Battle Axe

by Carsen Taite

  If some crazy government plot was at work, I wasn’t sure what I could do about it. I could show up at the marshal’s office and demand answers, but that was likely to get me thrown out or even arrested. I didn’t have a way to get in touch with Diamond other than the useless phone number she’d given me. Any other law enforcement agency was likely to think I was a kook for thinking the government might have been involved in a murder.

  And maybe I was. Maybe what I told John about the Russians had been spot on. Petrov wanted to take over Bingo’s gaming house. The fact he had one of his girls selling the same fake prescriptions out of his club that I’d seen stocked at Bingo’s place convinced me that was part of the reason why. But leaving dead bodies in someone’s living room seemed kind of extreme, even for these guys. Bingo didn’t need that strong of a threat. Anyone who knew him, would know he would’ve caved easier than that. And now that he was a suspect in the murder, there wouldn’t be any gaming at his place for the foreseeable future. If Petrov’s guys had done this, they’d shot themselves in the foot.

  Still, I couldn’t shake Diamond’s words. “That matter’s been taken care of.” Maybe it was something simple. Like maybe the Feds had started the turf war between Vedda and Petrov to draw them out and it got out of hand. Diamond had been at my place around eleven this morning. Suddenly, knowing what time these guys had been offed seemed very important to me. I’d pumped John for all the information I could right now. Besides, he probably didn’t know the answer yet. But when the reports started coming in, I wanted to make sure I had access. This was personal, not just because Bingo was involved, but because I didn’t want to think I may have been fucking a cold-blooded killer.

  I swung by Jess’s house. I rang the bell and snooped around, but no one answered, and her car wasn’t in the garage. Would’ve been too easy. The one other place I could imagine she’d be was at work, but if she had been, she would’ve been with John at the crime scene.

  Maybe she’d shown up at the softball game after all. I scrolled through the numbers in my phone until I found Nancy McGowan’s. She put the number in herself one day when she was flirting. She picked up on the fifth ring, right when I was about to hang up. I charged through the usual hey how’re you doing stuff and got right to the point.

  “Did Chance show up at the game?”

  “Hey, Luca, nice of you to check in.”

  “Nance, I’m in a hurry here. I need to talk to Chance.”

  “Of course you do.” She dripped a lot of innuendo into the four words. Enough to get me to rise to the bait.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Right.” I couldn’t explain why her sass pissed me off, especially since I usually shrugged it off, but today it bothered me. A lot. “You got something to say, just say it.”

  “She has a girlfriend, you know.”

  I heard the slur in her voice. She was probably enjoying a few beers after the game. If they’d won, a few shots as well. Nancy was a gossip, but for some reason, I’d never thought she’d gossiped about me. Or Jess. We’d been careful to keep our relationship under wraps, although lately there hadn’t been much to hide. Guess we hadn’t done as good a job as we’d thought. Or at least I hadn’t.

  I fought a strong desire to deny Nancy’s unspoken accusation, defend my own honor, but what was the point? Besides, her implication was pretty damn close to the truth. Maybe it was Jess’s honor I wanted to defend.

  “I know she has a girlfriend. I know all about her. I need to talk to her about work. It’s important. Do you know where she is?”

  “No, Luca, I don’t. But I’m at Sue Ellen’s if you want to come by.” She paused and I heard the distinct sound of a drink being gulped down. “And I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  Have another shot, Nance. “Thanks, but I’m working.” I hung up before she could say more she would regret later or more I didn’t want to hear.

  I drove in aimless loops around the city. Everything Jess had said to me that morning tumbled around in my mind. She’d been upset, even if she hadn’t wanted to show it. She’d given Deveaux an ultimatum. While she was in limbo, she tried to fuck away the uncertainty with me. When I turned her down, would she have gone in search of someone else to help her forget?

  No, Jess wasn’t a quitter. She didn’t walk away. She’d stood by me when I’d left the police force all those years ago, but she’d never understood my decision to bail when things got tough. She would never have done the same thing. Wasn’t in her DNA to give up. She wouldn’t write off Deveaux until she knew for sure the doctor wasn’t going to get her shit straightened out.

  I drove with purpose now. The Ritz Carlton was downtown. I sure wasn’t dressed to wander around in a fancy hotel, but then again, I never was. If Jess wasn’t there, maybe I could get the doctor to give me a clue about where she might be. I hated the fact that she might know more about Jess than I did, but I swallowed my feelings. Had to if I wanted to see this through.

  *

  Deveaux answered the door in a hotel robe, her hair still wet from the shower. This wasn’t going to be pretty. I took a deep breath and pushed my way in the room. Figured she had her chance to keep me out when she looked through the peephole. Once she opened the door, all bets were off.

  “Is she here?” I didn’t even pretend to have a different reason for being here.

  Deveaux heaved a dramatic sigh and sat on the bed. “Not right now, but she will be back.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not here to interrupt your lovefest. I have a work-related reason I need to talk to her.”

  “You have no idea what’s going on here, do you?”

  “I know enough.”

  “I’m leaving town.”

  “You really can’t go fast enough.”

  “Is there a particular reason you don’t like me? Or is it all jealousy?”

  If I ignored her, would she go away? I tried for almost a whole minute, but she showed no signs of disappearing. “I’ve known Jess a long time. I have no need to be jealous.”

  “I’m sure you tell yourself that. And it probably works for you. Most of the time.”

  I shot a look at the door. When she’d said Jess was coming back, was she talking today? Because no way was I having this conversation with this woman. The robe didn’t help. If Jess walked in right now, no telling what she’d think. “Do you want me to wait outside while you get dressed?”

  “I’m not getting dressed.”

  Fine. She wanted to play poker? She had no idea who she was messing with. “Tell me why the Feds are so interested in you. You run away from Chicago to avoid a trip to the pokey?”

  The only hint she was the slightest bit unsettled was in her eyes. I thought I detected a trace of fear, but she covered it quickly. “Is that really any of your business?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Like I said, I’ve known Jess a long time. She’s an honorable person, and she deserves someone who isn’t going to smear her good name. Besides, it’s not like I can’t find out on my own. Wouldn’t you rather tell me your version?”

  “You should be a federal agent. You sound just like them.”

  “But I bet your lawyer told you not to fall for their tricks.”

  She nodded. “Actually, he told me not to talk to anyone. Including Jessica.”

  Ugh. I was willing to bet no one other than Jess’s parents and elementary school teachers had ever called Chance Jessica. Did she like being called that? How could I not know the answer?

  “Fine. You don’t have to tell me anything. I’m sure I can figure it out on my own. You’re fairly young, for a doctor. You like fast cars, fancy clothes.” I waved my arm to indicate the room we were in. “Swank hotels. Probably a lot harder to manage all that when you’ve got mountains of med school bills hanging over your head. You decide to take some shortcuts. Do some procedures that aren’t exactly necessary to collect from Medicare. It’s pretty easy, not much oversight. You decide to do
it some more. How am I doing so far?”

  “If you think I’m going to confess my sins to you, you are sorely mistaken.”

  “‘Confess your sins’? Isn’t that a bit dramatic?”

  “Maybe. But maybe everything isn’t black and white. Is everything so cut-and-dry in your world, Luca Bennett?”

  “I didn’t come here to talk about me.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t. At least not to me. You came here for Jessica. Isn’t that right?”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “If you really believe that, then you don’t deserve her.”

  She was like a dog with a bone, but I wasn’t biting. “You said she’d be back?”

  “Any minute. She had to make a couple of calls. Private.”

  Doubtless she’d had messages from John and who knows who else about the murder at Bingo’s place. She might have even headed straight over there. There was no reason for me to stay here. I could catch up with her later. Curiosity about Deveaux wasn’t worth the third degree. I walked to the door. “Tell her I’ll call her later.”

  “Oh, I’ll tell her, but don’t be surprised if she doesn’t call you back right away. She and I have a lot to discuss.”

  I hated her. Everything about her. She made me feel dirty and I wanted to put distance between us. I wanted to put distance between her and Jess, but Jess saw something in her. Maybe it was caring. Deveaux cared about Jess. The lady may have shady ethics, but she gave Jess something she wanted. Couldn’t fault her for that, but I didn’t have to stick around to see it play out. I left.

  At the elevator, I did that thing people hate and punched the button repeatedly as if it would make the car come faster. Didn’t work, but when the doors finally slid open, I came face-to-face with Jess. Guess my button pushing had done something.

  She stepped out of the car, but I didn’t get in. She frowned and shook her head. “What are you doing here?”

  “What are you doing here?” I’m excellent at playing a five-year-old.

  She glanced down the hall toward Deveaux’s room. “Something tells me you already know.”

  “I know you’re here with her. I know you’re not working. I know you didn’t keep your promise.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What promise?”

  “Don’t tell me your phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook. Two of Vedda’s guys executed in Bingo’s living room and you don’t know a thing about it?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, John just called. I’m going to meet him at the station.”

  “Little like shutting the barn door after the horse has been stolen.”

  “If you have something to say, say it. Quit with the innuendo.”

  “You said you would watch out for him. You promised him. You promised me. Then bang, less than forty-eight hours later, two mobsters wind up dead in his living room and he’s on the hook for their murders.”

  “And you think he didn’t do it?”

  “And you think he did?”

  “I don’t know what to think, but I promise I’ll keep an open mind. Just so you know, we’re not lead on this case, so we won’t be making the calls.”

  “John already told me. Bingo needs a lawyer.”

  “You’re right about that.”

  “Speaking of lawyers, what’s your doctor friend doing on that front?”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “Not much. She’s not big on sharing. Jess, what’s going on with you two? She’s trouble. You should keep your distance.”

  “I’ve never run from trouble.”

  She hadn’t, thank God. If she had, we wouldn’t have stayed friends after I left the force and we never would have made it all these years later. Trouble was I couldn’t define what we were and suddenly I wanted to. The woman behind the door was Jess’s girlfriend. Was I a friend or just a fuck buddy? Did it matter?

  Only if I wanted something more. No reason to name what we were except to measure it against what we weren’t. I’d let Deveaux get inside my head. What I had with Chance was good. No reason to fuck it up by thinking about what it could be, wouldn’t be. Her quiet voice interrupted my thoughts.

  “I should go. Luca, trust me. I got this.”

  I glanced at Deveaux’s door to signal I knew where she was headed. Jess might be in love, or something she’d mistaken for it, but she wasn’t going to jeopardize her career over a woman. Not a woman like Deveaux, anyway. I needed to let her handle the situation her own way. Trust she’d do the right thing. I nodded. “Okay. But promise me you’ll keep me updated on what’s going on at Bingo’s?”

  “I will.” She walked a step away from me, then turned back and fixed me with a stare. Her gaze burned my defenses.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, it’s just…” She looked at the floor and apparently found the design in the carpet to be captivating. Now she was scaring me. What could be so hard to say?

  “Spit it out.”

  She looked up and stared again. I couldn’t get a read on her sudden loss of speech, but I prodded her by raising my eyebrows.

  “Just promise me you won’t do anything crazy.”

  Her voice was soft, her request almost a caress. Sometimes I hated how well she knew me. When I wasn’t liking it.

  “Crazy? Sure, I promise—nothing crazy.”

  I could think of a bunch of other ways to define all the things I was about to do. I didn’t need to add crazy to the list.

  *

  I tried to call Diamond twice more on the walk to where I’d parked the Bronco. Same message, disconnected. I even went as far as looking up the number for the U.S. Marshal’s Service. I knew their offices were in the federal building just a few blocks away, but it would be locked up tight on a Sunday. The guy that answered the phone said he didn’t have a Diamond Collier on his list, which could mean a host of things. Diamond Collier wasn’t her real name. She worked for an office in a different district. Or she wasn’t really a U.S. Marshal.

  I knew she was a federal agent of some kind, so I wasn’t going to jump to any big conclusions, like she’d gone rogue. Besides, what private interest could she serve by starting a turf war? More likely the reason she wasn’t on the list was the name thing or she was working out of a different office. Still, I couldn’t put off a lingering suspicion. Why was she suddenly unavailable, her phone disconnected? Wasn’t like she was working undercover and had to burn her identity. But her comment about how the matter had been taken care of festered like a splinter working its way to the surface.

  This whole deal got under my skin. Even if Bingo hadn’t been involved, I’d want to solve the puzzle. Jess’s warning had been warranted. My MO was to charge in, shake things up, and see what I could make of the mess, but whoever had set up Bingo was a pro, and my usual methods were likely to get someone killed. Probably me.

  It had been a long day. Charging in could wait.

  When I got to my apartment, I shucked off my boots and jeans and set up shop on the couch with a beer and my laptop. The signal from my neighbor’s Wi-Fi was weak, but not weak enough for me to want to pay for my own service. I held the computer at the best angle for reception and began my research.

  A Google search for fake prescription meds yielded dozens of results. According to Dan Rather, counterfeit prescription drugs were a huge problem, flooding the market with dangerous substitutes for the real thing and allowing addicts to dope up under the guise of medicine. Dan the man relayed a big story about a Chinese national caught selling all kinds of fake meds to a bunch of Feds in ICE and Homeland Security.

  Chinese, Italians, and Russians. Great. Bingo had stumbled into the United Nations of crime.

  I spent the next hour reading articles and watching video about the scourge of counterfeit meds, until I ran out of beer and the signal started to wane. It wasn’t late, but I lacked energy to do anything that required putting my pants back on. Sitting around in my underwear made me think of Jess. Bet she was still working, or may
be she was on her way back to the Ritz where she’d put on one of those fancy robes and join Dr. Deveaux for a drink on the balcony. My hand strayed to my crotch, but I wasn’t in the mood for me.

  I wondered if Mark had left town yet. I dialed Dad’s house and he picked up on the first ring and let me know Mark had flown out a couple of hours earlier.

  “He said to tell you he’d be in touch about the wedding. He left one of the fancy invites for you over here.”

  “When’s he moving out here for good?”

  “A couple of weeks before the big day.” He paused and I heard a gulp followed by the unmistakable sound of a can being crushed. Maggie must be working late at the bar and Dad was enjoying a night alone. “You get things straightened out with Bingo? Maybe we can catch a game.”

  I took a deep breath and braced for his reaction. “Dad, Bingo’s place is closed for a while.”

  “What did you do to piss him off now?”

  If only it were that simple. “Nothing. He’s gotten himself in some trouble. Until it gets sorted out, I don’t think he’s going to be back open for business.”

  “Those shady guys that’ve been coming around. I bet they’re to blame.”

  I had a feeling the shady guys he was referring to were dead now. Maybe at the hand of a new set of shady guys. “What do you know about them?”

  “Not much. A new crowd’s been hanging around his place lately. Lots of flash and show. Not Bingo’s usual customers. Seemed like they had the run of the place. Wondered when Bingo was going to get around to throwing them out, but I guess they got him in trouble before he had a chance.”

  “Looks like.” I didn’t see any need to tell him the worst of it. “I’ve had a long day, so I’m going to turn in. I’ll come by next week and we can find some trouble to get into.”

  I hung up, shut down the laptop, and crawled into bed. Tomorrow, I’d make a few calls, see that Bingo was hooked up with a good lawyer, and then I’d find Otis Shaw, collect a big payout, and take the next week off. Jess could investigate crime, explore whatever she had going on with Dr. Deveaux. Me? I’d sleep, drink, and gamble. Life had gotten too complicated. It was time to simplify.