9. Ari
CHAPTER 9
ARI
B ite Delite was the shittiest diner in the shittiest part of Las Vegas. Right now, I was sitting in the parking lot, waiting for Big Daddy to show up for breakfast. His daughter called him “Papa,” but the “big” part was accurate. The guy had to be six and a half feet tall and almost the same wide.
The last time I saw him, he’d been driving an ancient Jeep with the suspension sagging noticeably on the driver’s side. Despite having the aesthetic of a small mountain, he didn’t worry me as much as the trio of kids eyeing me up from the table just inside the door.
If I left my car for long, I wouldn’t be surprised to find my wheels missing when I returned.
So, why was I waiting outside the diner that held the dubious record of the most Vegas health violations in a single year? Because Big Daddy’s brother owned it, and even the health inspectors were too scared to shut it down completely. Big Daddy had long been an acquaintance of the Sad Hatter, not because of any affinity with drugs but because they’d gone to high school together. I checked my watch again. Eight twenty-seven—maybe slightly early for Big D. He was more of a night owl.
Ironically, Big D was also the nickname of one of Zach’s former housemates, but I’d met Dawson Masters, and I suspected he’d gotten the moniker for a very different reason. I loved Zach, of course I did, but I wasn’t blind.
Anyhow, I figured I might as well do something useful and call Alexa. Her whereabouts were a mystery, and her sleep pattern was more of a Jackson Pollock painting, so there was a fifty-fifty chance she’d pick up. I dialled her through the app she’d installed on my phone without permission, and she answered on the third ring.
“What?”
“Do you greet everyone so cordially?”
“That depends on whether I like them or not. If this is a social call, I’m going back to sleep.”
Oh, so she did sleep.
“I need a favour.”
“That’s more like it.”
“You have access to the security cameras at the Galaxy, right?”
“Of course,” she said.
“Is there a camera in the Library?”
“The library-library, or the Library bar?”
“There’s a library-library?”
“Kind of. It’s three shelves of books and a bunch of pamphlets in an alcove off the lobby.”
“I meant the Library bar.”
“There’s one camera, but the resolution leaves a lot to be desired.”
“So, I exchanged Erin’s surveillance skills for— Don’t laugh, she isn’t that bad.”
“I said nothing.”
“Her quick thinking saved Zach. A computer couldn’t have done that. ”
“What’s the favour?”
Alexa didn’t much like being challenged; I’d worked out that much during the time I’d known her. Whether that was due to a touch of arrogance or because she genuinely preferred computers to people, I hadn’t yet decided.
“In exchange for Erin’s time, we have access to a property directly behind Cole Gallagher’s home. I can stay there in case he gets any more unwanted visitors.”
“Oh yeah? And what will you do if he does?”
“I’m planning to set up motion sensors in the yard, and if one gets triggered, I can warn Jerry and then follow the suspect.”
Alexa snorted. “One of the other girls can stay with you. They’ll be more useful in the event that a wannabe hitman shows up.”
I was about to retort, to ask if she had any confidence in my ability to do my job, but then I hesitated. Jerry said four men had shown up. I did own a gun, but it lived at home in the safe, and if things went far enough south that I had to start carrying it, I’d probably be dead already.
“It isn’t my house. I can’t just invite strangers in.”
“So tell the guy you have a colleague. Are you ever going to get to the point of this call?”
Sometimes, Alexa was impossible. Scratch that. Most of the time, Alexa was impossible. But Rusty seemed like the easygoing type, and I was hopeful I could talk him around if we stayed in the one room we’d agreed upon.
“The gentleman whose spare room we’re borrowing is in Vegas to check whether his friend’s girlfriend is cheating.”
“And?”
“She was in the Library to meet someone last night, but he had to leave with Erin as the woman arrived.”
“The hospital thing?”
“Yes, the hospital thing. So we don’t know who Kelsey Dorrias ate dinner with, and we need to find out. Can you send the camera footage?”
“Sure. How are Erin’s eyes?”
“The doctor said there’s no lasting damage.” Wait a second… “Did you read her medical records?”
“Only a little bit. They were right there when I added the discount to the bill.”
So it was her. “Thanks, I think. Is there any system you can’t— Hold on, Erin’s sent a message.”
I scanned the text, relieved that she hadn’t gotten into any more altercations. I knew why she acted first and thought later—it was a survival mechanism. After she escaped the cult she’d grown up in, she’d spent her life moving from shituation to shituation, and until now, nobody had ever had her back.
Okay, Kelsey Dorrias was on board a sightseeing helicopter with six others. Erin had snuck a look at the manifest, and now we had three names for Kelsey’s possible sidepiece. Erin was tracking the helicopter on a flight radar app, and she’d pick up the surveillance when the pair returned.
I relayed that to Alexa, hoping she’d learn to see Erin the way I did.
“Guess I’d better start running background,” I said.
“From your phone in a parking lot?”
I’d given up asking how she knew my whereabouts. She’d clearly installed tracking software on my phone, and even if I did a factory reset, that app would be back within a week, as sure as the sun rose in the morning.
“It’s better than nothing.”
“Send me the names, and I’ll do it.”
“What happened to sleeping?”
“Sleep is overrated.”
“Don’t you have some vital piece of national security to meddle in? ”
“The world is weirdly quiet at the moment. Usually when it gets like this, it’s the calm before the storm, but if I don’t look busy, Chase will make me ride in a boat or something. Give me the names. I’ll run background, but unless the guy has pictures of himself and Kelsey all over BuzzHub, I won’t be able to tell you if they’re doing the nasty.”
“That’s what the surveillance is for. But the more information we have, the better.”
I replied to Erin with an update just as Big D walked across the parking lot, leaving tremors in his wake. I’d let him order breakfast before I went inside for a chat. He was always more amenable when he was eating. Sometimes he even shared, although I’d have to politely decline in this joint.
He’d barely sat down at his favourite corner table when Alexa called back.
“Sin will pick up Erin, and then she can follow your target.”
“In a helicopter?”
“No, on a moped.” I’d never once seen Alexa’s face, but I just knew she was rolling her eyes. “Of course in a helicopter.”
“And who is Sin?”
“A friend of Jerry’s.”
Terrific.
“Are you sure she has time for that?”
“As I said, it’s quiet. Tell Erin to go to the VIP terminal at the airport, and Sin will find her.”
Alexa hung up without a goodbye, as was her habit, and I shook my head slowly as I watched Big D through the plate-glass window. I liked Alexa, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand her.
I wasn’t sure anyone understood her.
Once I’d updated Erin, I crossed the parking lot to the diner and slid onto the seat opposite Big D. He chewed slower, studying me for a moment, and then his thin lips spread into a grin.
“Ari Danner? Heard you left town.”
“I did, but I still come back to visit.”
“Well, it’s good to see you.” He shoved his plate in my direction. “Wanna fry?”
Big Daddy was one of those rare individuals who got along with both sides. A diplomat. He acted as a middleman when it came to solving disagreements between warring factions as well as running the biggest network of chop shops in Nevada. One time, he’d told me he planned to retire at fifty and move to Hawaii if his heart or his luck didn’t give out first.
“I just ate breakfast.”
He shrugged and stuffed a forkful of food into his mouth. A blob of egg yolk settled on one corner of his lips. “What can I do for you, Ari?”
Big D had a daughter a year older than Haven, and when she was three, I’d found her crying in a Target after she got separated from her papa. Big D had never forgotten that I’d helped to reunite the two of them, and he’d assisted several times over the years in return.
“Have you seen Shane Wallins recently?” I asked, using the present tense because Shane’s presumed death had been hushed up.
“Can’t say I have. What’d he do?”
“There’s a rumour he broke into someone’s home.”
“Burglary was never Shane’s thing. Last I heard, he’d gone back to school.”
“School?”
“Yup. After the Hatter got himself arrested, Shane enrolled in college for some computer course. Said he didn’t want to lose his freedom. ”
That hadn’t gone so well for him. “You sure he didn’t regress?”
“I don’t know, Ari.” Big D always liked to use people’s names. “Haven’t seen him for a while. You want me to ask around?”
Big D would never find Shane, but he might be able to dig out information on who the man had gotten involved with.
“If you can unearth the names of any other acquaintances, I’d appreciate that. One more question—have you heard anything on the grapevine regarding expansion at the Neptune?”
Initial research suggested Jerry was right about Stanley Fuller being a successful businessman. He’d made his first fortune playing in the NFL, and after he retired from sports, he’d begun investing in the hospitality industry. Besides the Neptune, the Fuller Group owned hotels in New York and Macau plus two standalone restaurants in Las Vegas—Mari’s Beach Club, named after Stanley’s second wife, and the Funhouse. A big, splashy article in USA Business Today magazine talked about the golf resort in Florida that the Fuller Group was planning to add to its portfolio; a small paragraph half a year later lamented the collapse of the deal.
Another write-up mentioned Stanley’s values and business ethos. He’d grown up in Maine, the son of an arborist and a housewife. After Stanley Senior was injured at work, his parents had switched to running a small guesthouse, one that Junior had inherited but which didn’t fit into the Fuller Group’s portfolio. The family used it as a vacation home now. And family was important to Stanley Fuller. So was the church—the article listed his favourite Bible quote: 2 Corinthians, Chapter 9, Verse 8. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. He never made a business decision without consulting the Lord first.
I couldn’t imagine the Lord telling him to send a motley crew of armed thugs after Cole Gallagher.
“The Neptune resort? Naw, nothing. Where would they expand to? There’s buildings in the way.”
“Just a rumour on the grapevine about the Galaxy. No big deal.”
“I heard Uncle Mike died, nothing else. Right in his office.”
“I heard that too. Thanks for your help—I’ll see you around.”