STATELINE: A Dan Reno Novel

by Dave Stanton

“That’s it? What color was it? How big was it?”

  “God, it all happened so fast, and I didn’t get that good a look. It was black and maybe six inches long by three or four inches.”

  “Describe the guy in the closet.”

  “Big, muscular, suntanned. He had a crew cut, or a flattop, actually.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “After he jumped out and kicked the tattooed guy, he punched him a couple times—really hard. Then Samantha opens the door, and I thought she was going to run out, but she didn’t, and another man comes in. He had dark skin, but he wasn’t black or Mexican—he looked Hawaiian, maybe. He was medium height, not as tall as you, but he was very big. His body was shaped like an oak barrel, and his face, I can’t even describe it—I’ve never seen a scarier looking person.”

  She pressed her fingers to her temples and looked like she might be ill. I started to say something, but she interrupted.

  “I’ll be okay, just give me a second.” She squeezed her eyes tight, took a couple breaths, then started again.

  “The ugly, dark-skinned man grabbed the guy with the flattop. Then the naked guy, the trick, he gets up and starts punching at the tattooed guy and the dark one. I was hiding on the other side of the bed, and then, and then, this all happened so fast, but then I heard this terrible sound, and when I looked up I saw the knife come through his back. I wanted to scream, and I tried to, but I was so scared no sound would come. The flattop guy ran out, and the dark one was holding this huge knife, dripping blood. I stayed curled up next to the bed with my hands over my eyes, shaking I was so scared, and then they were gone.”

  “Did you hear them say anything?”

  “They were cussing, but that’s about it.”

  “Did they say anything to you?”

  “No, but I was hiding on the floor next to the bed. They just ignored me and left.”

  “What did you do then?”

  “I got up, and when I saw the body, I freaked. There was so much blood, it was pumping out of him. I panicked and threw up on the floor. When I looked at him again, his eyes were open but not moving. I ran out, and I forgot which way the elevators were, so I took the stairs and got to my car. But I was too scared to drive all the way to Reno, so I drove the other way and found a little hotel in Myers. I stayed there until five A.M., dozed a little, then I drove to my apartment in Reno, threw my stuff in a suitcase, and drove and drove until I got back to Salina.”

  I wanted to ask her more questions, press for more details, but she didn’t look well. I touched her hand, and we sat in the silence of the room for a few minutes until the bartender said, “Closing time, folks.”

  When we reached her car she still looked shaky, and I asked if she was okay to drive. She paused, then said quietly, “I don’t want to be alone tonight. Can I go with you?”

  She followed me back up the interstate to Salina, to the hotel where I was staying. It was almost midnight when we parked in front of my room. We went in, and I tossed a pillow on the floor.

  “No, you don’t have to,” she said, but I told her to take the bed. Then I lay down on the floor in my clothes, with my jacket as a blanket, and slept.

  Somewhere in the dark dreaminess of night, a voice drifted on the outskirts of my consciousness, calling my name from some distant place. I tried to ignore it, but the voice persisted, pulling me out of my dreamscape and into the fuzzy blackness of the room.

  “You’re talking in your sleep,” she said, kneeling over me. “Come to bed.”

  • • •

  The gray dawn seeped into the room through the thin curtains. I felt the warmth of Beverley’s body and the steadiness of her breathing. I reached down to check that my jeans were on, and my breath caught in my throat when my hand brushed her bare thigh. I moved away from her and closed my eyes, hoping for deep slumber and pure dreams. But my mind wouldn’t shut off, and I had that restless insomnia that often haunts me after drinking. So I lay next to Beverly Howitt, and my thoughts wandered to my past as I waited out the morning.

  After losing my first job out of college with Bill Ortega, I swore off the booze and was hired by Ray Lorretta Bail Bonds. I spent the next three years dead sober, until I went to work for Wenger. Thinking back, I remembered that one of my greatest fears of drying out had been boredom. I learned that it takes a while after going sober to figure out how to replace all those hours previously spent on a barstool. But I quickly saw that working for Ray Lorretta was a lifestyle that was anything but boring. Ray was one of about thirty bail bondsmen in the San Jose area, and he lived at a wildly fast pace.

  He was tall and handsome and usually had three or four women revolving through his private office on any given month. How he managed to do this while maintaining his relationship with his wife and three kids was beyond me. He ran a full-page ad in the Yellow Pages, and after seducing the young lady who sold him the ad, he gave her a picture of himself from the shoulders up and told her to include it in the layout. The photo looked like it was taken at a modeling agency. His hair was tousled just right, and he had a cavalier, devil-may-care expression on his chiseled mug. I laughed when I saw the ad, but the number of attractive ladies who came through the doors increased to the point that I found myself showing up early, brown bagging my lunch, and not leaving until well into the evening. When it came to womanizing, Ray had incredible energy and charm, but even he couldn’t handle the steady volume of good-looking women the ad brought in, and I did fine with the ones he couldn’t fit into his schedule.

  Despite Ray’s preoccupation with bedding down as many women as possible, he approached his work with deadly seriousness. The stream of lowlifes flowing through his office often mistook Ray’s movie star looks as a sign of weakness, and that led to some interesting situations. While working for Bill Ortega, I’d dealt with desperate, violent types on a regular basis, but with Ray, dangerous confrontations and altercations were almost a daily event.

  During my first day on the job, three local cholos came into the office and copped an attitude. They were trying to post bond for a fellow gang member arrested for dealing, and their collateral was bullshit. The ringleader leaned over Ray’s desk, started into his intimidation routine, and Ray zapped him with a 300,000-volt jolt from his Panther stun baton.

  The second man pulled a switchblade and ran face first into a dose of pepper spray that made his mother’s red-hot chili taste like vanilla ice cream. The last guy was a little less tough, or maybe a little smarter. He started waving a knife and screaming a blue streak of Spanish profanity, while trying to back out of range without seeming chicken. When I finally fumbled my Beretta out of my desk drawer, I think the dude was relieved to see a gun instead of another non-lethal enforcement device.

  “Hell, boy, I heard you were quick on the draw,” Ray said, then came around his desk, gesturing at the uninjured gang member with his stun gun. “Go visit Mendoza Bail Bonds on Seventh and San Antonio. He’ll take care of you if you show some manners.” The trio limped out and drove off in their lowered Chevy.

  “You think they’ll be back?” I asked.

  “If they do, you better be ready,” he said, as a gorgeous black woman walked in and followed Ray to his private back office.

  With my first paycheck, I bought the same combination stun baton-pepper spray device that Ray owned. I also decided I needed a bulletproof vest, but the model I wanted was over $500, and I couldn’t afford it. There were cheaper models of body armor, but they didn’t have threat level IIIA stopping power. I told Ray I’d have to wait a month or so before buying a vest, hoping he would take pity on me and ease up on provoking his criminal clientele into life-threatening situations. He looked at me with an appraising expression, then rose from his desk and motioned for me to follow him to his back office.

  On the opposite end of the room, across from the curved bar with padded rail, entertainment center, and king-sized bed, was a large wooden cabinet Ray used to store his weapons and assorted gear. He unlo
cked it and chose an armored vest from three that were hanging.

  “Try it on,” he said. The vest was tight on me. I was somewhat broader in the chest and shoulders than Ray and definitely thicker in the gut. “Drop about ten pounds off those love handles and it’ll be a perfect fit,” he said, helping me adjust the straps.

  “Is it level three-A?” I asked. I had become familiar with the safety ratings, and I didn’t see any logic in wearing a vest if it couldn’t stop a .44 Magnum round.

  “You bet, son. It’s also saved my ass a few times, so it’s got good karma.”

  I guessed the fact it saved him was good, but the fact he’d been shot was bad. I wasn’t sure how karma fit in, but I gladly accepted the vest all the same.

  I worked three years for Ray Lorretta, sober as a Mormon bishop, and traveled all over the Western states chasing skips. When business with Ray was slow, I also did some freelance bounty hunting. Ray taught me how to apprehend and secure subjects quickly and efficiently, and I became good at it. I grew to have a great appreciation for Ray’s central theme, which was “Do unto others before they do unto you.” This was no business for a negotiator, a talker, or someone who needed to be angry in order to use violence.

  There were times when I hesitated, and I paid the price. Two brothers in Austin, Texas, once gunned me down in a rock-and-roll club when I lost the element of surprise. I wanted to avoid a situation in a crowded area, but somehow they were on to me and opened fire without warning. I was hit twice, but was able to shoot the younger brother in the ass as he ran out the front door. The older brother sprinted into the street and was crushed underneath a bus. I walked away with two bruises that looked like raised knuckles sticking out of my midsection, but Ray’s Kevlar vest saved my life.

  The nature of my work required a good level of fitness, and after losing a foot race to a forty-six-year-old man in Las Vegas, I started working out. I had been a wrestler in high school and junior college, and the old habits came back more quickly than I expected. I hit the weights hard, jogged nightly, and rode a mountain bike in the hills above Los Gatos on a regular schedule. I lost twenty pounds, and at the age of thirty, I was stronger and only about five pounds heavier than when I wrestled in college.

  Ray was envious of my new physique, and one night he got drunk and challenged me to a wrestling match. We moved the desks, and I pinned him three times in two minutes. He paid me back by getting me into the boxing ring. We put on the headgear and sixteen-ounce gloves, and he soundly whipped me. I had him teach me the fundamentals, how to move and time punches. We boxed once a week, and I spent a couple extra nights a week at the ring. A month later I boxed him to a draw.

  Ray’s wife finally caught on to his lifestyle and trapped him one afternoon in his office with a blonde in her early twenties. His wife went psycho and chased him around the office with a knife until finally the cops showed up and subdued her. She never said a word to me, but on her way out she slapped me across the face as hard as she could.

  In the ensuing divorce settlement, Ray was forced to sell his business. I was disappointed but not surprised, and secretly somewhat relieved. Working for Ray was exciting, but after a while the novelty wore off, and I needed a break from the endless parade of gangbangers, drug addicts, sexual predators, murderers, and miscellaneous douchebags. As I left Ray’s office for the last time, I wondered if I was too old to try a different career. Instead, I went to work for Wenger.

  • • •

  Beverly insisted on taking me out to breakfast when she awoke. She seemed happy and chipper, while I groused about trying to figure out where to get a cup of coffee. She brought me one from the check-in office, then left to change at her hotel down the street. I washed away my hangover with a second cup and four aspirin. The smell of diesel and the heavy sounds of big rigs signaled the beginning of the workday. I waited outside my door, watching the long-haul and local truckers slowly rumble through town. I was still there when Beverly pulled in and parked her beat-up Plymouth.

  “You sure look perky,” I said, watching her walk toward me. She wore fresh jeans, modest heels, and a purple sweater.

  “I feel a lot better after talking last night,” she said, then took me by the hand and led me across the street like a mother walking her child to school. We went into the local diner, which looked like it hadn’t changed since the 1950s. It was busy; waitresses bustled about in a hurried but efficient manner, juggling plates, glasses, menus, and order tickets, dodging each other in the narrow walkways. A table of miners, looking haggard and blackened even before work, stood to leave, and we sat in their booth while a busboy cleared the table.

  Beverly smiled, her face radiant. Her smile was like a burst of sunshine. The restaurant seemed to become brighter.

  “I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl,” she said. I looked at her, and it occurred to me this place might be one of the few happy memories from her childhood.

  “It’s a great old place,” I said.

  “It sure is.” A waitress came by and took our order. Beverly ordered a Belgian waffle with extra whipped cream and chocolate syrup. I had toast.

  “You can’t imagine what it’s been like to hold everything in,” she said. “I didn’t want to go to the police. I was afraid they’d arrest me for being a call girl, or maybe think I was involved in some way. Thank you for being kind last night. You make me feel safe for some reason, and I really needed that.”

  “You’ve been through a lot.”

  “Most men would try to take advantage.”

  We were silent for a moment. “Why do they call Sam ‘The Gum-Out Man?’” I asked. I didn’t mean to startle her. I was asking mostly out of curiosity, but her mouth dropped.

  “You really are a private investigator, aren’t you?”

  “It’s not hard to find people when they’re not trying to hide. Especially in a small town. I ran into Sam last night at the bar at the end of the road.”

  “You mean Rasmussen’s? That’s where he’d be, I guess.”

  “So why do they call him that? It’s an odd name.”

  “He used to be a big coke head, and he always rubbed it on his gums. He did a little dealing too—it made him feel cool, I think.”

  “He seems like a decent fellow.”

  “He was nice to me. But I’ve learned it’s not a good idea to date a man who has more problems than I do.”

  “I hope things go better for you, Beverly,” I said. “You deserve happiness, maybe more than a lot of people.”

  “That’s a sweet thing to say.”

  “You’ve had a tough childhood. Some people would let that destroy them. But I think you have a good heart.”

  “You know, I don’t think anyone’s ever said something like that to me.” She was still smiling, but her eyes filled with tears.

  The waitress brought our orders and left the check.

  “Are you going back to Reno today?”

  “Yeah, I’ll need to get to the airport.”

  “I was hoping you might hang around town for a day or two,” she said.

  “I can always come back.”

  Her face said she didn’t believe me.

  “I mean it,” I said.

  “Okay.” Her mouth tried to smile.

  “About Samantha…had you ever talked to her, or do you know anything else about her?”

  She didn’t. I asked her a number of other questions, but she had never seen any of the men in the room before. I felt convinced she was being honest and forthright. I believed her role was that of an innocent bystander.

  We left the diner and went back across the street to my hotel.

  “You sure you don’t want to stay the night?” she asked me in the parking lot. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had dinner with a gentleman.”

  “I’d like to. I hope I can wrap this thing up in a couple of days. Here.” I wrote my cell phone number on a scrap of paper. “Can you keep the invitation open?”

  “You
bet,” she said, but she already looked alone and deserted.

  “Hey,” I said, and we came together. She hugged me, her arms under my coat, squeezing hard. Then she put her hand on the back of my head and lifted her face. Her kiss was as soft and warm as the hues of a lazy summer sunset.

  “I don’t want you to forget me,” she said. I couldn’t think of anything to say as she walked to her car. I heard the engine start and watched the Plymouth disappear down the road.

  “I won’t,” I said, my words lost in the brittle cold of the morning.

  19

  I headed back to Salt Lake City, driving under clear skies and a rare winter sun that made it seem like a spring day. The dew-covered meadows sparkled in light, and the green peaks rising from the valley floor emerged out of the shadows with stunning clarity. A few random clouds, brilliant white against the sky, drifted over the mountaintops. A solitary hawk flew out of the clouds and glided in a lazy circle, scanning the flatlands for prey.

  It would have been easy to pull over, have a beer, and enjoy the sights. It would have been even easier to pitch the Ford into a brake-stand 180 and haul ass back to Salina to get to know Beverly Howitt a lot better. But my boot stayed glued to the pedal as I drove north on Interstate 15, right up the gut of Utah.

  I should have called Edward from the terminal at Salt Lake, but a strange listlessness had taken hold in my chest. I wandered around the airport in a fog, unable to focus on any single line of thought long enough to draw a conclusion. I found myself eating a tasteless sandwich and drinking a watery beer in the anonymous airport bar when my cell phone rang.

  “Dan. Dan, can you hear me?” It was Edward’s voice coming through the scratchy reception.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Where?”

  “Salt Lake.”

  “Listen, Mr. Bascom got into it with the detectives again today. Raneswich and Iverson want to sit down with you right away. Mr. Bascom told them you’ve been all over the Western US talking to witnesses, and they’re hitting all dead ends.”