Lemons 03 Stroke of Genius

by Grant Fieldgrove

  “Thank you! Fancy restaurant it is!”

  We wandered around for a while looking for a place that would pass muster with my insanely high standards. We settled on some Chinese place, the name of which I can’t even remember. The Stray Kitten or some shit like that, I dunno. Anyway, we got a secluded table towards the far corner of the restaurant. It was nice and quiet, still a bit too early for the dinner crowd and a little too late for the lunch crowd. It was perfect.

  Elise pulled out a small notebook and pen from her purse and we began listing the facts in bullet points down the page. I used my phone to Google details of the rape. Things began coming together nicely.

  The timeline we were able to form was basic and desperately in need of some filling in, but it was a good enough starting point.

  Late Monday night, Balls and Vincent return to their hotel, intoxicated, and sit at a blackjack table, where they pretty much spend the rest of the night, the money fluctuating from high to low and back again, until Balls hits a losing streak and decides to take a breather. He gets up, presumably goes to the elevator, taking it to his floor, and then, according to the data provided from the computerized door locks, enters his room where he eventually dies.

  Now, according to the article I am reading about the rape, it says the victim was abducted from the Myra Hotel in the early morning of Tuesday, December ninth, the same day that our victim died. The article doesn’t feature too many more facts and is pretty vague about the story telling. I have a feeling a lot of it was kept under wraps from the hotel. It does, however, state that the investigating officer is named Clint Howard (I assume it’s not THEE Clint Howard) and he is still working on the case. He would be our next lead. We needed to track him down. I also needed to find out the name of the hotel’s house dick and speak with him. He would have been involved in both cases and could possibly offer up the most assistance, if he was willing.

  Our food arrived and Elise buried herself in it like she hadn’t eaten since August. I ate my food like a human.

  11.

  We arrived at the LVPD shortly after finishing our lupper. Or linner. Or Lunchy McDinner. Whichever. Turns out, Detective Howard was in the building. We explained our situation to the front desk and the homely old lady allowed us to take a brief meeting with him. Five minutes later we are sitting in a stereotypical detective’s office, before us sits a rather non-stereotypical detective. He is rail thin, with longer than your average cops hair, no mustache. No ashtray on his desk, no stray papers. He had a clean look about him and his clean shave made him appear much younger than I suspect he really way. The craziest thing about him, though was that he was polite. No hard-assness to him. It was a refreshing change from what I was used to dealing with.

  “How may I help you folks?” he asked, standing up and reaching across his desk to shake our hands. “I’m Detective Clint Howard by the way.”

  “Big fan of your work. I met you at a Fangoria convention probably seven years ago. You look different…”

  “Oh yes, the infamous Clint Howard,” he said, with a good humored smile on his face. “I wish. I wish.”

  “Thanks for not being offended by my lame joke,” I said. “I’m used to the Bakersfield PD. Shit like that will get your shot over there.”

  “I’ve been through Bakersfield many a time. So what’s on your mind?”

  The food had apparently cured Elise from her hangover as she took her usual cue to interrupt me and take over the conversation. “My name is Elise, and this is Archie. We were hired to work a case about a young man who died last Tuesday morning at the Myra Hotel and Casino. We understand that you were there that day, perhaps on two occasions?”

  “Would this be the man who was killed while, pardon me, ma’am, but while he was diddling himself with the belt around his neck?”

  “Yes, that would be him.”

  “I was not involved in that case. It appeared to be an accident. In fact, I didn’t arrive at that hotel until much later that day, working on a rather nasty case.”

  “That’s right,” Elise said. “I got my facts mixed up. You showed up on Tuesday afternoon after the rape victim was found in the vacant lot, yes?”

  “Oh, so you know about her? Terrible thing. Terrible. That poor girl.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more. But, you see, sir, we were hired by a friend of the boy who was killed. He claims the victim would never, ever do something like that. This boy had a bright future. He had a 165 IQ and was a recent Harvard Graduate. On top of that, him and his friend had just sold a movie script. They were in Las Vegas to celebrate.”

  “Well, as I recall, this was never ruled a suicide. Yes?”

  “Yes, that’s right, but our client still doesn’t believe the scene fits his friends, how do I say, personality.”

  “I see.”

  “Trust me,” I interrupted, “If there was even a chance of this being a suicide, we certainly would not be here. I have no sympathy for grown-ass men who kill themselves. Seriously, like, you want to kill yourself? Good. Fine. Don’t be such a pussy about it, though. Throw on a makeshift costume and go fight crime-be a superhero for a day. Get your ass killed that way, while doing the world some good and being a badass, not while sitting at home being selfish and lame.” Blank stares across the board. “Um, ya know, that’s just my…own…personal…” I trailed off and Elise eventually recused me, acting as if I had never spoken and picking up the conversation directly where Howard had left it.

  “Yes, so we were hired to come down here and take a look. This guy over here,” pointing to me, of course, “has a pretty good eye when it comes to these kinds of things. And no disrespect to you or your department, of course, but our client just wanted someone with unlimited time to take a good hard look at the case and see if anything was, perhaps, overlooked.”

  “I’ll help you all I can, but like I said, I wasn’t even there at that time.”

  “I know, but maybe you can help us with something else.”

  I took over, “Sir, our victim died on Tuesday morning, the same morning that the woman was taken from the hotel, beaten, raped and left for dead. We talked to the head of security, and while I didn’t get exactly which floor the woman got off on, I do know that our victim and your victim used the same elevator. The way they’re set up there is one elevator is assigned a certain number of floors, as I’m sure you’re aware. It speeds things up a bit, for which I am quite grateful. Elevators aren’t exactly my…thing. Anyway. We think it’s too big of a coincidence to ignore, that both victims used the same elevator, on the same morning, within the vague timeframe. If you would be able to help us narrow down some times, maybe we could get the ball rolling on our case, and it may help you with yours.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t share details of a pending investigation with anyone. I know you are trying to help, but it’s just something I cannot do. I am working the case, along with our sex crimes division, and we are not at liberty-‘

  “I understand. What if we were hired to work the rape case?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What if we got the hotel to hire us? Me and her, to help work it. They’re in the process of being sued by the victim and they need all the help they can get. If we get hired by them, would you be willing to share information with us to help figure this whole thing out?”

  Elise gave me a look. I knew exactly what she was thinking. We didn’t have time for this, and how in the hell could we solve a rape case that the entire Las Vegas PD was working on. It was a long shot, I knew it, but it was worth a try. I gave Elise a nod. We both turned back to the detective.

  “Look,” I continued. “It’s a win-win for you. If we don’t solve anything, you’re out nothing, and if we do come up with something or even solve it, we give you the arrest. It’s all you. We don’t need fame or publicity; we just need our cases closed so we can move on to the next. We’re good, sir. I can promise you that.”

  He sat silently at his desk for a
few moments, contemplating his decision. Finally, he agreed.

  “You’ve got a deal. But! But, you have to get yourself officially hired on, on the hotel’s behalf.”

  “Deal.”

  We stood up to make our exit. I handed the detective one of my cards and assured him he would be hearing from us very soon. He gave us a friendly nod and we were out the door. Back to da hotel!

  12.

  We returned to the front desk of our crappy, over-rated hotel and again asked to speak to Mr. Adams in security. He was still on duty, luckily for us. We took a brief meeting with him and spelled out our situation. He agreed to let us meet the in-house detective. Things were looking up.

  We were lead down a corridor of offices completely hidden amongst the hotel’s walls, and were told to take a seat in a small, cluttered office. We heard our detective being paged. Fifteen minutes later the door opened and in walked the house dick.

  “Hello, my name is Garret Mulroney, how can I help you two?”

  “Hello sir,” Elise said. “My name is Elise, this is Archie. He is a private investigator from Bakersfield, I’m his assistant.”

  “Partner,” I interrupted. I flashed him my license.

  “Partner, assistant, whatever, right?” Elise tacked on. “We’re here working a death that was ruled accidental and we kind of stumbled upon another case that we believe may be intertwined with our own. We understand you had a rather nasty allegation of a rape and abduction having occurred here?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Some lady is saying she was abducted from our hotel, but we’re calling bullshit on it. We think it’s a scam. We pretty much think everything is a scam.”

  “Understandable,” Elise said, with a faint smile upon her face, but I could tell what was really going on behind it. She wanted to gouge this cocky asshole’s eyes out and spit in the sockets. Another typical case of making the victim the suspect. We do it in our profession, but it’s a whole other thing when the victim is raped, beaten, left for dead and only discovered upon pure chance. She continued, “but we were wondering if perhaps you could take us on, maybe allow us to work both cases? Security has already granted us access to our client’s victim’s room, but the coincidence of both events occurring on the same day, around the same time, is just too great for us to ignore. We really feel like we would be a great asset to your team.”

  “Well,” Mulroney said, “I don’t have a team. It’s just me and I’m in charge of this hotel, and I think I do a pretty goddamn good job at it. We’re being sued by this lady, ya know. Like it was our fault. Nonetheless, I still have to get to the bottom of it. I don’t have the time or the energy to babysit you two. I can’t just go-‘

  I interrupted, “We’ll do it pro-bono. You can call a detective in Bakersfield by the name of Anderson, he will vouch for us. Not only that, but whatever we find goes through you first. We solve it and you get the glory.”

  “Deal.”

  Well that was easy. Didn’t even have to offer him five bucks. Whoop!

  Thirty minutes later we are in the surveillance room, looking at a huge wall of televisions, people filling every screen from all angles. It’s overwhelming and hard to take in. Mulroney tells us to take a seat so he can share with us what he has so far. I can feel my heart pumping hard in my chest. I can’t wait.

  “All our cases are labeled and saved,” Mulroney said. “We actually have your case here, too.”

  “We’d love to take a look at everything you have,” Elise said.

  The main television sitting directly in front of us flickered, turned to a snowstorm, then returned with a freeze frame of Balls stepping on to an elevator.

  “Here is your boy, I believe.”

  “That looks like him,” I said, “but I can’t be sure.”

  “It is,” Mulroney assured me. “We have his entire evening on record here. This, unfortunately, is where we lose him. Once he steps on to the elevator it’s the last we see of him.”

  “Are you kidding me? There are no cameras on the elevator or on the floors?”

  “I’m afraid to say there were no cameras in the elevator aside from the emergency camera that is only on when the emergency button is hit. Even then, the camera is only located above the buttons and doesn’t give an entire view of the area. And no, we have no cameras on the floors, except near the emergency stairwells and those are on a motion sensor.”

  “Okay, so no camera on the elevator. No camera on the floors. But the keycards keep a record every time the doors are unlocked, yes?”

  “Yes, except for maids and maintenance. They have passkeys which don’t work the same as the guests’ keys. Guests keys are registered and logged, staff keys are not.”

  “So what is the deal with your case, detective?” Elise asked. “Explain to me the problems you’re having?”

  “Well Ms.-‘

  “Reynolds.”

  “Ms. Reynolds, yes. This woman claims she was taken from our hotel Tuesday morning, beaten and raped, left for dead. She is now suing us. What we need to do is either solve who did it, or prove that she was not taken from here, as opposed to somewhere else? Do you understand? If she was taken somewhere besides on our property, we obviously wouldn’t be liable for it.”

  “I understand that you have to doubt everyone, but why do you doubt her? Make sense?”

  “I suppose so, Ms. Reynolds. The biggest obstacle we have in front of us is that no one knows where she went. No one ever saw her leave the hotel. We have gone over hours and hours of video footage, we locate her several times throughout the night, and even follow her to the elevator, where she assumedly goes to her room. That is the last we see of her. The next time anyone sees her she is in a field, raped.”

  “So what are you thinking?” I ask.

  “I don’t know what I am thinking.”

  “Was she smuggled out in a maids cart or laundry hamper?” Elise asks.

  “I certainly hope not. That is another reason for our investigation. If it were members of this staff who did it, it would be extremely damaging to us.”

  “I understand,” Elise said, “but you can’t rule it out. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “Maybe this is a scam, maybe she left the hotel in a disguise,” I suggested. “It could happen.”

  “We thought of that as well. We looked at everyone on the video.”

  “Okay, do you mind if we have a look at this for a while. We tend to work best when it’s just the two of us.”

  “Very well.”

  He gave us a brief run-through of how all the cameras worked and how to operate them correctly. He also loaded one screen with our boy and another screen with our rape victim. I informed him I knew how to work this system and if I had any questions I would call him. He agreed then left. We got to work.

  13.

  “Okay,” I start, “this woman, Leslie, our rape victim, said in her statement that she was attacked by two men. Did anyone tell us where she said she was attacked?”

  “No, it just says in the hotel.”

  “Well crap. Okay, and then what? That’s all she can remember? She blacked out?”

  “Yeah, she was attacked in the hotel, blacked out, woke up to being raped, blacked out again, then was eventually found. No descriptions on either of the men. She said she simply couldn’t remember. Everything was fine and then she got attacked. Two guys, that’s all we know.”

  “Okay, then I guess we start looking for two guys.”

  “How the hell are we going to do that?” Elise asked, in a rather sarcastic tone of voice, one that I was not too fond of even though I practically invented it.

  “Simple. By eliminating everyone else.”

  “Shit. That sounds boring.”

  “Oh yeah, baby, by the end of this shit you’ll be begging to watch The Tree of Life just for a little excitement.”

  “Never again!”

  I rewound the camera and took us to when Leslie first entered the hotel late the night before. She w
as staying at the Mayra with another woman; they were there on a getaway similar to our clients’. Her friend, however, apparently met a man at Caesar’s Palace that night and decided to take up residence with him for the remainder of the evening, resulting in Leslie taking the long walk back to this hotel alone.

  The video was put together rather nicely, I must say. The screen flickered as different cameras tracked her every movement throughout the entire casino floor, very rarely ever losing sight of her. She sat at a blackjack table, where apparently she had some pretty good luck. She stayed there for three hours, according to the time stamp on the video.

  Elise read my mind and wrote in her notebook, Possible Robbery Attempt. I glanced down at the paper and told her good work. She gave me a wink.

  After Leslie left the table, she cashed in her chips at the cashier window then went to the closest bar and sat down. The camera cut away from the blackjack table too soon for us to see if anyone got up right after her. I had memorized every single person who sat at the table, though, and would look for them throughout the course of that night.

  After she finished her drink at the bar she stood up, grabbed her purse and headed off screen. The video said it was 7:05am. Our boy had already gone up to his room and I never caught sight of him on any of Leslie’s videos. I told Elise and she scribbled down more notes.

  At 7:09am on Tuesday morning, Leslie made her way to the elevator, pushed the button and waited. At 7:10 she stepped on to the elevator. Just as the doors we’re closing, a rather large man, fat not muscular, and rather tall, came into the picture, waving his hand. Leslie reached her hand out to stop the doors from closing, allowing the man to step on. The man appears to give her his thanks and Leslie is seen giving him a polite smile and saying something back to him. Still 7:10 and the doors to the elevator close and the cameras never capture Leslie again. Couple hours later she is left for dead in a field.

  At least we had a time frame.

  My eyes had already begun to burn from staring at the screen for so long. Elise suggested we take a break, go back up to the room for a bit and relax. I agreed, even though I wasn’t looking forward to the elevator ride. Elise had an idea.