by Dixie Cash
Edwina redirected her attention to the men in blue. “So? Can we get back to the issue? Let’s go talk to this perp.” She started for the neighboring room.
“You ladies stay right here,” the taller cop said with authority. “My partner and I’ll take it from here.” He turned to the night manager. “Sir?…Homer, you have a pass key for this room, don’t you?”
“Of course,” Homer answered weakly.
“Would you accompany us, please, staying back and out of harm’s way, of course.”
“Sure. Why not? Maybe there’ll be an exchange of gunfire and I’ll get shot.”
Both men freed their weapons as they approached Room 620. Debbie Sue and Edwina stayed only a couple of steps behind. The taller cop rapped on the door and called out, “NYPD. Open up. We’d like to talk to you, sir.”
The door opened immediately and Detective Rogenstein greeted them as if they were invited dinner guests, a cigar in his hand. “Hello, boys. What’s up? They need me back at the station?”
Edwina gasped and Debbie Sue gave her an elbow to the ribs.
“Detective Rogenstein,” the shorter cop exclaimed, clearly shocked. “I uh, uh, we—we’re answering a call, sir. There must be a mistake of some kind. There’s been a report of foul play in this room.”
“Frank Rogenstein? The Frank Frogenstein?” The second policeman thrust out his right hand. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I’m Pat McShane and this is my partner, Ed Fitzpatrick. I’ve been studying some of your cases for when I take the detective exams.”
Edwina turned to Debbie Sue and Celina with a look of astonishment. “Why, they’re gonna have an orgasm any minute. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of ’em whipped out a camera and asked somebody to take their pictures together.”
Rogenstein obviously heard her. A chilling look came their way before he continued his conversation with his admirers. “Have you, now? Well good luck to you, son. Keep studying and working hard. You’ll get there. I started out as a beat cop myself. A long time ago, mind you,” he added with a chuckle, “but the same work eithic I’ve practiced my whole career will work for you too. Now, how can I help you?”
“Sir, uh,” McShane said, “it seems a call was placed to nine-one-one—”
“Sir.” The hotel manager pushed between the two officers, picked up Rogenstein’s hand and began to pump it vigorously. “Sir, I cannot tell you how sorry I am for this disturbance. All of this is a terrible mistake. Can I repay you in some way? A muffin basket, perhaps? Our chef prepares a delightful arrangement accented with tiny little fresh flowers—”
“I hate muffins,” Rogenstein growled through a tight smile. “I don’t even know what’s going on yet.”
Edwina stepped up beside the taller cop, glaring at Detective Rogenstein. “You know what this is all about. Don’t think you can piss down our backs and convince us it’s raining.”
“Yeah,” Debbie Sue put in.
“Ma’am,” Officer McShane said sternly to Edwina, “watch your mouth. We’ll handle this.”
Detective Rogenstein leveled a look of contempt at Edwina, then turned a cruise-director smile back on the two cops. “I don’t seem to be very popular with my neighbors, do I? Perhaps I had the volume on my TV too high?”
“Hah!” Edwina said.
“Your volume was just fine and we heard every word of it,” Debbie Sue said, stepping up to support Edwina.
Celina came forward, too, and stood shoulder to shoulder with them. “I personally didn’t hear any of it, but if they said they did, that’s all I need to know.”
“We’re sorry about this, sir,” Officer McShane said to Rogenstein, edging the three women aside.
“No need to apologize for doing your job,” Rogenstein replied. “Come in and check the room. If you didn’t, I’d have to report you.”
He allowed the two cops entry, but blocked the doorway as Debbie Sue and her two pals attempted to follow. “I hope you don’t mind if I close the door,” he said to the two cops. “There’s nothing worse than a bunch of wannabes trying to tell professionals how to do their job.”
He chuckled and the cops laughed, too. “Not at all, sir,” the one named Fitzpatrick said. “They have no business in here. They’ve already caused trouble downstairs.”
The door closed and Debbie Sue, her two friends and Homer were left standing in the hallway.
“Fuck,” Debbie Sue said.
“Shit,” Edwina added.
“Oh, dear God,” Homer said, falling back against the wall beside the door. He slid to the floor, holding his head in his hands.
“I brought this,” Celina said, holding up a glass tumbler. She stepped around Homer, placed the rim against the door and glued her ear to the bottom of the glass.
“Outta my way,” Edwina said, “I brought this.” She produced the Ear. She planted it on the door and handed one of the earpieces to Debbie Sue.
Homer began to boo-hoo into his hands.
“Take your time. Look around,” Rogenstein’s voice said. “Let me get some of these papers off the bed. I was getting ready for a session tomorrow and I’ve got notes strewn everywhere. I’m a presenter at the conference downstairs, you know.” He chuckled. “That’s what happens when you become a respected professional, boys. Everybody wants to hear what you’ve got to say.”
Officer McShane’s deeper voice said, “If you don’t mind, sir, I’ll just take a quick look in the bathroom. I mean, it was a nine-one-one call, so we should check.”
Silence passed.
“So, what did you find?” Rogenstein’s voice said a minute later.
“You’re right, sir. All clear.”
“Fuck!” Debbie Sue whispered. “He couldn’t possibly have searched the bathroom that well. He was only in there a few seconds.”
“Maybe it’s a small bathroom,” Celina said with a look of innocence.
Debbie Sue and Edwina stared at her.
“I was just thinking of our own bathroom,” she said meekly.
“Find anything in the closet?” Rogenstein’s voice said.
“No sir,” the voice that belonged to Fitzpatrick said. “It’s easy to see there ain’t nobody here but you, sir.”
“Don’t forget to look under the bed,” Rogenstein prompted.
“Yeah,” Edwina agreed.
“That’s a good place to hide a body in a motel,” Rogenstein added. “That’ll probably be on your exams, Pat. Don’t forget where you learned the answer.”
“But there ain’t no under the bed,” Fitzpatrick’s voice said. “This mattress is laying on a solid base and it’s nailed to the floor.
“I said in a motel, boys. Motel. Don’t forget.”
McShane’s deep laugh was easily recognizable. “That’s right, sir, you did. Problem is, we don’t get to motels. We never get out of the city. But thank you, sir. I’ll be looking for that on the exam.”
A few more seconds passed.
“Well, looks like we’re finished here,” McShane said.
“Sorry to have bothered you, but it was a pleasure to meet you in person, sir.”
“The pleasure was all mine, Pat.”
The door opened and Debbie Sue and Edwina almost fell through the doorway.
Fitzpatrick attempted to steady Edwina to keep her from falling, but her flat chest smashed into his face. “Ma’am,” he said, turning his face to the side to speak, “I guess you know we’re finished here. I don’t know what you heard that prompted you to call nine-one-one. I’m thinking it must have been a TV show or the radio. There’s no dead body here.”
“Just let me look for myself,” Edwina said, untangling herself from the cop, who was at least a foot shorter than she.
But the vertically challenged cop already had her by the upper arm and was guiding her toward her own room. “We’ve already done that,” he said. “We’ve assessed the situation and determined there ain’t no foul play. Any further attempts to disturb Detective Rogenstein will result in a ha
rassment charge against you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but—” Debbie Sue started.
“That goes for all three of you,” McShane said, grasping Debbie Sue and Celina’s arms and herding them along behind his partner and Edwina. “We don’t want to come back here. If we do, we’ll be taking all of you to the station house. Got it?”
The tall cop looked at each woman individually. Debbie Sue glared back with defiant eyes.
“Ladies, don’t test us on this.” He spoke more firmly than Fitzpatrick. “If you don’t think you can leave Frank, uh, Detective Rogenstein, alone, we can go to the station right now, and you can tell your story to the detectives there.”
“No, no, that’s okay,” Debbie Sue said. “We’ll cooperate. You go on. We won’t be bothering you any longer, Officer. And we won’t bother Detective Rogenstein. Thank you for coming. We’re going to bed now.” Debbie Sue gripped Edwina’s arm and continued dragging her backward. Celina followed.
Once the two cops had disappeared and the three of them were behind the closed door of their room, Edwina confronted Debbie Sue. “Why didn’t we go to the squad house with them? We could tell our story to the detectives, and maybe someone would do something.”
“Yeah, and while we’re doing that, Rogenstink has all the time he needs to move the body. Ed, we can’t let him out of our sight.”
“You’re right. Do you think you should go ahead and call Buddy? He’d know what to do.”
“Hell, Ed. He’d probably have a U.S. marshal pick me up and put me on a plane home. What about you? You calling Vic?”
“I already said what I think about doing that.” She shook her head. “This is all too crazy.”
“Who’s taking the first watch at the door?”
“I will,” Edwina volunteered eagerly. “I won’t sleep for years. I might as well make some use of all this insomnia.”
“Hey,” Debbie Sue said. “I lost track of Homer. Where’d he go?”
“Don’t know,” Edwina said. “He said something about getting a resume together and calming a monster. Don’t know what that means in hotel lingo, but he seemed hell-bent on doing it.”
Frank Rogenstein hadn’t felt this alive in years. His life had become stagnant. Predictable. Artery clogging, in his opinion. The close call this evening had him giddy and euphoric.
Pressing his right foot against the edge of the mattress, he put his considerable bulk behind the effort and gave a push. The base of the bed had appeared to be solid but the frame was a housing for a foam base. Using his pocketknife, he had cut away a crude outline and placed the woman inside. He had barely had time to stuff the foam into his suitcases when the beat cops knocked at the door.
He looked down at the woman who lay just as he had left her. No outcry, no signaling for help, just bulging, dead eyes staring into space.
He chuckled. “Well, doll face, we’ve had quite a night, haven’t we? I’ll figure out what to do with you tomorrow. Right now I’m going to catch a couple of winks. Hope my snoring doesn’t bother you.”
He chuckled again. He would have to remember this when he supervised the next crime-scene investigation.
In the next room, earpiece still in place, Debbie Sue dashed from the wall into the bathroom and retched.
chapter twenty
Detective Matt McDermott sat on the edge of one of the beds in Room 618, looking into the faces of the three distraught women. Edwina was openly crying and her face had black eye makeup smeared from her eyes to her chin.
All three of them were still recovering from Edwina’s having gotten her long, red fingernails tangled up with the listening device and earpieces, and accidentally erasing the tape they had recorded. Unfortunately, he had heard no more than three words on the tape, but both Debbie Sue and Edwina had given him an animated explanation of what they had heard.
It was almost 2 A.M. They all looked weary-worn, but Celina’s eyes were sharp. She leaned toward him and took his hand possessively. “You believe us, don’t you, Matt? There’s no reason Debbie Sue and Edwina would make any of this up.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe their story. Training and experience had taught him that aberrant behavior by even someone like Rogenstein was possible. But Frank Rogenstein, a serial killer? Nah, couldn’t be. “The first thing I want to do is relocate all of you to another room. If there’s really a killer on the loose in the hotel and he knows this is your room, you’re not safe here.”
Debbie Sue perked up. “That’s all taken care of. I spoke to the manager when he was here. He’s more than happy to move us, but it won’t be ’til morning.”
Edwina wiped her nose. “But we can’t—”
A jab from Debbie Sue’s elbow cut Edwina’s words short. What was that about? Matt wondered.
“Don’t worry, Matt,” Debbie Sue said. “It’s all taken care of.”
Somehow Matt didn’t feel reassured, but he moved on. “Second, I need to pull some information together. You said she identified herself as a cop and tried to arrest him? To be honest, I’m unfamiliar with an officer in our precinct named Cheryl Angelo, but I’m not acquainted with a lot of them who work undercover.”
He didn’t see the necessity of saying that if the word was out that an undercover cop was really missing, wheels were already turning and a search had already begun.
He glanced down at his watch, buying time and organizing his thoughts. Rogenstein and he had checked into the hotel together. The guy had brought a shaving kit and a suitcase. If he had really done what these women said, as far as Matt could see, he couldn’t have disposed of the body yet. Today he would have to keep up normal appearances so as not to draw attention to himself, but if he had a corpse to get rid of, he would have to act, and act quickly. By evening at the latest.
“You ladies try to get some sleep,” he told them. “I’ll be back here at six o’clock.”
The three women nodded, agreeing. Matt wasn’t worried that Celina wouldn’t do as he asked, but he gave Debbie Sue and Edwina a second look. Anyone could see that these two were accustomed to following their own paths. “You’re to stay in the room until I get back. Don’t open the door to anyone. I don’t want to be distracted by worrying about you.”
He felt a touch of uneasiness that he got no argument from them, but at the same time, he had no doubt they were discouraged and exhausted. Hopefully, they realized they had stumbled into something over their heads. He made a mental note to thank them later for their cooperation.
Rising from his seat he took Celina’s hand and drew her to her feet. Putting his hand at the back of her neck, he pulled her closer to him. “You’ve got my cell number. Please call me if anything, and I mean anything, happens. And please, please don’t let anything happen to you.”
Celina smiled up at him. “I promise,” she said softly. She walked to the door with him. “See you at six.”
Matt stood in the hallway outside their door until he heard the snick of the lock and the click of the deadbolt sliding into place.
He had a lot to accomplish in four hours. The most difficult thing would be convincing a judge to sign a search warrant for Room 620. He had gotten a judge’s signature on a warrant application with less cause than what he currently had, but the subject wasn’t the most highly decorated detective in the history of the city. Frank Rogenstein had connections and friends in extremely high places. He was capable of destroying the career of any cop involved if this turned out to be a witch hunt.
Edwina watched Matt’s departure through the door’s peephole. As soon as he was out of sight, she turned back to Debbie Sue. “Are you nuts? We can’t move to another room. We have to watch Rogenstein’s room. We have to make sure he doesn’t leave with the—”
“I know, Ed, I know. I lied. I was too tired to argue. Matt had that Buddy Overstreet set to his jaw. Buddy would have said the exact same thing, and knowing me better than Matt does, he wouldn’t have left here ’til I had been planted in another room in a
nother part of the hotel and locked in from the outside.”
“Oh, well,” Edwina said. “I guess that’s worth me losing a rib over. But next time you feel the need to get my attention, lighten up with the elbow. I’m skinny. I’m gonna be going home black and blue from all the elbow jabs. Then I’ll have to explain to Vic where I got ’em.”
“Sorry, Ed,” Debbie Sue said. “Look, I’m gong to bed now and see if I can catch forty winks before Matt comes back.”
“Good idea. You sleep and I’ll watch.” Edwina returned to her post as lookout and opened the door a crack.
Debbie Sue pulled back the bedcovers and slid between the sheets. Celina was already in her bed and looking up at the ceiling, a dreamy expression on her face. “Celina, I couldn’t help but feel there’s something different between you and Matt tonight. Did y’all have a good time at Madison Square Garden?”
“It was the best evening of my life,” Celina replied, snuggling further down into the covers. “Can you fall in love with someone this quickly? I mean, we haven’t been around each other that much, but I feel, I feel—”
“Like someone should who’s falling in love? Just don’t confuse falling in love with being in love. There’s a world of difference and a lot of hours getting to really know each other in between. The falling is magic, but take it from me, it’s worth the plunge.”
“Amen,” Edwina said from the doorway. “Now, y’all get some sleep. Somebody’s got to relieve me in a couple of hours.”
Edwina shifted in her chair for the umpteenth time. At the last look at the digital clock on the bedside table, it was 3:50. She’d been nervously browsing through the most recent mammoth edition of Vogue magazine. She had scratched and sniffed every perfume ad, taken a test on her fashion sense and was reading the photography credits, when she heard the bolt slip out of its slot in Room 620. She pushed her chair back, stood and closed her own door to a mere crack, watching and waiting.
She dared not draw a breath. If Rogenstein made for their room, she intended to bolt the door and start squawking like a mad hen faced with a fox in the chicken house. She had decided early in life that if she was ever in dire peril, she wouldn’t go out easy, and she sure wouldn’t go out quietly.
