Part 21 (1/2)
”That was my evil plan. You remember Detective Crean?”
”Crean the brain. Right. How's it goin'?”
”Detective Lacsamana. Nice to see you again.”
He looked them over briefly. ”What's up?”
Adele took it. ”Vic is the owner? Louie Grova? We were on our way to talk to him.”
Lacsamana nodded at Stacy. ”Your interest?”
”My Chief's got a bee in his bonnet about Detective Delisle's missing revolver. Sent me down to look for it. Was this guy shot?”
”Not hardly. Lamp cord around the neck. He died hard. You find his piece?”
”No sign of it yet,” said Adele. ”We took a break. You ever see Paulie's apartment?”
Lacsamana made a snorting noise. ”Sure, we were a.s.shole buddies from way back. h.e.l.l, count the number of beers we had with what? One finger?”
Adele nodded. ”Yeah, he wasn't much for hanging out.”
He gave them both a hard searching cop look. Like most detectives, he disbelieved most of what he saw and all of what he heard. ”How do you figure his piece was here?”
”All I've got is a list of names that might be connected to that ballet dancer he tracked to my town,” said Stacy. ”She's gone missing. Del and I were looking to talk to her.”
”How'd this go down?” Adele wanted to know.
”Somebody was looking for something. Vic was put through some serious pain, looks like. Burned fingertips, split lip. Worse than that maybe.”
”Yuck.”
”Definitely. Know what they were looking for?”
Adele stood aside to let the medical examiner and the body squeeze by down the stairs. ”Something worth more than Paulie's old six gun.”
”You make a connection, you'll let me know.”
”Oh yeah. Happy to hand it off.”
The other detective, Heatley, was motioning for his partner to wind it up. Lacsamana had a last, dubious look at the two women. ”Stay in touch,” he said.
”Count on it,” Adele said.
At the bottom of the stairs the ME's team was having some trouble squeezing the gurney through. Adele, two steps above, leaned over them to hold the top of the door, then followed them to the back of the meat wagon.
”So what's it look like to you guys?” she asked. ”Strangled?”
”Won't know for a while,” said one of the men. ”Just a guess, I'd say he had a heart attack.”
”Hate that,” Adele said. She slammed the car door and fired up the engine. ”Hate it. Did it all the time, but I don't like it.”
”You didn't lie.”
”Didn't tell the truth either.” She checked her mirrors. ”I was always covering Paulie's a.s.s. He was not a team player.” She stared across at the p.a.w.nshop. ”I don't see your ballet dancer pulling a stunt like that, you?”
”Not the type, wouldn't have thought. Tough little cookie, though. Come up behind him with an electrical cord. Could happen.”
”And the burning?”
”That's nasty.”
”Oh yeah. f.u.c.king jewels, hunh? Never could see it myself. You?”
”I got a diamond ring once. Gave it back.”
Adele laughed. ”One more than me.” She put the car in gear and eased out into the traffic stream. The uniform in the street made a s.p.a.ce for her. Horns honked. Adele thanked him with a wave.
”Next move?” Stacy asked.
”I'm open to suggestions.”
”How be we park around the corner for a while? Check out the sightseers.”
”Better than my plan.”
”Which was?”
”Feeding my face.”
”You still hungry?”
”I get like that when I go mental.”
”Pizza joint over there. I'll get us a couple of slices, two birds with one stone.”
”Deal. No anchovies. c.o.ke.”
”You got it.”
Adele whooped her siren twice and did a one-eighty across the crawling traffic to park outside a Pizza Pizza. Stacy headed inside. Adele turned off the engine, looked back down the street. They were half a block from the cruisers. The meat wagon was departing. Spectators were being kept to the far side of the avenue.
Stacy came out of the pizza joint. She didn't get in the car, walked around to Adele's window. ”The pepperoni just came out of the oven.”
”All ri-ight.”
”Doing good business in there.”
”Street theater. Better than reality TV.”
Stacy put her box on the hood of the car, wrapped her slice neatly in a paper napkin, stopped, halfway to her mouth. ”That's her,” she said. She pointed the pizza across the street.