by Bob Moats
I went past my friends, so if he was watching, he didn’t see them with me. Deacon told me after they caught up that Nick looked panicked after I did that. Penny said that was evil. I said, I know. We left the Golden Nugget and wandered around Fremont Street, caught the overhead show again, then went back to our vehicle.
As we headed back down the strip I asked, “OK, let’s hear some opinions.”
Lynn spoke first. “I saw a very insecure man, health not good, possibly from drugs, judging by his eyes. He didn’t seem to have much of a desire to entertain, just mouthing words he knew by heart. He kept rubbing his left arm, maybe a health problem. Something was bothering him there. He was constantly looking around the room like he was expecting trouble, which is why Jim’s little stunt may have really given him something to worry about.” She smiled and looked to Deacon.
“I concur, I thought he was funny, but most the jokes were old and well used. He used vulgarity and gay bashing a bit too much. Didn’t need that, but I think he wouldn’t be as funny without it. I’m glad we didn’t pay the $70 per person to see the show,” he said, offering his opinion.
Penny just said, “He sucked.”
“Would you care to elaborate?” I questioned her silence.
“I just didn’t like him or his show. Not because I know what a bastard he is, but just my first time impression on seeing him. He looked pathetic, and as Lynn said, mouthed his lines with no energy. If he was a guest on my show, I would have asked him to leave and had the engineers erase the tape.”
“OK, well, that’s a ringing endorsement for abortion,” I joked. Penny said, you got it.
Buck said he thought the guy was a stoner and loved the jokes. I said that Buck would love that humor and had no taste at all. He gave me a Bronx cheer with his tongue. “Hey, I liked Cheech and Chong and Richard Pryor. They were stoners and angry comedians,” he defended. I said he was right. I apologized for saying he had no taste, he did.
Maria said she agreed with Penny. She didn’t like him. He was too macho acting, too male. He was not as good as Richard Pryor, because Pryor was edgy, to the point and topical. This putz was old school.
“OK, votes in from all precincts, he loses the race. Now we have to find out if he kills in real life like he does on stage.” I thought about my next move. I had an idea that needed Lynn’s cooperation. I would talk to her later.
We got back to the MGM Grand, and Penny invited everyone up. She said she didn’t want to be alone with the stranger next to her. I grinned and laughed evilly. She said, “Stop that,” and whacked me.
We got to the room, and everyone made themselves comfortable. I called room service and ordered the same as last time, but added some snacks. The refreshments and food came fast, and everyone helped themselves. Penny insisted I remove the make-up. It was too weird for her. I took some time and lots of cold cream to get the gunk off. I came out, and we sat and discussed the show. I filled everyone in on Nick’s affair with Shana Frederick.
“I came by Nick’s house one day to pick up mail and his bills. He was in his work room playing with a video editing program. He had video of a girl getting undressed from a swim suit. The video was pretty crappy, but I looked closer and discovered it was Shana. Nick had taken video of her through a two-way mirror in the bathroom by the pool. He was editing the thing to take individual pictures from the video. Later, I heard him bragging to a friend about having a fling with her.” I shook my head in disgust. “For years I felt like emailing David Fredericks about his wife being violated and unfaithful.”
Lynn said if I had proof of that video taking, we could at least put him behind bars for a while.
Everyone was quiet. I looked at Lynn and asked if I could talk to her. She said sure, and we went to the kitchen.
“I have an idea. If you agree, great, if not, well, I’ll think of something else,” I said.
“Shoot, I can only say no.” She smiled.
“Well, you’re already investigating Lori Davis’ murder, and now you have information that she was involved with Nicky. Let’s go visit him so you can question him about his relationship. I can watch his reactions and maybe pick up something he might lie about.”
“How you going to do that, be there while I question him?” she asked.
I held up my Fujifilm camera and showed her the picture I took of my disguise before I removed it. “If Penny didn’t recognize me, how would he after six years?”
She said she was planning to check him out, just wasn’t involving me. I said Deacon could go with us, introduce himself as Officer DeAngelo, didn’t have to say from where, and I could be a civilian advisor assigned to the case. Nick isn’t very smart. We could trip him up easily. I gave her my biggest smile.
“You really want this S.O.B., don’t you?”
“I have a commitment to a nice girl to find out what happened to her sister.” I smiled wider.
“OK, but only if your make-up looks really good. I don’t want him to yell entrapment, knowing you’re a witness to his past crimes.”
“You got it, Dick Tracy.” I smiled.
“Does that make you Fearless Fosdick?” She smiled back.
“I don’t think the Swiss cheese bullet holes would look good on me. Does that make Penny my Prudence Pimpleton?” I joked.
She burst out laughing at my knowledge of the comic strip characters. “OK, Fearless, you get made up to my approval, and we will go interrogate your arch enemy, Evil-Eye Fleegle.” She laughed and gave me a hug just as Penny walked into the room.
“I knew I couldn’t trust either of you to be alone with each other. Now I’m going to have to run off with Deacon.”
Lynn laughed and said, “You do and I’ll have to shoot you.”
Lynn went out to the main room, and I told Penny I would need another makeover by her friends tomorrow. She asked why, and I told her, reassuring her that Lynn would be there with her big gun along with Deacon and his smaller but potent gun. She asked if I would have my gun. I said yes, but I doubted I would have to fire it. She gave her blessing and said she would take me personally to the make-up wizards. She said she was going to have them make me look like Brad Pitt. I said, that’s wishful thinking and damn near impossible.
The suite phone rang around 12:30. Penny answered, listened for a minute and said, send her up. I was curious as to who ‘her’ was. Penny said, you’ll see. About 10 minutes later there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Jamie and Wally and the whole crew from the Flamingo. I was stunned. They all yelled, “Hi, Jimmy,” together and piled in the room. Introductions were given all around. They had brought refreshments with them, enough for three stage crews. Jamie hugged me and said that Wally got her into the Flamingo on the day shift working for the afternoon magic show they had there.
I congratulated her and gave a thumbs-up to Wally as he stood watching us from across the room. He gave me that big mustache smile I remembered him for. We all partied for another couple of hours, and I said they all had to go, that the working people had to work tomorrow, not like those lazy stage crews. I got a lot of boos and cat calls, and everyone lined up at the door to go. I shook everyone’s hand as they filed out. Jamie stopped, kissed my cheek and went out.
“I feel sorry for Jamie, being involved with that band of cutthroats,” I lamented. Deacon, Lynn, Buck and Maria said their good nights and departed.
Penny went over and kicked on the whirlpool. We stripped down, crawled in, and she rested back with my arm around her. The warm, bubbly water felt good on our tired muscles. I said that this had been one crazy week so far. She agreed. I said I had something to tell her, and I wanted her to just listen and not react until I was done. She looked up to me with her big hazel eyes, and asked, what? I told her about my incident at the Stratosphere. She jumped up and turned to me.
“You dumb shit. If you had been killed, what would I do?” She started to cry and hit my chest a few times.
I grabbed her and pulled her to me. “I wasn’
t killed. I had you in my head the whole time I hung there, thinking I couldn’t lose you now. It made me hold on till help got there. Fate wasn’t ready for us to part.”
“I want you to live for me. I understand your need to do what you’re doing, and I won’t stop you, but I’ll never speak to you again if you get killed.” She realized what she had said and started to giggle. I laughed and said I would be very careful from now on.
*
Chapter Ten
Penny and I spent the night like it was the last we would have. I told her not to use up all her energies in one night because we had so many more to go. She threatened me, saying we’d better have. We slept well the rest of the night.
Next morning the phone rang. The front desk said there was a police car in the valet parking, looking for me. I said they could send the officers up. I jumped up and started to get dressed quickly, yelling to Penny that the cops were coming for me. She looked shocked, and then realized I was kidding. After a few minutes, there was a knock at the door. I went and opened it. There stood Detective Sergeant Carter in full uniform and her sidekick, Deacon, in civilian clothes, looking official, but with no patches. They had left Buck and Maria in the car, said they wanted to have some fun rousting us out of bed, then said they’d see us at the convention center and left. I said to Penny, this hotel is going to start wondering what we are up to.
I went to put on the rest of the suit I was going to wear that day for my venture to Nicky’s domain. Penny and I left the room and went to grab a quick breakfast at the buffet, then went out to the valet, got the car and drove up to the convention center. We gathered our friends and entered the hall. The show hadn’t started yet. In another 20 minutes the doors would fly open, and all the lovers of media would flock in. Penny led me to the make-up people and explained we had a mission. We needed the most perfect face that would fool anyone.
The girls took on the challenge, and while Lynn, Deacon, Buck and Maria stood by, they shaped a new me. Penny had gone back to her booth and said to come by later to see if I could fool her. She did warn me not to try sneaking a kiss from her or she’d knock the make-up off my face. I took the threat seriously.
About 45 minutes later, they finished. I stood up, and Lynn came over to examine me. She smiled and said, “Do I know you, sir?”
“I feel like robbing a bank and smiling at the security cameras.”
We went back to Penny’s booth, and the gang waited at a distance. I approached the counter and started to ask a few questions about her show. I was good at changing my voice, so she answered my questions without flinching. I finally said I loved her and would she sleep with me.
She stared at me for a minute, and then said, “OK, just don’t tell my boyfriend.”
I waved to my troops, and they came up. Everyone marveled at the mastery of the artists with rubber and hair. I looked like a college professor with the beard they gave me, but could pass for a forensic pathologist. I said we must now go conquer the dragon. Buck and Maria were going to hang with Penny till we got back. I thanked Buck for watching her.
On the way to the patrol car I asked Lynn, why the uniform. She said she didn’t usually wear it as part of her homicide duties, although she liked to present herself as professional as possible when interrogating a suspect. Besides, it might intimidate him. I looked at Deacon and said, “Nice threads.” He just grinned. He had his service revolver in its holster and his Clinton Township badge clipped over his belt. I had my Glock under my jacket. We were all packed for bear.
I gave directions to the gated community that Nick lived in down by Henderson. I remembered it from when I first arrived there. I had stayed at Nick’s house before I had a car. I finally bought a used, fifteen year old Cadillac sedan and got an apartment closer to the strip.
On the way I told them a few things they should know about Nick. He had a huge safe in a hidden room under his stairs where he would stash away his cash from his photo sales. There was a pool in the back, and he had an office in the house just off the pool. There was a bathroom off the pool, also, where he took the videos of Shana. I told Lynn the two-way mirror in the bathroom was next to the door going into the office. I didn’t know if it was still there, it had been six years ago. She said she would try to find out if it was still there. I said Nick would probably be in his pool around this time of day, he usually was.
Deacon told us he talked to Maria about Lori Davis to get an idea of what she was like, a little about her life that Maria might know. Deacon went over a few facts about Lori with us so we’d have our story straight. Lori grew up in the Midwest, took dance lessons most of her life and moved to Vegas about six years ago. When she auditioned for the show, she lived alone in a house her wealthy parents bought for her. She got the job, and the rest was history. Maria said Lori never mentioned anything about Nick. She assumed it was mostly to keep their affair under wraps.
Lynn told us she’d ask the questions, but if we felt we had something to contribute, to speak up. She set down some ground rules in case something bad happened. If things got out of hand, we were to back off and let her handle the situation unless she was in trouble. She smiled and unofficially deputized us. We arrived at the gates to Nick’s community and drove up to the guard shack. A man in his early fifties, needing a shave, sloppily dressed in a uniform that needed pressing, stepped out of the shack.
“Good morning, officer.” The guard was pleasant. “May I ask what you need here?”
“We’re here to see Nick North, so could you please open the gates,” Lynn said coolly.
“Do you have an appointment?” The guard wasn’t budging to open the gate. Lynn was now not so cool.
“I don’t need an appointment, I have a badge. So open the damn gate,” she spit out.
“I’ll call ahead to see if Mr. North is in,” the guard hedged.
“Listen, rent-a-cop, if you don’t open the gate, I’ll call for back-up and have them haul you in for questioning in a murder case and for obstructing justice. Do you want to play that way, or are you going to open the fucking gate?”
He reached in the doorway and hit the button for the gate. It slowly creaked aside, and Lynn politely said, “If you reach for that phone I’ll come back here and rip your lungs out. You understand me?” He nodded, she said thank you and roared in. I was laughing in the back seat. Deacon was admiring his girl. “Don’t mess with me,” she snarled.
I directed her to the house, and we pulled in the drive. I said we could try the front door, but it would be a better idea to go to the back since he probably would be in the pool.
We exited the patrol car and walked up the drive towards the back. I saw that Nicky had put up a high privacy fence. We’d have to stand up on our toes to see in. Deacon was the tallest, followed by Lynn, then the runt at five-ten, me. Deacon said he could see that Nick was in the pool, cleaning it with a vacuum pole.
He knocked on the fence, and we were greeted by a new addition, Dobermans. Two of them hit the fence and were barking, slobbering, and growling to beat hell. Deacon and Lynn jumped back, and Lynn had her hand on her gun. I could hear Nick from the other side yelling for someone named Deano to come get the dogs. After a few minutes the gate opened, and an older man of Mexican descent smiled at us, then saw Lynn’s uniform and frowned. Lynn said we needed to see Mr. North.
Deano looked to Nick and announced that the police were there. I could hear him cussing, then he said to let them in. We walked in, and I stayed behind the two of them so the focus was on them and not me. He looked just like I remembered him when he would clean the pool in the mornings. He doted on that pool more than anything, I presumed because his overweight body felt lighter in it.
“What did the fucking neighbors complain about now?” he bellowed.
Lynn said, “We have no complaints, Mr. North. I’m detective Sergeant Carter. This is Officer DeAngelo and our civilian advisor, Mr. Richards.” She used my real name so she could say she didn’t mislead Nick. He didn’t n
otice the connection, and she continued, “We just want to ask you a few questions about an acquaintance of yours.”
He started to head for the stairs leading out of the pool. I whispered to Lynn, “He’ll be naked.” Deacon heard me, moved forward and saw that Nick was indeed naked. He grabbed a towel from a nearby chair and tossed it to him. Nick grumbled thanks. Wrapping the towel around him, he came toward us, but not very close.
“So who’s the acquaintance I’m supposed to know?” he snarled as if we were interrupting his day.
Lynn said quietly, “Lori Davis.”
Nick almost dropped the towel, but grabbed it again and looked foggy. He recovered and said, “Don’t know her.”
