by S. D. Thames
“You have to keep all this between us, Milo.” She waited for me to agree. I said nothing but she seemed desperate enough that the silence was enough for her to keep going. “I stayed loyal to Don through all of this. But Don hated Chad. He thought he was some kind of usurper.”
“What exactly did Don want you to find out about Chad and Evie?” I asked.
“More about their new venture.”
“Was this a venture with Pilka?”
“Kind of,” she murmured.
“Kind of?” Frustration crept into my voice.
“Chad was using Pilka’s business, but running a side business.”
“Was he paying Pilka for it?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about Pilka? How do you think he’d react if he found out that Chad was leaving him out of something like that?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t put anything beyond any of these guys.”
I was beginning to feel the same way. “And what did you find out about this new venture?”
“Chad promised I could double, triple what I was making for a date.”
“What’s the rub?”
Her face turned sullen. “You had to be videotaped.”
“Videotaped? Like porn?”
“Private porn, as I understood it.” She waited a moment for that to register, and then she continued. “All these men, you see, they grew up watching porn as teenagers. Having a woman just doesn’t do it for them anymore. They want to see themselves on the screen, doing it like that.”
“So that’s the new venture?”
“Not exactly. This has been going on for years. But Chad had a new idea, and he wanted to recruit me for that, too. That’s what the meeting Sunday was all about. But they really never discussed it around me. We were supposed to go party after dinner, but Chad left all of a sudden. I figured it was because of that subpoena you gave him.”
I flashed back to Scalzo taking his anger out on my face and nodded. “So who was the guy with the ponytail?”
“All I know is his name’s Brian, and he’s from Miami.”
“You catch his last name?” I asked.
“Blane or Blare or something like that.”
“When did you see him last?”
“Sunday night… or I guess you could say early Monday morning.”
“And you never saw Evie after you left the restaurant?”
Kara rolled her eyes. “Like I said, she didn’t show.”
“This Brian guy, were you with him all night?”
“As far as I know. I mean, eventually I fell asleep, but I never noticed him leaving or anything.”
“Where was he staying?”
“The Hyatt near the airport.”
“He still there?” I asked.
“I doubt it. He was supposed to fly out last night with Chad. That obviously didn’t happen.”
I asked her if she knew where they were supposed to go.
“L.A., as far as I knew. To meet some of his connections.”
“So you left Armani’s around nine and left the Hyatt the next morning. Have you talked to Evie since the restaurant?”
“When she didn’t show up, I tried calling her a few times. It went right to voicemail.”
“Have you tried since then?”
She shook her head.
“Will you?”
She nodded.
“You think she’d have any reason to go after Scalzo?”
“You mean, would she kill him?” She seemed baffled by the question.
“I’m just saying. I met her in his apartment Sunday morning, so maybe they were seeing each other. Maybe she took it for more than it was and got pissed when he sent her on a date with this Brian guy.”
That got a chuckle out of her. “You don’t know Evie very well.”
“Admittedly, I don’t know her at all.”
“Evie was not the type to get hung up on a guy. She had no reservations, no loyalties. She was seducing every guy she saw. It was all about power to her.”
“You got her number on you now?” I pressed.
She let out a little smirk. “What, you interested in a good time?”
“Try her,” I said, sterner than I intended.
She shrugged and hit a button on her phone. She listened a moment and then set the phone down. “It’s not working.”
“Her number’s dead?”
She nodded. “Out of service.”
“Give it to me anyways. I can try a few searches with it.”
She picked the phone up again and told me the digits. I typed and saved them in my notes app.
Just then, the waitress arrived with my food. I reached for the syrup and asked Kara if she was sure she didn’t want anything.
“I’m really not hungry.”
I set the syrup down and realized I wasn’t either. Unfortunately, this case was continuing to make me lose my appetite, too.
Back home, I spent some time doing research on the computer. I started by running a search on Sal Barton, looking for an obituary or any news about his death. I found nothing. Google returned a link to the website for Sal’s investigation company. I dialed the number and in no time I heard Sal’s voice speaking over an old analog recording. It sounded like Sal was reading from a script. The answering machine beeped, so I left a message. “Sal, it’s me, Milo. Just wanted to give you a call since we didn’t get to talk long the other day. Let me know how you’re doing, buddy.” I hung up and wondered if anyone would ever hear that message.
Having struck out with Sal, I returned my attention to the Scalzo case. I started by running a reverse search on the cell number Kara had given me for Angie or Evie or whatever the hell her name was. I started generally, typing the number in Google. I was surprised to find no direct hits. I ran more focused searches through Facebook too, which also yielded nothing. That meant I’d have to fork over a little more money to Accurint. A few minutes later, the search told me that the phone was owned by a company with a suite address in Miami. I gave them a call and found out they were a prepaid phone carrier. I wasn’t going to get anything out of them without a subpoena.
I checked the time. I had a favor to ask Hector, but he wouldn’t be home for a few hours. I was about to give up and take an afternoon siesta when my phone rang. It was Mattie. “Get over here, Porter. You’re not going to believe what I’ve got.”
He was right.
Mattie was waiting in the parking lot smoking a cigarette when I arrived. “What the hell took you so long?” He flicked the butt into the shrubs.
I followed him inside without answering. We entered the conference room where I’d reviewed the file the day before. He had a little thirteen-inch TV set up on the conference table. He lowered the lights and flipped on the DVD player.
“I hope you’re not showing me your new commercial,” I said.
He was all business. “Shut up and watch this.”
The grainy screen appeared. A gray-haired man with a broad muscular chest relaxed on an oversized couch. His pants were around his ankles.
“That’s McSwain,” Mattie said.
“Our McSwain?”
“The one and only.”
A brunette entered the view of the camera. I couldn’t see her face, but it didn’t take much imagination to realize that she was Angie or Evie—whatever her name, she was definitely the girl I’d met in Scalzo’s apartment. She got on her knees and quickly got to business. McSwain, meanwhile, rolled his head back and closed his eyes.
And with that, it was past time for me to look away. “I get the point.”
Mattie raised the remote. “What, you don’t want to see the money shot?” I guess the way I held my head told him all he needed to know, and he turned off the TV. “Don’t worry, you couldn’t see it anyway.”
Once the lights were back on, I started thinking about the ramifications of the video I’d just seen. I wondered whether this was the surprise Kara had said everyone had been waiting for. “Whe
re did you get this?” I asked.
He held up a small media envelope. “It came in the mail today, with a note attached.” He showed me the little post-it: Thank me Later.
“You have any idea where that was taken?”
Mattie nodded. “No doubt it was Pilka’s lingerie shop.”
“Well, this leaves no doubt that McSwain knew what was going on in his place. Produce it to his attorneys, and he’ll probably cave.”
“We can’t just produce it. His lawyers will go ape-shit. He’ll probably accuse us of blackmail and illegal video interception or something.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Mattie’s eyes drilled into me like a rig drilling for oil in Texas. “We need to talk to McSwain directly. No lawyers. Just the parties.”
“So you’re going to have Pilka call him?”
“Pilka doesn’t even know about this yet. Alexi and I agreed to leave him out for now.”
“What, Don knows about this?”
Mattie nodded. “Pilka doesn’t care about this case. Only Don does. He’s the only one I can trust with this.” His eyes flickered. “By the way, how’d your interview with Pilka go?”
“Fine.” I wasn’t in the mood to offer information right now. “Back to this video. Are you planning on having Alexi talk to McSwain?”
He looked incredulous. “You met Don Alexi. I don’t see him persuading McSwain of anything but washing his hands.”
“And he’s the one you trust?”
Mattie shrugged. “That’s the world we live in, Porter. As you can see, I don’t have many choices. And you are working for me, right?” I knew where Mattie was going with this, and I didn’t like it. “I need you to talk to him.”
“Sorry, Mattie. I’m not taking a hit for you for extortion.”
“I don’t expect you to. You’re smarter than that. You can get around it and still make the point clear.”
“No thanks.”
“Please, we have no choice,” he moaned.
Meanwhile, I realized Kara had entered the room, and she didn’t look well.
“What do you mean?” I said. “The trial’s Monday. Kick his ass at trial.”
“Without this, we don’t have a leg to stand on.” I’d never seen such desperation in his eyes. And I didn’t get it. Pilka acted like he could care less about this case. “Just talk to him, Milo. Please.”
I knew it was time to meet Mr. McSwain; I just wasn’t sure that I would go as far as Mattie wanted me to go. “I’ll talk to him,” I said. “But no promises about the video.”
He took out the DVD, put it back in the case, and handed it to me. “You know what to do with this.”
I wasn’t sure that I did, but I took it anyways.
He told Kara to show me out, so I followed her back through the dark hallway. Once we were out of earshot, she turned and raised her eyes to ask what was going on. I waved the DVD. “Have you seen this yet?”
She shook her head, and I handed it to her.
“Watch it as soon as you can, and then run it out it to me.”
“Where?”
I waited in my car just around the block. Ahead, I could see the parking garage at Hyde Park Village, where wealthy women carried shopping bags to their cars, dressed immaculately and somehow never breaking a sweat in the heat. I counted two dozen such women, all shopping alone, during the five minutes it took Kara to show.
Kara, on the other hand, did not appear immune to the heat. She looked blotchy again, and had broken a sweat during the short walk from the office.
“Where the hell did that come from?” she asked through my open window.
I took the DVD case back from her and placed it in my glove box. “Wilcox just gave it to me. You recognize anyone in it?”
She leaned against my car. “That was obviously Evie.”
“What about the guy?”
“I have no idea. Never seen him before.”
“What about the location. Was that Pilka’s shop?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“It’s hard to tell for sure, but I think so.”
“I thought Scalzo did the video recording, and he didn’t make the videos at Pilka’s.”
“I did too. Maybe I was wrong.”
“He sure didn’t look like he was posing, did he?”
“I don’t think so. It looked like some kind of hidden cam.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But isn’t it possible they were going for that look?”
She shrugged. “Anything’s possible.”
As hard as it was to ask, I needed to know. “Do you think you could get your hands on one of the Scalzo videos, one you know he produced?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea how to do that.”
I had a hunch how we could, unfortunately, and it meant I really needed Hector to get off work on time today. Better yet, maybe I was better off reaching him while he was still on duty. “I have to get back to work,” I said.
Kara stood there, clearly not wanting to go back to work.
“I’ll check in with you later,” I said.
She nodded reluctantly. “Please do.”
She turned, and I watched her walk back toward Mattie’s office. Though the afternoon temperature had reached the mid-nineties, she crossed her arms and braced herself as though she were trying to warm herself.
Once she turned the corner, I picked up my phone and called Hector.
“What’s up, man?”
“Hector, is your house unlocked?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A Naked Crime Scene
I parked my car around the corner from SkyGate on the corner of Polk and Morgan. I was a few minutes early, and figured Hector would be a few minutes late. I was about to take a stroll around the block when my phone rang. I saw the number and braced myself. “Hello?”
“Hi.” Val’s voice was about what I’d expected—ambiguous and cautious. “You working out tonight?” she asked.
I didn’t want to tell her I was still working, but it was the truth, and the only reason I wouldn’t be at Rico’s in a little while. “I’m sorry, I’m still working.”
“That same case?” Her tone was going downhill.
“Uh-huh,” I said with sloppy enunciation that could have passed for, “Uh-uh.”
Her sigh said she heard me right. “I miss you.”
I felt warm inside. “I miss you, too. I promise I’ll be done by the time you’re finished at Rico’s and take a shower. What do you want to do?”
“Hmm. You won’t believe this, but I’m actually craving a beer.”
God, I loved her. “Ms. Paleo is going to drink gluten?”
“Yep, and I’m going to get gassy and sleep in your bed tonight.”
“Stop it, you’re turning me on.” Just then, the white van I’d been waiting for pulled next to me. Hector waved for me to get in. I gestured just a minute.
“You’re so gross!” Val whined.
“What can I say?” I gestured again at Hector.
“Let’s meet at the Irish place you like at eight.”
“Four Green Fields. I can’t wait,” I said.
“Don’t make me wait, either.”
With that, she hung up. I was relieved to have something to look forward to. As I stared across the street at Hector and his cable van, I knew I needed something to look forward to.
I stepped out of my car. Hector looked me up and down and whistled through the open passenger window. “You look good in that, Porter.”
I was wearing one of his spare uniforms. Though I had a few inches on Hector, broader shoulders and a fuller beer belly, the uniform still fit rather well.
I thanked him for the compliment and hopped in the van. I spotted a Rays ball cap and sunglasses stashed on the dashboard. “You mind?” I asked as I picked up the accouterments. “Extra disguise never hurts.”
“Be my guest,” he said.
He looped around the bloc
k and pulled the van into the building’s interior garage. He knew right where to park. He killed the engine and grinned at me. “Let me do the talking.”
“I insist.”
Once we were in the lobby, I let Hector turn the corner first, and I stayed back to see if my good friend Stewart was working. Sure enough, he was manning the counter. I stepped back and watched Fox News on the monitors with my back facing the front desk, all the while trying to keep my ear pinned to hear Hector’s conversation with the hipster doorman.
Hector was explaining to Stewie that we needed to undertake some routine scheduled maintenance. Apparently Hector was not as threatening a figure to Stewart as I’d been a few days earlier, as Stewart was giving him little resistance. He just wanted to know the floors we needed to access and whether the residents should expect any interference. Hector named a few by number. It was only when he mentioned the penthouse that Stewart pushed back a little.
“Is that a problem?” Hector asked.
“Not really. It’s just that,” and then Stewart lowered his voice. It sounded like he was explaining that there was a crime scene up there.
“Oh man,” Hector said. “Are the detectives still up there?”
“Not as far as I know,” Stewart said.
Just when I was about to giggle at the bang-up job Hector was doing with Stewart, I heard a chime as the elevator behind me opened. I turned without thinking, but froze when I saw who was getting off the elevator.
Don Alexi stared back at me. It didn’t take him long to recognize me, maybe a little longer due to the disguise. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I was about to ask you the same question.”
There was a blonde with him. I recognized her from the pictures in his office. “What’s going on, Don?” she asked.
He looked at her but didn’t answer. Then he looked back at me. “Your turn. What was it, Porter?”
“What’s it look like?” I said, pointing to my outfit.
“Yeah?” he said. “You some kind of cable guy that moonlights as a detective?”
“Close enough,” I said. “What’s your story?”
He glanced at the blonde, then back to me. “What’s it look like? I live here.” He nodded to the blonde. “Why don’t you wait outside, hon? I won’t be long.”
