Chapter Twenty-eight
Luke saw the coded message that he needed to call into Headquarters. Getting into his truck, he retrieved his hidden burner phone and found his wireless earplugs. In seconds he began talking to Bill Flint, his boss.
“What’s up?”
“Hey, champ. That’s what I was going to ask you. You’ve been busy. First of all, we hit the lab you gave us in the Gulch last night and shut it down. Found over a half a mill in cash onsite. Then we followed up on the death of the high school kid you notified us about on Beecham drive… the fentanyl overdose. By the way, her name is Val Gordon, she’s fifteen, and according to her mom, she reckons her daughter only started using since she began hanging out with a student from a different high school. She thinks her name is Tansy Bitmore. So you know… Tansy’s in the same school where Anita Bolder’s daughter is a teacher.”
“Noted.” Thinking to change the subject, Luke pounced on the first name. “Val Gordon. Just so you know that girl’s OD is getting me closer to the Fentanyl distributor. I heard she’d bought the drugs from a loser named Zed. He used to play with Matt and the band before going down the rabbit’s hole himself. It looks like the prick is selling in that back alley next to Garth Brooks’s new place. I’ll be hitting Zed up later for some details so don’t mess with him.”
“It’s you we need to mess with. I’m guessing you didn’t hear about the second overdose from the same shit. A female found at the Madrona in room 204. You know anything about this?”
Oh, oh! Bill’s tone didn’t bode well.
Before he could say anything in his defense, Bill kept talking. “We caught your truck on the video feed and saw you go into the room with her.”
Thinking quickly, Luke added, “Then you also watched me leave.” He kept his voice flat, emotionless… brittle.
“Yeah. Calm down. Lucky for you, the coroner places her time of death hours later.”
Tansy! Jesus, your own cousin. She must have switched the drugs.
Silently blessing his decision to drop Tansy off a block over, he outlined the part of his story he felt able to share. “All I know about your Jane Doe is that her first name is Wendi. I took her to the motel after we picked her drugs up at the Gulch. That’s how I got the address. Seems she used to go out with the guy who runs the place. Says he’s a head cook. Only name she gave me was Jay.”
“Nope, we never picked up a guy by that name.”
“No doubt. The ruthless bastard’s been texting me death threats since you shut the lab down. Any chance you picked up a male on any of your videos around room 204 at the Madrona last night? I’m thinking after the raid.”
Bill chuckled, a sound with no wit whatsoever. “What? You figure he followed you two?”
“Maybe.”
“No such luck. But we do have a kid who showed up. Stayed for a while and then left, running. No identification except for the build, which is why we figure it’s a young person.”
Luke didn’t want to share what he knew about Tansy until he had a chance to talk with her. If he sent a bunch of cops crawling around, he’d lose her trust. He needed her with him as long as she could lead him to Zed. That low life was the only one he had a lead on who could get him closer to the people cooking the lethal shit. All he had to do now was find her.
Flint’s question broke into his thoughts. “You need back up?”
“Not yet. But two things I do need. If you can get this Jay off my back, it would help. And keep Wendi’s death under wraps. I think I know a way to use her, but I’d need her alive.”
“You got it. Also, we questioned the other three people that we found at the same warehouse. They’ve refused to cooperate… they all asked to be lawyered up.”
“Which means you’ve got squat.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. We’re going through all the databases for anything we can find. Particularly for known criminals hanging around the perps we have in custody, but nothing so far.”
“Maybe dig into Wendi’s background, especially her online persona. She’s the type to have posted all kinds of crap. Could be that if Jay and her were a thing, he might show up there.”
“Good idea. You be safe. I’ll have a few men in the joint tonight just in case. They’ll love the undercover assignment with you onstage.”
Luke didn’t argue. Instead, he shut down the call and put his gear back in the glove compartment. He seldom used the disposable phone with only one number. Yet it came in handy when he needed to reach Flint immediately.
Luke checked his watch and saw he had a few hours until he’d have to show up at work. He headed to Jess’s place on the off chance he might catch him home.
When Jess saw who knocked on his door, he stepped back and waved Luke inside. “Su’p bro. You’re in a lot of shit. I just got off the phone with Melanie, and she says she can’t talk Honey down this time. She’s royally pissed about last night. What happened, man?”
“I can’t tell you much except that she thinks she saw me at her mother’s place, and I didn’t acknowledge her.”
“She right?”
“Yeah. But there were cops crawling all over the place, and they know me. I didn’t want to get hassled and make things harder for everyone. After all, they were already having to deal with a dead body.”
“She wouldn’t have cared.”
“Maybe. But you know what it’s like having everyone think you’re a loser. All I want to do is keep my head down and play my music. You gotta remember that feeling.”
Jess pointed to the kitchen chairs and headed to the fridge for a couple of cold brews. “Yeah. I remember. After Julian got into all that trouble, I couldn’t leave the apartment for days. I’d tried to talk him into turning himself in, but he wouldn’t listen. Told him I knew what he was going through. That I’d had my own issues, but I’d cleaned my act up.” Jess pulled out a chair by the table to join Luke. “Even tried to get him to talk with our dad but he was too ashamed.”
“Is that why you don’t visit the old man?”
“Haven’t been able to face him. I got better though.”
“Except you never played music again. Can’t imagine giving that up.”
“At the time, it seemed the least I could do. You know… payment for all the bad shit that went down… stuff I’d been involved in.”
“I guess. Look, I came here for a reason. Not just to cry on your shoulder over losing the best thing that ever came my way.”
“Amen to that.”
Luke bowed his head, sharing his remorse before making his request. “Do you remember that Wendi girl who hung out at the bar and ended up almost losing her life?”
“You mean the one you left with last night?”
“Christ was it only last night? It seems like a lifetime ago. Yeah, that’s the one.”
“What do you wanna know about her?”
“Her full name. Where she lives? That kind of shit.”
“Okay, but why?”
“Seems she OD’d in a motel last night, and I was one of the last people to see her alive.”
“Whoa.” Jess’s voice cracked. “You’re in the crapper again?”
“Not really. The cops got me on camera going into the room with her but leaving shortly after. That was hours before her time of death. But they drilled me, and I know nothing other than her first name.”
“Why’d ya go to the motel with her then? Please tell me you didn’t use.”
“No. But she did. I almost weakened, but after seeing her zonk out, I came to my senses and left. You know any more about her?”
“Nah. Not much. Other than at one time she had a good job, a nice place and liked bad boys. Met up with a guy called Jay Reynolds, and they were a twosome for a while. Then she began coming to Nudies alone and Jay suddenly faded from the scene. Sorry I can’t be of much help.”
“No, it’s all good. I guess I just feel bad about her dying so young.”
“Yeah, it’s a shame. But between us two, I called it at the bar when she started using that cheap crap. It’s hard to watch someone deteriorate like that but shit happens, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I know. I watched my brother.”