The Night Stalker_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [48]
Distances were deceptive in south Florida. The land was as flat as a pancake, so it was easy to mistake a long trip for a short one. By the time I got to Louie’s, my feet were aching and I was drenched in sweat. I could almost taste an ice-cold drink as I opened the front door. Then I heard a car door slam, and I turned to see Candy Burrell barreling across the lot toward me.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” she asked.
Her tone said I was in trouble. The question was how much?
“What did I do?” I asked.
“Get in my car,” she said.
Burrell drove a sexy red Mustang with racing stripes painted down the side, the kind of car I’d drive if I had the money. I made Buster lie down on the pavement, then got in. Burrell got behind the wheel and glared at me. “Let’s see. You grilled Ron Cheeks without clearing it with me. Then you grilled Jed Grimes, also without clearing it with me. You also let Jed Grimes get away without explaining how that cell phone and pair of panties got in his mother’s garbage pail, knocked his ex-wife to the ground, and had your dog attack LeAnn Grimes. That’s got to be some kind of record.”
“Not for me,” I said.
“Don’t push it, Jack.”
“Do you want to hear my side of it?”
“I’d love to, only I’m meeting with the mayor in fifteen minutes. He wants an update on the Sampson Grimes investigation.”
The mayor of Fort Lauderdale was an egotistical blowhard, and having a meeting with him usually meant getting yelled at. I felt bad for Burrell. She’d stepped in shit with this case, and the slide was getting progressively worse.
“I want to ask you a question,” Burrell said. “Jean-Baptiste Vorbe, the manager of the Smart Buy in LeAnn Grimes’s neighborhood, called the station house this morning. He wants to file a complaint, and indicated it had something to do with the Grimes investigation. Is this something you did?”
I thought back to my visit to the Smart Buy. I’d gone behind the store, and chased away the Asian tourists who’d wanted to have their pictures taken by the Dumpsters. I hadn’t seen anyone watching, although you never knew.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I didn’t go into the store, and I didn’t talk to anyone except some tourists who were hanging around outside.”
“Exactly what did you say to them?”
“I chased them away.”
“Why the hell did you do that?”
“They were ghouls.”
Teeth clenched, Burrell looked at her watch.
“We’ll continue this conversation later,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I got out of her car and watched Burrell pull away. I knew what was bothering her. Because I’d agreed to work with the police, she’d wrongly assumed that I’d play by their rules. But I played by my own rules these days. Sometimes it got me in hot water, but I slept better at night. It was a trade-off I could live with.
I entered Louie’s thinking about the manager at the Smart Buy. There was a chance he knew something, only Burrell hadn’t sent anyone to speak to him, wanting to first find out if I’d harassed the guy. It was typical of how the police thought, and it gave me an idea.
I went to my office, and threw on the change of clothes I kept there for emergencies. Then I walked down the hall and knocked on Kumar’s door. He told me to come in, and I found him sitting at his desk, working on the books.
“Jack, Jack, how are you? I hope things are going well,” Kumar said.
“I had a little problem this morning,” I replied.
Kumar raised his eyebrows in concern. “A problem?”
“A guy smashed up my car. It looks like I’m going to be without wheels for a couple of days.”
“Would you like to borrow the company pickup truck?”
Everyone in the world needed a guardian angel. Mine was Kumar. He pulled a key ring from the center drawer in his desk and tossed it to me.
“Keep the truck for as long as you want,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
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