of it above the counter was, to be generous, skimpy. The woman looked about forty but her clothes said twenty. Not quite Lady Gaga, but not Diane Sawyer either.

  “Hi, I’m Jennifer Wicker,” Kate said. “I’m doing a story on Mr. Busick for Lifestyle Las Vegas magazine. Did you ever meet him?”

  “Who told you that?” the woman answered, her wide mouth forming a classic upside-down U-shaped frown.

  That answers that question. “No one told me. I’ve just been talking to lots of employees to get a picture of Mr. Busick.”

  “I couldn’t tell you. Yeah, I knew him. Slightly. But I ain’t talkin’ about it.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had some guys I wouldn’t talk about either,” Kate said. “I had a boyfriend before I got this.” She touched her wheelchair. “What a bastard. Never seen him again.”

  “You didn’t want to know Al. Talked big. Smiled--you’re not writing ’bout this are ya?”

  Kate held up her empty hands and shook her head.

  “He spent a lot of money sometimes. But he had a mean streak. Told me to leave him alone. Me leave him alone. Fine with me.”

  Kate inched closer to the counter.

  “Know what he told me once?” The receptionist leaned toward Kate and lowered her voice. “He told me I should do it with his stepson Rick cause he probably wasn’t gettin’ any. That’s the kind of guy he was, y’know?”

  Kate saw a service writer walking slowly to the reception counter along with a customer, so she nodded encouragement to the receptionist.

  “Rick was the only one here who gave it back to him. I heard him threaten Al twice. Once after work, a couple of weeks ago, when they thought no one else was around. Al tells him he doesn’t know enough to be dealing in million-dollar cars. Says he should stick to muscle cars--and get rid of the foreigners, the...ah...check-ins.”

  Kate recalled the Eastern European accents that morning. “Chechens?”

  “Yeah, whatever. Rick tells him to fuck off. Right to his face. He says his new partners know what they’re doing. He said Al was not too big to be taken care of.”

  “What do you think he meant?”

  “If you heard Rick’s voice, you wouldn’t ask.”

  When the service writer stepped to the desk and set down sheets of paperwork, Kate rolled backward, making a mental note of the receptionist’s name from the plaque on the counter.

  Before she left Busick Motors today, she wanted to call Barbara Orion at the magazine to tell her she was finishing up her “story.” She rolled outside to one of the used car areas to make her call.

  “I’m leaving here today,” she told her editor friend. “I suppose there’s a possibility I may come back tomorrow, but unlikely. If anyone calls, you could say the story is scheduled for later in the year.”

  “Someone did call. Late yesterday afternoon. He said there was a woman in a wheelchair who said she was writing for Lifestyle. He said he wanted to know what sort of a story we were planning, but I understood he really wanted to know if you were legitimate. He asked how long you had worked for me.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I was vague about the story. Just said it was a profile because Busick was a well-known Las Vegan.”

  “Who was it?”

  “He said his name was Rick Stark.”

  ***

  Kate hadn’t seen Detective Polhouse since the day before and didn’t want to run into him again, but she wanted to talk to Nina Or
tega and Jake Alexander before she left Busick Motors for good. Unfortunately, when she went upstairs, she learned Alexander was working at another dealership and would be out for the day. Back to the ground floor.

  When the elevator doors opened, she heard voices. She pulled off her phony glasses to see better. “Hey, you know what?” said a voice down the hall.

  Unsure whether it was directed at her or not, she wheeled around a corner heading for the sanctuary of her temporary cubicle. As soon as she set down her purse and notepad on the counter, Nina’s head popped up over the purple divider.

  “Jennifer, if that’s your name,” Nina said. “You’re back.”

  A moment later, Nina appeared in the doorway to Kate’s cube. She leaned a shoulder against the wall, folded her arms across her chest, and looked Kate in the eye. “What is it you’re trying to do here?”

  “What do you mean, “do here?” Kate said. She took a moment to turn her wheelchair around, as she felt a little adrenalin rush.

  “I saw you this afternoon when you got out of your car. I saw you stand up and pull your wheelchair out. You can walk okay.”

  “Are you familiar with FMD, functional movement disorder?” Kate had prepared for this, picking an obscure ailment most people had never heard of.

  Nina shook her head. Her insolent look faded only slightly. “What’d you mean?”

  “FMD is a crippling disease that affects everyone differently. Depends on how far the disease has advanced. Standing for short periods is not impossible, even when you can’t really walk.”

  Nina shook her head.

  “I still know how to write, how to do interviews.”

  “Yeah, you do. That’s what the magazine says, anyway. Did you talk to that cop that was here? Maybe you should.”

  Kate tried to stare down Nina.

  “You’re done working here now. You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Nina unfolded her arms and took a step outside Kate’s cubicle. She walked around the corner then leaned back. “You’re really tall, aren’t you?”

  Chapter 44

  “Let me refresh your memory about CCN, the Consumer Coalition of Nevada,” Lyle said when Kate met him in the parking lot outside an office building.

  “It’s the group campaigning against Busick Motors and the kill switches,” Kate said. “But why are you telling me this?”

  “Because the CCN office is inside, and that’s where Nina is.”

  An hour earlier, Kate had called Lyle, explaining that Nina Ortega had questioned her disability--and her identity. She asked Lyle to follow Nina after work. She needed to talk to her away from Busick Motors.

  Lyle pointed to the front of the office building. “She came here directly from work.”

  “What? Why would she be here?” Kate’s face showed more than surprise. “Nina is in the CCN office?”

  Lyle nodded slowly. Kate was obviously having a hard time digesting the news.

  “Okay, she’s new at Busick Motors, works in accounting, seems to have a relationship with Rick.” Kate leaned back against the side of her car, staring into space.

  “Why don’t we just go inside and find out?” Lyle said, “We need to nail the killing on Rick--or someone--pretty soon.”

  Lyle turned to go then stopped. Kate looked like Jennifer Wicker, minus the glasses and wheelchair. “But if you walk in there, it will blow your cover.”

  “I don’t think that’s an issue any more. Let’s go.”

  Although after office hours, the door was open. They walked through an empty reception area and followed the sound of voices into a modern-furnished office.

  Nina sat in front of a desk, her legs crossed, talking rapidly.

  “Good evening,” Lyle said. “You wouldn’t be talking about Busick Motors, would you? Mind if we join in?”

  A fortyish man Lyle recognized got up from behind the desk. He wore a light blue shirt and tie. He pulled off oval glasses before he spoke. “This is a private meeting. I’d like...”

  He paused momentarily as he looked at Lyle.

  “Yes, we spoke last week,” Lyle said, “in Carson City. We’re from Nostalgia City theme park. This is Kate Sorensen, the person I told you about.”

  He hesitated. “Oh, yes.”

  Lyle introduced Kate to Larry Quick, then glanced at Nina. She glared at him.

  Kate slid a chair over and sat next to Nina. “So, Nina, you’re working together? Are you undercover at Busick Motors?”

  “Yeah, like you are,” Nina said.

  “Now wait a minute,” said Quick, still standing. “What are you doing here?”

  “Just relax, Mr. Quick,” Lyle said.

  “You can’t be here.”

  “We are here,” Lyle said. He pulled up a chair from the other side of the room. “We’re here for just one reason.”

  “You followed me,” Nina spat out.

  “Nina,” Quick said, “just a minute. I’ve met Mr...”

  “Deming,” Lyle said.

  “Yes, I’ve met Mr. Deming before. They’re investigating Busick’s murder.”

  “Yeah, and the cops are looking for her,” Nina said.

  “They already found me,” Kate said. “Now we’re trying to find out who really killed him.”

  Nina crossed her arms in front of her. “We can’t help you.”

  “This is very uncomfortable,” Quick said. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He leaned on his desk. “Quite frankly, if we could help you, we would. But we can’t jeopardize this case. You have no idea what’s involved here. You could screw up everything.”

  “We appreciate the concern,” Lyle said¸ “but I think we already know enough to ‘screw things ups,’ as you put it.”

  “But that’s not what we want to do,” Kate said. “Busick was a vulgar bully. If his company deserves it--as it appears--we hope you can stop ’em.” She paused and continued more softly. “But I’m trapped because someone killed him.”

  Lyle could tell the melancholy in Kate’s voice was not just for show. But ironically, it seemed to work.

  Quick sat down. He tapped his desk with his glasses. “Okay, what do you want? What are you suggesting?”

  “No,” Nina said, slapping the corner of Quick’s desk.

  “We just want a little more information about Busick Motors employees,” Kate said. “Something that could help us find Busick’s killer.”

  “This sounds like you’re blackmailing us,” Quick said.

  “Not really,” Lyle said, in a way that meant, “yes we are.”

  “If we help you, then what? We know Ms. Sorensen here is a fugitive. I heard a story about her on the radio today. See, we have information that you wouldn’t like getting out either.”

  Kate and Lyle both nodded agreement. “Just a little help,” Lyle said, “and we’ll forget we talked to you.”

  “Nina, reluctantly I have to say they sound sympathetic to our cause,” Quick said.

  “You’re on the inside, Nina,” Kate said, keeping her voice low. “You must know something that can help me. You know I talked to Lamprey. He’s proud of their system of separating customers from their money, then threatening them with the kill switch.”

  “That’s what they do,” Quick said. “And so far, they’ve had their hand slapped, but now we can prove a consistent pattern of deception. We’re not just talking about lawsuits now. They’ll be facing criminal charges, prison time.”

  “These guys are like lower than low,” Nina said, her arms still crossed tightly on her chest.

  “Why are you involved in this?” Kate asked Nina. “It’s dangerous.”

  Kate’s voice carried just the right amount of sympathy and honesty. Lyle could see why she was good in PR.

  “They killed Carlos, okay,” Nina said looking at the floor, “my sister’s son.”

  “All right, I guess we’ll tell you the story,” Quick said, “but remember what we know about you.”

  Lyle tried to look as understanding as he could. He saw Kate
did an even better job.

  Before he spoke, Quick looked at Nina. She nodded.

  “Okay,” he began. “We’ll tell you this. Nina’s sister Maria bought a car from one of the Busick dealerships. She was taking her son to the doctor when her car wouldn’t start. Did I tell you this story before?”

  “Yes,” Lyle said, “the finance company hit the kill switch and as a result, the child didn’t get to the hospital in time.”

  Kate reached out to Nina. Nina started to pull away, then she relaxed and let Kate squeeze her hand.

  “The worst thing possible,” Nina said. “I so wanted to do something. I was between jobs so I applied at Busick Motors and got a job in accounting.”

  “See, Nina was just who we needed,” Quick said. “Quite frankly, she’s done an incredible, amazing job collecting evidence. Evidence we need.”

  Lyle wondered how admissible the evidence would be considering Nina’s personal relationship to the case and what methods she might be using. But that was not his problem. He turned to his tall partner. “Kate, what or who do we need to know about?”

  Kate asked Nina about several Busick employees including the executive VP.

  “Jake Alexander just signed a long-term contract,” Nina said. “Three years I think. Al Busick’s death doesn’t matter to him. The company changes hands, the corporation still owes him.”

  Lyle waited for Kate to get around to Rick Stark. Eventually, she did.

  “I talked with Rick Stark yesterday,” Kate said. “Now, I know he and his stepfather fought over that business, about how Rick was running it. And of course, with Al gone, he could stand to inherit.”

  Nina shook her head. “No. Al didn’t adopt Ricky, so he doesn’t inherit. Al didn’t even let him own a part of the pony car business.”