“I’m good, but if you see Tip, tell him Ben called. He’ll want to know.”
“I doubt I’ll see him. I’m getting coffee and then going outside for a smoke. Want to join me?”
“Thanks anyway. I have too much to do.” I turned but then looked back at Charlie. “When did you start smoking?”
“When I went on this diet. I gained most of the weight when I quit, so I thought I’d try losing it the same way.”
“Good luck with that,” I said.
Tip came back a few minutes later. “I ran into Charlie and Herb. Ben called?”
“He called me because he didn’t want to talk to you.”
“That’s just like Ben,” Tip said. “What did he find?”
“After you bullied him into believing this might be a homicide, he found evidence that could support that theory.”
Tip smacked his hand against the door jamb. “I knew it.”
“Don’t get too excited. He can’t prove anything, but it looks more and more like somebody wanted Lipscomb dead.”
Just then, Tip’s phone rang. “Hang on, Connie. This is Buster.” Tip stepped to the side and answered. “Buster, what’ve you got for me? “No shit. When?
“You’re sure it was her? What time of night was it?
“Did you get a plate? What kind of car?
“So was that before or after you had a bottle?”
Tip laughed and then he said, “All right. I hope you’re dreaming of a big steak, ’cause that’s what I’m buying you.
“No, not tonight, but I’ll be down soon. Thanks, Buster.” Tip hung up. He was all smiles.
“Sounds like Buster has a lead,” I said.
“He just remembered that Tiffany came and got her car. He even got us a partial plate, if we can believe him.”
“Can we trust what he says?” I asked.
“He usually gets things half right. Good enough to check out since we don’t have anything else.”
Charlie was just coming back from his smoke. Tip grabbed him and said, “Take this to Julie and tell her to get it out on the radio. Green Nissan, and a partial on the plate is T32. Don’t know the year. And tell her not to be too sure on the make, either. This came from a mediocre source. But she can check all green Nissans with T32 in the plate to see what we come up with.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Charlie said.
Tip turned to me and said, “Now you can fill me in on Davids.”
I had already started writing a list, which I laid out on the table between us. “Ben’s report says Davids drank too much alcohol that night. Combined with a hot tub and alprazolam, it could easily have led to an accident.”
“I think Ben’s on an accident binge,” Tip said. “Let’s look at what we have.”
I pulled out the file.
• No prints except the victim’s.
• Front door wasn’t locked, but he seemed to be a security-type of guy, plus he worked at a bank. His car was locked. Windows were locked. Computer was locked.
• Nothing was wiped down, so either there really wasn’t anyone else with him, or they planned it well and didn’t touch anything.
• He had no prescription for alprazolam. I had Julie check with his doctor and the pharmacy.
• No empty bottle of alprazolam.
Tip chewed on the end of a pencil and kicked his feet up on an empty chair. “If we look at the evidence, we’ve got nothing. But we know he left with Tiffany and another girl. And we know Tiffany was with Lipscomb when he died.”
“And then there’s the mystery of the alprazolam,” I said. “If he didn’t have a prescription, and we found no bottle, that means he got the pill from someone.”
“Or someone slipped it in his drink,” Tip said.
“Then wouldn’t he have tasted it?”
“Not if he was doing shooters,” Tip said. “At least not until he’d already taken it. And like I said, nobody does shooters alone.”
I thought about what we had. “But this time they didn’t mess up. They didn’t leave us any prints. We’ve got nothing on camera.”
Tip sat up straight, a strange look on his face. “Hang on a minute. I need to see Julie.”
I followed him to Julie’s office. As soon as Tip walked in, she reacted.
“No, I don’t have an answer for you yet, Tip.”
“I’m not concerned about that, but what I am wondering is why we didn’t get a hit earlier.”
“What do you mean? A hit on what?”
“That car and plate Charlie just gave you to run—it belonged to Tiffany, our suspect.”
A short silence followed, and then Julie said, “I ran those prints, Tip.”
“Then tell me how her prints didn’t come up if she has a car. Everyone gets printed for a driver’s license.”
“We need a thumb print to match with a license. We had several sets of prints from the hotel room, but if her thumb wasn’t one of them, we wouldn’t have gotten her car.”
“What about the prints from her room? Didn’t we get anything there?”
Julie shook her head. “We didn’t get any prints. LaDonna is the legal resident, and she wouldn’t let the tech inside.”
“Son of a bitch,” I said. “After we helped her.”
Tip said, “I’d like to get a warrant and go back down there.”
I looked at Tip and shook my head. “We’re shit out of luck unless you know a judge who will issue one based on what we have.”
“All right,” Tip said. “Forget that for now.” He tapped his finger on Julie’s desk. “Get that car out on the radio and make sure they call it in to you.”
“Charlie’s already taken care of it.”
“And one more thing,” Tip said. “Look for any suspicious deaths in the past few weeks. Go back a month if you have to.”
“I’m kind of busy here,” Julie said.
“Find time.”
Julie looked to the side and took a deep breath. “What are you calling suspicious deaths?”
“Heart attacks where the victim didn’t have a record of heart trouble, accidental deaths, anything outside the normal realm.”
“That’s going to be a lot of—”
“If that’s too much, start with the past couple of weeks,” Tip said, and he started back down the hall. He turned to me. “We’ve got no prints on record for Tiffany, and she disappeared after Lipscomb’s death. I’m not so sure whoever did this messed up like we think they did. Maybe they left the prints at the hotel on purpose. Or maybe Julie’s right, and they aren’t her prints. Or maybe we’ve got her prints, but no thumb print.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know yet. But if these are murders, then so far, they haven’t made any clear mistakes. We have no clue who the other woman is, and she’s managed to avoid all cameras. She’s been described with dark hair, light-brown hair, blue eyes, and brown eyes, with a deep Texas drawl and a Spanish accent.”
I nodded. “You’re right. Something doesn’t add up.”
I pulled out the crime scene report and went over it again, bit by bit, digging into each detail. Two hours later, about the third time I went through it, something caught my attention. “Take a look at this.”
He rolled his chair beside mine. “What?”
“Remember the towel Davids had by the hot tub?”
“What about it?”
“He had three more in the bathroom just like it. But get this—he had six washcloths and hand towels that matched.”
Tip looked at me and nodded. “We’re missing two. And that’s about the same number of women he was probably with.”
I looked at my notes again. “Let’s assume for a minute that Tiffany and the mystery woman were at his house. If they were all in the hot tub, they all would have had towels. So what did they do, take the towels with them?”
“That’s a good way to get rid of evidence,” Tip said.
“Okay, if we figure that much, then what else di
d they have that they might have taken with them?”
Tip thought for a minute. “I already said he wouldn’t be drinking shooters alone, but there was also a bottle of wine. If they were with him, they would have been drinking wine.”
“Don, the bartender, said Tiffany drank wine.” I scribbled a few notes on a paper tablet then checked the sheet. “But all of the wine glasses are accounted for, assuming he had the same number of each kind.”
Tip picked up the phone and dialed.
“Who are you calling?”
“Sarah. We need to ask about prints.”
The phone rang a few times before she answered. “Tip, is that you?”
Tip pushed the button for the speaker. “I know your heart’s probably beating mighty fast right now, darlin’, but try to control yourself.”
She laughed. “Will you shut the hell up and tell me what you want.”
“We’re trying to figure out what went on at Brent Davids’ house. Ben is leaning toward an accident, but Connie and I don’t think so.”
“We didn’t find anything. You’ve got the report—no prints, no DNA on him. Of course, the hot tub and chlorine would have destroyed it anyway.”
“How about prints on the wine glasses?”
“Nothing,” Sarah said.
“Did you check the stems?”
“Of course. We dusted everything you told us to and more besides. We had his prints on some of the glasses but not others.”
“And I’ll bet two of those glasses didn’t have prints. Not even on the stems.”
“Are you going to make me check this?” Sarah asked.
“I’ll wait while you look it up.”
Sarah came back on in a couple of minutes. “Maybe you are the best damn detective in Texas. Two glasses were clean as a baby’s bottom. No prints anywhere.”
“I’m gonna ignore that baby’s bottom remark since it makes no sense, but I owe you one for the prints. Thanks.”
“You bet. Tell Connie I said hi.”
Tip hung up and looked at me. “I’m gonna shove this so far up Ben Marsh’s ass, he’s gonna choke on it.”
“I’ll ignore that and focus on the case. As I see it, after Tiffany and the other woman finished with Davids, they cleaned up, washed and dried the glasses and everything else, and then took the towels with them.”
Tip kicked his feet up and tapped a pencil on the desktop. “We know we’ve got a couple of women killing people. Now we have to figure out why.”
I put my feet on the desk next to his, and cleared my throat. “It might also help if we could identify the women doing this killing.”
He folded his hands behind his head and leaned back. “That, too.”
Chapter 26
What the Street Knows
Tip and I went downtown to pay Buster for the lead, but also to pay a visit to LaDonna, Tiffany’s roommate. We pulled to the curb in front of Tiffany’s place and started up the walk.
LaDonna poked her head out the window. “She ain’t here.”
“And I suppose you haven’t seen or heard from her since we left?” Tip said.
LaDonna shook her head. “Not a peep.”
“So I don’t guess you’d mind if we take a look in her car?” Tip said.
The window closed. A minute later LaDonna opened the front door. “I shoulda known.”
“You should have called me,” I said. “We did right by you, damn it.”
LaDonna leaned against the wall, arms folded in front of her. “She came and got it while I was workin’. I swear I didn’t see her. Hell, I didn’t even know it was gone till the next day.”
“What else did she take?” Tip asked.
LaDonna squeezed her lips together and shook her head again. “All her goddamn clothes. I was countin’ on them for myself. Shit.”
“She took them all?” I asked.
“Every damn piece down to her underwear. Didn’t even leave me a pair of socks.”
“You know where she went?” Tip asked.
“I already told you. She came while I was working.”
“How come you didn’t let the tech in?” I asked.
LaDonna’s face twisted into a sneer. “It’s my damn room. Ain’t lettin’ nobody in there.”
“That didn’t stop you when Tip donated to your charity.”
“Money makes a difference, girl. You ought to know that.”
I felt like smacking her in the head; instead, I handed her another card. “If you see her again—”
“I know. Call you,” she said, and went back inside.
“Seems like everybody is always one step ahead of us, Tip.”
“I know, and it’s pissing me off.”
As we drove toward the station, Julie called. “We have a report from an officer on the west side who said he might have seen the car.”
“Might have?” I said. “How come he’s not sure?”
“He saw it Sunday, before we put the description out.”
“And he remembers it?” I said.
“That’s what he claims,” Julie said.
We got the officer’s number and called. “Officer Dewey, this is Detective Gianelli. They said you might have seen a vehicle we’re looking for.”
“I’m not positive, but I think so.”
“How is it you remember a partial from two days ago?” I asked.
“I was taking some kid to his parents after catching him with a joint, and the car in front of me was going slow. I noticed the plate had T32 in the middle. I only remembered it because I have a plate with T32 on it.”
“Did the car fit? Was it a green Nissan?”
Dewey laughed. “You’re gonna think I’m dizzy, but I have no idea. I couldn’t swear to anything else on the plate or the make of the car, or even the color, but I think it was green, or maybe dark gray. The bottom line, Detective, is it might have been the car, but it might not.”
“Where did you see it?”
“On Shadow Lake Drive, off Memorial by Dairy Ashford.”
“Okay, thanks. We’ll check it out.”
Tip looked over at me. “That’s mostly a residential area,” he said. “Expensive houses. Quiet. I wonder what she was doing out there.”
“Want to check it out?”
“We might as well,” Tip said.
While Tip drove, I called Julie and told her to alert patrols in that area.
Tip’s phone rang. “What’s up, Delgado?”
“I’m heading over to see Chicky, and I figure I need some juice.”
“Tell him if he doesn’t treat you right, I’m through paying his way.”
Delgado laughed. “Thanks, Tip.”
***
Ribs headed west, toward the Galleria.
“Where are we going?” Cruz asked.
“To see a guy named Chicky Ramirez. He’s the best informant in town. If he’s not on your list, you’re missing out.”
“He’s on my list now,” Cruz said, and jotted down the name in his notepad.
Ribs pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall and honked the horn at a guy standing about thirty feet away, looking into the back of a pickup. The guy jumped and turned.
“I hope you weren’t thinking of doing any early Christmas shopping, Chick.”
Chicky squinted, then moved quickly toward Ribs’ car. “If it ain’t Hector Delgado, my favorite detective.”
“Cut the shit. I know you for the two-timing fucker that you are.”
Laughter poured out of Chicky. “I meant my favorite after the Tipster and Gino.”
Ribs and Cruz got out of the car. “This is my partner, Cruz. I expect you to treat him same as you do me.”
Chicky reached out and bumped Cruz’s hand. “Goes without saying. Now what can I do for you?”
“We’ve got a dead guy named Martin who was dealing ice. And we found a stash of illegal inspection stickers in his crib. You know anything about that?”
“I know ice is heating up this town. I’m su
rprised you boys haven’t been down here sooner. I mean, I don’t mind a little nose candy, but that shit…uh-uh. Not for this dude. Fuck you up is what it does.”
“I know what it does, Chick. I need to know who’s moving it.”
“Shit! Who ain’t moving it? You’re better off askin’ that.”
“Who’s giving the orders?” Ribs asked.
Chicky looked to his left and then behind him. “Can’t be sure about that.”
“I think you can,” Ribs said.
“Okay, so maybe I can but I won’t. A man’s got to protect himself. You know what I mean?”
“I hear you,” Ribs said. “But all I’m asking for is a name. Nobody’s going to know it came from you.”
“I can’t do it.”
Ribs moved closer to Chicky. “I know you heard what happened to Martin.”
Chicky nodded. He knew, but Ribs said it anyway, and went on to describe the incident.
“A knife in each eye. Dios mîo, Chick. They took a knife and stabbed him in each fuckin’ eye.” Ribs let him think on that for a few seconds. “You want that shit to happen to you?”
“That’s why I ain’t saying nothing. These fuckin’ people are nuts.”
“Which fuckin’ people would that be?”
“Aw fuck.” Chicky thought for a moment, and then he said, “You’ll keep this quiet? And tell Tip I helped out, right?”
“I’ll tell Tip. And we’ll keep it quiet from everybody else.”
Chicky nodded. “Remember that dude Carlos? The cartel guy? It’s him. He’s back in town, and his men are pressing hard.”
“That’s who did Martin?”
“Word on the street is that he wanted to use Martin as an example.”
Ribs pulled out a twenty and handed it to Chicky. “I’m not flush like Tip. You’ll have to wait for him to get a payday.”
“Not worried about it,” Chicky said. “Unless you’re taking a lot more than your paycheck. I know a man like you with six kids got no extra green.”
Ribs laughed. “You got that right, my friend. And thanks for the help.”
“Be careful,” Chicky said. “Bad dudes you’re messing with. Bad!”
Ribs started for the car. Cruz walked beside him. “That didn’t sound like good news,” Cruz said.
Bullet From Dominic Page 14
